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WORK TITLE: Giant Baby!
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CITY: Binghamton
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COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: SATA 336
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PERSONAL
Born February 3, 1958, in Glen Cove, NY; daughter of Ross and Lucille Rosenberg; married John Gardner (a novelist), February 14, 1980 (died, 1982); married David Bosnick (a writer, teacher, and bookstore owner), 1983 (died, January 30, 2014); children: (second marriage) Eli, Lily.
EDUCATION:Bennington College, B.A.; Johns Hopkins University, M.A.; State University of New York, Binghamton, Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Poet, children’s book author, novelist, and professor. State University of New York, Binghamton, Binghamton, NY, professor of English, 1979—. Has also taught at Colgate College, Hamilton College, Hollins College, Sarah Lawrence College, and Bennington College; cofounder of the Indoor Playground of the City of Binghamton; member of the preschool school board, CHABAD, and the kindergarten task force; National Endowment for the Humanities fellow.
MEMBER:Associated Writing Program, Poets and Writers, PEN.
AWARDS:Claudia Lewis Poetry Prize; Children’s Choice Award; Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching; National Kellogg fellow, 1982-85; Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize, 1986; Patterson Prize, and Books of Distinction Award, Hungry Mind Review, both for Roots and Flowers: An Anthology of Poems about Family; The Carousel was featured on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) children’s series Reading Rainbow; Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Prize, 2001, Books of Distinction Award, Hungry Mind Review, and Best Book selection, Bank Street College of Education, all for Light-Gathering Poems.
POLITICS: “Bleeding heart liberal.” RELIGION: Jewish Unitarian.WRITINGS
Also contributor to periodicals, including New York Times Book Review, Boston Globe, New Yorker, and Chicago Tribune. Editor, Manuscript magazine, 1980-87; children’s book review editor for Parents magazine.
SIDELIGHTS
Children’s book author Liz Rosenberg “weaves empathetic storytelling with artfully placed details that set a comfortable rhythm,” commented New York Times Book Review correspondent Eric Roston. Most of Rosenberg’s work is for younger children—brightly illustrated storybooks about walking on a moonlit beach, coming to terms with grief or displacement by war, or purely whimsical takes on the alphabet and Mother Goose. Rosenberg also served as a book review columnist with the Boston Globe.
In The Carousel, for instance, two young sisters discover that the horses on an abandoned carousel have magically come alive. After riding them through the sky, the sisters realize that the horses are wild and destructive: they tame them with their deceased mother’s tools and flute music. In a Booklist review of The Carousel, Stephanie Zvirin declared: “Fantasy blends beautifully with reality in a book that speaks to the emotions that stir in the wake of a parent’s death.”
Rosenberg eschews fantasy in The Silence in the Mountains, a tale in which a young boy’s idyllic life is upended when a war forces him to flee to America with his family. Booklist correspondent John Peters noted of the work and its young character: “Iskander’s feelings are certainly valid—and shared by refugees from violence the world over.”
Rosenberg has also published several books for young adults, including the well-received Earth-Shattering Poems, Light-Gathering Poems, Roots and Flowers: An Anthology of Poems about Family, and The Invisible Ladder: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poems for Young Readers. A poet herself, Rosenberg has chosen poetry written by—and for—adults for her anthologies, feeling that younger readers can understand deep work. “These poems are not ones that usually make their way into anthologies for young people,” observed Nancy Vasilakis in a Horn Book review of Earth-Shattering Poems. Vasilakis added that the mature poems, as well as Rosenberg’s notes and commentary, “make this a particularly useful resource.”
Heart and Soul, Rosenberg’s first young-adult novel, is a first-person tale narrated by a bewildered and depressed seventeen-year-old girl named Willie. Having returned home to Richmond after spending the school year in Philadelphia, Willie contemplates life with her needy mother and the increasing remoteness of her businessman father, who is gone on a trip. Rosenberg examines many issues in the work, including parent-child relationships, divorce, and self-esteem, concluding with a realistic, if optimistic, resolution. In the New York Times Book Review, Bruce Brooks wrote of Heart and Soul: “Rosenberg has put her novel together very carefully, and it is, in fact, strangely neat. The rightness of the deft, quick portraits—no one sticks around for long, but every single person is unforgettable—and the languid beauty of Willie’s language are artfully constructed of very fine prose, matching a precise sensibility.” In her Horn Book piece on the same work, Vasilakis stated: “Willie’s adolescent angst can sometimes seem as thick as the heavy Richmond air, but the adolescent characters are compelling, and Willie’s resolute search for her center grabs at your heart.”
A boy overcomes his fear of the dark in Eli’s Night Light. Gillian Engberg, a reviewer in Booklist, described the volume as “a good choice to soothe anxious young insomniacs.”
We Wanted You, illustrated by Peter Catalanotto, finds parents narrating their story of adopting their son, Enrique. A Kirkus Reviews writer described the book as “an unsatisfactory addition to the adoption oeuvre.” However, Judith Constantinides, a critic in School Library Journal, commented: “Although there are quite a few good books on this subject … this one is a lovely choice.”
In On Christmas Eve, a boy wonders if Santa will be able to find him at the hotel he and his family are forced to stay in on the day before Christmas. “This Christmas Eve tale creates a magic all its own,” asserted a contributor to Kirkus Reviews. Hazel Rochman, a reviewer in Booklist, noted that the book offered “a moving blend of realism and mystery.” Writing in School Library Journal, Virginia Walter described the volume as “a simple, satisfying picture book.”
A brainy teen named Stephanie falls for a rich kid named Denny, deals with her mother’s mental illness, and makes friends with Ben, a kid with similar interests, in Seventeen: A Novel in Prose Poems. In an interview with Jodi Webb, a contributor to the WOW website, Rosenberg stated: “I wanted a book for and about teenagers who not only deal with the problems of the grownups they live with but their own pressures, coming from things like first love, family dynamics, falling in love with the wrong person, friendships.” Frances Bradburn, a reviewer in Booklist, commented: “There’s a lot packed into this small poetic novel, but the whole is remarkably effective.” A Publishers Weekly critic remarked: “Teens will no doubt find Stephanie’s struggles darkly intriguing, but her self-despair eventually becomes tedious.” A writer in Kirkus Reviews suggested: “The story itself is not particularly new—but Rosenberg’s … telling it is beautifully, hauntingly effective.” “Young people who have experienced tough times will find it easy to relate to this book and its candid portrayal of life,” predicted Nick Hart in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. School Library Journal writer, Susan W. Hunter, called the book “a touching third-person narrative, enhanced by resonant images of nature and the changing seasons.”
