American Naturalistic and Realistic Novelists : A Biographical Dictionary 9780313016813, 9780313315725

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AMERICAN NATURALISTIC AND REALISTIC NOVELISTS

AMERICAN NATURALISTIC AND REALISTIC NOVELISTS A Biographical Dictionary E. C. APPLEGATE

GREENWOOD PRESS Westport, Connecticut • London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Applegate, Edd. American naturalistic and realistic novelists : a biographical dictionary / E. C. Applegate. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0–313–31572–8 (alk. paper) 1. American fiction—Bio-bibliography—Dictionaries. 2. Novelists, American—Biography—Dictionaries. 3. Naturalism in literature—Dictionaries. 4. Realism in literature—Dictionaries. 5. American fiction—Dictionaries. I. Title. PS374.N29A67 2002 813.009'12—dc21 2001023320 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright  2002 by E. C. Applegate All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2001023320 ISBN: 0–313–31572–8 First published in 2002 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America TM

The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents Acknowledgments

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Introduction

ix

The Novelists

1

Selected Bibliography

411

Index

417

Acknowledgments I wish to thank the librarians at Middle Tennessee State University for their help in securing materials for this book. I also am grateful to the librarians at Davidson College, David Lipscomb University, the University of Mississippi, and the University of South Carolina for their assistance in procuring materials I needed. I thank my editor, George Butler, for his belief that this book would be a worthy addition to Greenwood’s list.

Introduction Realistic and naturalistic novels appeared in the 1800s first in Europe, then in the United States. Both forms have characteristics of tales written decades, if not centuries, ago. These tales include the Greek romances, which contained weak plots and artificial characters, and the Renaissance adventure stories, which contained action but lacked coherent plots. Unlike the Greek romances and the Renaissance adventure stories, the realistic and naturalistic novels contained a beginning, a middle, and an end. Construction of the plots, no matter how complex, and depiction of the characters were important to the writer. REALISM’S ORIGINS In Europe, specifically in England, realistic and, later, naturalistic fiction appeared in the 1800s, when Romantic writers “reacted against eighteenth century materialism and Idealism, and their own experience of alienation and disorientation that came with increasing self-consciousness.”1 In essence, these writers examined their experiences and their environment. Furthermore, they examined the ideas that were being introduced, such as man’s relationship with himself and with nature. In short, they attempted to understand how individuals were impacted by the forces that surrounded them. Such forces included major changes in technology, economics, politics, and science. Then they attempted to interpret the effects of these changes on individuals. The industrial revolution dramatically changed England in the 1800s. More people moved to the cities to work in factories. Since coal was used to run machines of various kinds, smoke polluted the air. And workers received little

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pay for long hours of labor. Eventually, unions were organized to protect workers, including the many children who labored in unsanitary conditions. The social structure divided into the upper, middle, and lower classes. Sometimes people were placed into one or more classes because of their social position, income, or property holdings. Agriculture changed. New techniques in farming as well as larger crop yields helped meet the growing population’s demand for more food. Livestock breeding improved. As society changed, professionals in business, government, and the military experienced new demands by the populace. Frictions between Ireland and England not only stirred emotions, but forced members of Parliament to initiate legislation to alleviate the tension. Inventors developed new machines to produce materials. Scientists discovered chemicals and physicians discovered medicine. Controversial ideas appeared in science and economics, put forth by Charles Darwin and Karl Marx, respectively, and religious denominations grew. Railroads were built, and the time required to transport merchandise decreased from days to hours. As education improved, periodicals, books, and newspapers were read vociferiously by thousands. Concerts and stage productions were frequented by thousands more. English writers of realistic and naturalistic novels attempted to understand the numerous aspects of individuals as well as individuals’ relationships to society; then they attempted to present their understanding in fictional form. They depicted individuals adjusting or not adjusting to the developments and changes that rapidly shaped society. According to Ioan Williams, “novelists of this period believed that their aim was to be achieved by understanding and representing the proportions and relations of different aspects of individual and social experience, and the material conditions of life.”2 Indeed, writers such as Charles Dickens (1812–1870) combined sensational elements of fear and mystery with an appeal to the reader’s social conscience by exposing abuses, and then recommending reform. According to George J. Becker, the English realistic and naturalistic writers “succeeded in showing current social experience of the middle class in terms recognizably authentic as to detail without arousing discomfort about the total meaning or direction of that experience.”3 However, the realistic and naturalistic writers in England preferred to depict subjects from a social or cultural perspective. They depicted the positive and negative characteristics of their subjects. Often, their subjects were from the lower classes. The English realistic and naturalistic writers included Jane Austen (1775– 1817), William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863), Charles Dickens (1812– 1870), Anthony Trollope (1815–1882), Charlotte Bronte¨ (1816–1855), Emily Bronte¨ (1818–1848), George Eliot (1819–1880), Mark Rutherford (William Hale White, 1831–1913), George Moore (1852–1933), George Gissing (1857–1903), Arthur Morrison (1863–1945), and Arnold Bennett (1867–1931).

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According to David Daiches, “The novel in the nineteenth century rapidly became the maid-of-all-work of literature, and the most popular way of presenting an extended argument on social, political, or even religious questions was to cast it into novel form.”4 Realistic and, later, naturalistic fiction grew in popularity in Europe, including England, several decades before crossing the Atlantic to the United States. THE RISE OF REALISM IN AMERICA The United States progressed at a remarkable rate during the 1800s. The West opened up; innovations in technology helped increase production, especially in textiles; industrial workers formed unions; banks increased in number; and commerce became complex. Transportation projects such as canals, railroads, steamboats, and turnpikes advanced and helped reduce costs of various products. In the South, cotton became the chief asset. In the North, factories supported employees who lived in cities. For most of the nation’s citizenry, however, agriculture was the primary means of livelihood. Immigrants from the Old World, including England, Ireland, and Germany, arrived daily. Immigrants from Germany fared well, whereas those from Ireland fared poorly. Germans, who had money or access to financial aid, purchased farms. The Irish, for the most part, congregated in cities where they worked at low-paying jobs. Usually, because of their low wages, they had to live in slums filled with disease. African Americans, however, even those who lived in the North, were still worse off. Most faced hostility from whites every day. Freedom for them was merely a word. Usually, they had to take jobs that whites refused. City government, in order to survive and meet its obligations to the citizenry, was forced to tax. Police forces came into existence, garbage was removed, streets undeniably were improved, and education progressed. As was happening in Europe, there was a rise in religious revivalism before 1840. City after city received scores of ministers who believed that cities were the dens where Satan dwelled. As the country progressed, so did its citizenry. Wealth was obtained by only a select few, however. On the other hand, various movements that swept across the country were created by particular groups to address specific issues, such as women’s rights, capital punishment, workers’ rights, education, mental health, temperance, and pacifism. Abolitionism was the most controversial. Movements which included communistic communities, such as Brook Farm, were not as popular as their promoters had hoped. The nation’s population increased, and when nine million immigrants entered the nation in the late 1800s, citizens of America grew concerned. The West was settled, and eventually the various territories gained statehood. Silver and gold were discovered. Cattle became an industry in Texas and in the Dakotas. Railroads branched from the East and the West and in 1869 one complete line crossed the American landscape. Unfortunately, owners of railroads realized

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their power; consequently, they fixed prices, they monopolized transportation, they discriminated against particular customers, and they used their power to influence local and state legislators and legislation. In 1869 Jay Gould and James Fisk were involved in a conspiracy to corner the nation’s gold supply. If the federal government had not sold $4 million in gold, merchants and financiers on Wall Street would have experienced tighter credit. Three years later Oakes Ames distributed stock in Credit Mobilier to influential members of the House of Representatives on behalf of the Union Pacific Railroad. Executives who managed the railroad had hoped that particular members of the House would pass legislation that would protect the railroad from its creditors. The feminist movement produced the first female candidate for president in 1872. Mrs. Victoria Claflin Woodhull was in favor of peace, love, truth, and progress. In 1873 President Ulysses Grant was criticized for his association with Daniel Drew, James Fisk, and Jay Gould as well as for the failure of Jay Cooke & Company, which precipitated a major economic depression. Two years later Grant’s administration was in trouble again. Scandal eventually caused Secretary of War William Belknap to be impeached, and an affair brought humiliation to Robert C. Schenck, the American minister to Great Britain. Belknap resigned and Schenck pleaded diplomatic immunity. Native Americans were inevitably pushed aside until federal legislation intervened. Industry, which had grown since the beginning of the century, more than doubled in production between the late 1870s and the 1890s. Production of iron and steel in the United States, unlike the rest of the world, increased. The telephone, phonograph, electric light bulb, and typewriter, among other inventions, spawned new industries. Petroleum, which was used to power engines as well as for heating and lighting, became another industry. The rise of industries led to the creation of trusts, which were monopolies, by John D. Rockefeller and others. Company mergers also appeared. Tensions between management and employees ensued; subsequently, laborers formed more unions, a few of which became national. Through strikes and boycotts labor tried to obtain higher wages, better working conditions, and shorter hours. However, before the turn of the century, because of several incidents in which people were injured or killed, labor unions received severe criticism from the press and the public. American imperialism emerged in 1900, and the nation prospered. Big business controlled the nation. Progressivism arose when various groups responded to problems resulting from the industrial revolution. One problem was poverty, which was caused primarily by low wages and large families. Another problem was slums, which developed when too many immigrants and/or low-salaried families lived together, and when landlords refused to maintain or improve their property. An-

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other problem was collusion between businessmen and politicians, which had a negative effect on the American political process. And another problem was the growth of monopolized industries, which defied the Sherman Antitrust Act and angered the citizenry. Consequently, various movements appeared, and each was for reform or reconstruction. Usually the goals for each movement were the same: enact legislation which would help the poor, eliminate collusion between politicians and businessmen, control monopolization, and enable every citizen of the United States to participate in the welfare of the nation. Different groups—political, professional, and religious—were making demands, and in city after city some of their demands were met. For instance, corrupt politicians were voted out of office; slum districts were improved; the poor were helped; taxation of industries was increased; legislation to help labor was enacted; legislation to aid education was passed; and legislation which affected every registered voter was enacted. The Progressive Movement was prevalent in the United States. However, at the turn of the century most Americans were poor, uneducated, overworked, and living in slums. The wealthy, in most cases, had obtained their wealth at the expense of others. Inequities abounded. Thus organized labor achieved strength by making demands on employers. American women who were employed in various industries, particularly in the garment industry, achieved unionization. In addition, they fought for prohibition. Farm organizations flourished. Socialist organizations and publications appeared. Journalists, especially the muckrakers, informed the citizenry of misdeeds by large corporations. Criticism also came from intellectuals such as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., John Dewey, and Thorstein Veblen. New forms of government appeared in cities and states. The aldermanic system was replaced with either a commission or city manager form of government in city after city, primarily because of political corruption. Progressivism spread from the cities to the states and eventually to the White House. When World War I broke out, Americans were concerned with the United States, not Europe. Visions of an idealistic nation were common. After all, the United States had progressed economically and spiritually. When men were called for military service, they proved that the United States was not only a strong country but also a country that enjoyed victory. When they returned home, they witnessed labor strikes, racial prejudice, Communist parties, bombings in Washington, D.C., and anarchy. Progress returned in the early 1920s, when business practices changed. Assembly line automation was common; wages increased as production increased. The majority of Americans remained fixed in their prejudices. They disliked people from abroad, especially those who were willing to work for less. Most white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants deemed themselves superior to African Americans and other races. In the South, members of the Ku Klux Klan intimidated and even murdered those they opposed. Although the terrorist organization grew larger in the early 1920s, its power grew weaker when journalists and a Klans-

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man exposed the corruption within the organization and its ties to political figures. The 1920s saw the emergence of organized crime, particularly in Chicago. Al Capone became an enemy of the U.S. government, but not until he had amassed a fortune from gambling and prostitution, and had ordered the deaths of more than a hundred competing gangsters. On the lighter side, Americans enjoyed various forms of music; movies, which had begun earlier in the century; radio; vaudeville; bootlegged liquor; dancing; and, of course, the automobile. Tabloid newspapers filled with sensational stories and photographs entertained them for hours. Sports, particularly baseball, grew in popularity. The Jazz Age alienated some and enlightened others. In 1929 the years of prosperity came to an end for millions of Americans. The Great Depression gripped the country for much of the next decade. In such a climate of rampant unemployment, violence was not unheard of nor uncommon; indeed, disputes between the veterans of World War I and the federal government, and between farmers and officials, occurred more than once. Although President Franklin D. Roosevelt put fears of many Americans to rest, there were those who failed to believe what he said during his many “fireside chats.” His legislation, although it failed to help every unemployed American find work, did restore the American spirit by providing aid. For instance, electricity was provided for the first time to many rural areas. Organized labor emerged as a force with which manufacturers had to deal. African Americans and Indians were recognized as citizens and subsequently provided with assistance. Before America fully recovered, however, World War II began in Europe. Americans, for the most part, were isolationists; they did not desire to fight. Japan, provoked by American diplomacy, recklessly bombed Pearl Harbor, and then Americans were eager to fight. As American men were called to serve in the armed forces, American women obtained employment on a grand scale. The war effort was important. When the war ended, many women remained in the workforce, even though the federal government tried to persuade them to return to their homes so that their loved ones could return to work. Before the Korean War started in 1950, Americans were experiencing prosperity once again. Many married couples were working. Purchasing power per family increased just in time for them to buy a new invention called television. As in England, realistic and, later, naturalistic fiction appeared in America when numerous changes in technology, economics, politics, and science—described above—occurred in a relatively brief period. These changes consequently impacted—both positively and negatively—practically every individual. According to George J. Becker, The harsh conditions of pioneer life, the breath-taking scale of the physical milieu, the violence of the Civil War, and in the latter part of the century the cruel and impersonal processes of industrialization and the melting pot were new experiences which were not

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easily bent to conventional formulas and demanded a new reading of life, though, in all honesty, this was not often given.5

Another reason for realism being adopted by writers living in the United States is that Americans had been reading realistic novels that were written by English writers for several decades. A third reason that should not be overlooked is that magazine editors had been advocating the form for several years. For instance, William Dean Howells not only wrote about the genre’s importance but also popularized it by serializing realistic novels in the Atlantic Monthly and in Harper’s Monthly, both of which he edited (in different decades). For instance, during 1871, in the Atlantic Monthly, Kate Beaumont by John W. De Forest, Their Wedding Journey by William Dean Howells, and A Passionate Pilgrim by Henry James were serialized. Howells, because he also wrote realistic novels, had a vested interest in the genre’s becoming popular. As a result of Howells, other editors, and realistic writers promoting the genre, the form’s popularity increased among both readers and writers. In the 1870s, some realistic writers grew concerned about social conditions, while other realistic writers grew concerned about psychological studies of individuals. An example of the former is Rebecca Harding Davis, who explored social injustice in her description of life in the iron mills. An example of the latter is Josiah Gilbert Holland, who focused on the career of a wealthy railway speculator. In the early 1880s, the nation was experiencing prosperity, primarily because the policies of Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, and Chester A. Arthur were basically conservative. Maintaining the status quo was important to these presidents. Indeed, reform activities were limited. Problems such as the exploitation of natural resources, the hardships of those who attempted to farm, the uncontrolled growth of large cities, and the concentration of wealth by a few seemed nonexistent. The concentration of wealth was satirically depicted in realistic novels. For instance, Henry James and William Dean Howells wrote about the fabulously wealthy in Roderick Hudson (1876) and The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885), respectively. According to Robert Falk, the major realistic novels of the early 1880s were marked by “a successful interfusion of ripe powers and balanced ideas.”6 Falk claimed that these novels were characterized by a “firmer, more confident tone, a less conscious nationalism, a soberer optimism, a stronger objectivity of characterization and adherence to a middle zone between tragic and happy denouements.”7 In the years that followed, the major writers of realistic fiction examined the inhabitants of crowded cities. Usually these writers focused on disorder and/or violence—problems that were typical of large cities in America. In some instances these writers offered a powerful indictment of the great American ex-

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periment, for they recognized that not everyone in the United States was treated fairly; they also realized that not everyone was in a position to pursue happiness. As problems reared their ugly heads, some writers wrote realistic novels that dissected these problems for readers. Other writers wrote in-depth journalistic pieces about these problems. These articles, termed “muckraking journalism,” were filled with riveting details that, in most cases, were not supposed to be leaked to the public. Although the muckraking journalists faced numerous obstacles, even ridicule by their subjects, most writers of realistic novels avoided these hurdles. After all, they were writing fiction, not fact. Realism eventually became a prominent form of literature in America. According to Lars Ahnebrink, Gradually American literature began to reflect the changes wrought in America by the rise of industrialism, the advance of science, the westward march of settlement, and the closing of the frontier. Writers keenly sensitive to the currents of the day were stirred by the new tides of thought.8

Many of these writers eventually focused on the lives of common folk. According to Edwin H. Cady, “They thought the common significant because it was fresh to literature (that is, never really done before), because it was intrinsically real, and because it was uniquely important from the ‘universal’ side of the implication of ‘common.’ ”9 In the 1880s, laborers went on strike in various industries, and violence erupted more than once. Thomas Nast and other cartoonists attacked such organizations as the Knights of Labor, and the public reacted negatively to laborers who went on strike and to the labor organizations to which they belonged. Writers of realistic fiction recorded these societal skirmishes for posterity in novels that were reviewed in prestigious periodicals. The Bread-Winners by “W” (John Milton Hay) was reviewed in Century Magazine by none other than William Dean Howells, for instance. After the Civil War, America moved swiftly from an agrarian to an industrialized society, with hundreds of individuals leaving their small farms and moving to cities where factories were located. Concurrently, like other literary movements, the realistic movement changed. According to Robert Falk: It passed through its experimental phase in the self-conscious, idealistic seventies; found a moment of stabilization during the 1880s, when many of its finest literary works were written; and showed clear signs of change after 1887, when an intensified collectivist psychology coincided with a revival of subjective attitudes to open the way for a new and younger school of writers.10

The realists were, according to Harold H. Kolb, Jr., “pragmatic, relativistic, democratic, and experimental.”11 In short, “they were not committed to dogmatic theories or fixed formulas.”12 The writers of realistic fiction had conventional

