In 1868, Alcott's publisher, Thomas Niles, recommended that she write a novel about girls that would have widespread appeal.[4]: 2 Alcott resisted, preferring to publish a collection of short stories. Niles pressed her to write the girls' book first, and he was aided by her father Amos Bronson Alcott, who also urged her to do so.[4]: 207 Louisa confided to a friend, “I could not write a girls' story knowing little about any but my own sisters and always preferring boys”.[8]
In May 1868, Alcott wrote in her journal: "Niles, partner of Roberts, asked me to write a girl's book. I said I'd try."[9]: 36 Alcott set her novel in an imaginary Orchard House modeled on her own residence of the same name, where she wrote the novel.[4]: xiii She later recalled that she did not think she could write a successful book for girls and did not enjoy writing it.[10]: 335- "I plod away," she wrote in her diary, "although I don't enjoy this sort of things."[9]: 37
By June, Alcott had sent the first dozen chapters to Niles, and both agreed that they were dull. But Niles's niece, Lillie Almy, read them and said she enjoyed them.[10]: 335–336 The completed manuscript was shown to several girls who agreed it was "splendid". Alcott wrote, "they are the best critics, so I should definitely be satisfied."[9]: 37 She wrote Little Women "in record time for money",[7]: 196x2 but the book's immediate success surprised both her and her publisher.[11]
