Editing Louisa May Alcott (section)

=== Family changes ===
Louisa returned to Walpole in mid-1856 to find her sister Elizabeth ill with [[scarlet fever]]. Louisa helped nurse Elizabeth, and when she was not nursing helped with the housekeeping and wrote.<ref>{{harvnb|Reisen|2009|pp=133–134}}; {{harvnb|Saxton|1995|p=208}}</ref> Louisa prepared to publish ''Beach Bubbles'' that year, but the book was rejected.{{sfn|Reisen|2009|p=133}} By the end of the year she was writing for the ''Olive Branch'', the ''Ladies Enterprise'', ''The Saturday Evening Gazette'', and the ''Sunday News''.{{sfn|Reisen|2009|p=134}} Louisa again lived in Boston for a time, where she met [[Julia Ward Howe]] and [[Franklin Benjamin Sanborn|Frank Sanborn]].{{sfn|Reisen|2009|p=135}} In the summer of 1857 Louisa and Anna rejoined the Walpole Amateur Dramatic Company and sought to entertain Elizabeth with stories about their acting.{{sfn|Reisen|2009|p=140}} The family later visited [[Swampscott, Massachusetts|Swampscott]] in an effort to boost Elizabeth's health, which was poor from effects of the scarlet fever, but it did not improve.<ref>{{harvnb|Reisen|2009|p=140}}; {{harvnb|Saxton|1995|p=212}}</ref> During this time Louisa read ''[[The Life of Charlotte Brontë]]'' by [[Elizabeth Gaskell]] and found inspiration from [[Charlotte Brontë|Brontë]]'s life.<ref>{{harvnb|Showalter|2004}}; {{harvnb|Doyle|2000|pp=xxi, 3}}</ref><nowiki> </nowiki>

The family moved back to Concord in September 1857, where the Alcotts rented while Bronson repaired [[Orchard House]].<ref>{{harvnb|Reisen|2009|pp=145–146}}; {{harvnb|Saxton|1995|p=214}}</ref> During that time, the two oldest Alcott sisters organized the Concord Dramatic Union.{{sfn|Reisen|2009|p=142}} Elizabeth Alcott died on March 14, 1858, when she was twenty-three.<ref>{{Harvnb|Doyle|2001|p=12}}; {{Harvnb|Anderson|1995|p=45}}</ref> Three weeks later, Anna became engaged to [[John Bridge Pratt|John Pratt]], a man she met in the Concord Dramatic Union.{{sfn|Reisen|2009|pp=142, 144}} Louisa experienced depression about these events and considered Elizabeth's death and Anna's engagement catalysts to breaking up their sisterhood.<ref>{{harvnb|Alcott|1988}};  {{Harvnb|Meigs|1968|pages=98–99}}; {{Harvnb|Elbert|1987|p=112}}</ref> After the family moved into Orchard House in July 1858, Louisa again returned to Boston to find employment.{{Sfn|Matteson|2007|pp=239–240}} Unable to find work and filled with despair, Louisa contemplated suicide by drowning, but she decided to "take [[Fates|Fate]] by the throat and shake a living out of her."<ref>{{harvnb|Reisen|2009|pp=147–149}}; {{Harvnb|Elbert|1987|pages=112–113}}</ref> She eventually received an offer to work as a governess for invalid Alice Lovering, which she accepted.<ref>{{harvnb|Reisen|2009|p=149}}; {{harvnb|Saxton|1995|p=228}}</ref>[[File:Concord Massachusetts gravesite of Louisa May Alcott.JPG|thumbnail|Louisa May Alcott's grave in [[Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord]], Massachusetts.]]