Early in her life Louisa May Alcott wrote, “I have had lots of troubles; so I wrote jolly tales. ” Jo’s Boys was her last full-length book and it was written in a period of many troubles. Scarcely had the story been started when it was interrupted by her father’s serious illness, so that she did not finish it until six years later. Like the earlier stories of the March family, LITTLE WOMEN and LITTLE MEN, this was drawn from the author’s own family life. Its characters are those of LITTLE MEN grown up—their work, their travels, their problems, and their falling in love. In this happy book beloved Meg, Jo, Amy, Laurie and Professor Bhaer make their last appearance. So with Jo’s Boys ends one of the most dearly beloved sagas of family life in all American literature.