“I like good strong words that mean something,” Louisa May Alcott writes as Jo March in Little Women.
With our current political climate, this quote from Alcott’s iconic novel ― which is loosely based on her own childhood ― holds even more weight.
The novelist was born on Nov. 29, 1832, and this Tuesday is her 184th birthday. As such, Google is celebrating the life and wise words of the author who brought us the March family and so much more ... with a Doodle!
The Doodle, by Sophie Diao, shows sisters Beth, Jo, Amy, and Meg, and Jo’s best friend Laurie (played by the delicious Christian Bale in the film).
Outside of her writing, Alcott was a suffragist, abolitionist, and feminist. She was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War and her family’s home was a station on the Underground Railroad. An active member of the women’s suffrage movement, Alcott was the first woman to register to vote in Concord, Massachusetts.
“I want to do something splendid before I go into my castle, something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead,” Jo March says in Little Women. “I don’t know what, but I’m on the watch for it, and mean to astonish you all some day.”