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beliefs about the qualities that individuals needed in dealing with others. These qualities, which included love, honesty, justice, and even mercy, had been sought in a transcendental system of values. However, in the mid-1880s, realistic characters had to solve their own problems. Furthermore, the characters in these novels were from the middle class. Therefore, their concerns were essentially middle class. One reason for this change in focus was that middle-class characters attracted female readers. According to Robert Shulman, The first-generation realists and their successors did justice to the surfaces of American life through the conventions of presentational realism—plausibly rendered speech, recognizable settings and recognizable characters facing everyday problems, all open to the interpretation of a middle-class, predominantly feminine audience.13

Naturalism entered the literary scene about a decade after realism had become popular; realism faded to a certain extent, but it did not disappear. Indeed, even though only a few writers wrote realistic fiction during some decades after 1900, the genre became popular after World War I and again after World War II. In fact, the form seemed to become popular after every major military conflict in which the country was involved, including the Korean War and the Vietnam War. REALISM AND REGIONALISM A discussion of realism would not be complete without mentioning regionalism, or local color, which appeared in the United States after the Civil War. However, realism typically appeared in novel form, whereas regionalism typically appeared in short story form. Of course, some regionalists wrote novels, but for the most part these novels were made up of loosely connected episodes; indeed, most of these novels failed to advance art or the authors’ reputations primarily because they lacked unity. Many resembled collections of tales more than novels. Unlike the realists, the regionalists did not necessarily examine the problems that Americans faced. For instance, many overlooked the economic, political, social, and theological problems that appeared after the Civil War. They also ignored the large cities, where numerous problems existed. Instead, they depicted characters who lived on farms in New York, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas, Colorado, Virginia, Georgia, California, and Pennsylvania. Although these characters’ surroundings, speech, and dress were realistically depicted, the characters themselves were not. Indeed, they were depicted as usually kind, sentimental, charming, and humorous. As a result of being caricatures, these characters have not remained in readers’ minds. On the other hand, according to George A. Becker, the local colorists “made the first real advance toward realism in this country.”14 He continues: “Theirs

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was primarily an act of provincial piety and often broke down in sentimentality, but they did lead the way to observation of the scene immediately around them; they did seek to set down vernacular and sectional modes of speech.”15 Yet, according to David A. Dike, “local-color writing de-emphasizes plot, for the structure of the anecdote can scarcely be called plot, in favor of character and atmosphere.”16 Most regionalism appeared in short story form after the Civil War, and such magazines as Harper’s Monthly, Harper’s Weekly, and, in particular, the Atlantic Monthly popularized local color. As other magazines came into existence, they, too, published the genre. Such writers as Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896), Richard Malcolm Johnston (1822–1898), Rose Terry Cooke (1827–1892), Bret Harte (1836–1902), Edward Eggleston (1837–1902), Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840–1894), George Washington Cable (1844–1925), Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward (1844–1911), Mary Hallock Foote (1847–1938), Sarah Orne Jewett (1849–1909), Alice French (1850–1934), Mary N. Murfree (1850–1922), Kate Chopin (1851–1904), Grace King (1852–1932), Mary Wilkins Freeman (1852– 1930), Thomas Nelson Page (1853–1922), Alice Brown (1856–1948), Margaret Deland (1857–1945), Charles W. Chesnutt (1858–1932), and Hamlin Garland (1860–1940) contributed local-color short stories to magazines and/or published collections and novels. However, interest in regional short stories or novels declined after the turn of the century, although the genre interested some writers for another decade or two. Because realism and regionalism have major differences, writers who primarily wrote regionalism have been omitted from this dictionary. However, some regionalists wrote what has been termed “women’s literary realism.”17 A few regionalists were classified as realists by some advocates of realism. These regionalists have been included in this dictionary. NATURALISM IN AMERICA In the 1890s, influenced primarily by Emile Zola, some writers turned their attention to those individuals who had to struggle in order to survive. These included the inhabitants of American slums as well as the inhabitants of other poor neighborhoods. These writers were writing what became known as naturalism, which contains the following criteria, according to Vernon Louis Parrington: 1. Objectivity 2. Frankness 3. An amoral attitude toward material 4. A philosophy of determinism 5. A bias toward pessimism in selecting details 6. A bias in selection of characters.18

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Parrington claimed that the writer of naturalism sought the truth, much as the scientist did; rejected Victorian reticence—that is, presented characters’ instincts and impulses; selected characters who had strong animal drives or were driven by forces that they did not understand; and recorded what happened. Like realism, naturalism concerned the individuals (and their foibles) at the lower end of the social ladder, so to speak, a fact that caused critics and even realists such as William Dean Howells to oppose it. According to Donald Pizer, “naturalism as it emerged as a major new form of expression at the turn of the century, was often ignored, or, when not ignored, condemned out of hand.”19 As Pizer pointed out, naturalism was “socially and morally suspect because of its subject matter.”20 Ignoring criticism, the writers of naturalism forged ahead, moving into questionable territory, including sex. As Lee Clark Mitchell writes, “No longer did it seem appropriate to treat characters as if they were morally accountable, and the naturalists now imagined traits and circumstances that deprived individuals of responsibility.”21 One explanation for naturalistic writers’ exploring the lower class and its questionable behavior is that the topic had been only slightly mentioned by the realists. Another explanation is that some of the naturalistic writers had been born members of the lower class. Consequently, they had experienced poverty and the other horrors that many Americans experienced on a daily basis, and therefore blamed society for allowing such horrors to exist. Theodore Dreiser, for instance, was a naturalistic writer who was born into poverty and experienced an insecure childhood. James T. Farrell is another. Another explanation is that some of the naturalistic writers had been journalists, and as a result had been exposed to the poor and their behavior on a regular basis; consequently, they realized that this class was the largest class in America. Thus, they knew that fiction should reflect not just the middle and upper classes and their values and belief systems, but the lower class and their values and belief system as well. In essence, the naturalistic writers attempted to depict characters who were not necessarily responsible for the world in which they lived. In addition, as Jane Benardete mentions, these novels stirred the readers’ sympathies: “The poor and diseased were demonstrably victims of society and nature, while either the bourgeoisie or the very wealthy might seem to have at least a small measure of independence and ethical responsibility.”22 The realists had a difficult time with the naturalists—indeed, William Dean Howells could not understand why naturalists insisted on writing about the poor and the unfortunate. They believed that naturalism focused on only the bad in society. However, as Donald Pizer pointed out, “Naturalism reflects an affirmative ethical conception of life, for it asserts the value of all life by endowing the lowest character with emotion and defeat and with moral ambiguity, no matter how poor or ignoble he may seem.”23 Pizer further states, “The naturalists do not dehumanize man. They rather suggest new or modified areas of value in

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man while engaged in destroying such old and to them unreal sources of human self-importance as romantic love or moral responsibility or heroism.”24 The naturalists of the 1890s wrote about the immigrants who lived in slums. They wrote about the illicit sexual affairs of young girls who had moved from farms to cities. They wrote about individuals who had the ability but not the opportunity to grow. They wrote about individuals who did not understand themselves nor those around them. They wrote about individuals who learned about themselves and the forces that caused their predicament by the novel’s end. Some of these writers included Abraham Cahan, Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, Jack London, and Frank Norris. In the 1930s, naturalists reacted to their understanding of Marxism, which, in a sense, claimed that an individual’s role in society was insignificant. These writers, however, allowed their characters to grow and to believe that they had a purpose in life. Indeed, their characters were not as self-centered as those in the 1890s; they learned that they had a responsibility not only to themselves but also to others. Through their characters these writers provided hope, which, considering the economy during the 1930s, was about all anyone had. Many of them embraced Marxism primarily because they had seen the worst side of capitalism. Some of these writers included Erskine Caldwell, James T. Farrell, John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, and John O’Hara. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the naturalists addressed the concentration camps, the nuclear bomb, the development of the cold war, the Korean War, and McCarthyism, among other problems and potential problems that threatened many Americans. Instead of hope, which the naturalists of the 1930s saw, the naturalists of the late 1940s and early 1950s saw utter chaos. A certain amount of defeatism appeared in one naturalistic novel after another during this period. Yet, these novels portrayed life in America.25 Some of these writers included Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, William Styron, and James Jones. Although the number of realistic and naturalistic novelists living and writing in America has declined, compared with decades ago, there are still some writers who write in one or the other form. DEFINITIONS OF REALISM AND NATURALISM According to C. Hugh Holman and William Harmon, “Realism is . . . simply fidelity to actuality in its representation in literature; a term loosely synonymous with VERISIMILITUDE.”26 They continue, “Generally, realists (writers) are believers in PRAGMATISM, and the truth they seek to find and express is a relativistic or pluralistic truth, associated with discernible consequences and verifiable by experience.”27 In essence, then, realistic writers attempt to depict accurately the world, or at least part of it, in which they live. Their writing, although fiction, contains accurate descriptions of their characters’ speech, social habits, and even clothing. In addition, these writers attempt to describe their characters’ furniture and

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homes accurately. In short, they followed the advice of William Dean Howells, one of realism’s strongest advocates and practitioners: let it [fiction] portray men and women as they are, actuated by the motives and the passions in the measure we all know; let it leave off painting dolls and working them by springs and wires; let it show the different interests in their true proportions; let it forbear to preach pride and revenge, folly and insanity, egotism and prejudice, but frankly own these for what they are, in whatever figures and occasions they appear; let it not put on fine literary airs; let it speak the dialect, the language, that most Americans know—the language of unaffected people everywhere—and there can be no doubt of an unlimited future, not only of delightfulness but of usefulness, for it.28

Although James Fenimore Cooper and other writers had written accurately about American settlers and American Indians decades before Howells and what he advocated, writing that could be considered realistic did not appear in this country until after the Civil War. However, as mentioned, the term had been applied to some writers living and writing in Europe decades before the American Civil War. The romantic novel gave way to the realistic novel first in Europe, then, decades later, in America. According to C. Hugh Holman and William Harmon, naturalism is the application of the principles of scientific DETERMINISM to FICTION and DRAMA. It draws its name from its basic assumption that everything that is real exists in NATURE, conceived as the world of objects, actions, and forces that yield the secrets of their causation and their being to objective scientific inquiry.29

Although many scholars have discussed naturalism in numerous articles and books, most have discussed it in relation to realism. For instance, Donald Pizer claimed that naturalism is “social realism laced with the idea of determinism.”30 He also claimed “that since naturalism comes after realism, . . . it is . . . an ‘extension’ or continuation of realism—only a little different.”31 The difference, according to Pizer, is the “philosophical orientation of the naturalists.”32 According to John Hospers, “naturalism . . . professes to be as objective as realism in the manner of presentation, the attitude or approach to the material; but in its selection of details it is . . . definitely biased . . . it deliberately sets out to present and emphasize those details which are unpleasant, obscene, shocking, or horrible.”33 In other words, these writers present their characters as if they are conditioned and, to a certain extent, controlled by their environment or heredity. The writers of naturalism focus on the poor or the unfortunate primarily to gain the reader’s sympathy and understanding. In short, they manipulate their readers by controlling their emotions.

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WHO ARE THE NATURALISTS? In The Beginnings of Naturalism in American Fiction 1891–1903, Lars Ahnebrink identified Stephen Crane, Hamlin Garland, and Frank Norris as naturalists. In Realism in Modern Literature, George J. Becker identified Stephen Crane, John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, James T. Farrell, Robert Herrick, Frank Norris, David Graham Phillips, and Upton Sinclair as naturalists. Malcolm Bradbury, in “Years of the Modern: The Rise of Realism and Naturalism,” a chapter in American Literature to 1900, claimed that the following writers were naturalists: Edward Bellamy, Ambrose Bierce, Kate Chopin, Stephen Crane, Ignatius Donnelly, Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Harold Frederic, Henry Blake Fuller, Hamlin Garland, Henry Harland, Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, and Frank Norris. In Howells and the Age of Realism, Everett Carter identified Harold Frederic, Henry James, and Frank Norris as naturalists. In the chapter “Naturalism,” in the Encyclopedia of the Novel, Henry Claridge mentioned Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, James T. Farrell, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, Frank Norris, Hubert Selby, Upton Sinclair, and John Steinbeck. John J. Conder, in Naturalism in American Fiction: The Classic Phase, claimed that Stephen Crane, John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, James T. Farrell, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Frank Norris, and John Steinbeck wrote naturalistic novels. Lilian R. Furst and Peter N. Shrine, in Naturalism, claimed that Sherwood Anderson, Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, James T. Farrell, Hamlin Garland, Sinclair Lewis, Jack London, Frank Norris, Upton Sinclair, and John Steinbeck could be classified as naturalists, although they had reservations about the label. In The Oxford Companion to American Literature, James D. Hart identified Stephen Crane, John Dos Passos, Theodore Dresier, James T. Farrell, Harold Frederic, Robert Herrick, Jack London, and Frank Norris as naturalists. C. Hugh Holman, in A Handbook to Literature, identified Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, James T. Farrell, James Jones, Jack London, and Frank Norris as naturalists. In her doctoral dissertation, “Women Writers of American Literary Naturalism, 1892–1932,” Linda Ann Kornasky discussed Kate Chopin, Ellen Glasgow, and Edith Wharton from a naturalistic perspective. She claimed that Harriet Arnow and Joyce Carol Oates wrote naturalistic fiction several decades later. Jay Martin, in Harvests of Change: American Literature, 1865–1914, identified Theodore Dreiser, Henry Blake Fuller, Frank Norris, and Edith Wharton as writers of naturalistic novels. In Contemporary American Authors: A Critical Survey and 219 BioBibliographies, Fred B. Millett claimed that Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, Jack London, and Frank Norris wrote in the naturalistic tradition.

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In the chapter “Naturalism and the Languages of Determinism,” in the Columbia Literary History of the United States, Lee Clark Mitchell identified Ambrose Bierce, Abraham Cahan, Stephen Crane, Rebecca Harding Davis, John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, Edward Eggleston, James T. Farrell, William Faulkner, Harold Frederic, Henry Blake Fuller, Hamlin Garland, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Herrick, Edgar Watson Howe, Joseph Kirkland, Jack London, Norman Mailer, Frank Norris, David Graham Phillips, Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, and Edith Wharton as writing naturalistic fiction. In The Portable American Realism Reader, James Nagel and Tom Quirk identified Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Hamlin Garland, Jack London, Frank Norris, and John M. Oskison as naturalists. Donald Pizer, in Realism and Naturalism in Nineteenth-Century American Literature, identified Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, and Frank Norris as naturalists. In Twentieth-Century American Literary Naturalism: An Interpretation, Donald Pizer discussed Saul Bellow, John Dos Passos, James T. Farrell, Norman Mailer, John Steinbeck, and William Styron from a naturalistic perspective. Charles Child Walcutt, in Seven Novelists in the American Naturalist Tradition: An Introduction, discussed Sherwood Anderson, Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, James T. Farrell, Jack London, Frank Norris, and John Steinbeck from a naturalistic perspective. Marshall Walker, in History of American Literature, identified John Dos Passos, James T. Farrell, Ernest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck as naturalists. WHO ARE THE REALISTS? Lars Ahnebrink, in The Beginnings of Naturalism in American Fiction 1891– 1903, identified Edward Eggleston, Edgar Watson Howe, and Joseph Kirkland as realists. Elizabeth Ammons, in “Expanding the Canon of American Realism,” a chapter in The Cambridge Companion to American Realism and Naturalism: Howells to London, identified Willa Cather, Charles Chesnutt, Kate Chopin, W.E.B. DuBois, Sui Sin Far, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Pauline Hopkins, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Maria Cristina Mena, Upton Sinclair, Edith Wharton, Anzia Yezierska, and Zitkala-Sa as realists. George J. Becker, in Realism in Modern Literature, identified Sherwood Anderson, Alice Brown, George Washington Cable, Erskine Caldwell, Kate Chopin, James Gould Cozzens, Rebecca Harding Davis, John Dos Passos, Edward Eggleston, James T. Farrell, William Faulkner, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Hamlin Garland, Ellen Glasgow, Bret Harte, John Hay, Robert Herrick, Edgar Watson Howe, William Dean Howells, Sarah Orne Jewett, Joseph Kirkland, Sinclair Lewis, Mary Noailles Murfree, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, David Graham Phillips, Upton Sinclair, Harriet Beecher Stowe, T. S. Stribling, Albion W. Tourgee, and Robert Penn Warren as realists.

