Just the facts:
I was born in Seattle at the end of 1946, two days before Christmas. That makes me one of the oldest of the glut of the post-war (for you youngsters out there, that would be World War II) American Baby Boom. I have two younger brothers. My mom was a stay-at-home, civic volunteer sort of mom who baked chocolate chip cookies (the Toll House recipe, of course) in the afternoons before we got home from school. In August, she would get all the neighborhood kids together and drill us with arithmetic flash cards to limber us up for school. My dad was a physician who researched endocrine physiology with rats and mice as well as took care of human patients. I worked in his lab during my high school summers, executing rats with a tiny guillotine, squeezing out their blood and then cutting out their pituitary glands.

What else did you do before you started writing about Louisa May Alcott?
Almost everything. I was in my 50s when I wrote MISS ALCOTT’S E-MAIL, so I’d lived at least half my life before I started writing it. I went to college a lot: I have two bachelor’s degrees and two master’s degrees—one in political science, two in nursing and one in public health. I have two terrific daughters, both grown and out of college, and one husband. I’ve always been a fulltime working mother—thirteen years of nursing in a pediatric hospital, then sixteen years of information system technology and business consulting.

Why did you decide to write a book?
Here is the short answer: 

• I was tired of getting up every morning to drive to windowless air conditioned rooms where I had to listen to people’s tedious bureaucratic talk while I drank tepid tea from Styrofoam cups.
• I love books almost more than anything in the world. Books have given me so much; I wanted to see if I could give something back.

But why Louisa May Alcott?
Louisa is cool. She had the courage of her convictions, and she had all the right convictions. She was experimental and she was loyal. She loved to travel and she loved her home. She valued freedom more than luxury. She was funny, she was smart and brave and persistent. If we wanted to describe the best of what it means to be an American, she would be a perfect example.

The book is about you too, isn’t it?
Yes. In MISS ALCOTT’S E-MAIL, Louisa and I exchange letters. She tells me about her life, and I tell her about my part in the battles she cared most about. Can you imagine what fun it would be to have someone tell you what happens in the next century to the causes you fought for all your life?

For instance, in the 1850s, in the run-up to the Civil War, Louisa was active in the abolition movement; a century later, in the 1960s I was active in the civil rights and anti-war movements. Louisa and I both lived on communes; we not only imagined a better world, but we tried to create one.

Louisa campaigned for women’s right to vote; I fill her in on what happened to women’s rights in the late 20^th century. We talk about jobs for women and women in families. We were both hospital nurses; we share stories of caring for our dying patients.

In the book, I tell her about my days with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Weathermen. I wanted to include this part because I don’t think any of the existing books or movies about the Weathermen quite capture the essence of those heady, idealistic and crazy days.

What are you doing now?
I’m working on another book. This book-writing business is a very pleasant occupation. Now, if I could only make some money at it!

What authors do you like to read?
I read a lot of biographies and autobiographies. There’s something about English writers that appeals to me—they don’t seem to dumb down their vocabularies or plots as much as American writers do. I tend to read books by or about women; maybe because so much of my working life has been spent in the company of men, I’ve gotten tired of their world-view.

I collect book recommendations from friends and from the Times Literary Supplement, which is a weekly book review from London, similar to the New York Times Book Review, but much better written.

Here are a few favorites: anything by Claire Tomalin or Lyndall Gordon—both write wonderful biographies about very interesting people. I loved the tight, consistent style in Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. Jane Austen is a genius; I am one of the minority who likes Fanny Price and Mansfield Park. On the modern, and male side, I have to say I enjoy, recommend and greatly admire both Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books and Jasper Fforde’s wonderful invention of Thursday Next and her world.