Author: Jone Lewis

Louisa May Alcott wrote this biting satire on life in a 19th century Utopian community, based on her own family’s experience at Fruitlands. She portrays the father figure as a dreamer and idealist, and the mother as the practical one who has to do all the work to meet worldly needs like food and shelter.

Louisa May Alcott wrote this Thanksgiving story in 1881. In this selection you’ll find a vivid description of a New England family, “poor in money, but rich in land and love,” and their Thanksgiving dinner. The story was made into a movie by Sony Pictures, available on DVD, and shown on the Hallmark Channel. Jacqueline Bisset  stars as Isabella Caldwell and Hélène Joy as Mary Bassett.  The setting is a New Hampshire town, the time is after the American Civil War. It tells of a struggling widow and family, left poor by the death of Mr. Bassatt.  The widow’s wealthy mother comes to visit at Thanksgiving at the instigation of Bassett daughter Tilly. Values about money, virtue, reconciliation and the autonomy of children are featured. An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving November, 1881. By Louisa May Alcott. SIXTY YEARS AGO, up among the New Hampshire hills, lived Farmer Bassett, with a houseful of sturdy sons and daughters growing up about him. They were poor in money, but rich in land and love, for the wide acres of wood, corn, and pasture land fed, warmed, and clothed the flock, while mutual patience, affection, and courage made the old farmhouse a very happy home. November had come; the crops were in, and barn, buttery, and bin were overflowing with the harvest that rewarded the summer’s hard work. The big kitchen was a jolly place just now,...