Jane Goodwin Austin in Concord
The Austins sold the property in 1860 and moved to Concord, where they took up residence in a new home in 1863. In Concord, Jane and Loring quickly became part of that town’s vibrant literary and cultural scene, counting among their friends and acquaintances Emerson, Thoreau, and the Alcotts. Jane became particularly friendly with another writer, Louisa May Alcott. The two often pick-nicked and walked together, and even wrote together. Louisa apparently helped Jane with her novel Cipher, which appeared in 1869, a year after Louisa’s Little Women.
Jane Austin dedicated “Cipher” to Louisa May Alcott, writing in the preface:
My dear L: ….Come now, and help me launch another venture, the little craft called “Cipher,” whose construction you have watched with such sympathy and interest, and to whose freight you have largely contributed. What is to be its fate? Will it be stranded or shattered, or left idly in the pool, or …sunk by the missiles of those wicked boys upon the other bank? Shall we call to the boys and deprecate their attack by a confession that our little boat is not an iron-clad vessel….? No, never mind the boys; let us say nothing at all to them, but, standing hand in hand, watch together the fortunes of our little craft….
From this excerpt, we learn not only that Louisa collaborated on Cipher, but that Jane expected criticisms of this romance from the largely male literary world, and had decided to ignore them.