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In The Ferment of Realism: American Literature, 1884–1919, Warner Berthoff identified Ambrose Bierce, George Washington Cable, Kate Chopin, Lafcadio Hearn, William Dean Howells, Henry James, and Mark Twain as realists. He applied the same label to H. H. Boyesen, Edward Eggleston, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, Henry Blake Fuller, Robert Herrick, Sarah Orne Jewett, Joseph Kirkland, and Edith Wharton. Malcolm Bradbury, in “Years of the Modern: The Rise of Realism and Naturalism,” a chapter in American Literature to 1900, identified Henry Adams, Sherwood Anderson, Willa Cather, John William De Forest, Edward Eggleston, Ellen Glasgow, Bret Harte, John Hay, E. W. Howe, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Sarah Orne Jewett, Joseph Kirkland, Sinclair Lewis, and Mark Twain as realists. In Howells and the Age of Realism, Everett Carter identified John William De Forest, Edward Eggleston, Henry Garland, Bret Harte, William Dean Howells, and Mark Twain as realists. Alfred Habegger, in Gender, Fantasy, and Realism in American Literature, identified Henry Adams, H. H. Boyesen, John William De Forest, John Hay, E. W. Howe, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Caroline Kirkland, Joseph Kirkland, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Alice Wellington Rollins, Susan Warner, and Constance Fenimore Woolson as realists. In The Oxford Companion to American Literature, James D. Hart identified the following as writers of realistic fiction: George Washington Cable, Samuel Clemens, John W. De Forest, Rebecca Harding Davis, Edward Eggleston, Henry Blake Fuller, Henry Garland, Bret Harte, E. W. Howe, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Sarah Orne Jewett, Joseph Kirkland, Ernest Poole, Upton Sinclair, Francis H. Smith, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Edith Wharton. In A Handbook to Literature, C. Hugh Holman identified Louis Auchincloss, Ellen Glasgow, Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, John P. Marquand, John O’Hara, and Edith Wharton as realists. In The Portable American Realism Reader, James Nagel and Tom Quirk identified the following as realists: Mary Austin, Ambrose Bierce, Abraham Cahan, Willa Cather, Charles W. Chesnutt, Kate Chopin, Stephen Crane, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Sui Sin Far, Harold Frederic, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Zona Gale, Hamlin Garland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Joel Chandler Harris, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Sarah Orne Jewett, Edith Wharton, Madelene Yale Wynne, and Zitkala-Sa. In American Realists and Naturalists, Donald Pizer and Earl N. Harbert identified the following as realists and naturalists: Henry Adams, Edward Bellamy, Ambrose Bierce, H. H. Boyesen, George Washington Cable, Charles W. Chesnutt, Kate Chopin, Samuel L. Clemens, Rose Terry Cooke, Stephen Crane, Richard Harding Davis, John William De Forest, Ignatius Donnelly, Theodore Dreiser, Edward Eggleston, Harold Frederic, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Henry Blake Fuller, Henry Garland, Ellen Glasgow, Bret Harte, John Hay, Lafcadio Hearn, Robert Herrick, E. W. Howe, William Dean Howells, Henry James,

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Sarah Orne Jewett, Clarence King, Grace King, Joseph Kirkland, Jack London, Mary N. Murfree, Frank Norris, Thomas Nelson Page, David Graham Phillips, William S. Porter, Frederic Remington, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edith Wharton, Brand Whitlock, and Constance Fenimore Woolson. Donald Pizer, in Realism and Naturalism in Nineteenth-Century American Literature, identified William Dean Howells, Henry James, and Mark Twain as realists. In The Literature of the American People: An Historical and Critical Survey, Arthur Hobson Quinn et al. identified Rebecca Harding Davis, John William De Forest, and William Dean Howells as realists. In the article “Realism and Regionalism,” which appeared in the Columbia Literary History of the United States, Eric J. Sundquist identified the following as writers of realistic fiction: Henry Adams, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, James Lane Allen, Sherwood Anderson, Edward Bellamy, H. H. Boyesen, George Washington Cable, Abraham Cahan, Willa Cather, Charles Chesnutt, Kate Chopin, Winston Churchill, Stephen Crane, Rebecca Harding Davis, John William De Forest, Ignatius Donnelly, Theodore Dreiser, W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Edith Maud Eaton, Edward Eggleston, Ralph Ellison, William Faulkner, Harold Frederic, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Isaac K. Friedman, Henry Blake Fuller, Hamlin Garland, Ellen Glasgow, Robert Grant, Joel Chandler Harris, Bret Harte, John Hay, Lafcadio Hearn, Robert Herrick, Pauline Hopkins, Edgar Watson Howe, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Sarah Orne Jewett, Edward King, Grace King, Joseph Kirkland, Sinclair Lewis, Carson McCullers, Mary Murfree, Frank Norris, Thomas Nelson Page, Will Payne, Bradford Peck, David Graham Phillips, Opie Read, Amelie Rives, Upton Sinclair, Booth Tarkington, Albion Tourgee, Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, Constance Fenimore Woolson, and Richard Wright. Carl Van Doren, in The American Novel: 1789–1939, identified Henry Adams, John W. De Forest, Edward Eggleston, Paul Leicester Ford, E. W. Howe, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Sinclair Lewis, Booth Tarkington, and Mark Twain as realists.

THE SCOPE OF THE DICTIONARY This dictionary presents biographical sketches of most of the writers mentioned above as well as other writers whom scholars have identified as having written one or more novels in the naturalistic or realistic tradition. The biographical sketches are organized alphabetically. Each includes birth and death dates (when the subject is deceased), and a chronological narrative of the writer’s life that includes her or his educational background, professional career, and relevant published works. The works are briefly discussed in order to illustrate that they are examples of either the naturalistic or the realistic tradition.

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NOTES 1. Ioan Williams, The Realist Novel in England: A Study in Development (Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1975), pp. xi–xii. 2. Ibid., p. xiv. 3. George J. Becker, Realism in Modern Literature (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1980), p. 135. 4. David Daiches, A Critical History of English Literature, 2nd ed., vol. 2. (New York: Ronald Press, 1970), p. 1082. 5. George J. Becker, “Introduction: Modern Realism as a Literary Movement,” in Documents of Modern Literary Realism, ed. by George J. Becker (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1963), p. 16. 6. Robert Falk, The Victorian Mode in American Fiction: 1865–1885 (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1965), pp. 117–118. 7. Ibid., p. 117. 8. Lars Ahnebrink, The Beginnings of Naturalism in American Fiction: 1891–1903 (New York: Russell and Russell, 1961), p. 14. 9. Edwin H. Cady, The Light of Common Day: Realism in American Fiction (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971), p. 9. 10. Robert P. Falk, “The Rise of Realism 1871–1891,” In Transitions in American Literary History, ed. by Harry Hayden Clark (New York: Octagon Books, 1967), p. 441. 11. Harold H. Kolb, Jr., The Illusion of Life: American Realism as a Literary Form (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1969), p. 39. 12. Ibid. 13. Robert Shulman, “Realism,” in The Columbia History of the American Novel, ed. by Emory Elliott (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), p. 162. 14. Becker, “Introduction: Modern Realism as a Literary Movement,” p. 17. 15. Ibid. 16. Donald A. Dike, “Notes on Local Color and Its Relation to Realism,” College English, 14, no. 1 (October 1952): 86. 17. Josephine Donovan, New England Local Color Literature: A Women’s Tradition (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1983), pp. 2–3. 18. Vernon Louis Parrington, The Beginnings of Critical Realism in America 1860– 1920 (Completed to 1900 Only) (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987), pp. 323– 324. 19. Donald Pizer, “Introduction: The Problem of Definition,” in The Cambridge Companion to American Realism and Naturalism: Howells to London, ed. by Donald Pizer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 8. 20. Ibid. 21. Lee Clark Mitchell, “Naturalism and the Languages of Determinism,” in Columbia Literary History of the United States, ed. Emory Elliott (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988), p. 525. 22. Jane Benardete, ed., American Realism (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1972), p. 19. 23. Donald Pizer, Realism and Naturalism in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1966), p. 14. 24. Ibid., p. 31.

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25. Donald Pizer, Twentieth-Century American Literary Naturalism: An Interpretation (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1982), pp. 3–10, 13–16, 85–89. 26. C. Hugh Holman and William Harmon, A Handbook to Literature, 5th ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1986), p. 412. 27. Ibid., p. 413. 28. William Dean Howells, Criticism and Fiction and Other Essays (New York: New York University Press, 1959; originally published 1891), p. 51. 29. Holman and Harmon, A Handbook to Literature, p. 320. 30. Pizer, Twentieth-Century American Literary Naturalism, p. x. 31. Pizer, Realism and Naturalism in Nineteenth-Century American Literature, p. 11. 32. Ibid. 33. John Hospers, Meaning and Truth in the Arts (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1946), p. 153.

THE NOVELISTS

Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918) Henry Brooks Adams was one of the first writers who realistically examined politics and religion in American society. Adams was born on February 16, 1838, to Abigail Brown Adams and Charles Francis Adams. The great-grandson of John Adams and the grandson of John Quincy Adams, Adams lived in Boston during the winters and in Quincy, Massachusetts, during the summers. An avid reader, he enjoyed the works of Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens. He also enjoyed the volumes of history that filled the shelves of his father’s library. Adams attended Mr. Dixwell’s School, then enrolled at Harvard College (Harvard University), where James Russell Lowell influenced him. Adams and Lowell had lengthy conversations about various subjects, including civil law. In 1858 Adams went to Berlin, Germany, where he did postgraduate work in civil law. Within months he grew tired of studying a subject that was taught by faculty who spoke German, a language that he did not fully understand. In 1860 he toured Europe, and later wrote letters to the Boston Courier in which he described his meeting with Giuseppe Garibaldi. Later that year Adams returned to Boston, then worked as his father’s secretary in Washington, D.C. He enjoyed Washington, particularly the political scene. In 1861 he returned to Boston, where he studied law until the South fired on Fort Sumter. Although his brother Charles Francis and numerous friends volunteered for the army, Adams worked as his father’s secretary in London. He desired to serve in the army, however, so he asked his brother to help him get a commission. His brother refused, informing him in no uncertain terms that he was not suited for the army. Adams soon grew disillusioned with life. He was in his twenties and he did not have a career. His father persuaded him to so-

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Henry Brooks Adams

cialize, and as a result of meeting people others only read about, his attitude changed. After completing his duties as his father’s secretary, he found time to read the works of John Stuart Mill and other philosophers. At the suggestion of John G. Palfrey, who had been editor of the North American Review, Adams wrote an article about Captain John Smith. The article was published in the Review in 1867. He contributed two more articles to the magazine later that year. In 1868 Adams was back in Boston, where he wrote articles about economics and political history for the Edinburgh Review and the North American Review. In 1869 he went to London and wrote articles for magazines. However, he had been in the city only briefly when he was invited to teach history at Harvard. Adams returned to Boston, discussed the position with the college’s president, then became a member of the faculty. In addition to teaching history, he contributed articles about politics to the North American Review. In 1872 he married Marian Hooper of Boston. They traveled abroad, and upon their return Adams resumed teaching and writing articles. In 1877 he resigned his position at Harvard. He and his wife then moved to Washington, D.C., where his friends, particularly the statesmen William Evarts and John Hay, lived. The Adamses socialized with Evarts, Hay, and the geologist Clarence King, whom Adams had met several years earlier. Adams studied the national government in Washington and wrote The Life of Albert Gallatin, which was published in 1879. He also edited The Writings of Albert Gallatin, which consisted of three volumes and was published the same year. Adams analyzed national politics in Democracy: An American Novel, which was published anonymously in 1880. The novel’s main character, Madeleine Lee, a cultivated widow, moves to Washington, D.C., to experience national politics firsthand. Mrs. Lee learns about the struggle between the newly elected president and the senator from Illinois, Silas P. Ratcliffe (who may be based, in part, on Abraham Lincoln, who was from Illinois). Ratcliffe not only desires to know, then use, Mrs. Lee; he desires to marry her. He succeeds in manipulating her and almost succeeds in marrying her. However, she learns from a distant relative (John Curruthers, a Virginian and former Confederate officer) that Ratcliffe is a corrupt politician. Mrs. Lee leaves Washington, D.C. and Ratcliffe. Adams had written what seemed to many a sort of roman a` clef. The novel, even though it was not well written—indeed, Adams lacked the novelist’s skill in creating characters and dialogue—was realistic in its depiction of politics and politicians in Washington, D.C., and it became a best-seller. In 1882 Adams wrote the biography John Randolph for the American Statesmen series. Adams did not find Randolph, a politician from Virginia, a congenial subject, and consequently had to borrow material from an earlier biography. In 1884 Adams wrote Esther, a novel published under the pseudonym Frances Snow Compton. It was not well received by readers, and Adams turned his attention to political subjects.

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Mrs. Adams suffered from ill health, and committed suicide in 1885. Her husband traveled to Japan with the painter John La Farge in 1886, primarily to escape the loneliness of his home and the grief that he felt. When he returned home, his friends and relatives visited him often, and his attitude toward life changed. Adams worked diligently on his History of the United States During the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison. The first two volumes, concerning the first administration of Thomas Jefferson, were published in 1889. The next four volumes covered the second administration of Jefferson and the first administration of James Madison, and were published in 1890. The last three volumes, published in 1891, concerned the second administration of Madison. As a result of this work, Adams came to be considered a major American historian. His history emphasized national politics more than national economics, and it was one of the best histories of early American politics of its day. After the last three volumes were published, Adams and La Farge visited Hawaii, then Tahiti. Over the next few years Adams did very little writing. Traveling filled his time. He went to Cuba with Clarence King and to Europe with Henry Cabot Lodge and his wife. He traveled alone through Mexico. With John Hay and his wife, he visited Egypt. Although his home was in Washington, D.C., Adams was frequently in Paris, where he eventually lived for several months each year. In 1895 he visited Caen, Coutances, and Mont-Saint-Michel in France. Later he wrote Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres, which concerned medieval life and philosophy. The book was published privately in 1904. Requests for the book, particularly by the American Institute of Architects, caused Adams to allow the book to be published for the general public. In 1906 Adams privately published The Education of Henry Adams, which was considered by readers to be an autobiography. However, the book was a correlative study to Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres, in the sense that he presented his opinions about various subjects as well as about his life. In 1908 Adams assisted the widow of his friend John Hay in selecting her husband’s letters for a volume that was privately published. A Letter to American Teachers of History (1910) concerned the second law of thermodynamics and the historian of the future. In 1911 Adams published a brief biography of the poet George Cabot Lodge, the son of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, who in a sense had been his prote´ge´. Adams fell ill in 1912. After several months of being incapacitated, he recovered, although his vision was partially impaired. He died in Washington six years later, before World War I had ended.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Democracy: An American Novel, 1880 Esther: A Novel, 1884

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Henry Brooks Adams

REFERENCES Backmur, R. P. Henry Adams. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980. Conder, John J. A Formula of His Own: Henry Adams’s Literary Experiment. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970. Decker, William Merrill. The Literary Vocation of Henry Adams. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Harbert, Earl N., ed. Critical Essays on Henry Adams. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1981. Jordy, William H. Henry Adams: Scientific Historian. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1970. Levenson, J. C. The Mind and Art of Henry Adams. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957. Lyon, Melvin. Symbol and Idea in Henry Adams. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1970. Samuels, Ernest. The Young Henry Adams. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1948. ———. Henry Adams: The Middle Years. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1958. ———. Henry Adams: The Major Phase. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1964. Stevenson, Elizabeth. Henry Adams: A Biography. New York: Macmillan, 1955.

Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907) Thomas Bailey Aldrich wrote a novel in the realistic tradition that was based on his childhood. It became a classic for children and undoubtedly inspired Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain). Aldrich was born to Sarah Abba Bailey Aldrich and Elias Taft Aldrich on November 11, 1836, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. His parents, especially his father, traveled throughout the country in an attempt to succeed in business. In 1841 the family settled in New York City, and five years later moved to New Orleans. When he was twelve, Aldrich returned to Portsmouth to live with his maternal grandparents, primarily to attend a private preparatory school. His parents remained in New Orleans. Aldrich’s father died of cholera in 1849. Aldrich remained in Portsmouth until 1852, when he moved to New York City with his mother. Charles Frost, an uncle, operated a business there and offered his nephew a position as a clerk. Aldrich accepted the offer, and in his spare time he wrote poetry, which was published in various periodicals. In 1855 Aldrich collected some of his sentimental and ironic verses under the title The Bells: A Collection of Chimes. Later the same year he wrote “The Ballad of Babie Bell,” which was published in the influential Home Journal and subsequently brought him fame. As a result, Aldrich resigned from his uncle’s business and accepted the position of junior literary critic at the Evening Mirror and the position of subeditor at the Home Journal, which was edited by Nathaniel Parker Willis. Aldrich enjoyed the literary world of New York. He became friends with Henry Clapp, Edmund C. Stedman, Richard H. Stoddard, Bayard Taylor, Walt Whitman, and William Winter, among others. In 1858 several of his friends established the Saturday Press, a literary pe-

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Thomas Bailey Aldrich

riodical, and offered the associate editor’s position to Aldrich, which he accepted. Although the periodical failed in 1860, it was popular among young writers. Aldrich continued to write poetry. In 1861, for instance, he published Pampinea and Other Poems. When the Civil War started, he desired to serve as an officer, but he was not accepted into any service. He became a war correspondent for the New York Tribune, and experienced several battles before he returned to New York City in 1862. His experiences became material for several short stories and several poems. Later the same year he published his first collection of short stories, Out of His Head: A Romance. After working briefly as a literary critic for the Rudd & Carleton Publishing Company, Aldrich became the managing editor of the Illustrated News. The periodical folded in 1863, and Aldrich returned to writing. In 1865 Aldrich moved to Boston, where he became editor of Every Saturday, a literary periodical. Later the same year he married Lilian Woodman, to whom he had become engaged in 1863. Aldrich became friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and John Greenleaf Whittier, among others. In addition to editing a literary periodical, he continued to write poetry and realistic short stories with surprise endings. In 1867, for instance, he wrote “A Young Desperado,” which concerned a mischievous six-year-old boy who terrorized the neighborhood in which he lived. In 1869 The Story of a Bad Boy, a novel, was serialized in Our Young Folks, then published in book form in 1870, the year Mrs. Aldrich gave birth to twin boys. The novel was the first to realistically depict a typical American boy. The novel’s protagonist, Tom Bailey, reflects on the years when he was a child living in Rivermouth. Aldrich based Rivermouth on Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The novel’s characters, based on actual persons, and the setting are realistically depicted. The novel’s protagonist, actually Aldrich himself, is in all honesty a good boy, contrary to the novel’s title. Tom is studious and attempts to meet his parents’ expectations. However, primarily because he is a child, and consequently immature, he gets into trouble occasionally. The novel’s protagonist presents his childhood experiences, including those that are painful, such as the death of his father, in a humorous vein. This is the reason that today’s critics consider the novel inferior to those written by Mark Twain. Indeed, the novel contains few serious scenes. The novel is slice-of-life in the sense that it does not allow the reader a full understanding of the relationship between Tom and Rivermouth. Of course, one needs to remember that the novel was written to entertain children. The Story of a Bad Boy is Aldrich’s best novel. Without question, it influenced such writers as Mark Twain. In 1874 Every Saturday ceased publication, and Aldrich devoted his time to writing. The same year he published Prudence Palfrey: A Novel. It was followed by The Queen of Sheba, (1877) and The Stillwater Tragedy (1880). These nov-

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els, with adult themes such as insanity and social problems, lack sustainable plots. When William Dean Howells retired as editor in chief of the Atlantic Monthly in 1881, Aldrich was hired as his replacement. For the next nine years Aldrich steered the literary periodical, accepting for publication work from Francis Marion Crawford, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, Longfellow, Lowell, and Whittier, among others. Under Aldrich the periodical catered to the cultivated, rather than the general interest, reader. In 1890 Aldrich resigned from the Atlantic Monthly. Although he was financially secure and could live a life of leisure (he and his wife occasionally traveled abroad), he continued to write. He produced short stories and essays which were eventually collected under the titles An Old Town by the Sea (1893), Two Bites at a Cherry with Other Tales (1894), A Sea Turn and Other Matters (1902), and Ponkapag Papers (1903). He also wrote for the stage. In 1901 one of his sons, Charles, was diagnosed with tuberculosis and underwent treatment in the Adirondacks. Following his son’s death in 1904, Aldrich grew depressed. He and his wife traveled to Egypt in 1905. Upon their return, Aldrich’s depression seemed to have disappeared. In January 1907 he became seriously ill and underwent an operation. He died at his home on March 19. REPRESENTATIVE WORK The Story of a Bad Boy, 1870

REFERENCES Aldrich, Lilian. Crowding Memories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920. Cosgrave, Mary Silva. “Life and Times of T. B. Aldrich.” Horn Book Magazine 42 (April–August 1966). Grattan, C. Hartly. “Thomas Bailey Aldrich.” American Mercury 10 (May 1925). Greenslet, Ferris. The Life of Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1908. Howells, William Dean. “Mr. Aldrich’s Fiction.” Atlantic Monthly 46 (November 1880). More, Paul Elmer. Shelburne Essays: Seventh Series. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910. Samuels, Charles E. Thomas Bailey Aldrich. New York: Twayne, 1965. Vedder, Henry Clay. American Writers of To-day. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1972.

