Early work by Little Women author Louisa May Alcott to be published after 171 years

‘Aunt Nellie’s Diary’ was written when Alcott was just 17 years old

A lost early work by Little Women author Louisa May Alcott is finally set to be published.

The story, titled “Aunt Nellie’s Diary”, was written when Alcott was just 17 and was never finished.

US literary magazine The Strand is seeking writers to complete the story. It has described the 44-page manuscript as containing “sharp psychological insight”.

“Aunt Nellie’s Diary” is written from the point of view of an unmarried woman who is responsible for the care of her teenaged niece.

The work was written in 1849 and is roughly 9,000 words long, consisting of nine separate diary entries.

Beginning with the narrator’s 40th birthday, the story ends with an account of “a sunny midsummer day spent among the woods and hills”, followed by “merry dances” at a costume ball.

Little Women, Alcott’s best-loved and most famous work, was adapted into an Oscar-winning film last year, starring Saoirse Ronan, Timothee Chalamet and Florence Pugh.

“Aunt Nellie’s Diary” currently forms part of a collection of Alcott’s papers in the Houghton Library at Harvard University.