Anna Bronson Alcott Pratt

Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, on March 16, 1831, she was the first daughter of Amos Bronson Alcott and Abigail May Alcott, and the older sister of Louisa May Alcott. Sources about the Alcott family describe her as the sister who most naturally fit the ideals of her era, and she later became the chief model for Meg March in Little Women.

As a young woman, she taught school and took part in family theatricals with Louisa, experiences that helped shape the close-knit world later reflected in Louisa’s fiction. In 1860 she married John Bridge Pratt, and their marriage also found its way into Little Women, where readers can see traces of their life together in Meg’s story.

After her husband died in 1870, she raised their two sons as a widow with support from her family. She died on July 17, 1893. Though she was not the famous writer in the family, her life left a lasting mark on one of the best-loved characters in American literature.