Editing Louisa May Alcott (section)

==Later years==

=== Civil War service ===
As an adult, Louisa Alcott was an abolitionist, [[Temperance movement|temperance]] advocate, and feminist.{{sfn|Norwich|1990|p=11}} When the [[American Civil War]] broke out in 1861, Alcott wanted to enlist in the [[Union Army]] but could not because she was a woman. Instead, she sewed uniforms and waited until she reached the minimum age for army nurses at thirty years old.<ref>{{harvnb|Matteson|2016|pp=32–33}}; {{harvnb|Reisen|2009|p=165}}</ref> Soon after turning thirty in 1862, Alcott applied to the [[United States Sanitary Commission|U. S. Sanitary Commission]], run by [[Dorothea Dix]], and on December 11 was assigned to work in the [[Union Hotel (Washington, D.C.)|Union Hotel Hospital]] in [[Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)|Georgetown, Washington, D. C.]]<ref>{{harvnb|MacDonald|1983|p=5}}; {{harvnb|Reisen|2009|p=170}}; {{harvnb|Delamar|1990|p=60}}</ref> When she left, Bronson felt as if he was "sending [his] only son to the war".{{Sfn|Matteson|2007|p=271}} When she arrived, she discovered that conditions in the hospital were poor, with over-crowded and filthy quarters, bad food, unstable beds, and insufficient ventilation.<ref>{{harvnb|Delamar|1990|p=60}}; {{harvnb|MacDonald|1983|p=5}}; {{Harvnb|Meigs|1968|p=112}}; {{Harvnb|Elbert|1987|p=153}}</ref> Diseases such as scarlet fever, [[Chickenpox|chicken pox]], [[measles]], and [[typhus]] were rampant among the patients.{{Sfn|Elbert|1987|p=156}} Alcott's duties included cleaning wounds, feeding the men, assisting with [[amputation]]s, dressing wounds, and later assigning patients to their [[Hospital ward|wards]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Reisen|2009|pages=170–173}}; {{Harvnb|Elbert|1987|p=154}}</ref> She also entertained patients by reading aloud and putting on skits.{{sfn|Delamar|1990|p=61}} She served as a nurse for six weeks in 1862–1863.<ref>{{harvnb|Richardson|1911|p=529}}; {{harvnb|Stern|2000|p=32}}</ref> She intended to serve three months,{{Sfn|Meigs|1968|p=129}} but contracted [[typhoid fever]] and became critically ill partway through her service.{{Sfn|Meigs|1968|p=127}} In late January Bronson traveled to the hospital and took Louisa to Concord to recover.<ref>{{harvnb|Delamar|1990|p=63}}; {{harvnb|Matteson|2016|p=34}}; {{harvnb|Reisen|2009|pp=176–180}}; {{Harvnb|Meigs|1968|pages=129–131}}</ref> 

=== Lulu Nieriker ===
Louisa nursed her mother Abigail, who was dying, in 1877 while writing ''[[Under the Lilacs]]'' (1878).<ref>{{harvnb|Reisen|2009|pp=262–263}}; {{harvnb|Meigs|1968|pp=189, 193}}</ref> Louisa also became ill and close to dying, so the family moved in with Anna Alcott Pratt, who had recently purchased Thoreau's house with Louisa's financial support.<ref>{{Harvnb|Delamar|1990|pp=116–117}}; {{Harvnb|Reisen|2009|p=259}}; {{harvnb|Saxton|1995|pp=341–343}}</ref> After Abigail's death in November,{{Sfn|Saxton|1995|pp=343–344}} Louisa and Bronson permanently moved into Anna's house.{{Sfn|Delamar|1990|p=117}} Her sister May was living in London at the time and married [[Abigail May Alcott Nieriker#Career|Ernest Nieriker]] four months later.<ref>{{harvnb|Reisen|2009|pp=264–265}}; {{harvnb|Meigs|1968|p=189}}; {{Harvnb|Elbert|1987|p=252}}</ref> May became pregnant and was due to deliver her child near the end of 1879. Though Louisa wanted to travel to Paris to see May in time for the delivery, she decided against it because her health was poor.<ref>{{harvnb|Reisen|2009|pp=272–273}}; {{harvnb|Cheney|1889|p=323}}; {{harvnb|Saxton|1995|p=353}}</ref> On December 29 May died from complications developed after childbirth, and in September 1880 Louisa assumed the care of her niece, Lulu, who was named after her.<ref>{{harvnb|Stern|1999}}; {{harvnb|Stern|2000|p=40}}; {{harvnb|Reisen|2009|pp=275–276}}</ref> Nieriker sent the news to Emerson and asked him to share it with Bronson and his daughters. Only Louisa was at home when Emerson arrived; she guessed the news before he told her and shared it with Bronson and Anna after he left.<ref>{{Harvnb|Delamar|1990|p=122}}</ref> During the grief that followed May's death, Louisa and her father Bronson coped by writing poetry.<ref>{{harvnb|Delamar|1990|p=122}}</ref> In a letter to her friend Maria S. Porter, Louisa wrote, "Of all the griefs in my life, and I have had many, this is the bitterest."{{Sfn|Porter in Shealy|2005|p=71}} It was at this time that she completed ''[[Jack and Jill: A Village Story]]'' (1880).{{Sfn|Meigs|1968|p=193}}

