If you’re looking for an old fashioned thanksgiving book, try “An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving” by Louisa May Alcott. It holds true to her appealing style and can be read to the entire family in less than an hour.
In this blog, you’ll learn about Louisa May Alcott, review her old-fashioned thanksgiving story, aptly named “An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving”, and answer discussion questions in the comments.
MY INTRODUCTION TO LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
Hold your hat, folks. I’m going to admit something that might surprise those who know me. I have only read one Louisa May Alcott book until now, and it wasn’t “Little Women”. I’ve watch Little Women, numerous times. Loved it. I loved Little Men when I read it. I’m scratching my head, wondering why on earth I never picked up any of her other books.
Well, that ends now. I searched for a Thanksgiving story and pleasantly found this charming short story, “An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving”. I never heard of it before. I’m particularly fond of the time period, and suspect I am either reincarnated from that era, or I was born in the wrong century.
WHO WAS LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
Birth and Family
Louisa May Alcott was born November 29, 1932 in Germantown, Pennsylvania (now part of Philadelphia) to Amos Bronson Alcott and Abigail “Abba” May. She had three sisters: Anna, the oldest, and Elizabeth and Abigail May, the two youngest.
Her father, a philosopher, transcendentalist, and educator struggled to maintain employment. Due to this, the family was poor and moved twenty-one times in thirty years. He had a different view on education and child-rearing. Louisa’s independent, tomboy ways challenged his patience. He had moments of instability, which also contributed to an unsettled home life.
Louisa’s mother was an American Activist and the first social worker in Massachusetts. Her frustration with Bronson and the inequality of the sexes fostered a desire to fight for women and the wrongs they faced. This she passed on to Louisa along with her strong work ethic.
Early Life
At the age of two, Louisa’s politically active family moved to Boston, Massachusetts where her father established an experimental school and joined the Transcendental Club. It’s not surprising that she took to reading and writing at an early age. Most of Louisa’s schooling came from her parents as well as family friends such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Theodore Parker, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller and Julia Ward Howe.
Okay, I want those people as family friends and teachers!
The school failed in 1840, so the family moved to Concord. For three years life was described as idyllic. In 1843, the family moved to a utopian community called Fruitlands that her father helped found. It was unsuccessful in the first year, causing further moves. In 1957, the Alcotts arrived once more in Concord and moved into Orchard House in the spring of 1858 where they lived for 25 years. Their poor circumstances lead me to believe that “An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving” resembles how they lived.
Louisa’s family were abolitionists and during her teen years they served as station masters of an underground railroad and hid slaves. She found pride in the difference they made.
Employment
It didn’t take long for Louisa to realize that the financial security of her family depended upon the women. She began working at a young age as a teacher, seamstress, governess, domestic helper, and writer. I like how, even at the age of 19, Louisa could stand up for herself. This shows in a job she acquired and left.
The Massachusetts senator, James Richardson was looking for a companion and light housekeeper for his frail 40-year-old sister. Louisa volunteered for the job in this affluent house. The sister did not have much use for her, and James treated her as HIS companion and confidant. When Louisa put him in his place, he set her to doing backbreaking work like chopping wood and scrubbing floors.
After seven weeks, Louisa left. It is said that she opened the envelope with her pay, and the $4 disgusted her, so she sent it back to him in contempt. She was a teenager. He was a lawyer, businessman, and senator! You go, girl.
Books
Early writing
At this same time, Louisa published her first poem in a women’s magazine under the name of Flora Fairfield. Three years later, she published her first book, Flower Fables. It is a compilation of fairy tales originally written six years earlier for Ellen Emerson, daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Blood and Thunder Tales
It might surprise you that before she wrote an old fashioned thanksgiving book for children, she wrote shocking and violent tales for adults under the name A.M. Barnard. She called them “blood and thunder tales”. She published stories in magazines like The Atlantic Monthly.
Civil War Breaks Out
When the war started in 1861, Alcott volunteered as a nurse at a Union hospital. Sadly, she developed typhoid fever halfway through her assignment, and they sent her home. She wrote a novel inspired by her experiences as both a patient and a nurse, called Hospital Sketches. Her health suffered continually after that.
From 1863 to 67, she wrote thirty-three gothic thrillers as well as detective fiction. It isn’t surprising that her female characters were all strong, smart, and determined like herself. She gained a following, and one of her publishers, Thomas Niles, asked her to write a story for young women, but she put it off, not liking the idea.
Doubt to Debt Free
Eventually, in order to help her father’s philosophy book get published,she agreed to the novel . Niles would only publish it if Bronson got his daughter to write a novel for girls that wasn’t about fairies. She chose to write her story based on life with her sisters, which she was able to accomplish in three months. As a writer, I’m telling you that’s amazing!
