"Louisa May Alcott: An Intimate Anthology" 에서

New York Public Library, "Louisa May Alcott: An Intimate Anthology" (1997)

 

소설 "Little Women" 으로 잘 알려진 Louisa May Alcott 의 자전적인

글들 "Recollections of My Chilhood," "How I Went Out to Service"

(못된 목사네 집에 목사 여동생의 친구/돌봄이로 갔다가 하녀처럼

혹사당하고, 결국 팽개쳐 되돌려준, 말도 안 되는 임금을 받고 나온

이야기), "Transcendental Wild Oats," "Hospital Sketches'와 그녀의

일기와 편지, 시, 단편(4편), 그리고 그녀를 회고하는 글들 --

Emersonr 과 Hawthorne 의 아들들이 쓴 글 등 -- 이 실려 있다.

 

"[T]o this day she remains a sentimental favorite with children (or

at least, with their parents). But there is another Louisa May Alcott

-- perhaps the real one -- who was far more complex: a fierce and

funny woman who is a rapier wit who despised sham and loathed

"gush" (as she called it), who irreverently mocked and satirized

the moral and class pieties of her day. A woman who believed in

hard work and fair play.' -- 위 책의 "About Louisa May Alcott"에서.

 

가난한 집의 네 자매 중 둘째로 태어난 Louisa 는 집이 아주 망하는

걸 막으려고 바느질, 유치원 선생, 가정부, 심지어는 하녀 일 등, 온갖

일을 했다. 그러다가 글쓰기가 그 해법('magic inkstand'인 걸 발견한다:

 "'I am trying to turn my brain into money by stories,' Alcott told

her father in an affectionate letter ... on  November 28, 1955"

("About Louisa May Alcott").

 

 

시 "Transfiguration" by Louisa May Alcott

(어머니를 추모하며)

 

The Spartan spirit that made life so gland,

Mating poor daily needs

With high, heroic deeds,

That wrested happiness from Fate's hard hand.

 

-- 위 시의 한 연.

 

 

아래는 "Selections from the Journals"에서

 

May, 1850. -- So every day is a battle, and I'm so tired I don't want

to live; only it's cowardly to die till you have done something.

 

April, 1855. -- A[nna] and I go into the country as governesses. It's

a queer way to live, but dramatic, and I rather like it;

for we never know what is to come next.

 

Nov., 1859. -- Hurrah! My story ["Love and Self-Love"] was accepted;

and [James Russell] Lowell asked if it was not a translation from the

German, it was so unlike most tales.... Success has gone to my head,

and I wander a little. Twenty-seven years old, and very happy.

 

Dec., 1859. -- The execution of saint John the Just [abolitionist

John Brown] took place on the second. A meeting at hall, and all

Concord was there. Emerson, Thoreau, Father, and Sanborn spoke,

and all were full of reverence and admiration for the martyr.

 

May, 1868. -- Mr. N wants a girls' story, and I begin "Little Women."

Marmee, Anna, and May all approve my plan. So I prod away, though

I don't enjoy this sort of things. Never liked gitls or knew many,

except my sisters, but our queer plays experiences may prove

interesting, though I doubt it.

 

April and May, 1872. -- Goethe puts his joys and sorrows into

poems; I turn my adventures into bread and butter.

 

June, 1872. -- Home, and begin a new task. Twenty years ago I

resolved to make the family independent if I could. At forty that is

done. Debts all paid, even the outlawed ones, and we have enough

to be comfortable. It has cost my health, perhaps; but I still live,

there is more for me to do, I suppose.

 

March 1, 1888. -- Fine. In to see Papa. Very sweet & feeble. Kissed me &

said, "Come soon." Smelt my flowers & asked me to write him a

letter. Nearly gone. A[nna] very dear ...

[나흘 후인 3월 4일 오전에 아버지 Amos Bronson Alcott 가 세상을

떠나고, 아마도  그 사실을 모르는 채 이틀 후 이른 아침에

Louisa May Alcott 도 55세를 일기로 세상을 떠났다.]