title: My Heart is Boundless: Writings of Abigail May Alcott, Louisa's Mother
author:  Eve LaPlante 
description: Edited skillfully by LaPlante (a member of Alcott's family tree), this thoroughly engaging collection of Abigail May Alcott's warm and lively writings, primarily drawn from her journals and letters, show her to be a witty, eloquent, thoughtful, and captivating writer and correspondent. Born into a prominent Boston family, thirsty for an education, and engaged by the social topics of her time (including abolition and women's rights), Abigail soon found herself in a troubled marriage to utopian thinker Bronson Alcott. The trials of her married lifeespecially their financial woesmake appearances, as does the joy she took in her daughters and extended family, her strength of character, and a glimpse of sly humor ( I wish women displayed more brains and less jewelry ). Most fascinating are the excerpts from Abigail's reports as a welfare worker in Boston; her desire to provide work and just wages for the poor along with relief ring a startlingly contemporary bell. Though one could certainly read this volume on its own, LaPlante's companion biography, Marmee &amp; Louisa (pubbing simultaneously) will undoubtedly help to fill in gaps. And although some of Abigail's correspondence was destroyed or altered by family members, one hopes that further volumes of her extant work might one day be released to shed even further light on this remarkable woman. (Nov.)
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  ### Praise for Mia Marlowe:
  
  
  
  
  
  “Historical romance has never been so much fun!”~ Barbara Vey, Beyond Her Book
  
  
  
  
  
  "My Lady Below Stairs, the story of a bastard servant girl called in to
  impersonate her missing aristocratic half-sister with results worthy of
  Shakespeare!” ~ Library Journal
  
  
  
  
  
  "Great writing and research skills, as well as her ability to weave a good
  old-fashioned story with heft, make her an author to watch." ~Michelle
  Buonfiglio, RomanceBuyTheBook
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ##### My Lady Below Stairs
  
  
  ######
  
  
  ###### by Mia Marlowe
  
  
  
  
  
  ###### Copyright @ 2009, 2011 by Diana Groe
  
  
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  A Note of thanks from Mia Marlowe
  
  
  Thanks to my agent Natasha Kern, who always believed in my writing. And to my
  fabulous editor, Leah Hultenschmidt, who gave me my first chance. And most
  especially, I want to thank my parents who showed me what love that lasts
  looks like. They were married on Christmas Day (A thre