Some
of the incidents in it were taken from her own or the family
experiences, but more are either imaginary or conventional. It is said
that her primary intention was to leave Jo in a state of single
blessedness, and that Roberts Brothers fairly declined to publish the
second volume unless she was married off to somebody. Thus originated
the episode of the German Professor, one of the best in the story.
Laurie was supposed to have been taken from Julian Hawthorne, because he
lived in the next house and was rather an attractive kind of boy. Louisa
herself said there was no ground for this: and yet Laurie seems to me a
good deal like him.
I remember meeting her at the radical club in Boston in January 1868,
and her drawing me into a corner where she told me that she was writing
a book for young people and would like to know about the game of
cricket. This fixes the time pretty closely when "Little Women" was
begun. She was frequently to be seen at the meetings of the radical
club, afterwards called the Chestnut Street club, where her father was
one of the leading members. She did not care for lectures, but greatly
enjoyed listening to the discussion of learned and thoughtful men. It
was an era of large designs and great mental activity; and in such
periods the best literary work is always accomplished. Once she said (in
her father's presence), "It requires three women to take care of a
philosopher, and when the philosopher is old the three women are pretty
well used up.
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