Her journal entry reflects her doubts about this project:
“Marmee, Anna, and May all approve my plan. So I plod away, though I don’t enjoy this sort of thing. Never liked girls or knew many, except my sisters; but our queer plays and experiences may prove interesting, though I doubt it.”
Little did she know, right? The book was so successful that the next year she wrote in her journal, “Was able to pay up all the debts … Thank the Lord.” She wrote many more books afterwards, including her Old Fashioned Thanksgiving book, written in 1881. Take a look here for a full list of her titles.
Movies
Louisa May Alcott’s stories are made into a number of films and television series. “Little Women” has the most versions, but four other stories are also dramatized. Wikipedia has a good description of all that has been attributed to her.
Later Life
Louisa went on a European tour as well as brief trips to New York. In 1877 she helped found the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union. In 1879, at the age of 47, she adopted her one-month-old niece and namesake, Louisa May Nieriker (Lulu), when May passed away.
She spent most of her time in Boston and Concord caring for her mother and father. Abba suffered from a long illness and passed away in 1877. Despite Louisa’s continued headaches, weariness, nerve pain, and digestive problems, she took care of her father until his passing.
DEATH AND BURIAL
At the time, her continued illness was thought to be brought on by mercury poisoning, a common treatment for typhoid fever. She never fully regained her strength and claimed she was simply “sick from too hard work.” Medical detectives today think she suffered from an autoimmune illness, like Lupus. I can surely relate to that.
Unfortunately, Louisa May Alcott suffered from a stroke on March 6, 1888, just two days after her father’s death. She was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetary on a Hillside called “Author’s Ridge” near Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau, her childhood mentors.
“An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving” Review
Get it
You can purchase “An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving” paperback new on Amazon. I love the illustrations in the copy found at Thriftbooks. You can find several vintage copies at various thrift stores. I found a 1908 copy (not in great shape) for $18 that I was going to give you a link to . . . but I bought it. Google it if you want a vintage copy. You can read it for free by clicking here. You can also listen to it on YouTube — which I did while following along on the free online version. There are several versions that are garbled and hard to hear, but I like this one the most.
The Hallmark Chanel made “An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving” into a movie in 2008, but the storyline description (I have not yet watched it) hardly resembles the book. They weren’t very “inspired” if you ask me.
The Story
The story of “An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving” is a heart-warming story of a large family who is poor in money but rich in land and love for each other. One Thanksgiving day, a passerby relays a message that Father and Mother must leave quickly to tend to Grandmother, who is passing away.
The parents set their children in order, to take care of the animals, farm, and each other. The older girls, young as they are, decide to finish the partially prepared Thanksgiving dinner and surprise their father upon his return.
Their attempts are what you’d expect of young children, but their hearts are full of joy. There are some unexpected surprises throughout the day. The biggest surprise being that . . . Oh, you’ll have to read it.
This is a great old fashioned Thanksgiving book to share on Thanksgiving Day. I can’t wait to read it to my grandsons — though I suspect I’ll have to read it in portions since they are all under five and won’t be able to sit still for the 30 to 40 minutes it would take. Unless I get the picture book copy, of course. I think my teenage grandaughter will love it.
Heartwarming old FASHIONED Thanksgiving BOOK
Every home needs an old fashioned Thanksgiving book on their bookcase. Unlike other holidays, there don’t seem to be a lot, especially that you can share with the entire family. I hope you’ll read this story and share with us your opinions of the discussion questions.
YOUR TURN
Here’s how the DratherB Reading book club works. Read the book and leave your response to the discussion questions in the COMMENTS. If you’re worried about spoilers in everyone’s comments, don’t read them before reading the book. And if you’d like to check out more DratherB Reading Book Club reviews, go here.
Discussion Questions
- What are your impressions of this book?
- Are you familiar with 1860’s New England? What differences do you notice between the culture of then and now?
- Which Thanksgiving dishes do you recognize from their dinner?
- Sometimes our plans are changed unexpectedly. What can we learn from the Basset family about handling dissapointment?
- There were plenty of surprises that Thanksgiving Day. I can think of five. Which surprise stuck out to you the most?
- What do you think of the family’s reaction when the girls’ dishes didn’t turn out the way they had planned?
- Do you think you could have put on a Thanksgiving dinner after having simply watched your mother prepare it? How old were you when you first made a holiday meal?
- Traditions are an important part of Thanksgiving. In this story, favorite recipes, having oranges, playing games, and reading from the Bible were all meaningful memory makers. What fun traditions are part of your Thanksgiving?
- Have you ever played any of the games the family enjoyed together?
- What was your favorite part of “An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving”?
