A review by insearchof_wonder_
Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters, and Journals by Ednah Dow Cheney

informative slow-paced

4.0

I enjoyed reading the actual letters and journal entries. The accompanying narrative and edits by Ednah Cheney felt intrusive and mostly unnecessary. The material was largely organized chronologically, but the commentary kind of interrupted that flow with misplaced mentions of various events. And the commentary often restated what was already in the letters (frequently verbatim) without providing additional context, which seemed fairly pointless. It would have been very helpful if , instead, Cheney had provided additional necessary context to clarify incidents and characters and places mentioned by Alcott, and if she had organized everything in a chronological fashion, interspersing letters in between journal entries where they fit in the timeline, rather than grouping letters together, then journals, etc. In short, it was a little difficult to track. 

However, I give it 4 stars because the actual letters and journals were very interesting and I felt like I got to know Alcott's personality pretty well. I'm interested in reading the Selected Letters by Myerson and Shealy - I wonder if it would be overall a better experience.