Rosenberg collaborated with Deena November to edit I Just Hope It’s Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy. The book contains works from Rumi, Shakespeare, and Sylvia Plath, among others. Writing again in Booklist, Engberg described the volume as a “deeply affecting, sophisticated collection, which will resonate with readers in all states of mental equilibrium.” “This intelligent anthology will accomplish two amazing feats: It will please teen readers and simultaneously satisfy their teachers,” asserted a Kirkus Reviews critic. Jessi Platt, a reviewer in School Library Journal, remarked: “This efficiently organized, concise, and interesting collection is an excellent choice.”
This Is the Wind tells the story of a baby’s birth. The child is born on a windy night. The book is illustrated by Renée Reichert. Home Repair, a novel for adults, tells the story of Eve, who unexpectedly becomes a single mom to two kids. She finds support from members of her community. BetteLee Fox, a reviewer in Library Journal, suggested: “Rosenberg’s prose sings in this winning novel.” “Rosenberg achieves remarkable emotional range … for an engaging, often touching story,” remarked a contributor to Publishers Weekly.
In Nobody, a boy named George wreaks havoc on his family’s kitchen with his imaginary friend, Nobody. A Publishers Weekly writer noted: “Stories about food chaos are always a hit.” “Kids and their parents will love this one,” predicted Anne Beier in School Library Journal.
A T. rex raises his human son in Tyrannasaurus Dad. “The storytelling sometimes slackens, and the mood can feel like it’s teetering between bittersweet and depressed,” remarked a critic in Publishers Weekly. Marge Loch-Wouters, a reviewer in School Library Journal, commented: “This twist on a great dad/son relationship will be appreciated both as a read-along and a read-aloud.”
In The Moonlight Palace, Agnes, the last heir of the sultan, lives in a crumbling palace. She and her elderly family members decide to rent out rooms in order to support themselves. Meanwhile, Agnes falls in love. Cortney Ophoff offered a favorable assessment of the volume in Booklist, stating: “Rich with historical detail and rounded out by an entertaining cast of characters, it is sure to enthrall.”
What James Said illustrates the dangers of spreading rumors. “This is a story that will resonate with the primary-grade crowd,” asserted Sam Bloom in Horn Book. Maryann Owen, a contributor to Booklist, described the volume as “a charming tale of misunderstanding and reconciliation.” Writing in School Library Journal, Megan Egbert called it “a clever read that can be shared with a group and is perfect for independent reading.”
House of Dreams is a nonfiction volume in which Rosenberg chronicles the life of L.M. Montgomery, author of the “Anne of Green Gables” series. It is geared toward middle-grade readers. A Kirkus Reviews critic described the volume as “a kind, thoughtful, nuanced portrayal of one of the icons of children’s literature.” Kate DiGirolomo, a reviewer in School Library Journal, called the book “a poignant though incomplete look at a renowned author.”
Rosenberg once commented: “Reading children’s books was a large part of how I survived childhood. I read constantly, and never stopped reading books written for children. That mountain of books became a kind of leviathan—and I rode on its back through waves and storms. My childhood was happy, but seldom calm. In writing for children, I remember that past and repay that debt.
(open new)With Scribbles, Sorrows, and Russet Leather Boots: The Life of Louisa May Alcott, Rosenberg chronicles the life of American author Louisa May Alcott as geared toward teen readers. The book highlights both Alcott’s gift for words and also her sense of responsibility toward family. Rosenberg records instances of her life, such as her time as a U.S. Civil War-era nurse, her romantic interests, her writings, progressive views, and her death and other family tragedies. Booklist contributor Carolyn Phelan found it to be “an informative, thought-provoking biography.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor labeled it “a grand tale for present fans and future ones, too.”
A Strange Life: Selected Essays of Louisa May Alcott is a collection of essays written by Alcott. The four essays and five extracts include “Hospital Sketches” about her time working as a nurse for the U.S. Union Army and “Transcendental Wild Oats” about her family’s time spent at the Massachusetts commune of Fruitlands in the early 1840s. Writing in Times Literary Supplement, Alison Kelly insisted that “in bringing together opinion pieces, travelogues and personal snippets, this pocket-sized volume opens fascinating windows into Alcott’s mind.”
In an interview in the Louisa May Alcott Is My Passion website, Rosenberg explained why Alcott used fiction in her essays. She postulated that “Alcott used fiction in her essays and reality in her fiction. As the great novelist John Gardner once wrote, the best fiction is usually “mutt” fiction this way, a combination of things that don’t seem to go together … poetry and tragedy, vulgar comedy and violence, medicine and law and history. You can’t pin it down to one thing in his work because it’s a hundred things–he’s a hundred things. Louisa was like that, too. All deep thinkers are. And Alcott was nothing if not a deep thinker.”
In Giant Baby!, Ezra’s mother comments just how fast he is growing after tucking him in to bed. After she leaves the room, Ezra gets out of bed and grows to a giant size. He goes outside following the milk, which he imagines looks like a giant glass of milk. He chases a dog, splashes in a fountain, and plays with the cars like toys. Ezra starts crying after realizing he’s alone in the streets and decides to go back to his room. His mother also wakes up after hearing the cries. But by the time she gets to his room, Ezra is back in bed—normal size—and already asleep as if none of it ever happened. A Kirkus Reviews contributor opined that “fun imagery, though the story will strike a stronger chord with caregivers than with little ones.”(close new)
“The truly great books for children—Charlotte’s Web, A Wrinkle in Time, among others—I still read them. Children love passionately; I think these first books stay with us, grow with us, for life. I believe there is nothing holier or higher than to write something fine for children. As A.A. Milne once said, ‘It is impossible to take too much care when one is writing for children.’
