Anna Alcott Pratt

Anna Bronson Alcott Pratt (March 16, 1831 – July 17, 1893) was the elder sister of American novelist Louisa May Alcott. She was the basis for the character Margaret "Meg" of Little Women (1868), her sister's classic, semi-autobiographical novel. The eldest of the four Alcott sisters (being herself, Louisa, Lizzie, and May), Anna is remembered as a dutiful, self-sacrificing and loving sister, wife and mother who conformed to the mold of Victorian womanhood more easily than did her sisters. To her family members, she served as an emotional shelter.

Anna Bronson Alcott was born in Germantown, a neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 16, 1831. She was homeschooled by her parents, Amos Bronson Alcott and Abby May, and excelled in her studies.

From an early age, Anna was "stage-struck" and secretly longed "to shine before the world as a great actress or prima donna." In her youth she and her sister Louisa created romantic melodramas which they performed for friends.

In 1858, the year they moved to Orchard House, Louisa and Anna helped form the Concord Dramatic Union. Another member of the group was John Bridge Pratt. He and Anna fell in love while playing opposite each other in a play called "The Loan of a Lover." Anna is Meg in Little Women and the description of Meg's wedding in the book is an actual description of Anna’s wedding. Anna and John were married in the parlor of Orchard House on May 23, 1860. Anna had two children, both boys (Frederic and John), while the fictional Meg had twins, a boy and a girl (Demi and Daisy), and another daughter, Josie.

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