The Young Woman's Guide

William Andrus Alcott (1798-1859), also known as William Alexander Alcott, was an American educator, educational reformer, physician, vegetarian, and author of over 100 books. His works, which cover a wide range of topics including educational reform, physical education, schoolhouse design, family life, and diet, are still widely cited today. He was born in Wilcott, Conn., attended local schools, and aged 18 began teaching in a local school where he built backs on his pupils' benches to make them more comfortable, and campaigned for better heating and ventilation in schools. His experiences as a student country school teacher informed many of his later publications. From 1825-26 he took medical studies and after only this short period of study was granted a licence to practice medicine, which he did, alongside his teaching, until 1829. After this he worked as an assistant to William Channing Woodbridge who purchased the American Journal of Education for which Alcott wrote many articles, becoming its editor in 1837. While still teaching, Alcott had begun work on the book that would eventually be published in 1834 as The Young Man's Guide, and such was its success that he soon produced a companion volume, The Young Woman's Guide, although this was not published until several years later. The book stresses the importance of Christian virtues and of qualities such as self-knowledge, self-government, and love of domestic concerns, advocating the practice of frugality and economy, and using historical and biblical anecdotes as illustrations.