“To me, writing children’s books and writing poetry [are] two sides of the same activity. They are both visionary, illuminated art forms. They try to go directly to the heart of the matter, whatever is at stake—friendship, homesickness, immortality, love. In a way, both forms short-cut to the things that matter most, what C.G. Jung called ‘the big dreams.’ Poetry and children’s books are big dreams written out in short-hand.
“I still have the original ‘ugly old thing’—the doll I write about in The Scrap Doll, and sometimes my son likes to play with her. My belief in that book—as in life—is that the more you care for something, the more closely you look at it, the more you love it. Love and understanding go along hand in hand. I hope children will always find things in their lives to care for and to love, because from those activities come joy and peace of mind.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, November 15, 1994, p. 606; November 15, 1995, Stephanie Zvirin, review of The Carousel, p. 565; February 1, 1999, John Peters, review of The Silence in the Mountains, p. 982; June 1, 2001, Gillian Engberg, review of Eli’s Night Light, p. 1895; September 15, 2002, Hazel Rochman, review of On Christmas Eve, p. 246; November 15, 2002, Frances Bradburn, review of Seventeen: A Novel in Prose Poems, p. 589; November 15, 2005, Gillian Engberg, review of I Just Hope It’s Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy, p. 36; April 15, 2011, Andrew Medlar, review of Tyrannosaurus Dad, p. 61; October 15, 2014, Cortney Ophoff, review of The Moonlight Palace, p. 24; May 15, 2015, Maryann Owen, review of What James Said, p. 59; October 15, 2021, Carolyn Phelan, review of Scribbles, Sorrows, and Russet Leather Boots: The Life of Louisa May Alcott, p. 39.
Horn Book, November 1, 1996, Nancy Vasilakis, review of Heart and Soul, p. 746; January 1, 1998, Nancy Vasilakis, review of Earth-Shattering Poems, p. 88; November 1, 2005, Jennifer M. Brabander, review of I Just Hope It’s Lethal, p. 733; July 1, 2015, Sam Bloom, review of What James Said, p. 124.
Horn Book Guide, March 22, 1995, Suzy Schmidt, review of Mama Goose, p. 112; March 22, 1998, Maeve Visser Knoth, review of A Big and Little Alphabet, p. 18.
Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, April 1, 2003, Nick Hart, review of Seventeen, p. 608.
Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2002, review of We Wanted You, p. 108; September 1, 2002, review of Seventeen, p. 1318; November 1, 2002, review of On Christmas Eve, p. 1625; October 15, 2005, review of I Just Hope It’s Lethal; October 1, 2008, review of This Is the Wind; April 1, 2018, review of House of Dreams; October 1, 2021, review of Scribbles, Sorrows, and Russet Leather Boots; February 15, 2025, review of Giant Baby!.
Kliatt, September 1, 2005, Beth Lizardo, review of I Just Hope It’s Lethal, p. 32.
Library Journal, May 1, 2009, BetteLee Fox, review of Home Repair, p. 71.
New York Times Book Review, September 22, 1996, Bruce Brooks, review of Heart and Soul, p. 28; July 18, 1999, Eric Roston, review of The Silence in the Mountains, p. 25.
Publishers Weekly, March 22, 1999, review of The Silence in the Mountains, p. 92; May 14, 2001, review of Eli’s Night Light, p. 80; February 25, 2002, review of We Wanted You, p. 66; September 30, 2002, review of Seventeen, p. 72; January 5, 2009, review of Home Repair, p. 31; May 31, 2010, review of Nobody, p. 46; March 28, 2011, review of Tyrannosaurus Dad, p. 54; April 20, 2015, review of What James Said, p. 75; April 23, 2018, review of House of Dreams, p. 91.
School Library Journal, January 1, 1996, Janet M. Bair, review of The Carousel, p. 94; March 1, 1996, p. 153; May 1, 1996, Leda Schubert, review of Grandmother and the Runaway Shadow, p. 98; October 1, 1996, p. 104; February 1, 1997, Kathleen Whalen, review of The Invisible Ladder, p. 124; June 1, 1997, Marianne Saccardi, review of Eli and Uncle Dawn, p. 100; February 1, 1998, Sharon Korbeck, review of Earth-Shattering Poems, p. 124; July 1, 1999, Barbara Scotto, review of The Silence in the Mountains, p. 79; April 1, 2002, Judith Constantinides, review of We Wanted You, p. 121; August 1, 2001, Gay Lynn Van Vleck, review of Eli’s Night Light, p. 160; October 1, 2002, Virginia Walter, review of On Christmas Eve, p. 63; November 1, 2002, Susan W. Hunter, review of Seventeen, p. 174; December 1, 2005, Jessi Platt, review of I Just Hope It’s Lethal, p. 172; October 1, 2006, review of I Just Hope It’s Lethal, p. S73; October 1, 2008, Julie Roach, review of This Is the Wind, p. 121; May 1, 2010, Anne Beier, review of Nobody, p. 90; May 1, 2011, Marge Loch-Wouters, review of Tyrannosaurus Dad, p. 88; October 1, 2015, Megan Egbert, review of What James Said, p. 83; May 1, 2018, Kate DiGirolomo, review of House of Dreams, 122.
Times Literary Supplement, December 15, 2023, Alison Kelly, review of A Strange Life: Selected Essays of Louisa May Alcott, p. 25.
ONLINE
Binghamton University website, https://www.binghamton.edu/ (September 1, 2025), author faculty profile.
Cindy L Spear, https://www.cindylspear.com/ (October 19, 2024), author interview.
Jewish Book Council Online, https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/ (November 13, 2013), author interview.
Louisa May Alcott Is My Passion, https://louisamayalcottismypassion.com/ (November 14, 2023), Susan W. Bailey, “Louisa May Alcott, Essayist — a Conversation with Author/Editor Liz Rosenberg on Her New Book, A Strange Life – Selected Essays of Louisa May Alcott.”
Poetry Foundation website, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/ (October 5, 2018), author profile.
WOW, http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/ (October 5, 2018), Jodi Webb, author interview.