Louisa sometimes hired a nanny when her poor health made it difficult to care for Lulu.<ref>{{Harvnb|Delamar|1990|p=125}} {{Harvnb|MacDonald|1983|p=8}}; {{harvnb|Saxton|1995|pp=367–368}}</ref> While raising Lulu, she published few works.{{Sfn|Reisen|2009|p=279}} Among her published works at this time are the volumes of ''Lulu's Library'' (1886–1889), collections of stories written for her niece Lulu.{{Sfn|Anderson|1995|p=106}} When Bronson suffered a stroke in 1882, Louisa became his caretaker.<ref>{{harvnb|Meigs|1968|p=192}}</ref> In the years that followed she alternated between living in Concord, Boston, and [[Dartmouth, Massachusetts|Nonquitt]].{{Sfn|Anderson|1995|p=108}} In June 1884 Louisa sold Orchard House, which the family was no longer living in.{{Sfn|Reisen|2009|p=286}}

=== Decline and death ===
Alcott suffered from chronic health problems in her later years,{{sfn|Lerner|2007}} including [[vertigo]], [[Indigestion|dyspepsia]], headaches, fatigue, and pain in the limbs,{{Sfn|Hirschhorn|Greaves|2007|p=244}} diagnosed as neuralgia in her lifetime.{{Sfn|Doyle|2001|p=17}} When conventional medicines did not alleviate her pain, she tried [[New Thought|mind-cure]] treatments, [[homeopathy]], [[Hypnosis|hypnotism]], and [[Christian Science]].<ref>{{harvnb|Shealy|2005|p=xxviii}}; {{harvnb|Golden|2003|p=9}}; {{harvnb|MacDonald|1983|p=8}}</ref> Her ill health has been attributed to [[mercury poisoning]], [[morphine]] intake, [[intestinal cancer]], or [[meningitis]].<ref>{{harvnb|Hirschhorn|Greaves|2007|pages=244, 248, 251–253}}; {{harvnb|Saxton|1995|pages=267–268}}; {{Harvnb|Elbert|1987|p=282}}</ref> Alcott herself cited mercury poisoning as the cause of her sickness.{{Sfn|Reisen|2009|p=269}} When she contracted typhoid fever during her [[American Civil War]] service, she was treated with [[calomel]], which is a [[Compounding|compound]] containing [[Mercury (element)|mercury]].<ref>{{harvnb|Lerner|2007}}; {{harvnb|Hill|2008|loc="Louisa succumbed to typhoid pneumonia within a month and had to be taken home. Although she narrowly survived the illness she did not recover from the cure. The large doses of calomel—mercurous chloride—she was given poisoned her and she was never well again."}}</ref> [[Norbert Hirschhorn|Dr. Norbert Hirschhorn]] and Dr. Ian Greaves suggest that Alcott's chronic health problems may have been associated with an [[autoimmune disease]] such as [[Lupus|systemic lupus erythematosus]], possibly because mercury exposure compromised her immune system.{{Sfn|Hirschhorn|Greaves|2007|p=254}} An 1870 portrait of Alcott shows her cheeks to be flushed, perhaps with the [[Malar rash|butterfly rash]] that is often characteristic of [[lupus]].<ref>{{harvnb|Lerner|2007}}; {{harvnb|Hirschhorn|Greaves|2007|pp=255–256}}</ref> The suggested diagnosis, based on Alcott's journal entries, cannot be proved.{{Sfn|Reisen|2009|p=271}}

As Alcott's health declined, she often lived at Dunreath Place, a convalescent home run by Dr. Rhoda Lawrence for which she had provided financial support in the past.<ref>{{harvnb|Delamar|1990|pp=112–113, 133}}; {{harvnb|Shealy|2005|p=xxix}}; {{harvnb|Golden|2003|p=9}}; {{harvnb|Saxton|1995|pp=331–332}}</ref> Eventually a doctor advised Alcott to stop writing to preserve her health.{{Sfn|Delamar|1990|p=136}} In 1887 she legally adopted Anna's son, John Pratt, and made him heir to her [[Royalty payment|royalties]], then created a will that left her money to her remaining family.<ref>{{harvnb|Delamar|1990|p=135}}; {{harvnb|Reisen|2009|p=292}}; {{Harvnb|Elbert|1987|p=281}}</ref> Alcott visited Bronson at his deathbed on March 1, 1888, and expressed the wish that she could join him in death.<ref>{{harvnb|Delamar|1990|p=139}}; {{harvnb|Reisen|2009|pp=292–293}}; {{Harvnb|Elbert|1987|p=282}}</ref> On March 3, the day before her father died,<ref>{{harvnb|Johnson|1906|pp=68–69}}; {{harvnb|Reisen|2009|p=294}}</ref> she suffered a stroke and went unconscious, in which state she remained<ref>{{harvnb|Hirschhorn|Greaves|2007|pp=247–248}}; {{harvnb|Delamar|1990|p=139}}</ref> until her death on March 6, 1888.{{Sfn|Hirschhorn|Greaves|2007|p=247}}  She was buried in [[Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (Concord, Massachusetts)|Sleepy Hollow Cemetery]] in Concord, near Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau, on a hillside now known as Authors' Ridge.{{sfn|Isenberg|Burstein|2003|p=244 n42}} Her niece Lulu was eight years old when Alcott died and was cared for by Anna Alcott Pratt for two years before reuniting with her father in Europe.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reisen|2009|pages=298–300}}; {{Harvnb|Anderson|1995|p=112}}</ref>