Nelson Algren (1909–1981) Nelson Algren wrote novels in the naturalistic tradition. He depicted characters that, though destitute, combated numerous obstacles that existed in their troubled environment. Algren was born in Detroit in 1909. His parents were from Chicago, and in 1912 the family returned there. Algren was reared near the ghetto. His experiences and the shady characters he met both influenced his beliefs and appeared in his naturalistic novels. Algren attended the University of Illinois, where he exhibited an interest in English literature and sociology. He received his bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1931. Primarily because of the Great Depression, he could not obtain a job. Algren left Chicago and worked briefly as a salesman in New Orleans, then wandered to Texas, where he attempted to find employment. He became somewhat of a hobo as he rode in freight cars or hitchhiked throughout the South. Algren experienced what thousands of other Americans experienced during this period, and he eventually put his experiences on paper. In 1933, he published a short story about the Southwest in the literary magazine Story. A publisher read the story, liked it, and encouraged Algren to write a novel. Somebody in Boots, whose protagonist is Cass McKay, a young illiterate from Texas who wanders during the early 1930s, was published in 1935. The novel concerns survival and reveals Algren’s disillusionment with the United States and the American dream. McKay’s troubling experiences, including his close brushes with death, as well as those of other characters, occur in a world where the poor and the weak are doomed to a life of poverty and utter misery. Algren’s female characters resort to prostitution and often are mistreated by the male characters. In 1935, at the urging of President Franklin Roosevelt, Congress enacted the

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Works Progress Administration, and Algren was hired as a writer by that organization. He also wrote poetry and helped Jack Conroy edit the leftist periodical New Anvil. In 1936 Algren married Amanda Kontowicz; the marriage ended in divorce a few years later. In 1940 Algren left the Works Progress Administration and started writing another novel; Never Come Morning was published two years later. The novel primarily concerns a Polish slum in Chicago during the late 1930s. The main character, Bruno Bicek, a tough youth who desires to be a professional boxer, has few, if any, scruples: he lies, cheats, steals, and commits murder. He even allows a street gang to which he belongs to rape his girlfriend, Steffi Rostenkowski. Steffi becomes a prostitute, primarily for the money, and Bruno eventually is a contender for the championship. However, he is betrayed by two of his supposed friends and is arrested for murder. Algren served as a private in the army during World War II. He was released in 1945. In 1947 he published The Neon Wilderness, a book of short stories, several of which are based on his experiences in the army. The Man with the Golden Arm, a novel, was published in 1949. The novel concerns Frankie Machine (Francis Majcinek), a former soldier who is addicted to morphine and earns a living as a card dealer in a gambling house. He suffers from guilt because he was responsible for an automobile accident that left his wife, Zosh, permanently crippled. The novel, which won the first National Book Award, is superior to his previous novels because it is fully developed. For instance, Frankie’s uncomplicated sexual relationship with his mistress, Molly Novotny, provides another view of Frankie. Novotny is married to an alcoholic who physically abuses her. Frankie treats her the best he can. Eventually, Frankie is pursued for killing Nifty Louie, a drug pusher, and kills himself. Algren met the French writer Simone de Beauvoir in 1947, and the two became almost inseparable, traveling throughout the United States and Latin America. In 1949 Algren went to Paris to be with her, and in 1951 she traveled to the United States to be with him. Their relationship ended in the latter year. De Beauvoir wrote about their experiences in The Mandarins, a novel based in part on her life, and in other works. In 1951 Algren published Chicago: City on the Make, a lengthy poetic essay. In the early 1950s he returned to New Orleans, where he wrote A Walk on the Wild Side, a novel that was published in 1956. It concerns Dove Linkhorn, a poor illiterate who wanders from Texas to New Orleans. In order to survive, he works as a performer in a house of prostitution. Eventually he loses his sight in a fight with a man who has no legs. Who Lost an American?, published in 1963, is a travel book. A year later a series of interviews appeared under the title Conversations with Nelson Algren. Notes from a Sea Diary: Hemingway All the Way, another travel book, was published in 1965.

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Algren married Betty Ann Jones in 1965; the marriage ended in divorce two years later. In 1970 he contributed a column to the Chicago Free Press, and later taught creative writing at several universities. In 1973 The Last Carousel, a book of short stories, was published. Algren moved from Chicago to New Jersey, then to Sag Harbor, Long Island, where he died in 1981. He had finished another novel, but it paled in comparison to his earlier work. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Somebody in Boots, 1935 Never Come Morning, 1942 The Man with the Golden Arm, 1949 A Walk on the Wild Side, 1956

REFERENCES Bluestone, George. “Nelson Algren.” Western Review 22 (Autumn 1957). Cox, Martha H., and Wayne Chatterton. Nelson Algren. Boston: Twayne, 1975. Drew, Bettina. Nelson Algren: A Life on the Wild Side. New York: Putnam, 1989. Geismar, Maxwell. American Moderns: From Rebellion to Conformity. New York: Hill and Wang, 1968.

James Lane Allen (1849–1925) James Lane Allen wrote realistic short stories and novels about the inhabitants of Kentucky, his native state. Allen was born to Richard and Helen Foster Allen on December 21, 1849, on a farm in the bluegrass region of Kentucky, near Lexington. He was the youngest of seven children. The Allen family experienced hardship during and after the Civil War. James Allen worked hard, and he graduated from preparatory school in 1865. He did not attend college immediately, however. Instead, he worked, trying to help his family make ends meet. In 1868 he entered Kentucky University (now Transylvania University), from which he graduated with honors four years later. Allen taught in a school at Fort Springs, Kentucky, then in a high school in Richmond, Missouri. In 1875 he opened a private school in Lexington, Missouri, which was not successful. Allen returned to Kentucky, where he enrolled in the master’s degree program at his alma mater. In order to pay his expenses, he tutored several boys. Allen received his master’s degree in 1877, and a year later served as the principal of a preparatory school in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1880 he was offered a professorship of Latin at Bethany College, in Bethany, West Virginia. He accepted the offer and held the post for three years. Allen returned to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1884, and founded a private school. In his spare time he wrote poetry and articles that appeared in publications such as Harper’s New Monthly Magazine and the Atlantic Monthly. In 1885 Allen stopped teaching and devoted his time to writing. His first short story, “Too Much Momentum,” was published in the April 1885 issue of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. Inspired, Allen continued to write short stories. In 1891 his short stories were collected under the title Flute and Violin, and

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Other Kentucky Tales and Romances. These stories primarily depict the bluegrass region of Kentucky and its people, and are considered to be romantic. A year later Allen collected some of his articles under the title The Blue Grass Region of Kentucky and Other Kentucky Articles. In 1893 Allen moved to New York City, where he resided for the rest of his life. He had been caring for his invalid sister, Annie, since their mother’s death in 1889. He published A Kentucky Cardinal: A Story in 1894. The novelette concerns Adam Moss and Georgiana Cobb—and, of course, the state in which they live. A story of romance, the novelette depicts Moss as a romantic and Georgiana as more of a realist. Moss is attracted to Georgiana and eventually asks her to marry him. Georgiana refuses, but he is persistent; by the novelette’s end, they are to be married. In 1895 Allen published Aftermath, a sequel to A Kentucky Cardinal. The novel concerns the tension between Adam and Georgiana, which is caused, in part, by Georgiana’s younger sister Sylvia. Moss becomes attracted to Sylvia, but not attracted enough to sacrifice his marriage. Georgiana gives birth to a son, Adam Cobb Moss, and later dies, leaving her husband free to return to his fields and nature. Summer in Arcady: A Tale of Nature, which is considered one of Allen’s realistic novels, was published in 1896. It concerns young, innocent Daphne and young, lusty Hilary. Hilary makes advances to Daphne because he is physically attracted to her. However, Daphne is a romantic and Hilary is a realist. Yet, their differences do not keep them apart. They grow to love one another, and eventually marry. When it was published, the novel was considered by critics to be too open about physical sexuality. In 1897 Allen published The Choir Invisible, a realistic novel in which he attempted to address social determinism. It is about frontier Kentucky and its inhabitants who experience half-filled lives. John Gray, a teacher, believes he loves Amy Falconer. However, he is actually in love with Jessica Falconer, a married woman. Of course, John does not express his feelings to Jessica, because if he did, it would be socially unacceptable. However, he feels guilty for not telling Jessica he loves her. Although The Choir Invisible was one of Allen’s most popular novels, it was not one of his best. John Gray, for instance, is an extremely weak character in a loosely constructed plot. In 1900 Allen wrote the controversial The Reign of Law: A Tale of the Kentucky Hemp Fields, a realistic novel about evolution. The novel’s location is post–Civil War Kentucky. The primary character, David, intends to become a minister. He works in hemp fields to earn money for college. Although he has studied the Bible, he has not studied man. David attends a Bible college and soon realizes that Christianity has been interpreted differently by the various denominations. He grows confused and eventually questions his faith. Consequently, he is expelled from college for having doubts about the existence of God. When he returns home, his parents practically disown him. David attempts to reconcile with his parents, then falls

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ill. A young woman named Gabriella nurses him back to health. David comes to love her, though they do not necessarily agree about religion; Gabriella is an Episcopalian who practices her beliefs. By the novel’s end, Allen implies that Gabriella may help David understand the meaning of God. Allen traveled to Europe in 1900. In 1903 his longest novel, The Mettle of the Pasture, was published; in its complexity it is similar to novels by Henry James. The major characters are Isabel Conyers, Rowan Meredith, and Isabel’s grandmother, Henrietta Conyers. Isabel and Rowan are attracted to one another and fall in love. Isabel is basically a romantic, and Rowan is basically a realist. When Rowan reveals that he has had an affair, Isabel ends their relationship. She realizes that her love for Rowan has not died, however, and eventually agrees to marry him. They have a son, and before the novel ends, Rowan dies. For the next several years, Allen wrote little. Finally, in 1909 he published a romantic novelette about a middle-aged married couple, The Bride of the Mistletoe. He also traveled to Europe. In 1910 Allen published The Doctor’s Christmas Eve, a so-called sequel to The Bride of the Mistletoe. Indeed, the middle-aged married couple of Christmas Eve, Josephine and Frederick Ousley, are characters in the novel, but the major character is Dr. Downs Birney, who is married and is a father. Birney desires Josephine, who appears to be interested in him, but they never consummate their love. Allen published The Heroine in Bronze, or A Portrait of a Girl in 1912, The Last Christmas Tree: An Idyl of Immortality in 1914, The Sword of Youth in 1915, A Cathedral Singer in 1916, The Kentucky Warbler in 1918, and The Alabaster Box in 1923. These novels were not considered his best work. Allen died on February 18, 1925, in New York City. He was buried in Lexington, Kentucky, three days later. His popularity as a writer had declined by the time of his death. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Summer in Arcady: A Tale of Nature, 1896 The Choir Invisible, 1897 The Reign of Law: A Tale of the Kentucky Hemp Fields, 1900 The Mettle of the Pasture, 1903

REFERENCES Bottorff, William K. James Lane Allen. New York: Twayne, 1964. Henneman, John Bell. Shakespearean and Other Papers. Sewanee, Tenn.: University Press of Sewanee, 1911. Knight, Grant C. James Lane Allen and the Genteel Tradition. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1935. Pattee, Fred L. A History of American Literature Since 1870. New York: Century, 1915.

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Quinn, Arthur H. American Fiction: A Historical and Critical Survey. New York: Appleton-Century, 1936. Townsend, John Wilson. James Lane Allen: A Personal Note. Louisville, Ky.: CourierJournal Job Printing Co. 1928.

Sherwood Anderson (1876–1941) Sherwood Anderson depicted the demoralizing effect of an industrialized society upon Americans. His style of writing and his unusual characters inspired other writers in America. Anderson, one of seven children, was born in Camden, Ohio, in 1876. His father, who had served in the Union Army during the Civil War, made harnesses; his mother took in laundry. The family moved to Clyde, Ohio, in 1884. Like others in his family, Anderson knew the definition of hard work. In 1896, for instance, he labored in a Chicago warehouse. Two years later he volunteered for the U.S. Army and served in the Spanish-American War; he was promoted to corporal before he was discharged. Immediately after being discharged, Anderson enrolled in Wittenberg Academy, from which he graduated in 1900, then sold advertising and later worked as a copywriter for an advertising agency in Chicago. In 1904 he married Cornelia Lane, who had been to college and to Europe. Anderson’s life seemed fulfilled. From 1906 to 1912, he and his wife lived in Cleveland, then Elyria, Ohio, where he became the president of the Anderson Manufacturing Company, which produced paint. In 1912, Anderson suffered a mental breakdown and was hospitalized briefly; he never returned to the company. Instead, he moved to Chicago, where he associated with writers and editors, including Theodore Dreiser. Anderson desired to learn about literature and to write fiction, which he had been doing unsuccessfully for several years. The people he came to know were eager to help him in his newly chosen vocation. Anderson, who had been separated from his wife for months, divorced her in 1916 and married Tennessee Mitchell, a woman he had met in Chicago. Mitchell had interests similar to Anderson’s. Also in 1916 he published his first novel, Windy McPherson’s Son, a partly

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autobiographical realistic novel. Windy, a loud-mouthed liar, is based on Anderson’s father. Sam McPherson, who attempts to kill Windy, is based on Anderson. Sam flees and travels to Chicago, where he becomes successful and marries. However, the emptiness inside him is not filled until he adopts three children. In 1917 Anderson published Marching Men. This novel was followed by MidAmerican Chants, a collection of poems, in 1918. Anderson’s reputation was made a year later, when Winesburg, Ohio was published. Inspired by Edgar Lee Masters’s Spoon River Anthology, Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio contains realistic stories about individuals who live in a small town. On the surface, they seem to be ordinary individuals attempting to make a living. Beneath the surface, each has an inner being that is trying to get out. The main character, young George Willard, observes these individuals and reports what he sees. George, of course, is Anderson. The older folks of Winesburg have experienced life and, consequently, attempt to explain what it means to the younger citizens of the community. Usually their expressions are awkward, and occasionally unclear. The younger people desire to experience life, not to be informed about it. Eventually George, who desires to learn about life and to fulfill his dreams, leaves Winesburg. Poor White (1920), another realistic novel, concerns Hugh McVey, the son of a derelict who lives in Mudcat Landing, Missouri. In 1921 Anderson traveled to New York City, and then to Europe, where he met Gertrude Stein and James Joyce, among other literary figures. That same year The Triumph of the Egg, a collection of short stories, was published. It contained several outstanding short stories, including “I Want to Know Why” and “The New Englander.” Anderson’s next realistic novel, Many Marriages (1923), concerns John Webster, a successful businessman in a small Wisconsin town, and his sudden realization that he is in love with his secretary, not his wife. Anderson’s second collection of short stories, Horses and Men, was published the same year. In 1924 Anderson divorced Tennessee Mitchell and married Elizabeth Prall. He revisited New Orleans (he had been there in 1922), and in Mississippi he encouraged William Faulkner to become a writer of fiction. Anderson wrote several more novels and two autobiographies, but none of the novels had the impact of his earlier work. Dark Laughter, which was published in 1925, was the last novel to have a broad appeal. In 1927 Anderson purchased a small newspaper in Marion, Virginia, and attempted to taste small town life for a second time. He divorced Elizabeth Prall in 1929, the year Hello, Towns was published, and married Eleanor Copenhaver in 1933, the year Death in the Woods was published. Although he was not seriously interested in politics or the various “isms” of the day, Anderson grew concerned about workers’ rights, especially during the Great Depression. For instance, he wrote about the plight of southern textile workers and supported several textile strikes. He agreed with Theodore Dreiser

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and other writers who were advocating a “new order.” His social essays were collected and published under the title Puzzled America in 1935. Anderson wrote several plays, which were collected in 1937. In 1941, while on a tour of South America for the State Department, Anderson died in Colo´n, Panama Canal Zone. His Memoirs was published a year later. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Windy McPherson’s Son, 1916 Winesburg, Ohio, 1919 Poor White, 1920 Many Marriages, 1923

REFERENCES Anderson, David D. Sherwood Anderson: An Introduction and Interpretation. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1967. Boynton, Percy H. “Sherwood Anderson.” North American Review, 224 (March–April– May 1927): 140–150. Burbank, Rex. Sherwood Anderson. New York: Twayne, 1964. Geismar, Maxwell. The Last of the Provincials: The American Novel, 1915–1925. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1947. Hansen, Harry. Midwest Portraits: A Book of Memories and Friendships. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1923. Howe, Irving. Sherwood Anderson. New York: Sloane, 1951. Papinchak, Robert Allen. Sherwood Anderson: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1992. Rideout, Walter B., ed. Sherwood Anderson: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1974. Schevill, James. Sherwood Anderson: His Life and Work. Denver: University of Denver Press, 1951. Taylor, Welford Dunaway. Sherwood Anderson. New York: Praeger, 1977. Townsend, Kim. Sherwood Anderson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. Twentieth Century Literature, 23 (February 1977). Sherwood Anderson issue. Weber, Brom. Sherwood Anderson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1964. White, Ray Lewis. Winesburg, Ohio: An Exploration. Boston: Twayne, 1990.