Liz Rosenberg is the author of 5 novels, 4 books of poems and more than 20 award winning books for children. She has edited five prize winning poetry anthologies (including THE INVISIBLE LADDER and LIGHT GATHERING POEMS) and her picture book, THE CAROUSEL was featured on PBS' Reading Rainbow. TYRANNOSAURUS DAD (illustrated by Matthew Myers) is a Children's Book of the Month Club bestseller and has garnered praise from Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus, School Library Journal and elsewhere, and was an Amazon top 10 children's book. WHAT JAMES SAID, her newest children's book, (ALSO ill. by Matthew Myers) is a Best Book for Social Studies. Her children's book, MONSTER MAMA, is currently under option as a feature movie.
Her long-awaited first non-fiction book, HOUSE OF DREAMS, a biography of author L.M. Montgomery, (Anne of Green Gables) will be published June 2018. It is a Junior Library Guild Selection.
Her first novel for adults, HOME REPAIR was a Target Breakout book, a BookBub pick, and voted top ten for Book Clubs and Most Likely to be Next Oprah Pick on Goodreads. Her second, THE LAWS OF GRAVITY, has been a best-seller in the United States, Canada, Germany and the UK. and was a Jewish Book Network selection for 2013. The Boston Globe hailed it as "a thoughtful story about morality, personal responsibility, the law, and above all, the complicated, sometimes incomprehensible ties of family."
THE MOONLIGHT PALACE was the #1 best-selling Kindle book on Amazon. It was chosen to be a Kindle First, and was a #1 best-seller in the US and UK. BEAUTY AND ATTENTION, published in fall, 2016, is an updated re-telling of Henry James' classic, PORTRAIT OF A LADY.
Her newest novel is INDIGO HILL, due out in November, 2018. About INDIGO HILL, author John Dufresne writes, "Liz Rosenberg loves her characters and makes us love them, too. She knows what Faulkner knew, that the past isn’t dead; it isn’t even past. She knows, as well, that every story is many stories, and she handles the complex intersecting tales of unspeakable loss, astonishing secrets, familial chaos, and heartbreak, with intelligence, poise, and tenderness."
Liz Rosenberg was born and raised on Long Island. She met her late husband, David Bosnick, when they were 7 and 8 years old respectively, at summer camp. They became friends in high school, married other people, and ten years after they had met in high school, finally got married. They have an actor, podcaster & magician son, Eli, and a 14 year old daughter, Lily.
Liz Rosenberg's first husband was the late great American novelist John Gardner, author of Grendel, Nickel Mountain, and more than 25 other works of fiction, non-fiction, and scholarship. Together they taught at the State University of Binghamton until his untimely death in l982. She continues as a full professor at Binghamton University's English Department and has guest taught all over the world, from Russia to Austria to Singapore, and throughout the United States. Ms. Rosenberg spends her time reading and writing. Her hobbies are reading and writing and her passions are-- right, reading and writing.
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Liz Rosenberg
Liz Rosenberg in 2017
Liz Rosenberg in 2017
Born February 3, 1955 (age 70)
Glen Cove, New York, United States
Occupation Professor, poet, anthologist, novelist, book reviewer
Alma mater Bennington College
Spouse John Gardner (1980-1982)
David Bosnick (1983- 2014)
Children 2
Lizbeth Meg Rosenberg (born February 3, 1955) is an American poet, novelist, children's book author and book reviewer.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] She is currently a professor of English at Binghamton University, and in previous years has taught at Colgate University, Sarah Lawrence College, Hamilton College, Bennington College, and Hollins College. Her children's book reviews appear monthly in The Boston Globe.
Life
Early life
Rosenberg was born on Long Island to parents Ross and Lucille Rosenberg. She grew up in Syosset, New York with her older sister, Ellen. Rosenberg wrote her first "novel" at age nine, in the fourth grade, but did not publish a novel till Heart and Soul, a Young Adult novel it took her twenty years to complete.[citation needed]
Her father owned a tool manufacturing company in Smithtown, Long Island, which he ran with several cousins. ROSCO Tools was sold to Vermont American in the 1980s. Her mother worked briefly in publishing, and then stayed home to care for her two children.[citation needed]
Education and teaching
Rosenberg graduated from Syosset High School, where she won an NCTE Writing Award in her senior year.[citation needed] While majoring in creative writing and literature at Bennington, her first short story, "Memory," won an Atlantic First Award and was published in The Atlantic Monthly. After writing her senior thesis on Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rosenberg graduated early from Bennington and subsequently earned her Masters in creative writing at the Johns Hopkins University Writing Program.[citation needed] She earned her PhD in Comparative literature at Binghamton University, where she has been teaching since 1979. Writers she has taught include Nathan Englander, Sheila Schwartz, Ellen Potter, Angie Cruz, Lisa Rowe Fraustino, Kate Schmitt, Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Jeff Ford, Josephine Schmidt, and Michael Greene.[citation needed]
Personal life
She met her second husband, David Bosnick, in her junior year in high school. Her first serious high school boyfriend was author Michael Pollan. They lived together for six months in Martha's Vineyard, then attended Bennington College together. At Bennington, she met her first husband, novelist John Gardner. They married in 1980 and divorced in 1982. She and Bosnick, friends since high school, married in 1983. They remained married until Bosnick's death in January 2014.[10] They had two children.
