Death of a Soldier

by Louisa May Alcott

Overview

Beloved American children's author Louisa May Alcott worked as an army nurse in Union Hospital in Washington, D.C. for six weeks during the Civil War. Portions of letters sent home to Concord, Massachusetts were collected and published as Hospital Sketches in 1863. In this excerpt, Alcott writes of the final days of a Virginia blacksmith named John: "The only time I saw his composure disturbed, was when my surgeon brought another to examine John, who scrutinized their faces with an anxious look, asking of the elder: 'Do you think I will pull through, sir?'" This short work is part of Applewood's "American Roots," series, tactile mementos of American passions by some of America's most famous writers and thinkers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781429096270
Publisher:	Applewood Books
Publication date:	05/22/2018
Series:	American Roots
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 6.60(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was an American novelist and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. Raised by her transcendentalist parents, she grew up among many of the well-known intellectuals of the day such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau. Little Women is loosely based on Alcott's childhood experiences with her three sisters.