Harriette Simpson Arnow (1907–1986) Harriette Simpson Arnow wrote several naturalistic novels about the impoverished people who eked out a living in the Appalachian region of Kentucky. Her best-known novel, The Dollmaker, is still in print. Arnow was born in Wayne County, Kentucky, on July 7, 1907, to Mollie Denny Simpson and Elias Thomas Simpson. (She claimed that she was born a year later.) She was the second of their six children. In 1913 the family moved to Burnside, Kentucky, where Elias Simpson worked at the Chicago Veneer factory. Arnow attended Burnside Grade School until the fifth grade. In 1918 an influenza epidemic occurred, and her mother, who had been a teacher prior to her marriage, taught her children at home in an effort to keep them from getting ill. Later that year the family moved to Torrent, Kentucky, where Elias worked as a tool dresser in an oil field. Arnow entered the seventh grade at St. Helen’s Academy. At the end of the school year, she complained to her mother that she had not learned anything. She next attended Stanton Academy, in Powell County, Kentucky. The family then returned to Burnside, and Arnow graduated from Burnside High School in 1924. By this time, publishers had rejected some of her writing. Arnow matriculated at Berea College, where she completed two years of work, enough to get a teacher’s certificate. Then she taught in a one-room school in rural Pulaski County, Kentucky, and enrolled in an extension course in writing that was offered through the University of Kentucky. When the school year ended, she returned to Burnside, where she became principal of an elementary school. In 1928 Arnow resigned as principal and moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where she continued her formal education at the University of Louisville. She joined a writers’ group at the university, sharing her work with others and re-

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ceiving encouragement. Although her father died in 1929, Arnow continued her education, graduating in 1931. She returned to Pulaski County, where she accepted a teaching position at a new high school. She enjoyed teaching there, but she missed her friends in Louisville. In late 1933, Arnow accepted a teaching position at a junior high school in Louisville. Unfortunately, her students lacked discipline. Trying to teach these unruly children took its toll on her health, and she was soon hospitalized for anemia and a throat infection. When she recovered, she moved to Petoskey, Michigan, where she worked as a waitress. In late 1934, Arnow moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where she continued to write. Success was slow in coming. She had several short stories published in literary magazines. For instance, “A Mess of Pork” was published in The New Talent in 1935. Her first novel, Mountain Path, was published a year later. The somewhat autobiographical novel concerns Louisa Sheridan, a young college student who also teaches, and on the surface it seems to be a coming-of-age story. Sheridan, a city girl, grows confused when she becomes emotionally involved with a member of the mountain community where she lives and works. Although she has a college education, she finds herself attracted to the earthy mountain people with whom she associates. Not only does she learn about their simple lives and culture, she learns about herself. Reviewers praised the novel for its honest portrayal of people who live in the mountains and claimed that the protagonist, unlike protagonists in other novels set in the mountains, does not attempt to change them through education, but learns to appreciate their values and customs. The novel demonstrated Arnow’s bond to the people she had known and loved. Arnow continued to live in Cincinnati or, sometimes, in Covington, Kentucky, which is across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. She worked at menial jobs, then as a writer for the Federal Writers Project. She met Harold Arnow, a journalist from Chicago, in 1938. They married in Cincinnati in 1939, then purchased a farm near the Cumberland River in Kentucky. Arnow milked cows, fed chickens, and planted vegetables. Arnow became pregnant; their child, Denny Abel Arnow, died at birth in 1939. (Their third child, a daughter, died at birth several years later.) In 1940, primarily to earn extra money, Arnow taught at a one-room school. A year later her second child, Marcella Jane, was born, and she stayed at home, taking care of her for a year. In 1942 her short story “The Two Hunters” was published in Esquire magazine, and “The Hunter,” appeared in the Atlantic Monthly. In 1943 Arnow taught school again, taking her daughter with her. She did very little writing, for her days were filled with taking care of her daughter, teaching, and farm chores. In 1944, during World War II, Harold Arnow was inducted into the U.S. Army, and he moved the family to Detroit. Their son, Thomas Louis Arnow, was born there in late 1946. Arnow, who had been thinking about writing a novel for some time, wrote

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diligently while living in Detroit. In 1949 Hunter’s Horn was published. The novel concerns Nunn Ballew, a Kentucky farmer who becomes obsessed with an elusive fox called “King Devil,” which has been killing the livestock on his farm. Like Ahab in Moby Dick, he is relentless in his pursuit, even though his actions cause the rural community and his family to ridicule him. He even buys expensive hunting dogs. Finally, Ballew kills the fox. However, he is upset when he learns that the fox was carrying pups. Ballew later learns that his daughter is pregnant and that she does not wish to marry. Instead, she desires to move north and get an education. She believes that her father will help her, because he has always had contempt for the more´s of the community. His words and actions shock her, for in an effort to gain the support of the community, he tells her that she must marry the unborn baby’s father. Reviewers praised the novel for its depiction of authentic and complex characters who desire love and compassion. They also enjoyed the plot. In 1950 the Arnows purchased a small farm near Ann Arbor, Michigan. Harold worked as a reporter for the Detroit Times, and Harriette continued to write fiction. Four years later her third novel, The Dollmaker, was published. Another novel featuring a Kentucky protagonist, The Dollmaker concerns a family’s migration from the hills to a crowded housing project in Detroit during World War II and focuses on Gertie Nevels, an intimidating mountain of a woman who is six feet, four inches tall. Gertie tries to keep her family together amid economic hardship, labor strikes, social prejudice, and family strife. The naturalistic novel depicts a family’s disintegration. Gertie intends to carve a large block of cherry wood into a smiling Christ. However, to help the family’s finances, she sacrifices her artistic endeavor and whittles blood-dripping Christ figures, which are sold for cash. Then she massproduces painted dolls in an effort to earn even more money. After a while she realizes that she has become corrupted by the industrial process. Finally, Gertie splits the large block of cherry wood in order to have more wood for the massproduced dolls. The Dollmaker was extremely popular, and reviewers praised the work as Arnow’s best. No longer was she labeled a regionalist; after all, she was writing about people who had migrated to another part of the country in order to survive, and thousands of Americans could relate to what Gertie and her family experienced during World War II. Arnow’s next major work, Seedtime on the Cumberland, a well-researched piece of nonfiction that detailed the early exploration of the Cumberland River area in southern Kentucky, was published in 1960. A companion piece of nonfiction, Flowering of the Cumberland, appeared in 1963. Arnow’s next published novel (1970) received mixed reviews. Titled The Weedkiller’s Daughter, the novel concerns the Schnitzer family, especially Susie, the daughter who attempts to preserve natural beauty and remain objective toward others. Her father, on the other hand, seems to enjoy destroying natural beauty and exhibiting his bigotry. This was the first of Arnow’s novels not to

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feature major characters from Kentucky. (One minor character in the book, described as a weird, older woman who lives on a farm, is none other than Gertie Nevels.) The Kentucky Trace: A Novel of the American Revolution (1974), Arnow’s last published novel, features Leslie Collins, who fights British soldiers, and plans to rescue and adopt an abused infant. Arnow’s autobiography, Old Burnside, was published in 1977. Harold Arnow died in 1985; Harriette died a year later, at her home in Michigan. At the time of her death, she was working on another novel about the people of southern Kentucky. This novel, which has not been published, is set during the Civil War. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Mountain Path, 1936 Hunter’s Horn, 1949 The Dollmaker, 1954

REFERENCES Arnow, Harriette Simpson. Old Burnside. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1977. Chung, Haeja K., ed. Harriette Simpson Arnow: Critical Essays on Her Work. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1995. Eckley, Wilton. Harriette Arnow. New York: Twayne, 1974. Flynn, John. “A Journey with Harriette Simpson Arnow.” Michigan Quarterly Review, 29, no. 2 (Spring 1990): 241–260. Hobbs, Glenda. “Harriette Arnow’s Kentucky Novels: Beyond Local Color.” Kate Chopin Newsletter, 2 (Fall 1976): 27–33. Thorn, Arline R. “Harriette Arnow’s Mountain Women.” Bulletin of the West Virginia Association of College English Teachers, 4 (1977): 1–9.

William Attaway (1911–1986) William Attaway wrote in the naturalistic tradition when he explored the lives of African Americans who had moved from the South to the major cities in the North. Attaway was born on November 19, 1911, in Greenville, Mississippi. His father, William A. Attaway, was a physician, and his mother, Florence P. Attaway, was a teacher. His father, who had formed the first legal reserve insurance company for African Americans in 1909, moved the family to Chicago when Attaway was young. Although his parents encouraged Attaway to learn a profession, he rebelled by attending a vocational school instead of a regular high school. His parents eventually persuaded him to attend a regular high school. Attaway enrolled at the University of Illinois, but he did not stay. He wandered for two years, earning a living by working as a seaman and salesperson. Later he became a member of the Federal Writers’ Project in Illinois. In 1935 Attaway returned to the University of Illinois, where his play Carnival was produced. He earned his bachelor’s degree a year later. Attaway’s first short story, “Tale of the Blackamoor,” was published in Challenge in 1936. Attaway moved to New York City, where he worked at several jobs and wrote in his spare time. He also acted in a production of You Can’t Take It with You. In 1939 Let Me Breathe Thunder, Attaway’s first novel, was published. The novel, which some critics claimed was influenced by naturalism, concerns Step and Ed, two white hoboes who hop freight trains. Attaway depicts the hardships that they face as well as their relationship with Hi Boy, a young Mexican who joins them. The three eventually work on a ranch that is owned by a man named Sampson. Sampson’s young daughter, Anna, becomes Step’s primary interest, until she demands too much.

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Before the novel ends, Step, Anna, Ed, and Hi Boy go to the closest town, where violence erupts and Anna is shot. Step, Ed, and Hi Boy hop a train, and Hi Boy eventually dies from an earlier self-inflicted knife wound. Attaway’s Blood on the Forge (1941) concerns the Mosses, three AfricanAmerican half brothers. They move from a farm in Kentucky to Pennsylvania, primarily to work in steel mills. However, one is killed and another is blinded. Attaway’s characters are realistically depicted, and his settings are accurately described. Reviewers found the novel superior to his earlier work because of its characterization and theme. The novel was a commercial failure, however, and Attaway did not write another. Instead, he wrote music. A collection of songs, Calypso Song Book, was published in 1957. He continued to write music for performers, and he also wrote scripts for radio and television programs. For instance, in 1965 he finished the script for the television show One Hundred Years of Laughter, which aired as a special in 1966. Attaway and his family visited Barbados after he finished the script for One Hundred Years. He liked Barbados so much that he remained there for eleven years. In 1967 Attaway published Hear America Singing, a history of popular music in America. He also continued to write scripts for television and film. In 1968, for instance, he was asked to write a screenplay based on The Man, a novel by Irving Wallace. The producers thought the screenplay was too rough, however. Attaway was paid for his work, but another writer produced the final version. Attaway moved his family to Berkeley, California, in the 1980s, then to Los Angeles, where he continued to write scripts. He was writing the script for The Atlanta Child Murders when he suffered a heart attack. His health deteriorated and he died on June 17, 1986. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Let Me Breathe Thunder, 1939 Blood on the Forge, 1941

REFERENCES Bone, Robert A. The Negro Novel in America. Rev. ed. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1965. Felgar, Robert. “William Attaway’s Unaccommodated Protagonists.” Studies in Black Literature, 4 (Spring 1973): 1–3. Gayle, Addison, Jr. The Way of the New World: The Black Novel in America. New York: Anchor/Doubleday, 1975. Hill, Herbert, ed. Anger, and Beyond: The Negro Writer in the United States. New York: Harper & Row, 1966. Young, James O. Black Writers of the Thirties. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1973.

Louis Auchincloss (1917–

)

Louis Stanton Auchincloss is a prolific writer of manners who explores the lives of Manhattan’s wealthier class. Like William Dean Howells and Henry James before him, he discloses the workings of powerful law firms and financial centers as well as of corporations. Auchincloss was born in Lawrence, Long Island, on September 27, 1917, to Priscilla and Joseph Auchincloss. His father, a lawyer, worked for a firm on Wall Street. Both parents came from wealthy families, and Auchincloss enjoyed winter and summer homes, servants, parties, and travel during his youth. Auchincloss attended the Bovee School for Boys in New York City, then Groton, where he exhibited an interest in literature and drama. His first short stories were published in The Grotonian. In 1935 Auchincloss enrolled at Yale University, where his interest in literature and drama grew. He wrote short stories for the Yale Literary Magazine and submitted a novel for publication, but it was rejected. Disheartened, Auchincloss left Yale before his senior year and enrolled at the University of Virginia Law School. He enjoyed studying law, and eventually became editor of the Law Review. During the summer of 1940 Auchincloss worked at the Wall Street firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, where he learned about estate law. In 1941 he was admitted to the bar, then joined Sullivan & Cromwell as an associate. When the United States entered World War II, Auchincloss served in Naval Intelligence. He commanded an LST in England, then participated in the invasion of Normandy. Upon his discharge from the navy, he returned to Sullivan & Cromwell. In his off-hours he completed a novel that he had started during the war. He published The Indifferent Children in 1947, under the pseudonym “Andrew Lee.” The novel concerned Beverly Stregelinus, a dilettante who experiences love in New York and London during World War II.

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Auchincloss wrote short stories under his own name that were published in several popular magazines, including the Atlantic and The New Yorker. In 1950 he collected eight of these stories under the title The Injustice Collectors. Like the novels to come, they concerned the so-called beautiful people—that is, the wealthier class. Auchincloss, because of his social position, captured the characters and their surroundings honestly and accurately. In 1951 Auchincloss resigned from Sullivan & Cromwell, primarily to write full-time, but three years later he joined Hawkins, Delafield & Wood, another Wall Street firm. Before he returned to the law, however, he published two novels about society women who divorce: Sybil (1952) and A Law for the Lion (1954). The Romantic Egoists, a second collection of short stories, appeared in late 1954. In 1956 Auchincloss published The Great World of Timothy Colt, which concerns a lawyer who ruins not only his marriage but also his career. It was followed by Venus in Sparta (1958), whose protagonist is a bank executive who experiences success and happiness, then loses both. Auchincloss married Adele Lawrence in 1957. They had three children. Auchincloss published Pursuit of the Prodigal in 1959. The novel concerns Reese Parmalee, a member of the wealthier class who decides to step down one or two rungs of the social ladder. Parmalee learns that one should remain in one’s own class. In the 1960s Auchincloss wrote novels that depicted several generations of wealthy families in America. The House of Five Talents was published in 1960 and was followed by Portrait in Brownstone in 1962. In 1964 he published one of his all-time best-selling realistic novels, The Rector of Justin, which features Frank Prescott, the headmaster of a school for boys. Auchincloss allows the reader to learn about Prescott through six individuals who had known him. Many reviewers thought Auchincloss’s portrait of Prescott was both passionate and honest. The Embezzler was published in 1966, and A World of Profit followed in 1968. The latter concerns Jay Livingstone, a Jewish land developer who achieves success, then fails. In 1972 Auchincloss published I Came as a Thief, about a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission who betrays the public’s trust. The Dark Lady (1977) concerns an actress and her marriage to a wealthy Jewish banker, her affair with her husband’s son, and her becoming a member of the U.S. Congress after her husband’s death. The Country Cousin (1978) concerns members of New York’s high society. The House of the Prophet (1980) concerns Felix Leitner, a lawyer and a columnist who uses his friends to advance in his career and in his life. Auchincloss published several novels in the early 1980s, including The Cat and the King (1981), Watchfires (1982), Exit Lady Masham (1983), and The Book Class (1984). The last, which was compared to Helen Hooven Santmyer’s . . . And Ladies of the Club, concerns members of a book club and the power they wield over others.

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Auchincloss retired from practicing law in 1986, after a long and distinguished career. His novel Honourable Men, published the same year, concerns politics—specifically, the individuals responsible for getting America involved in Vietnam. Diary of a Yuppie (1987) focuses on Robert Service, who is determined to succeed in corporate America. He fails, however, because of his own deeds and words. The Golden Calves was published in 1988, and Fellow Passengers: A Novel in Portraits appeared a year later. In addition to novels, Auchincloss continued to write short stories. These were published in popular magazines, then collected. The Romantic Egoists (1954) was followed by Powers of Attorney (1963). Tales of Manhattan appeared in 1967. Second Chance: Tales of Two Generations, The Partners, and The Winthrop Covenant were published in 1970, 1974, and 1976, respectively. Narcissa and Other Fables appeared in 1982; Skinny Island: More Tales of Manhattan, in 1987; and False Gods, a collection of fables, in 1992. Auchincloss’s fiction, especially his novels about New York high society, has caused some critics to state that he is America’s last novelist of manners. Other novelists of manners included William Dean Howells, Henry James, and Edith Wharton. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Indifferent Children, 1947 Sybil, 1952 A Law for the Lion, 1954 The Great World of Timothy Colt, 1956 Venus in Sparta, 1958 Pursuit of the Prodigal, 1959 The House of Five Talents, 1960 Portrait in Brownstone, 1962 The Rector of Justin, 1964 A World of Profit, 1968 The Dark Lady, 1977 The Country Cousin, 1978 The House of the Prophet, 1980 The Book Class, 1984 Diary of a Yuppie, 1987

REFERENCES Auchincloss, Louis. A Writer’s Capital. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1974.

