Louisa May Alcott (November 29, 1832 - March 6, 1888) was an American novelist best known as author of the novel Little Womenand its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. Raised by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May and Amos Bronson Alcott in New England, she grew up among many of the well-known intellectuals of the day such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau.