Louisa May: A Modern Biography

At the beginning, this book really disappointed and depressed me. So much so that I almost put it down. Saxton doesn't really get into the meat of her material until about halfway through the book.

Despite her attempts to blame all of Louisa's neuroses on her father (the first half of the book is a damnation of him and his unwillingness to work, weird attempts at mid-nineteenth century communes, and overall coldness towards women, including his wife and daughters), Louisa's spirit, humor, and apparent manic-depression cycles came through clearly.

I'd like to read more about Louisa, rather than her father. Although I found the failure of his commune experiments (most noteably "Fruitlands," where everyone was forced to eat only apples and drink water) an interesting commentary, considering this book was written in 1977, when our century's experimentation with commune life had recently gone sour.