Raised by transcendentalist parents, Abigail May and Amos Bronson Alcott, Louisa grew up in the company of luminaries like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau.
These well-known intellectuals fostered in her a strong sense of civic duty, which led to her becoming a suffragist, abolitionist, and feminist in later life.
Alcott volunteered as a nurse during the American Civil War. She was active in the women's suffrage movement and became the first woman to register to vote in Concord, Massachusetts.
Her family's home was also a station on the Underground Railroad - a vast network of people who helped fugitive slaves escape to free states and Canada during the 19th century.
Through it all, she wrote novels and short stories tirelessly, sometimes working 14 hours a day.
Early in her career, she sometimes used the pen name A. M. Barnard, under which she wrote novels for young adults. She began to receive critical success for her writing in the 1860s.
Today she is best known as the author of the novel Little Women , published in 1868, which is loosely based on Alcott's own childhood experiences.
Originally published in two volumes, it follows the lives of four sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March - detailing their passage from childhood to womanhood.
Today's Google Doodle, designed by Sophie Diao , portrays the principal characters of Little Women - Beth, Jo, Amy, and Meg March - as well as Jo's best friend Laurie, their neighbour
Read more: Mirror uk
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