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Bryan, C.D.B. “Under the Auchincloss Shell.” New York Times Magazine, February 11, 1979, pp. 35, 37, 61, 66. Bryer, Jackson R. Louis Auchincloss and His Critics: A Bibliographical Record. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1977. Davis, Sandra. “Best-Selling Novelist Louis Auchincloss—Urbane Echo of a Graceful Past.” Life, April 15, 1966, pp. 53–54, 56–57. Hicks, Granville. Literary Horizons: A Quarter Century of American Fiction. New York: New York University Press, 1970. Kane, Patricia. “Lawyers at the Top: The Fiction of Louis Auchincloss.” Critique, 7, no. 2 (Winter 1964–1965): 36–46. Parsell, David B. Louis Auchincloss. Boston: Twayne, 1988. Tuttleton, James W. “Louis Auchincloss: The Image of Lost Elegance and Virtue.” American Literature, 43 (January 1972): 616–632. Westbrook, Wayne W. “Louis Auchincloss’ Vision of Wall Street.” Critique, 15, no. 2 (1973): 57–66.

Mary Austin (1868–1934) Mary Austin was a realistic writer who was also an advocate of causes such as those for women and Indians. Her writing focused on these causes as well as on particular regions and their inhabitants. Austin was born in Carlinville, Illinois, on September 9, 1868, to Susanna Savilla Hunter and George Hunter. Her father, a lawyer, had emigrated from England in 1851 and had served as an officer in the Civil War. He died when Austin was ten years old. Her mother, who was devoted to various “causes,” without question influenced her daughter. Austin attended Blackburn College, which was close to her home, and studied science. After she earned her bachelor’s degree in 1888, she, her brother, and her mother moved to California, near Fort Tejon, to live off the land. Unfortunately, homesteading was not profitable, and Austin began to teach to earn money. She met Stafford Wallace Austin; after their marriage in 1891, they moved to Bakersfield, then to the Owens River valley. Austin gave birth to their only child, Ruth, in 1892. Ruth was severely retarded and eventually was placed in an institution, where she remained for the rest of her life. Although Austin’s husband attempted to earn money from the land, none of his efforts proved profitable. As a result, he became a teacher. Unlike his wife, however, he did not enjoy teaching. Austin moved to Los Angeles in 1899, primarily to teach at the normal school (now University of California at Los Angeles). After a year, she returned to her husband and the Owens River valley. During this time in Los Angeles, she had started recording her experiences and her observations. In 1900, the editor of the Atlantic accepted some of her material about the West. In 1903 The Land of Little Rain, a collection of sketches about the West, was published.

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Austin separated from her husband in 1905, when she moved to Carmel to conduct research for a novel about early California. She became friends there with George Sterling and Jack London, as well as other writers who lived in or visited the small California community. Isidro, the result of Austin’s research, was published in 1905. The novel was basically a fanciful romance about an hacendado’s son who is determined to become a member of the Franciscans at Carmel. The novel accurately depicts the California countryside. In 1908 Austin published Santa Lucia: A Common Story. The novel’s setting is Santa Lucia, a small college community. Austin examines marriage, especially misconceptions about the subject, through three couples. One couple is a tomboy and a doctor; another, a professor and a society girl; the third, an unethical lawyer and his wife. Austin apparently based the professor on her husband and the lawyer’s wife on herself. The purpose of the novel was to inform the reader that a sound marriage results when two people work harmoniously together. The novel accurately depicted the social and business climates of California. Austin visited Italy in 1908, primarily because she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and believed she would die. After studying and praying with the Blue Nuns, she recovered. A year later she traveled to England, where she met several prominent writers, including H. G. Wells and Joseph Conrad, and to France. She returned to the United States in 1910. Austin spent part of the year in New York City and part in California. Austin’s third novel, Outland, which was published under the pseudonym “Gordon Stairs” in 1910, concerns the Outliers, a small tribe of people who live in the forests bordering a small community. The novel is part fantasy and part allegory. Some characters—the writer and the sociologist who are held prisoners by the Outliers, for instance—are based on actual people, including Austin. In 1911 The Arrow Maker: A Drama in Three Acts was produced but was not successful. A year later Austin published Christ in Italy: Being the Adventures of a Maverick Among Masterpieces, which is based on her experiences abroad, and the novel A Woman of Genius, which is based partly on her life. The novel’s major character, Olivia Lattimore, is an actress who had an unhappy childhood and is unhappily married. Nevertheless, she achieves success in her chosen career. The novel accurately depicts the hurdles that women had to overcome in order to achieve success. The Lovely Lady (1913) concerns Peter Weatheral, who achieves success primarily to attract a high society girl. He attracts the girl of his dreams, then realizes that she is interested in his money, not necessarily in him. Weatheral travels abroad to forget the girl of his dreams and meets, then marries, a local girl, who turns out to be the lady for him. In 1914 Austin’s husband filed for a divorce, to which she agreed. They remained friends. The same year Love and the Soul Maker, an examination of marriage, was published. Austin’s next novel was The Ford (1917). It concerns the development of

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agriculture in the San Joaquin valley. The novel displays Austin’s knowledge of central California and the problems that the city of Los Angeles had in securing water for its inhabitants. No. 26 Jayne Street appeared in 1920. The novel concerns Neith Schuyler of New York City, who falls in love with Adam Freer, a social reformer. Through Freer, Schuyler is introduced to radical concepts. She also learns that Freer has broken another woman’s heart by breaking their engagement. Consequently, when he proposes to her, she refuses to marry him. While Austin conducted research in Arizona and New Mexico in the early 1920s, she came to love the colorful scenery and the small Spanish communities. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, she built Casa Querida, a house where she lived for the rest of her life. Although she continued to write during the 1920s, most of Austin’s work was nonfiction. Starry Adventure, a novel, was published in 1931. The novel, which depicts the landscape and culture of New Mexico, focuses on Gardiner Sitwell and Jane Hetherington, who become friends and eventually marry. Although they have problems at the beginning of their marriage, they ultimately have a satisfying relationship. Austin died on August 13, 1934, the day after she suffered a heart attack. Most of Austin’s novels depicted locations and cultures of the West, and presented her views on social issues, especially those concerning women. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Santa Lucia: A Common Story, 1908 A Woman of Genius, 1912 The Lovely Lady, 1913 The Ford, 1917 No. 26 Jayne Street, 1920 Starry Adventure, 1931

REFERENCES Austin, Mary Hunter. Earth Horizon: Autobiography. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1991. Berry, J. Wilkes. “Mary Hunter Austin.” American Literary Realism 1870–1910, 2 (Summer 1969): 125–131. Doyle, Helen McKnight. Mary Austin: Woman of Genius. New York: Gotham, 1939. O’Grady, John P. Pilgrims to the Wild: Everett Ruess, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Clarence King, Mary Austin. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1993. Pearce, T. M. Mary Hunter Austin. New York: Twayne, 1965. Ringler, Donald P. Mary Austin: Kern County Days. Bakersfield, Calif.: Bear Mountain Books, 1963. Stineman, Esther Lanigan. Mary Austin: Song of a Maverick. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1989.

Edward Bellamy (1850–1898) Edward Bellamy was a realistic writer who analyzed the major cultural changes and problems that occurred as a result of technological innovations, and presented revolutionary solutions. Bellamy was born to Maria Louisa Bellamy and Rufus King Bellamy on March 26, 1850, in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. His father was a Baptist minister. Bellamy attended local schools, then Union College. When Bellamy was eighteen, he accompanied his brother Packer to Europe, where he lived in Germany for almost a year. He witnessed the poor conditions in which factory employees had to work, and was disturbed by what he observed. Upon his return to the United States, Bellamy studied law with an attorney in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1871 he was admitted to the bar. After just one case, however, he realized that he did not enjoy practicing law. Bellamy turned his attention to journalism. He moved to New York City, where he obtained a position at the New York Evening Post. In 1872 he returned to Massachusetts, where for several years he worked for the Springfield Union. His health deteriorated, and finally, in 1877, he accompanied his brother Frederick to Hawaii, where his health improved. In 1878 Bellamy returned to Massachusetts, where the same year he anonymously published Six to One: A Nantucket Idyl, a novel about a summer romance that was, for the most part, inconsequential. A small country newspaper serialized The Duke of Stockbridge: A Romance of Shays’ Rebellion, a historical, realistic novel, in 1879. The novel depicts the small farmers and their frustrations with the merchants of post-Revolutionary America, and expresses Bellamy’s political views: he opposed the mercantile class. The novel was published in book form in 1900. In 1880 Bellamy founded the Springfield Daily News with his brother Charles,

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who was responsible for the newspaper’s day-to-day operations. The same year Bellamy published Dr. Heidenhoff’s Process, a psychological romantic novel that concerns one’s past and its effects on one’s future. In 1882 Bellamy married Emma Sanderson; they had two children, born in 1884 and 1886. Bellamy published Miss Ludington’s Sister: A Romance of Immortality, a psychological romantic novel that is similar to Dr. Heidenhoff’s Process, in 1884. Four years later he published Looking Backward: 2000–1887, a utopian romantic novel that presents his ideas about the organization of society. In essence, the novel attempts to tell readers how they could create the ideal American community while retaining all that the industrial revolution had made possible. The novel’s major character, Julian West, a wealthy Bostonian, is put to sleep by hypnosis in 1887. He is awakened in 2000, when society is almost perfect. West’s host, Dr. Leete, explains that corporate America has been nationalized. Private control of the economy no longer exists. Consequently, all of West’s fears and misgivings about the world in which he lived have been put to rest. A utopia has replaced the world he knew. The novel became a best-seller, and clubs were formed throughout the country for the purpose of discussing Bellamy’s ideas. By 1889, a Nationalist movement had swept the country. In 1891 Bellamy started the political magazine the New Nation, in response to the public’s interest in Nationalism. In 1892 the Populist Party’s platform was greatly influenced by his ideas. Other reform movements appeared in the 1890s, however, and Nationalism became fragmented as a result. In 1896 Bellamy’s health deteriorated, and he stopped editing the magazine. He wrote Equality (1897), which continues the theme of Looking Backward. Equality is not a novel in the purest sense of the term, however; it is a series of lectures given by Dr. Leete, among other characters. Bellamy died of tuberculosis on May 22, 1898. The Blindman’s World and Other Stories, a collection of short stories that he had contributed to newspapers and magazines, was published the same year.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Looking Backward: 2000–1887, 1888 The Duke of Stockbridge: A Romance of Shays’ Rebellion, 1900

REFERENCES Aaron, Daniel. Men of Good Hope: A Story of American Progressives. New York: Oxford University Press, 1951. Becker, George. “Edward Bellamy: Utopia, American Plan.” Antioch Review, 14 (June 1954): 181–194.

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Bowman, Sylvia E. The Year 2000: A Critical Biography of Edward Bellamy. New York: Bookman Associates, 1958. ———. Edward Bellamy. Boston: Twayne, 1986. Lipow, Arthur. Authoritarian Socialism in America: Edward Bellamy and the Nationalist Movement. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982. Morgan, Arthur. Edward Bellamy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1944. Patai, Daphne, ed. Looking Backward, 1988–1888: Essays on Edward Bellamy. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988. Schiffman, Joseph. “Edward Bellamy’s Altruistic Man.” American Quarterly, 6 (Fall 1954): 195–209. Thomas, John L. Alternative America: Henry George, Edward Bellamy, Henry Demarest Lloyd, and the Adversary Tradition. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1983.

Saul Bellow (1915–

)

Saul Bellow was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1976. A naturalistic writer, Bellow depicts characters who struggle in life. Unlike characters developed by other naturalistic writers, his characters are not limited by the circumstances in which they find themselves; several achieve a certain amount of happiness, if not success. Bellow was born on June 10, 1915, in Lachine, Quebec, to Liza Bellow and Abraham Bellow. His parents had immigrated to Canada from Russia two years earlier. His father, who had been an importer of produce, became involved in several unsuccessful businesses. The family lived in an impoverished neighborhood outside Montreal until Bellow was nine. In 1924 the family moved to Chicago. Bellow studied several languages and also studied Judaism. His interests changed when he began to read works by Mark Twain and Sherwood Anderson, among other American writers. When he was fifteen, his mother died, and he began to write. Two years later he and a friend traveled to New York City to sell their writing, but neither had any success. Bellow graduated from Tuley High School in 1933, then attended the University of Chicago for two years. He then transferred to Northwestern University, from which he received a bachelor’s degree in anthropology in 1937. Later that year, although he had been awarded a scholarship to study anthropology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, he married Anita Goshkin, a social worker, and decided to become a writer. Bellow worked briefly for the Works Progress Administration, writing biographies of novelists. He taught at the Pestalozzi-Froebel Teachers College in Chicago for a while, then lived briefly in Mexico, where he worked on a novel

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that was never published. When he returned to Chicago, he wrote short stories, several of which were published in magazines. In 1943 Bellow worked for Mortimer J. Adler’s “Great Books” project at the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His novel Dangling Man, in the form of a journal recording the experiences of a disturbed young man as he waited to be drafted, was published in 1944. The novel is based partly on Bellow’s life and depicts the effects of the war on America’s youth. Bellow joined the Merchant Marine and was stationed in New York City. When the war ended, he remained in New York, where his son, Gregory, was born. Bellow worked for Penguin, a publishing company, then briefly for Time magazine. In 1946 he accepted a faculty position at the University of Minnesota. A year later he published The Victim; its main characters are Asa Leventhal and Kirby Allbee. Allbee blames Leventhal for his misfortune and proceeds to take advantage of Leventhal’s generosity. In 1948 Bellow was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship that freed him from his teaching obligations and enabled him to visit Paris and Rome, where he started another novel. When he returned to Minnesota in 1949, he continued working on the novel. Finally, in 1953 he published The Adventures of Augie March, which is set in Chicago. The novel concerns Augie’s ability to endure whatever life throws at him. Although he is frequently confronted by opposing forces, he is never defeated. Bellow’s work was inspired by the naturalistic writers of an earlier period. The novel won the 1954 National Book Award. In 1955 Bellow received another Guggenheim Fellowship and traveled through the West. He divorced his wife and married Aleandra Tschacbasov, with whom he had another son, Adam, several years later. They moved to Tivoli, New York. Seize the Day (1956), a novella, concerns Tommy Wilhelm, who, in an effort to succeed, gambles on the stock market. Like his previous efforts, however, this one fails. Three short stories and a one-act play complete the book. Bellow’s next novel, Henderson the Rain King (1959), is about a millionaire who experiences bouts of rage. Henderson goes to Africa to seek answers to life and learns from tribesmen that the meaning of life can be found within oneself. Bellow traveled to Europe, then returned to New York City. In 1961, the year he married Susan Glassman, he taught at the University of Puerto Rico. Two years later he moved to Chicago, where he became a faculty member at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought. The same year his wife gave birth to their son, Daniel. In 1964 Bellow published Herzog. The story’s protagonist, Moses Herzog, tries to understand life by writing letters to others, including people of the past. The realistic novel was a best-seller and brought Bellow a second National Book Award. In the mid-1960s, Bellow supported several organized efforts against the war

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in Vietnam. He refused, however, to participate in a boycott of the president’s arts festival in 1965. In 1968 Bellow published Mosby’s Memoirs and Other Stories. His next novel, Mr. Sammler’s Planet, appeared in 1970. Arthur Sammler, the protagonist, survives Nazi atrocities in Europe, then moves to New York, where he observes the downfall of Western society. The novel, extremely critical of the 1960s, brought its author another National Book Award. In 1974 Bellow married Alexandra Ionesco Tuleca. Although he had been promoted to chair of the Committee on Social Thought, he continued to write. In 1975 he published Humboldt’s Gift, which concerns Charlie Citrine’s ability to cope with the death of his friend Von Humboldt Fleischer. Citrine, a writer, is based partly on the author. In 1976 Bellow was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for the novel and the Nobel Prize for literature. The same year he visited Israel, then published To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account, based on his observations of the Middle East. The Dean’s December, a novel about Albert Corde, a dean at a college in Chicago, appeared in 1982. Corde accompanies his wife to Bucharest, Romania, where her mother lies ill in a hospital. The novel concerns Corde’s reflections about home and, more important, the problems he and his wife experience when they deal with the Communist bureaucracy. In 1984 Bellow published a collection of short stories, Him with His Foot in His Mouth. He and his wife divorced in 1986, and the following year he published More Die of Heartbreak, a novel concerning Benn Crader, a botanist who is persuaded by his wife to extort money from his uncle, a politician in Chicago. The novel focuses on Crader and his wife’s relationship. In 1989 Bellow married Janis Freedman and published two novellas, A Theft and The Bellarosa Connection. He accepted a position at Boston University in 1993, a year before a collection of articles, It All Adds Up: From the Dim Past to the Uncertain Future, appeared. The articles concerned topical issues and prominent individuals. The Actual, a novella (1997) concerns Harry Trellman, a semiretired man of mystery who is recruited by Sigmund Adletsky, a wealthy Chicagoan, to observe human behavior. Adletsky learns that Trellman had been in love with Amy Wustrin most of his life, but he had never pursued her. Adletsky arranges an awkward meeting between the two. The novella received mixed reviews. In 1999 Bellow’s wife gave birth to a daughter. The following year he published Ravelstein, a novel based on his close friendship with Allan Bloom, who had taught at the University of Chicago. The novel received mixed reviews.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Dangling Man, 1944 The Victim, 1947

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The Adventures of Augie March, 1953 Henderson the Rain King, 1959 Herzog, 1964 Mr. Sammler’s Planet, 1970 Humboldt’s Gift, 1975 The Dean’s December, 1982 More Die of Heartbreak, 1987

REFERENCES Clayton, John J. Saul Bellow: In Defense of Man. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968. Dutton, Robert R. Saul Bellow. Rev. ed. New York: Twayne, 1982. Friedman, Melvin J., and Ben Siegel, eds. Traditions, Voices, and Dreams: The American Novel Since the 1960s. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1995. Hyland, Peter. Saul Bellow. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992. Kiernan, Robert F. Saul Bellow. New York: Continuum, 1989. Malin, Irving. Saul Bellow’s Fiction. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1969. Opdahl, Keith. The Novels of Saul Bellow: An Introduction. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1967. Scheer-Schaetzler, Brigitte. Saul Bellow. New York: Ungar, 1972. Pinsker, Sanford. Jewish-American Fiction, 1917–1987. New York: Twayne, 1992.

