Possible Clues:

• "Little Women" author
• March creator
• Creator of the March family in ''Little Women''
• She wrote automatically, so needing editing
• Female friend of Thoreau
• Author who created the characters named by the starts of 17-, 24-, 49- and 61-Across
• Female author, so automatically blasted
• Author of 'Little Women'
• Novelist automatically so nervous
• Writer who sometimes used the pen name A.M. Barnard