Rosenberg has served as a board member of The Binghamton City School District, Chabad House and Beds for Kids, which provided children living in poverty with furniture and beds. She also helped found Binghamton's Indoor Playground. In the past she was in charge of Binghamton University's Local Harvest for the Homeless program, a collaborate effort between the community and Binghamton University artists.[citation needed]
Works
Poetry
The Angel Poems (1984)
The Fire Music (1986)
Children of Paradise (1994)
These Happy Eyes (2001)
A Book of Days (2002)
The Lily Poems (2008)
Demon Love (2008)
Poetry anthologies
The Invisible Ladder (1996)
Earth Shattering Poems (1998)
Light Gathering Poems (2000)
Roots and Flowers: Poets Write About Their Families (2001)
I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy (2005)
Novels
Heart and Soul (1996)
17: A Novel in Prose Poems (2002)
Home Repair (2009)
The Laws of Gravity (2013)
The Moonlight Palace (2014)
Beauty and Attention: A Novel (2016)
Indigo Hill (2018)
Picture books
Adelaide and the Night Train (1989)
Window, Mirror, Moon (1990)
The Scrap Doll (1991)
Monster Mama (1993)
Mama Goose: A New Mother Goose (1994)
The Carousel (1996)
Moonbathing (1996)
Grandmother and the Runaway Shadow (1996)
Eli and Uncle Dawn (1997)
A Big and Little Alphabet (1997)
The Silence in the Mountains (1999)
Eli's Night Light (2001)
On Christmas Eve (2002)
We Wanted You (2002)
This is the Wind (2008)
I Did it Anyway (2009)
Nobody (2010)
Tyrannosaurus Dad (2011)
What James Said (2015)
Biography
House of Dreams: A Biography of L. M. Montgomery
Scribbles, Sorrows and Russet Leather Boots: A Biography of Louisa May Alcott
Editorial contributions
Total Immersion, by Rifke Slonim, Contributing Editor
Essays of Louisa May Alcott (Notting Hill Editions, England)
19 October 2024
Interview with Liz Rosenberg
Author of Scribbles, Sorrows, and Russet Leather Boots.
See my review here.
📚
Given the volume of information available on Louisa May Alcott, why did you decide to write a book about her life?
Little Women has always appealed to teenagers– after all, it’s about 4 teenaged sisters. So while there are wonderful children’s and adult biographies, there was nothing for the young adult readers– which was her original audience.
Provide one or two facts that surprised you about Louisa that you may not have known before researching for Scribbles, Sorrows, and Russet Leather Boots?
I never fully understood the degree of the Alcott family’s poverty– surviving on bread and water or just apples. I also didn’t realize the degree of Louisa’s generosity when she finally had some money. She supported not just family and friends which she did abundantly, but gave to countless causes and charities, even to strangers whose struggles moved her.
I also never had known she became a mother in her middle age, when her sister died young and bequeathed the child to her. So there she was, a “spinster” as she liked to call herself– the single mother of an active toddler.
How much of Louisa’s life was poured into Little Women and other fictional stories she wrote?
A lot of her own life filtered through, though she transformed all of it. She was commissioned to write a book “for girls” and said in despair that the only girls she knew well were her sisters. Later, when it became such a surprise success she said simply, “we lived it.”
Although from the time she was fifteen, Louisa wanted to be famous and have money, it has been said she never was comfortable being at the centre of attention. Once her book Little Women took off, how did this success affect her and her family?
She yearned for success and fame, but when it came she ran like the wind from it. Literally, she would run out the back door into the woods. Once she put on a fake accent and pretended to be her own housemaid claiming that Miz Alcott was not home.
The family lost so much privacy, and Louisa worried that she had disturbed the peace of the family. Actually, I think some of them rather liked it– Bronson, her father, especially.
Louisa wrote a number of books, including sequels to Little Women. But she followed a certain pattern in the release of her books: a serious one followed by a lighter one. Why do you think she wrote in this way?
I don’t think she did any of that deliberately. Maybe it was a question of finding balance, since she had so many sides to her– she wrote creepy blood-curdling romances, and light-hearted stories, and literary fiction, mysteries, and more serious stories for young people. And maybe sometimes she just wanted a change. I suspect each kind of writing fed her in some way.
One topic that cannot be ignored is Louisa’s battle with her health. From her writings she came across as a positive force and extremely resilient. The quotes below show us that she tried to rise above those afflictions and obstacles or at least she may have seen them as part of the big tapestry of her life—woven into her fabric as a ‘C’est la vie’ thread. From your studies, would you say these two quotes below truly represent her attitudes and practices in real life? She had many physical trials, and family and public responsibilities that could have easily weighed her down emotionally/mentally.
“Be comforted, dear soul! There is always light behind the clouds.”
“We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving, and we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing.”
Louisa had great courage, great hope and resilience. That helped her survive her chaotic childhood, emerging from it so sane and loving. Her story is a beautiful one on its own.
When she was sick she tried many so-called cures, many experimental techniques. Her family used herbal remedies and homeopathic remedies for most of their illnesses. But in the end there was no cure for her mercury poisoning– only palliative care.
Her last words were to her doctor, “Then it isn’t meningitis?” She was always so curious, looking for answers big and small right to the end.
If you had the opportunity to go back in time and meet Louisa May Alcott, what two questions would you ask her and why?
Question one: If you could have changed one thing about your life and writing, what might it have been?
Question two: Did you ever have that great love in your life– and if so, why didn’t you pursue it?
But in real life, Louisa was formidable. I am sure I’d never have had the courage to ask either one. I’d have been happy just to have had a quiet chat about anything.
Please share a bit about your personal writing journey—including your literary background. What kind of books do you enjoy writing the most and why?
I always loved to read and out of that came a natural desire to write. I started young. There is no one favourite genre– stories take the form they need to take. The only genre I could never write, or ever want to write, is horror.
A great relief and freedom came the day I realized I need only write the kinds of books I would most want to read.
Do you have any new literary projects in the works and can you share a little about them?
I work on several things at the same time– though not all at once, of course, and not in any organized order. So, at the moment I am working on: poems, a children’s novel, a play, memoir, a new adult novel, and just finished a new picture book, “Giant Baby” which will be out from Marble Press next year.
Thanks Liz for being my guest author and sharing your expertise on Louisa May Alcott.
Liz is an American poet, best-selling novelist, children's book author, book reviewer and professor of English. She is also the author of the biography House of Dreams: The Life of L. M. Montgomery. Her books have received numerous awards, including the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and the Paterson Prize. Liz Rosenberg lives in Binghamton, New York. See and purchase her numerous books available on Amazon.
Liz Rosenberg
Professor
English, General Literature and Rhetoric
lrosenb@binghamton.edu
LN G39
Background
Liz Rosenberg is the author of five adult novels, four books of poetry, and more than 30 books for young readers, from picture books to poetry anthologies and YA biographies. For about 25 years, she was Book Review Columnist at the Boston Globe, and her work has been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper's, Paris Review and elsewhere. She was a 2014 Fulbright Fellow to Belfast, North Ireland. Her specialization is creative writing and American literature.