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?) Ambrose Bierce was one of the first realistic writers to depict the horrors of the American Civil War. His accurate descriptions and portrayals were based on his experiences as a soldier. Bierce was born on June 24, 1842, on a farm in Meigs County, Ohio, and briefly attended the Kentucky Military Institute prior to the firing on Fort Sumter in 1861. Immediately he volunteered for service and admirably served the Union. Bierce fought in numerous battles and eventually was wounded. He became an officer and served on General William Hazen’s staff. He marched through Georgia and was taken prisoner in Alabama. Bierce escaped, however, before the war ended. After his release from service, he worked for the Treasury Department. Then he joined Hazen, his former commanding officer, who was in charge of an expedition to the West, for almost a year. When Hazen sailed for Panama, Bierce remained in San Francisco, where he worked for the U.S. Subtreasury during the day. In the evening, he wrote articles on politics as well as Poe-like short stories. His writing appeared in the San Francisco News-Letter and Alta California. In 1868 he penned editorial comments under the title “The Town Crier,” a page that entertained readers. Bierce used “The Town Crier” to present his scathing remarks. He attacked the ills of society as well as the rogues responsible for them. Eventually, through the “The Town Crier” and the News-Letter, he became a fixture in San Francisco. Hoping to make his mark abroad, Bierce moved to London in 1872. He wrote for magazines and published several books under the pseudonym “Dod Grile.” When he returned to San Francisco a few years later, the city had changed. Denis Kearney and his Workingmen’s Party attributed the high unemployment

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rate among whites to the Chinese immigrant workers, and his prejudiced views were becoming popular. In response, Bierce published and edited the Argonaut, in which his most famous column, “Prattle,” appeared. He used wit to criticize every form of hypocrisy. In addition, he wrote realistic short stories. In 1880 Bierce sold the Argonaut and moved to the Black Hills of South Dakota to manage a gold mine for a financially strapped company. Before the year ended, the company was bankrupt. Bierce now found himself in desperate need of a job. Finally the Wasp, a San Francisco weekly, accepted his old column, “Prattle.” In 1887 Bierce was approached by William Randolph Hearst, who enjoyed his column as well as his other writing. He offered Bierce a position with the San Francisco Examiner, and “Prattle” was published there until 1896. The Examiner helped to popularize Bierce’s column as well as his realistic short stories. In 1891, after he had written a number of stories about the Civil War, Bierce published Tales of Soldiers and Civilians. The realistic stories are marked by horror and irony—and, of course, conflict. Bierce allows the reader to experience the realities of war—its brutality and ugliness. Characters die in these stories just as men die in battle. Two years later he published Can Such Things Be?, a book of stories about the supernatural. Bierce moved to Washington, D.C., in 1896 to write about an appropriations bill that was before Congress. The bill would have dismissed the huge debt that railroads owed the U.S. government. As a result of his article as well as Hearst’s power, the bill was defeated. Although he returned to San Francisco, Bierce persuaded Hearst to allow him to move to Washington so that he could write more for Hearst’s New York Journal and less for the Examiner. The column he produced, “The Passing Show,” was nothing compared to “Prattle,” and after a few years Hearst moved it to the magazine Cosmopolitan. In 1912, when Bierce was seventy years old, he published his Collected Works. He visited California, then journeyed to Tennessee to stand on the battlefields where he had witnessed numerous deaths. He next headed southwest, visiting New Orleans and San Antonio and El Paso, Texas, where he received credentials to enter Mexico. He desired to observe the revolutionary forces of Pancho Villa. In essence, he had grown old and needed another battle to rejuvenate himself. According to his last correspondence, he was with Villa’s troops near Chihuahua. He was never seen nor heard from again. Although Bierce had not written any realistic novels, his short stories, which had been collected, were linked by their topic and were realistic.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, 1891 Can Such Things Be?, 1893

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REFERENCES Bahr, Howard W. “Ambrose Bierce and Realism.” Southern Quarterly, 1 (July 1963): 309–331. Davidson, Cathy N., ed. Critical Essays on Ambrose Bierce. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1982. Fatout, Paul. Ambrose Bierce, the Devil’s Lexicography, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1951. Grenander, M. E. Ambrose Bierce. New York: Twayne, 1971. McWilliams, Carey. Ambrose Bierce: A Biography. New York: A. & C. Boni, 1929. Morris, Roy. Ambrose Bierce: Alone in Bad Company. New York: Crown, 1995. O’Connor, Richard. Ambrose Bierce: A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1967. Solomon, Eric. “The Bitterness of Battle: Ambrose Bierce’s War Fiction.” Midwest Quarterly, 5 (January 1964): 147–165. Woodruff, Stuart C. The Short Stories of Ambrose Bierce: A Study in Polarity. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1964.

Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Zitkala-Sa) (1876–1938) Gertrude Simmons Bonnin wrote several autobiographical short stories under the Lakota pseudonym Zitkala-Sa (Red Bird). These stories criticized the white society, especially its education of Indians and its mismanagement of Indian affairs. These stories also depicted the harsh realities of being an Indian in a white world. Bonnin was born on February 22, 1876, to Ellen Simmons (Tate I Yohin Win), a full-blooded Sioux, at the Yankton Sioux Agency in South Dakota. Her father was a white trader. (She claimed that she was a full-blooded Indian.) Bonnin lived with the Sioux until 1884, when she, along with other Indian children, went to White’s Indiana Manual Labor Institute, a missionary school operated by Quakers in Wabash, Indiana. She endured the school managed by whites for three years, then returned to the reservation, where she remained for four years. She then returned to the Institute, from which she received her diploma in 1895. Although her mother desired that she return to the reservation, Bonnin enrolled at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. After two years, she became a teacher at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. In 1900 she played the violin with the Carlisle Indian Industrial School Band at the Paris Exposition in France. The same year she published three autobiographical short stories in three consecutive issues of the Atlantic Monthly. She informed readers about the problems that Indians had because of whites’ attitudes and beliefs. She also called for reform of national policies toward Native Americans. Needless to say, these short stories brought attention to her. However, Richard Henry Pratt, the founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, did not care for her stories, and she was soon reassigned. Bonnin, dismayed, moved to Boston, where she studied music.

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When Ginn and Company offered her a publishing contract for a book, Bonnin left Boston and returned to Yankton, where she collected material for the book, Old Indian Legends which was published in 1901. The book contains mythical stories about Indians that are illustrated by Angel De Cora, a Winnebago artist who also taught at Carlisle. There were no teaching positions on the reservation, so Bonnin worked as an issue clerk at the Standing Rock Reservation. There she met Raymond Talesfase Bonnin, another Sioux. They married on May 10, 1902, before they transferred to the Unitah Ouray Reservation in Utah. Bonnin gave birth to a son, Raymond O. Bonnin, in 1903. In between taking care of their son, she worked as a clerk and as a teacher. In addition, she helped organize a band among the children of the reservation. For the most part, Bonnin put her literary aspirations aside while in Utah. In 1913, however, she collaborated with William Hanson, a professor at Brigham Young University, on an opera about Indians. Titled The Sun Dance, the opera presented the manners, customs, dress, and pageantry of the American Indian with sympathy and compassion. It was finally produced in 1937. Bonnin was a correspondent for the Society of American Indians, a reform organization founded in 1911 at Columbus, Ohio. Its aims included termination of communal property holdings, abolition of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and citizenship for Indians. In 1914 Bonnin became a member of the organization’s advisory board, and in 1916 she was elected secretary. In order for her to serve as secretary, she and her husband had to move to Washington, D.C., where, in addition to serving as secretary, she edited the organization’s journal, American Indian Magazine, from 1918 to 1919. The organization disbanded in 1920, and the next year Bonnin persuaded the General Federation of Women’s Clubs to establish an Indian Welfare Committee. In 1921 she collected the autobiographical short stories that she had published, as well as unpublished stories, for the collection American Indian Stories. Her stories reveal Indian life from the Indians’ perspective as well as the cruelties that whites inflicted on Indians. She depicts the educational process of the Indians, which is learning from experience, as well as that of the whites, which is learning from regimentation. She also explains how the two cultures clash in terms of manners, customs, and dress. For instance, the clothing she had to wear when she attended White’s Indiana Manual Labor Institute revealed her figure, whereas the clothing she wore when she lived on the reservation concealed it. Her hair was cut short when she attended the missionary school in Indiana— for the Sioux, short hair was a sign of weakness. Bonnin also describes her experiences as a teacher at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania and explains her reasons for leaving. To her, the educational system for Indians had been corrupted by whites who occupied positions of authority. Bonnin also provides reasons for her rejecting Christianity and embracing the religion of her

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ancestors. Other short stories concern the tribal culture of the Plains Indians and the efforts of those concerned about Indian affairs in Washington, D.C. In 1924, together with the Indian Rights Association, the General Federation of Women’s Clubs supported an investigation into alleged abuses by the federal government of several tribes in Oklahoma. Bonnin headed the investigation and, with two others, wrote an expose´, Oklahoma’s Poor Rich Indians: An Orgy of Graft and Exploitation of the Five Civilized Tribes—Legalized Robbery, which appeared the same year. As a result of this document, the Meriam Commission, which was headed by Lewis Meriam of the Institute for Governmental Research, was formed primarily to examine the conditions of the Indians. In 1926 Bonnin founded the National Council of American Indians, for which she served as president. Her husband was a law clerk until he joined his wife’s organization as secretary-treasurer in 1930. The Bonnins lobbied for the Indians with the U.S. Congress and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In addition, she lectured on the rights of Indians throughout the country. Bonnin died on January 26, 1938, in Washington, D.C., at the age of sixtyone. At the time of her death, she was still fighting for the American Indian. REPRESENTATIVE WORK American Indian Stories, 1921

REFERENCES Albers, Patricia, and Beatrice Medicine. The Hidden Half: Studies of Plains Indian Women. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1983. Bernardin, Susan. “The Lessons of a Sentimental Education: Zitkala-Sa’s Autobiographical Narratives.” Western-American Literature, 32 (Fall 1997): 212–238. Fisher, Dexter. “Zitkala-Sa: The Evolution of a Writer.” American Indian Quarterly, 5 (August 1979): 229–238. Lukens, Margaret A. “The American Story of Zitkala-Sa.” In In Her Own Voice: Nineteenth-Century American Women Essayists, edited by Sherry Lee Linkon. New York: Garland, 1997. Susag, Dorothea M. “Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin): A Power(ful) Literary Voice.” Studies in American Indian Literatures, 5 (Winter 1993): 3–24.

Thomas Boyd (1898–1935) Thomas Boyd wrote one of the most insightful novels about World War I. Boyd was born on July 3, 1898, in Defiance, Ohio, to Alice and Thomas Alexander Boyd; his father died several months before his son’s birth. Raised by his mother, a nurse, and his grandparents, Boyd attended several public and private schools, including Porter Military Academy, Woodward High School, and Elgin Academy. He left the latter before graduation and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. In 1917 Boyd was stationed with the 6th Regiment in France. He experienced battle several times and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. In 1918 a gas shell exploded near him, and he was hospitalized. When he recovered, he served in Germany until he was discharged in 1919. Boyd returned to the United States, where he held several jobs in Chicago. Then he moved to Minneapolis, where he was a reporter for the Minneapolis Star. In 1920 he married a distant cousin, Margaret Woodward Smith; a year later they had a daughter, Elizabeth Grace. Boyd and Cornelius Van Ness opened Kilmarnock Books, a bookstore. Through the store he became friends with such prominent writers as Sinclair Lewis and F. Scott Fitzgerald. He also was editor of the book page of the St. Paul Daily News. Boyd set out to write short stories about his experiences during World War I, but he realized that he would have to write many stories in order to depict all the experiences he desired to share. In 1922 he started a novel, Through the Wheat, which was published in 1923. It concerns Private Hicks, a young man stationed in France during World War I. Boyd depicts the realities of war, including the battles that bring countless deaths and widespread destruction. He

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depicts Hicks as a soldier who does not fight for glory or honor, but in order to stay alive. The novel was critically acclaimed for its brutal honesty. In 1924 Boyd published The Dark Cloud, a novel about a scout during the American Revolutionary War. The following year he published Points of Honor, a collection of short stories about World War I, and Samuel Drummond, a novel based on the life of his grandfather, Samuel Dunbar, that described the changes confronting the American farmer. With his wife and daughter, Boyd moved to Connecticut, where he devoted his time to writing. In 1928 he published Shadow of the Long Knives, a novel, and Simon Girty, the White Savage, a biography. Boyd’s first marriage ended in divorce. In 1929 he married Ruth Fitch Bartlett, and they moved to Vermont. The same year he published another biography, Mad Anthony Wayne. This was followed by the biography Light-Horse Harry Lee two years later. Boyd became involved in politics, especially socialism. In 1934 he joined the Communist Party and ran unsuccessfully as its candidate for governor of Vermont. Boyd died of a cerebral hemorrhage on January 27, 1935, in Ridgefield, Connecticut, before his last novel and biography were published. The novel, In Time of Peace (1935), concerns Private Hicks from the time of his discharge from the military through the Great Depression. Hicks gets a job in a machine shop, which he grows to dislike, then accepts a position at a small Midwestern newspaper. He moves to another newspaper, where he assumes he will remain until he retires. When the Great Depression comes, however, he loses his job. Hicks and others out of work attempt to find employment at an automobile factory. A confrontation develops, and Hicks is shot in the leg by a company guard. He realizes that peace is similar to war: in order to survive, one has to fight. Poor John Fitch, Inventor of the Steamboat (1935) was his last biography. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Through the Wheat, 1923 Points of Honor, 1925 In Time of Peace, 1935

REFERENCES Bruccoli, Matthew J. “Thomas Boyd, 1898–1935.” In Through the Wheat by Thomas Boyd. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978. “Thomas Boyd.” Wilson Bulletin for Librarians (November 1935): 170. “Thomas Boyd Dies; Novelist Was 36.” New York Times, January 28, 1935, p. 15.

Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen (1848–1895) Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen produced realistic novels with protagonists who journeyed from the Old World to the New World or who faced numerous obstacles that society placed in front of them. Boyesen was born in Fredriksva¨rn, Norway, on September 23, 1848. His father, a mathematician who taught at a naval academy, persuaded his son to get a good education. Boyesen was also influenced by his maternal grandfather, who was a judge in Systrand, Norway. Boyesen attended the Latin school in Drammen and the gymnasium in Christiana (now Oslo). He studied at the University of Leipzig, then the Royal Fredriks University, from which he earned an advanced degree in 1868. His father had visited the United States, and encouraged his son to do likewise. In 1869 Boyesen arrived in the United States and went to Urbana, Ohio, where he taught at Urbana College, a small Swedenborgian college. Boyesen moved to Chicago, where he edited Fremad, a Norwegian weekly newspaper. He wished to learn English, however, not practice his native language, so he returned to Urbana College, where he wrote a romantic novel about life among the fjords and alpine pastures of Norway. During the summer of 1871 Boyesen went to Boston, where he met William Dean Howells, editor of the Atlantic Monthly, and told Howells that he had written a novel. Howells read the manuscript, then accepted it for serialization. Gunnar: A Tale of Norse Life, appeared in several issues of the magazine during 1873 before it appeared as a book in 1874. In 1873 Boyesen studied linguistics at the University of Leipzig, then returned to the United States in 1874. He accepted a position teaching German at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. His second novel, A Norseman’s Pilgrimage (1875), concerns Olaf Varberg,

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a Norwegian-born American who sails to Europe. He meets an attractive, obstinate girl from America whom he eventually marries. Boyesen realistically depicts life and satirizes the major characters. In 1879 he published Falconberg, whose protagonist, Einar Falconberg, leaves Norway in disgrace. Falconberg becomes a successful journalist in a small Norwegian community in Minnesota. Boyesen realistically depicts the members of the community and their problems. The same year he published Goethe and Schiller: Their Lives and Works, a scholarly volume, and married Elizabeth Keen. In 1880 Boyesen and his wife moved to New York City, where he attempted to earn a living from writing. However, because he needed the income, he accepted a faculty position at Columbia University in 1881. Boyesen enjoyed teaching German and eventually became chair of the German Department. He also enjoyed writing fiction. In 1883 A Daughter of the Philistines was published. It concerns Alma Hampton, who marries a geologist. Her parents, particularly her mother, had hoped she would marry a wealthy man. Through her husband, Alma learns about morality, and about the shallowness of the society into which she was born. The Light of Her Countenance (1889) has as its heroine an American Southern belle, Constance Douglas, who lives in Rome because her home was destroyed during the Civil War. In 1891 Boyesen published The Mammon of Unrighteousness, in which he sought to capture the reality of the typical American city. The novel concerns the brothers Horace and Aleck Larkin, who practice law for different reasons. Horace practices law and marries a wealthy woman, Kate Van Schaak, primarily to further his career in politics. Aleck practices law primarily to help people. Boyesen published The Golden Calf in 1892 and Social Struggles in 1893. The latter novel concerns Maud Bulkley and Philip Warburton. Maud, who has come east with her siblings and mother primarily to be introduced to members of the upper crust, meets a wealthy man to whom she is attracted, then learns that he is a cad. She subsequently meets Philip, an aristocrat who has very little money but a big heart. Warburton is an idealist whose purpose in life is to help the unfortunate, and he persuades Maud to join him in his efforts. Boyesen wrote other novels, including several for children, as well as short stories that were published in magazines, then collected. He also produced several volumes of scholarly essays. Boyesen died of pneumonia in 1895.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS A Norseman’s Pilgrimage, 1875 Falconberg, 1879 A Daughter of the Philistines, 1883

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The Light of Her Countenance, 1889 The Mammon of Unrighteousness, 1891 The Golden Calf, 1892 Social Struggles, 1893

REFERENCES Fredrickson, Robert. Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen. Boston: Twayne, 1980. Glasrud, Clarence. Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen. Northfield, Minn.: Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1963. Ratner, Marc. “Howells and Boyesen: Two Views of Realism.” New England Quarterly, 35 (September 1962): 376–390.

