Elizabeth Sewall was the third daughter of
Amos Bronson Alcott and
Abigail May Alcott. Beginning when she was born, Bronson made careful observations of Lizzie’s behavior as an infant and upon these based his unpublished manuscript
Psyche. Sometimes he even referred to her by the name Psyche. He described her as gentle and serene, blessed with deep contentment. In 1843, Lizzie’s birthday was celebrated outdoors at
Fruitlands, among the trees, with little gifts, notes, songs, odes, and each participant offering a symbolic flower fit for the occasion. She participated in family theatricals, kept up the house, and in 1853 remarked on the power of hardship to bond her loving family together: “I love my home and family better for every struggle and trial I share with them, and my joys are always sweeter when I have them to rejoice with me.” She enjoyed playing music and mastered the piano. Never of robust health, in 1856 she contracted a fatal case of scarlet fever.