Source: Cheney, Edna Dow (2010). Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters, and Journals. Carlisle, Massachussetts, USA: Applewood Books. ISBN 978-1-4290-4460-8. “Went for some weeks to the Bellevue, and wrote ‘A Modern Mephistopheles’ for the No Name Series. It has been simmering ever since I read Faust last year. Enjoyed doing it, being tired of providing moral pap for the young.” (Page 296)
Sanderson, Rena (1991). "A Modern Mephistopheles: Louisa May Alcott's Exorcism of Patriarchy". American Transcendental Quarterly. 5 (1): 41–55. ProQuest 1302638905. “After the book’s completion, Alcott commented in her journal that she ‘enjoyed doing it, being tired of providing moral pap for the young.’” (Page 41)
ALT1: ... that Louisa May Alcott wrote A Modern Mephistopheles as part of an anonymous series in which readers were meant to guess the author? Source: Cheney, Edna Dow (2010). Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters, and Journals. Carlisle, Massachussetts, USA: Applewood Books. ISBN 978-1-4290-4460-8. “‘A Modern Mephistopheles’ was written among the earlier volumes of the No Name Series, when the chief idea of the authors was to puzzle their readers by disguising their style as much as possible, that they might enjoy the guessing and criticism as each novel appeared. This book was very successful in preserving its incognito; and many persons still insist that it could not have been written by the author of ‘Little Women.’” (Cheney 379, quoting Louisa May Alcott)
Overall: New enough, long enough, Earwig notes no copyvio. Hook is interesting but would be better if the exact quote was used in the article at the end of the "background" section or as a quote within the citation. ALT1 would be fine and I prefer it as more "hooky". Mike Turnbull (talk) 16:28, 30 May 2024 (UTC)
You can go ahead and do ALT1. Thank you for reviewing this! P.S. I inserted the quote in the background section. I meant to do it earlier but forgot, so thank you for the reminder. Heidi Pusey BYU (talk) 17:24, 30 May 2024 (UTC)