The Bee & The Fly

The Bee and the Fly: The Improbable Correspondence of Louisa May Alcott and Emily Dickinson presents a lifelong exchange of unknown letters between Dickinson, the reclusive poet, and Alcott, the most renowned author of the time.

What could Alcott say to Dickinson about abolitionism and woman’s rights? What might Dickinson reveal to Alcott about her thoughts on marriage and eternity? Researched for over five years and drawing heavily on biographical facts, these luminous letters present a friendship that explores the questions of family responsibilities, women’s growing influence in the literary world, the cost of fame and the power of sorority.

Author Biography

Lorraine Tosiello read Alcott’s Little Women in the first grade, and again and again most years of her childhood after that. That set her off on her life journey of reading, working as a physician, motherhood, traveling, and general rabble-rousing. Rereading Little Women in later adulthood renewed her Alcott enthusiasm and years of study resulted in her first novel, Only Gossip Prospers: A Novel of Louisa May Alcott in New York. She lives with her husband in midtown Manhattan and at the New Jersey shore.