To her aunts‘ alarm Alec has different ideas of what it means to raise a girl than most, but his unconventional approach might just be what gets Rose out of her shell. Just as author Louisa May Alcott‘s widely-read novel Little Women (1868), Eight Cousins (1875) is unusually forward-thinking and feminist for its time. Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was an American writer and feminist. She grew up poor, but among intellectualists, and started writing at an early age. Her most famous novel, Little Women (1868), was inspired by her upbringing.