In the summer of 2010, Margaret Miles of the New Hanover County Public Library (NHCPL) partnered with UNCW to apply for a grant from the American Library Association (ALA) that would enable them to put together a series of events looking into the life and works of Louisa May Alcott.

“The ALA public programs sent out information on a number of grants they were offering, several pivoting around Louisa May Alcott’s biography and a documentary (on her life),” said Miles.

The terms of the grant required Miles to enlist the help of a scholar who had expertise in the time period to be examined by the events. She immediately thought of Dr. Kathleen Berkeley at UNCW.

Dr. Berkeley is Associate Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences here at UNCW. She has devoted her life to studying gender, sexuality, feminism and reform movements. Many issues she focuses her research on appear quite frequently in Alcott’s work.

 “Alcott was heavily involved in abolitionism, women’s rights and transcendentalism,” said Berkeley.

Despite a great amount of diversity in her writing, which tackles important social issues that many people in the 19th century, especially women, never really tried to solve, many people today only see Louisa May Alcott as a one dimensional writer. She is viewed simply as the author who wrote “Little Women.”

“I stumbled upon Louisa May Alcott, a figure who was sort of forgotten. The more I read her varied works, the more I found she was a remarkable woman,” said Berkeley about studying Alcott in graduate school.

 Alcott’s remarkableness stemmed from her courage to address issues that were taboo in her time.

“She wrote stories about strong, stubborn, and manipulative women, advocating solutions for social problems such as interracial marriage,” said Miles.

“You get a good reminder of the fact that nobody or no situation is ever as simple as they or it may seem,” said Miles.

As one of only thirty organizations across the nation to be awarded the grant, Miles, Berkeley, and their colleagues have high hopes for these events. They are taking place over the course of two months. They started in September and will conclude Nov. 17 with a birthday party celebration for Louisa May Alcott featuring a replica of Meg’s wedding cake from “Little Women.”

“(These events will) bring a new Alcott to the American public and talk about important issues that still resonate today,” said Berkeley. “They all have academic content as well as entertainment.”

These discussions will be bringing the best of Alcott to UNCW and helping students learn about the many facets of a complex and important, yet understated, woman in history.