Behold my tattered copy of Little Women. Purchased for me by my mom at B. Dalton's in Nampa, Idaho, ca. 1982, this edition was apparently published in 1979. The cover art is kind of weird but after all this time, it has grown on me. Tied together in my head with the purchase are memories of a sandwich-and-ice-cream shop called (Mr.?) Pickwick's close to B. Dalton's in Karcher Mall. It feels like we ate at Mr. Pickwick's after visiting B. Dalton's that day, but it could simply be the connection in my mind between the sandwich shop name and the March sisters' Pickwick Portfolio.
I was in the third grade when I acquired (and read) my copy; I can still remember desperately wanting to finish it and reading until what seemed very late one night until I did. Not so much because I loved it so passionately at that time (I was too confused by blancmange and omnibuses) but because I'd been reading it for so long and wanted to be able to say I was finished.
Since that first reading, I've tackled this copy another 13 times, which explains the masking tape all over the spine. I managed to come to grips with blancmange and lobster, and with Laurie choosing Amy (though never with Jo not choosing Laurie).
I was always so relieved that Louisa May Alcott specifically stated that Jo's hair had grown out after three years. I was always haunted by shorn-off hair (hence my horrified fascination with the stray lock of hair in the barber shop photo). After Ma Ingalls cut off Mary's hair to combat the fever that left her blind, I always had a secret fear that her hair never grew back. But that's a story for a different book.
