After the American Civil War, Alcott wrote fun and smart books under the name A. M. Barnard. One of her books was "A Long Fatal Love Chase". Her protagonists for these books were strong and smart. She also wrote books for children, and when they became popular, she did not go back to writing for adults. Other books she wrote are the novelette A Modern Mephistopheles (1875), which people thought someone else wrote; and the "Work" (1873). 