Joy and I were watching Little Women, the 1994 version directed by Gillian Armstrong. Joy is a big Louisa May Alcott fan, something I never was; I got through Little Women once, whereas she read all of LMA’s books for children until the covers were falling off. “She was a Unitarian, you know,” I said. Like some Jews and Canadians, I can’t stop myself from collecting and displaying members of my small tribe .
“I know,” Joy said, with a slight rolling of the eyes. “And you know something? She never said anything about being Unitarian in anything I read. I guess this business of Unitarians not telling anyone they exist goes back a long time.”
“Maybe she thought of herself more as a Transcendentalist,” I said. (According to the Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography, Alcott never joined a Unitarian church despite her close associations with the religion via family and friends.)
“Still,” said Joy. Yes. Still.
Sermons in Stones 
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June 4, 2012 at 11:59 am
sorrygnat
I have a feeling she was more Transcendentalist (hope i spelled this right) regards
Another example of our hiding our light under a bushel: Transcendentalism was a part of Unitarianism, though it was a movement of its own that was not embraced by all Unitarians by any means. Everyone learns about the Transcendentalist movement in high school English (at least, I hope they do), but its association with Unitarianism was something I never learned in my class.
First Parish in Concord records LMA as a registered and active member of its Women’s Parish Association. It may be that, although UUs claim her now, later in her life she really did not consider herself a Unitarian. –AZM
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