PARKERSBURG — The next regular meeting of the Civil War Round Table of the Mid-Ohio Valley will be 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 4, at the Blennerhassett Museum of Regional History, 137 Juliana St., Parkersburg.

For the presentation, Joan Leotta, an award-winning journalist, novelist, poet and playwright, will present “Beyond Little Women: Meet Louisa May Alcott.”

Alcott achieved national notoriety following the Civil War as an author of several books including “Little Women” (1868), and sequels “Good Wives” (1869), “Little Men” (1871), and “Joe’s Boys” (1886). She was raised in New England and in her early life was known to notable authors from the period such as Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau. She discovered her talents as a writer at an early age but was required to work as a domestic helper and seamstress to support her destitute family. However, she soon found that she could sell her poetry and short stories to magazines and newspapers, and pen plays to sell to theatre groups and performers.

When the Civil War erupted in 1861 Alcott wanted to enlist in the Union Army but was prevented because she was a woman. Instead, she waited to reach the minimum age to serve as an army nurse. In 1862 Alcott applied and was assigned to the Union Hotel Hospital in Georgetown, D.C. Conditions were desperate due to overcrowding, dirt and filth, bad nutrition and poor ventilation. Scarlet fever, measles, typhus and yellow fever were rampant. Her experiences caring for soldiers’ wounds and writing letters home for them inspired a new realism in her writing that influenced her work and values for the rest of her life. Her first critical success as an author came when her own letters home were published in 1863 under the title “Hospital Sketches.” The acclaim for this innovative authorship inspired her to write “Little Women,” one of the first fiction novels set in the Civil War period and an account that could not have been compiled without Alcott’s singular dedication to healing others in the service of her country. Alcott is also noteworthy as an abolitionist, temperance advocate and feminist.

Leotta has been playing with words on page and stage since childhood. She is the author of 11 books — an historical fiction series, four children’s books, a collection of short stories and two books of poetry. Her writing and performances are often food or history-inspired. She has written for magazines, newspapers, and humanities as well as teaching organizations. She is a native of Pittsburgh, Pa., and resides in Northern Virginia. A lifelong admirer of Louisa May Alcott, Leotta assumed the role of presenting her to modern audiences when she recognized how few knew of her work as a Civil War nurse and how that experience altered the trajectory of her life’s work as an author.

Leotta is a graduate of Ohio University with a BA in Political Science and minors in English and Spanish. She also earned an MA in International Relations and Economics from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Relations in Washington, D.C., and Bologna, Italy.

The public is welcome and there is no cost to attend. Small donations will be collected to defray a portion of the cost of the event.

This presentation is made possible by a matching grant from the Ohio Arts Council and the collaborative efforts of the Ohio University Department of History and the Grosvenor Civil War Round Table, Athens, Ohio.

The meeting venue is handicapped accessible. Accommodation for other disabilities will be considered upon request.

Please contact cwrtmor@gmail.com or 740 525 7470 for more information.