Education
PhD, Binghamton University
MA, Johns Hopkins University
BA, Bennington College
Research Interests
Children's Literature
American Literature
Teaching Interests
Creative Writing: Fiction, Poetry and Non-fiction
The Experience of Place, Telling the Family Story, etc.
Awards
Fulbright Fellow
Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
IRA Children's Choice Award
Center for the Book Award
Atlantic First Award
NEH Fellow
Louisa May Alcott is My PassionBegun in 2010, this blog offers analysis and reflection by Susan Bailey on the life, works and legacy of Louisa May Alcott and her family. Susan is an active member and supporter of the Louisa May Alcott Society, the Fruitlands Museum and Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House.
Content
Blog
Commentary
Podcast
Life
Adult Biographies
Juvenile Biographies
Books by friends of the Alcotts
Journals & Letters
Primary Sources
As an actress
Domesticity
Ideas on feminism
Transcendentalism
Spirituality
Illnesses
19th century medicine
Writing
Books
Little Women Posts
Little Men Posts
Jo’s Boys posts
An Old-Fashioned Girl posts
Eight Cousins posts
Rose in Bloom posts
Aunt Jo’s Scrap-Bag
Moods Posts
Work A Story of Experience posts
Hospital Sketches
A Long Fatal Love-Chase
The Inheritance
Short Stories
Adult Stories
“Blood & Thunder” tales
Children’s stories
Christmas Stories
Poetry
Legacy
Alcott Scholars
Literary Critique
Adult Fan Fiction
Juvenile Fan Fiction
Family/Friends
Family History
Alcott Family Letters
Bronson Alcott
Abba Alcott
Anna Alcott Pratt
Anna Alcott Pratt’s diary from the 1860s
Elizabeth Sewall Alcott
Lizzie Alcott’s Hillside Diary
May Alcott Nieriker
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Concord Homes
Orchard House
Orchard House Virtual Tour
The Wayside
Final Resting Places
Sleepy Hollow
May Alcott in Paris
Susan’s Writing
About this blog
BOOKS
ESSAYS and PRESENTATIONS
“From Metaphysics and Christian Science to ‘Little Women:’ The Alcott Family’s Connections to Swampscott and Lynn”
“Housekeeping ain’t no joke …” Victorian huswifery with the Alcotts (presentation with audio)
Discovery of Anna Alcott/John Pratt photos
The True Origins of the P.C. and the P.O.
Fact, fiction and in-between: Reading Louisa May Alcott with discernment
BookTrib Reviews and Articles
Discovery Book Reviews
From My Garret–Ruminating on Writing
How It All Began
Events
Susan’s Public Appearances
Other Events and Get-togethers
Little Women Sesquicentennial
Resources
Using this blog to work for you
Audio/Visual
Alcott scholar videos/presentations
Tribute to Louisa & Lizzie
Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House
The Wayside
Fruitlands Museum
Little Women 150
Little Women Blog by Trix Wilkens
My Growing Library
2019-2020 Louisa May Alcott Readalong on Youtube
Students: Online research resources
Come Visit Concord
Concord
Concord Dramatic Union
19th century womanhood
Other Sites of Interest
Writing Resources
Writing for Magazines and Websites
Posted onNovember 14, 2023 by susanwbailey
Louisa May Alcott, essayist — a conversation with author/editor Liz Rosenberg on her new book, “A Strange Life – Selected Essays of Louisa May Alcott.”
Louisa May Alcott has legions of fans worldwide because of a book published in 1868 that targeted younger readers. The author drew heavily upon her family history to create this coming-of-age story that has been cherished and passed down from generation to generation. Yet, the author is far more complex than the book would suggest.
Over the years, scholars have uncovered much information about Alcott’s work beyond that of a children’s author, beginning with her service as a Civil War nurse, leading to the writing of Hospital Sketches, Alcott’s first commercial success. In 1942, literary sleuths Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine B. Stern discovered the pseudonym (A, M. Barnard) Louisa used to keep family and friends in the dark about her numerous gothic potboilers.
a strange lifeAuthor/editor and scholar Liz Rosenberg takes a new approach with her latest book, A Strange Life — Selected Essays of Louisa May Alcott, focusing on writing that uncovers much about the author’s use of autobiography, fiction, and truth-telling to tap into a reader’s deepest emotions.
At first glance, knowledgeable Alcott enthusiasts may question why a book (Hospital Sketches), a short story initially dismissed by a famous publisher (“How I Went Out to Service,” and a satire (“Transcendental Wild Oats”) could be considered “essays.” In this engaging conversation, Professor Rosenberg explains her thinking behind identifying these works as “essays” and what they divulge about Louisa May Alcott’s character and genius.
SB: What compels you to characterize Hospital Sketches as an essay? Usually, the book would be considered autobiographical fiction, like Little Women. How did Alcott’s point of view as a woman make Hospital Sketches such a compelling read for those hungry for information about the soldiers? Why does the book continue to speak to readers?
LR: Well . . . Louisa did not think of Hospital Sketches as fiction. She considered it a collage of memories, “topsy-turvey” letters written on top of oil drums–scraps. She goes to some pains to make it clear to the reader that this Union nurse, Periwinkle, really did exist, that this upside-down war hospital really housed the dead, the dying, and the healing. The problem is she asks us to believe this while using crazy, made-up names. But she was a genre-bender at her very best.
As she said of Little Women, “We lived it.” That, she believed, gave the novel its power. She knew it was rooted in autobiography, in reality. In fact, when she published her first book of fairy tales as a teenager, she promised her mother that she would turn time from fairies to “men and realities.” And so she did.
hospital sketches cover and illustration
She lived Hospital Sketches; the book began as excerpts of letters home and journal entries. I never read anyone’s memoir as strictly non-fiction per se., because it never is. That’s not how we remember things– we seldom remember conversations verbatim or accurately. We retell “our stories,” so they sound better, funnier, scarier – so they make better stories.
