NONFICTION - Jan. 14, 1996

THE WORLD OF LOUISA MAY ALCOTT text by William Anderson, photographs by David Wade (HarperPerennial: $22.50; 120 pp., paperback original). This lavishly illustrated biography celebrates the beauties of the New England towns where the author of “Little Women” and her family lived. Although often impoverished, the Alcotts were extremely well-connected socially: Louisa May Alcott counted Thoreau and Emerson among her friends, even before her literary success brought her family financial security.