She Made a Battering Ram of Her Head

The following is adapted from the November 29th entry on Garrison Keillor's website, The Writer's Almanac:

November 29th is the birthday of Louisa May Alcott (1832), born in Germantown, Pennsylvania..  It is also the birthday of her father, Amos Bronson Alcott (1799), born in Wolcott, Connecticut, and also the birthday of his daughter.  Louisa was the author of many books, most notably Little Women (1868); Bronson was a transcendentalist philosopher, abolitionist, teacher, and a vegan before the term even existed.  He got by on loans from others, including his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson, but the Alcotts were often without money. At 15, Louisa vowed: "I will do something by and by. Don't care what, teach, sew, act, write, anything to help the family; and I'll be rich and famous and happy before I die, see if I won't! [...] I'll make a battering-ram of my head and make my way through this rough-and-tumble world."

Click here to read more on the Alcotts from today's entry in The Writer's Almanac.