SB: “How I Went Out to Service” is ahead of its time, focusing on the female domestic experience as legitimately important. It is also infamous because of the reaction of James T. Fields, editor of the Atlantic Monthly (“Stick to your teaching, Miss Alcott, you can’t write!”), which ultimately fueled Louisa’s ambition. What does this essay say about the female experience in the mid-19th century? What did Alcott show in this essay about her service experience? Could this essay be considered a precursor to her potboilers because of how she unveiled Josephus as menacing even as he came across as a well-respected community member?
louisa out to service in dedham cropped
illustration by Flora Smith from “The Story of Louisa May Alcott” by Joan Howard
LR: I think that Alcott’s initial image of Josephus – based, of course, on her real-life employer, a lawyer in Dedham – that image of his large hands clad in black leather– that is the stuff of gothic horror, isn’t it? But it’s a hundred times more subtle than her potboilers. I’m not a huge fan of the potboilers; I think they were a guilty pleasure for her, like reading Vogue or listening to bad rap. It filled a void for her, a need to not always be “The Children’s Friend” in an era of great sentimentalism. She was, in fact, the children’s friend in a much deeper way by giving them stories that felt real and true, creating imperfect young characters, giving charity to young working women and children, writing about working-class girls and women, encouraging young writers; supporting female-run businesses . . . so many things.
A lot of people want to sugar-coat Louisa May Alcott, the same way they’ve sugar-coated Emily Dickinson – “Come look at her tiny white buttoned-up dress behind glass; come admire Louisa’s half-moon desk in one nook of her shared room,” while Bronson has the regal study downstairs filled with all the books. But Louisa never tried to sugar-coat herself in these essays. That’s one of the many things I love about her. She was a truth-teller when she created stories and a story-teller when reporting the facts. Genius won’t be neatened up and pinned down.
SB: “Transcendental Wild Oats,” Alcott’s essay on the Fruitlands experiment, demonstrates her mastery of satire (her coping mechanism) to describe the most devastating circumstances. It showcases how Alcott communicated so well with her readers by digging deep into a wide range of emotions, whether anger, poignancy, or sarcastic humor. Even though this utopian community proved stranger than fiction, readers could relate. It’s the magic formula she employed so brilliantly in Little Women. What do you think her purpose was in writing this essay? What did she want her readers to know?
transcendental-wild-oats-louisa-alcott-paperback-cover-artLR: “Transcendental Wild Oats” was the last of her three most famous essays, though the events it records are the earliest. I find that interesting. I think it took her a long time to process what had happened — and worse, what had almost happened — to the Alcott family when she was ten years old and moved to that Godforsaken commune. It’s a story that involves lunacy, starvation, betrayal, sexuality, failure, and a nervous breakdown — yet I would agree that it’s the funniest of her essays. It may be the funniest thing she ever wrote, period. It’s wild and satirical and tender and fierce and hilarious by turns. I don’t think anything, even in her best novels, can touch it.
Like all great ones, the comedy of Alcott had its roots in sadness. It was also rooted in humiliation. She had weathered so many humiliations early on– poverty, indebtedness, taking in sewing, laboring through the night, doing the hardest and humblest of household tasks, fending off rejection, both social and literary. Her family was the black sheep of the May family (her mother’s side) — the laughingstock of Concord. I think her survival depended on being able to laugh at herself. She was a remarkable survivor, don’t you think? [SB: Yes!]
SB: Alcott’s essays blend autobiographical facts with fiction to explore truths about everyday life. This style reached its apex with the writing of Little Women. Why do you think she employed fiction in her essays, and do you think her use of it heightened the emotional impact of her writing? If so, how?
LR: Alcott used fiction in her essays and reality in her fiction. As the great novelist John Gardner once wrote, the best fiction is usually “mutt” fiction this way, a combination of things that don’t seem to go together — Edgar Allen Poe and Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Samuel R Delaney; Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, and Charles Dickens—horror stories and supernatural events and detective novels, romances and science fiction and human psychology. Shakespeare was the most remarkable mutt of all. He was a mix of everything — poetry and tragedy, vulgar comedy and violence, medicine and law and history. You can’t pin it down to one thing in his work because it’s a hundred things– he’s a hundred things. Louisa was like that, too. All deep thinkers are. And Alcott was nothing if not a deep thinker.
A Strange Life — Selected Essays of Louisa May Alcott is available through Amazon and other online outlets.
Rosenberg, Liz GIANT BABY! Marble Press (Children's None) $18.99 3, 25 ISBN: 9781958325247
Babies growso fast!
After Ezra's parents tuck him in, his mother notes wistfully, "Our baby is getting so big." While his parents sleep, Ezra climbs out of his crib and grows immense. He strolls outside, following the moon, which resembles a "big cup of milk." Astounded neighbors watch as Ezra plays with cars and splashes in fountains, then chases a terrified dog. Depicted in a 90-degree book turn, Ezra cries when he realizes he's all alone in the big city (landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty establish the setting as New York). His parents awaken, attuned to their infant's wailing. Hearing them, Ezra stomps homeward. Mom locates her glasses and slippers as Ezra heads down his block, races up the stairs, and climbs into his crib. His parents dash toward his room--gratefully discovering their "sleeping" child. After they leave, Ezra peers at the moon, then really sleeps, dreaming of milk. Readers may chuckle at the specter of a Godzilla-size infant lording it over the neighborhood, but will youngsters old enough to follow this story relate to an infant protagonist? The story feels aimed more at adults musing on their own little ones' growth; they'll especially relate to Ezra's father's words: "He'll always be our baby." The witty illustrations, created with watercolor and digital methods, feature a wide-eyed, pajama-wearing, pale-skinned Ezra and parents and diverse background characters.
Fun imagery, though the story will strike a stronger chord with caregivers than with little ones.(Picture book. 4-7)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Rosenberg, Liz: GIANT BABY!" Kirkus Reviews, 15 Feb. 2025. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A827101017/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=761f3cb7. Accessed 8 Aug. 2025.
A STRANGE LIFE
Selected essays of Louisa May Alcott
LIZ ROSENBERG, EDITOR
168pp. Notting Hill Editions.
