Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women.

-- Library Journal, 12/21/2009

color. 84 min. Nancy Porter, Nancy Porter Prods. & Thirteen/WNET, dist. by Nancy Porter Prods., 781-652-8755; www.louisamayalcott.net. 2010. DVD home video $29.95; public libraries $69.95; acad. libs. $225. lit

Obie winner Elizabeth Marvel takes the role of Louisa May Alcott (1832–88) in this wonderful portrait, a PBS American Masters program scheduled for a December 28 broadcast. By combining interviews, dramatic vignettes, and animation, producer/director Porter and producer/writer Harriet Reisen, whose research was the basis for the film script as well as her recent Alcott biography (LJ 9/1/09), recount the story of this complex woman. The tremendously prolific Alcott grew up in an intellectually stimulating environment, wrote poetry and short stories, plus thrillers to “escape a genteel cage,” and started her juvenile fiction career because it paid well. Viewers will be inspired to reread the Alcott works after seeing this engrossing program. An excellent choice for public, school, and academic libraries and fans of the classics.—Joan Greenberg, Warminster, PA