15.99 [pounds sterling].
In her brief introduction to A Strange Life Liz Rosenberg describes Louisa May Alcott's nonfiction as "new journalism before the phrase was ever invented", highlighting the consciously literary style and novelistic techniques used throughout Alcott's writing. Among the four essays and five extracts selected for this edition, "Hospital Sketches", which chronicles Alcott's experience of nursing Union soldiers in the American Civil War, best makes Rosenberg's case. By deploying a combination of reportage and storytelling Alcott lays bare conditions on the wards: "All was hurry and confusion; the hall was full of [...] wrecks of humanity, for the most exhausted could not reach a bed till duly ticketed and registered; the walls were lined with rows of such as could sit, the floor covered with the more disabled, the steps and doorways filled with helpers and lookers-on". Alcott the novelist comes through most clearly when recounting the histories of individual patients--a young drummer boy whose life is saved by a self-sacrificing friend; a courageous blacksmith from Virginia who asks for help in writing a valedictory letter to his family. Though the pathos is at times overwrought, and the comic relief overblown, it remains a powerful, memorable piece of war journalism.
Other well-known essays shed light on earlier chapters in Alcott's remarkable life. "Transcendental Wild Oats" tells the tale of her family's sojourn at the Massachusetts commune of Fruitlands in 1843. Written thirty years later, this satirical essay exposes the naive idealism, doomed optimism and in some cases downright hypocrisy of the adult "pilgrims". Hardship shows through the humorous fabric and it comes as no surprise when failed crops, inadequate diet, harsh weather and general disenchantment force Alcott's unworldly father to abandon his Eden. Another experiment, when Alcott accepts a post as companion to a clergyman's sister, only to find herself exploited as a skivvy and subjected to the amorous advances of a "Mr R", is depicted in "How I Went Out to Service". Her treatment of the material is again deliberately entertaining, with shades of Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740) and Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (1817) in the portrait of an ingenuous heroine entering "one of those delightfully dangerous houses ... where perils, mysteries, and sins freely disport themselves". Though her tone is light, her contempt for the laziness and petty tyranny of "Mr R" is nevertheless scathing.
A woman of strong beliefs and principles, Alcott expresses views on racial equality and women's rights that would have been seen as progressive for her time: "[I] daily shocked some neighbor by treating the blacks as I did the whites"; "the loss of liberty, happiness, and self-respect is poorly repaid by the barren honor of being called 'Mrs' instead of 'Miss'".
In bringing together opinion pieces, travelogues and personal snippets, this pocket-sized volume opens fascinating windows into Alcott's mind.
Alison Kelly
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 NI Syndication Limited
https://www.the-tls.co.uk/
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Kelly, Alison. "A STRANGE LIFE: Selected essays of Louisa May Alcott." TLS. Times Literary Supplement, no. 6298, 15 Dec. 2023, p. 25. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A779660169/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=88efa52c. Accessed 8 Aug. 2025.
Rosenberg, Liz SCRIBBLES, SORROWS, AND RUSSET LEATHER BOOTS Candlewick (Children's None) $22.00 10, 5 ISBN: 978-0-7636-9435-7
A richly detailed account of the life, family, and career of a renowned woman of letters.
Though she goes a little overboard in the sound-bite quote department--as biographers of this author are wont to do since the Alcotts and many of their friends were compulsive diarists and letter writers--Rosenberg generally avoids getting bogged down in fussy details. The result is a fresh and free-flowing character study of "a real-life heroine" gifted not only with versatile authorial chops, but a powerful sense of family responsibility and an uncommonly generous spirit. Family tragedies and Alcott's own slow death from (probably) mercury poisoning get full play, but the overall tone is relatively bright; her experiences as a nurse in a Civil War hospital are quickly brushed in as source material for her Hospital Sketches, for example. Her various supposed (but never verified) romantic flings get so much speculative attention that Rosenberg's prim "and in the end it is not our business" is amusingly disingenuous. Likewise, the profitable "gothic and romantic" works, which readers are frequently reminded the subject herself labeled rubbish, are described by Alcott as "gorgeous fancies" on a later page. Still, readers bemused by the contradictions will be no less moved for being entertained. Alcott's progressive views (and a possible family connection with the Underground Railroad) are noted in the narrative. Chapters are prefaced by Sudyka's full-page, na�ve-style illustrations that evoke the historical setting.
A grand tale for present fans and future ones, too. (source notes, bibliography) (Biography. 12-15)
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"Rosenberg, Liz: SCRIBBLES, SORROWS, AND RUSSET LEATHER BOOTS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Oct. 2021. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A677072744/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=65b0c13a. Accessed 8 Aug. 2025.
Scribbles, Sorrows, and Russet Leather Boots: The Life of Louisa May Alcott. By Liz Rosenberg. Illus. by Diana Sudyka. Oct. 2021. 432p. Candlewick, $22 (9780763694357). Gr. 6-9.813.
Best known as the author of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott grew up in Massachusetts. During her happiest years, in Concord, Emerson and Thoreau were neighbors and friends, but her family often experienced poverty and hunger, and they moved frequently. Strong-willed 15-year-old Louisa vowed that she would someday be "rich and famous and happy." This biography traces her path, including detailed accounts of her youthful experiences, her months as a Civil War nurse, her writing career, her travels through Europe, and her role in caring for family members. Each chapter opens with a decorative, full-page illustration in black ink. Young readers coming to the book looking for Jo March's creator may be disappointed that the first 100 pages or so focus more on Alcott's idealistic, emotionally troubled father and her more practical, long-suffering mother than on the writer. Still, Rosenberg's insights into her parents, her sisters, her unconventional upbringing, and the family dynamics are crucial to understanding the woman she became and the decisions she made along the way. An informative, thought-provoking biography. --Carolyn Phelan
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Phelan, Carolyn. "Scribbles, Sorrows, and Russet Leather Boots: The Life of Louisa May Alcott." Booklist, vol. 118, no. 4, 15 Oct. 2021, p. 39. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A696451999/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=377409ac. Accessed 8 Aug. 2025.