Alice Brown (1856–1948) Alice Brown was born to Elizabeth Lucas Robinson Brown and Levi Brown on December 5, 1856, in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. She attended the public school in Hampton Falls, then Robinson Female Seminary in Exeter, New Hampshire, from which she graduated in 1876. She taught school for several years but did not enjoy it. She became an editor for the Christian Register in 1881, then for the Youth’s Companion in 1885. In 1884, Brown published Stratford-by-the-Sea, a novel that concerns the inhabitants of a small New England town. It depicts the New England she knew and loved in a simple and lucid style of writing, and her characters ring true. Brown made her home in Boston but spent summers in Newburyport, Massachusetts, or on her farm in New Hampshire. In addition to writing numerous short stories about the older inhabitants of New England for various magazines, she met and became friends with several prominent writers, including William Dean Howells and Louise Imogen Guiney. Fools of Nature (1887), her second novel, depicts the inhabitants of a New England farming community. Brown’s first collection of short stories, Meadow-grass: Tales of New England Life, appeared in 1895. The stories are linked by a single narrator, and several characters appear in more than one story. All the stories focus on the inhabitants of Tiverton, a small community in New Hampshire. Brown’s characters care about their land and their animals. She depicts their mannerisms and their simple beliefs in a straight storytelling style. In her second collection of short stories, Tiverton Tales (1899), the tales are linked by a single narrator and focused mostly on spinsters and widows who decide to remain single for the rest of their lives. In 1901 Brown published Margaret Warrener, a novel that concerns a gifted

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actress who could achieve fame and wealth but sacrifices her career in order to marry an artist. Writers criticized the novel’s heroine for her willingness to sacrifice her career just to marry a man. The Country Road, another collection of regional short stories, appeared in 1906. Most of the stories concern middle-aged or old people who have grown conventional, if not complacent. Thus, the characters in this collection differ from the unusual characters in Brown’s first two collections. In 1908 Brown published Rose MacLeod, a novel that contains interesting characters but lacks a well-developed plot. Country Neighbors (1910) is another collection of short stories about the inhabitants of a small New England town. In 1915 Brown’s Children of Earth: A Play of New England won the Winthrop Ames Prize of $10,000. The play was produced on Broadway to mixed reviews. Although Brown wrote about people who lived outside the small communities of New England, her popularity and reputation were based primarily on her short stories and novels about characters who live in small farming communities in New England. In 1916 Brown published The Prisoner, a novel that discusses the problems of rehabilitation, and in 1920, Homespun and Gold, a collection of short stories about people who experience romance in New England. The novel Old Crow (1922) concerns a man who experiences a midlife crisis. Brown wrote other novels and short stories that were ultimately collected, as well as plays and several biographies. Her work was largely forgotten by the time of her death in 1948.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Stratford-by-the-Sea, A Novel, 1884 Fools of Nature, 1887 Meadow-grass: Tales of New England Life, 1895 Tiverton Tales, 1899 Margaret Warrener, 1901 The Country Road, 1906 Rose MacLeod, 1908 Country Neighbors, 1910 The Prisoner, 1916 Homespun and Gold, 1920 Old Crow, 1922

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REFERENCES Thompson, Charles Miner. “The Short Stories of Alice Brown.” Atlantic Monthly, 98 (July 1906): 55–65. Toth, Susan Allen. “Alice Brown (1857–1948).” American Literary Realism 1870–1910, 2 (Spring 1972): 134–143. Walker, Dorothea. Alice Brown. New York: Twayne, 1974.

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849–1924) Frances Hodgson Burnett is known primarily for her stories for children. However, her novels for adults were examples of realism primarily because they presented the lives of hardworking men, successful industrialists, and women, and their various relationships. Her characters lived in both England and in the United States. Burnett was born in Manchester, England, on November 24, 1849, to Eliza and Edwin Hodgson. Her father sold home furnishings and earned enough to support a family of seven. He died in 1853, and his wife attempted to manage the business. Manchester’s economy was based on textile mills, so when the Civil War erupted in the United States, the mills in Manchester had a difficult time getting cotton from the South. As a result, the city’s economy suffered. In 1865 Eliza Hodgson sold her husband’s business and moved her family to a small town outside Knoxville, Tennessee. Frances, even though she had been deeply attached to Manchester and its inhabitants, enjoyed rural Tennessee. She was, for the most part, self-educated and an avid reader. In addition, she wrote stories that she read to others. Eventually, in an effort to help her mother, Frances submitted a story to Godey’s Lady’s Book. At the editor’s request, she submitted another. Both were published in 1868. Frances submitted stories to other publications, and they were accepted for publication. In 1869 she moved with her family to Knoxville, where she continued to write stories. In 1872 she journeyed to New York City, then sailed to England, where she visited relatives and wrote. She returned to the United States in 1873 and married Swan Burnett, whom she had met in Tennessee. Her first novel, Dolly, was serialized in Peterson’s the same year. In 1874 Burnett gave birth to a son, Lionel. The following year she moved

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with her family to Paris, where she wrote stories and completed another novel. Unlike the first, which concerns a paid companion to a wealthy spinster, and her romantic interest in the spinster’s nephew, her second novel, That Lass O’Lowrie’s, which was serialized in Scribner’s Monthly in 1876, concerns the working class of a small mining town in Lancashire, England. The focus of the book is an independent-thinking young girl who desires to do more than women are supposed to do. Like Dolly, the novel was written for adults; unlike Dolly, which was a romance, the novel was realistic. The family returned to Tennessee in 1876, and Frances gave birth to another son, Vivian. A year later the family moved to Washington, D.C., where Swan Burnett practiced ophthalmology and Frances continued to write. In 1879 she published, Haworth’s, a realistic novel for adults that focuses on a self-made industrialist whose desires for an aristocratic woman cause his downfall. Through One Administration, a realistic novel serialized in 1881 and published in book form in 1883, concerns society in Washington, D.C. The novel’s protagonist, a married woman who is happy at social gatherings but miserable in her marriage, may have been based on Burnett’s life in Washington, D.C. Burnett wrote several additional novels for adults, including A Fair Barbarian (1881), but these were, for the most part, romances. She entertained her children with fantasy-type stories and enjoyed writing for them. However, Burnett did not attempt to have any children’s stories published until 1879, when one was accepted by Mary Mapes Dodge, who edited St. Nicholas, a magazine for children. Several more stories were published in 1880. In 1885 Little Lord Fauntleroy, whose protagonist is based on the author’s son Vivian, appeared in St. Nicholas. When it was published in book form a year later, it became a best-seller and was translated into many languages. The book’s success enabled Burnett and her children to travel to Europe in 1887; her husband remained in Washington, D.C. She adapted the book for the stage in 1888. The play was a success, and she continued to write plays as well as short pieces and books. In 1890, even though she took him to sanatoriums in Europe, Burnett’s son Lionel died from tuberculosis. In order to recover from his death, Burnett journeyed to Italy, where she wrote stories about children who die. These were collected in Children I Have Known and Giovanni and the Other (1892). In 1896 Burnett published A Lady of Quality, but the critics dismissed it. In 1898 she and her husband divorced. The following year she published In Connection with the De Willoughby Claim, a realistic novel that left the critics unimpressed. Burnett married Stephen Townesend, a considerably younger writer with whom she had collaborated on several plays, in 1900. They separated in 1902. Once again Burnett wrote children’s stories, including the Queen Crosspatch series, for St. Nicholas magazine. She also wrote books for children: A Little Princess (1905), The Good Wolf (1908), The Land of the Blue Flower (1909),

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and The Secret Garden (1911). Many of these works were written while she was living in England. Indeed, Burnett had a garden at her home in Kent, and it was this garden that inspired her to write The Secret Garden. When she returned to the United States, Burnett had a home built on Long Island. She remained there for the most part, writing and tending her garden. She wrote several more novels for adults, but the critics were not impressed. She focused on stories and books for children, including The Lost Prince (1915). Burnett died at her estate, Plandome, on October 29, 1924. Even though she wrote realistic novels for adults that examined the social condition, her reputation as a writer is based on her books for children. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS That Lass O’Lowrie’s, 1876; 1877 Haworth’s, 1879 Through One Administration, 1881; 1883 In Connection with the De Willoughby Claim, 1899

REFERENCES Bixler, Phyllis. Frances Hodgson Burnett. Boston: Twayne, 1984. Burnett, Constance Buel. Happily Ever After: A Portrait of Frances Hodgson Burnett. New York: Vanguard, 1969. Burnett, Vivian. The Romantick Lady (Frances Hodgson Burnett): The Life Story of an Imagination. New York: Scribner’s, 1927. Carpenter, Angelica Shirley. Frances Hodgson Burnett: Beyond the Secret Garden. Minneapolis: Lerner, 1990. Laski, Marghanita. Mrs. Ewing, Mrs. Molesworth and Mrs. Hodgson Burnett. New York: Oxford University Press, 1951. Molson, Francis J. “Frances Hodgson Burnett (1848–1924).” American Literary Realism, 8 (Winter 1975): 35–41. Thwaite, Ann. Waiting for the Party: The Life of Frances Hodgson Burnett 1849–1924. New York: Scribner’s, 1974.

George Washington Cable (1844–1925) George Washington Cable was a realistic writer who explored social issues in the South, especially issues affecting the inhabitants of New Orleans. Cable was born in New Orleans on October 12, 1844, to Rebecca Boardman Cable and George W. Cable. After his father died in 1859, Cable dropped out of high school and went to work. Four years later he enlisted in the Confederate Army. After the war, he worked as a reporter for the New Orleans Picayune. Cable enjoyed writing, but not necessarily reporting. In 1869 he married Louisa Stewart Bartlett. Two years later Black and Company, a wholesaler of cotton, hired him to handle its financial records. The job provided Cable with both financial security and time to learn as much as he could about New Orleans, especially its past. From reading old newspapers, Cable realized that New Orleans had a colorful history. He wrote several stories about the city and its eccentric individuals, and let Edward Smith King, who wrote for Scribner’s Monthly, read them. King persuaded his editors to read Cable’s stories, several of which were accepted for publication between 1873 and 1876. Cable’s first book, Old Creole Days, which contained stories about the colorful inhabitants of New Orleans, was published in 1879. His first novel, The Grandissimes, which painted the Spanish-French Creole life on a wide canvas, appeared in 1880. The novel’s major characters include Honore Grandissime and Aurore Nancanou, representatives of Creole society who are romantically involved. Cable’s condemnation of the South, particularly its unwritten code regarding color, is evident in the words of Joseph Frowenfeld, a young GermanAmerican from Philadelphia who speaks of change—change that would threaten Creole society.

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In 1881 Cable left his job to write full time. His second novel, Madame Delphine, was published the same year. Dr. Sevier (1884), a more complex novel than Madame Delphine, concerns a young married couple who confront poverty during a yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans. Cable moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1885, primarily because of social pressure (though he denied it). Certain inhabitants of New Orleans were not pleased with his depiction of Creole society and did not care for his position toward African Americans. Cable thought blacks should be treated fairly and equally, like whites. Three novelettes appeared under the title Bonaventure in 1888. In 1895 Cable published John March, Southerner, which is set in the fictitious state of Dixie. The Confederacy has collapsed. John March, the son of a judge, was too young to fight in the Civil War but becomes engulfed in the Reconstruction. The novel’s ending lacks clarity, however, and the characters tend to preach. Overall, the novel is not as good as his first. In 1901 Cable published The Cavalier, a romantic novel about the Civil War. Later novels include Bylow Hill (1902), Kincaid’s Battery (1908), Gideon’s Band (1914), and The Flower of the Chapdelaines (1918). None of these novels was as good, critically speaking, as his first. Cable’s wife died in 1904. He married Eva Stevenson, who died in 1923. He married Hanna Cowing shortly thereafter. Cable died in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1925. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Old Creole Days, 1879 The Grandissimes, 1880 Madame Delphine, 1881 Dr. Sevier, 1884 John March, Southerner 1895 The Cavalier, 1901

REFERENCES Bikle, Lucy Leffingwell Cable. George W. Cable: His Life and Letters. New York: Scribner’s, 1928. Butcher, Philip. George W. Cable: The Northampton Years. New York: Columbia University Press, 1959. ———. George W. Cable. New York: Twayne, 1962. Rubin, Louis, Jr. George W. Cable: The Life and Times of a Southern Heretic. New York: Pegasus, 1969. Turner, Arlin. George W. Cable: A Biography. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1956.

Abraham Cahan (1860–1951) Abraham Cahan was one of the first naturalistic writers to examine the experiences of immigrants who settled in New York City. Cahan was born to Sarah Goldarbeiter Cahan and Schachne Cahan on July 7, 1860, in Podberezya, Russia, a small village near what is now Vilnius, Lithuania. He studied the Talmud as well as the Russian language, and was admitted to the Jewish Teachers’ Institute of Vilnius when he was seventeen. He graduated several years later. Cahan became a devout socialist primarily because of the unstable conditions in Russia. When the czar was assassinated in 1881, he was teaching at a school in Velzh. Like other revolutionaries, Cahan had anticipated a peasant uprising— but it never occurred. Instead, those who had been involved in the assassination were apprehended, tried, and executed. Cahan saw friends arrested and realized that he was in danger. He thought of fleeing to Switzerland, but instead joined other emigrants seeking asylum in the United States. He reached New York City in June 1882. Cahan settled on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where many other Jewish immigrants lived. He worked at several jobs and became a member of the Propaganda Verein. He learned some English and began to tutor other immigrants. To improve his knowledge of English, he sat in on classes at the Chrystie Street School. By 1883 he had learned enough English to have an article about the czarist autocracy accepted by the New York World, and an evening school hired him to teach English to immigrants. Cahan continued to write and to work in the labor movement. In 1884 he helped organize the first Jewish labor union. In 1886 Cahan edited Neie Zeit, a newspaper published primarily to promote socialist doctrine. Four years later he became the editor of Arbeiter Zeitung, a Yiddish-language newspaper much like Neie Zeit. Cahan used several pseudo-

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nyms, and sometimes wrote an entire issue. He gained acclaim as the folksy “Proletarian Preacher” from Proletarishuk. Cahan enjoyed writing about both the sensational and the sublime. When friction developed in the labor movement as a result of personality clashes, he left his editing positions and devoted his time to writing fiction. Cahan revised a story that had appeared in Arbeiter Zeitung, then submitted it to Short Stories, a literary magazine, which published it in 1895. William Dean Howells saw Cahan’s story, liked it, and helped find a publisher for his first novel, Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto (1896). The major character, Jake Podkovnik, adapts to the New World in a relatively brief time. He marries Gitl, the woman promised to him in the Old World, but dislikes her Old World ways and divorces her. Then he marries a woman who has adapted to the New World. Cahan’s novel realistically depicts immigrant life in America. Cahan edited the first issue of the Jewish Daily Forward, which appeared on April 22, 1897; subsequently, he grew fed up with employee dissension over the paper’s content and ultimately resigned. When Cahan lost his job as an English teacher because of his socialist activities, Lincoln Steffens, the city editor of the New York Commercial Advertiser, offered him a job as a police reporter. Cahan accepted the position and wrote tragedies as well as penetrating dramas about the Jewish inhabitants of the Lower East Side. In 1898 he published The Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories of the New York Ghetto. The stories in this collection focus on immigrants and their adjustment to the New World. Steffens moved to McClure’s Magazine in 1901. As a result of his leaving, the Commercial Advertiser changed. In 1902 Cahan left that paper and returned to the Jewish Daily Forward, which was not faring well. Cahan was asked to revitalize it, but instead of espousing socialist dogma, he wrote fiction. Many readers did not like the changes, and Cahan was forced to resign. In 1903, Cahan was shocked by the massacre of Jews in Kishinev, Ukraine. Soon he was asked to return to the Forward. Much to the dismay of his wife, Anna, whom he had married several years before, he accepted the editorship. For the next four decades, Cahan edited the paper for the common laborer and the housewife; as a result, it became the pacesetter of the Yiddish press. In 1905 he published The White Terror and the Red: A Novel of Revolutionary Russia, which concerned the events before and after the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881. During World War I, Cahan contributed a column on the war; he found German militarism less objectionable than czarist despotism. Although the Forward opposed the war, the paper argued that the Allies’ efforts were necessary. In 1915 Cahan visited Germany and Austria as a war correspondent; as a result of his coverage, he was charged as a German spy. Cahan published The Rise of David Levinsky in 1917. The realistic novel was based on a four-part series, “The Autobiography of an American Jew,” that had appeared in McClure’s in 1913. The realistic novel recounts the life of David

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Levinsky, a poor immigrant from Russia who arrives in America in the 1880s. He adjusts to the New World and dreams of attending college and achieving financial success just like other Americans. Cahan skillfully depicts Levinsky’s rise in the garment industry and at the same time explains the changes that had occurred over the years in this industry. Although Levinsky achieves financial success, he is not necessarily satisfied at the novel’s end. Cahan defended Lenin’s Communist revolution in the Forward and was harshly criticized. In 1923 he recanted his defense after touring Europe and learning from refugees that Russians had less freedom under the Bolsheviks than under the czars. Between the world wars, Cahan crossed the Atlantic numerous times. In 1925, for instance, he attended the Socialist Congress at Marseilles, France, then visited Palestine. In 1927 he visited the Soviet Union. In 1929 he returned to Palestine and witnessed Arab riots. The Forward criticized Stalin for his concentration camps and supported President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies. After World War II, the paper’s circulation declined. Cahan was old, and the Yiddish language was spoken and read much less. Cahan suffered a stroke in 1946. In 1951 he died of heart failure in New York City, at the age of ninety-one. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto, 1896 The Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories of the New York Ghetto, 1898 The Rise of David Levinsky, 1917

REFERENCES Chametzky, Jules. From the Ghetto: The Fiction of Abraham Cahan. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1977. Marovitz, Sanford E. Abraham Cahan. New York: Twayne, 1996. Rischin, Moses, ed. Grandma Never Lived in America: The New Journalism of Abraham Cahan. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985. Sanders, Ronald. The Downtown Jews: Portraits of an Immigrant Generation. New York: Harper & Row, 1969.

Erskine Caldwell (1903–1987) Erskine Caldwell was a naturalistic writer who accurately depicted the inhabitants of the South. His characters were usually impoverished, ignorant about the world, and animalistic. Caldwell was born to Caroline Preston Bell Caldwell and Ira S. Caldwell in 1903, in White Oak, Georgia. His father was a Presbyterian minister and his mother was a teacher. Before he entered high school, he had lived in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, as well as Georgia. Caldwell enrolled in Erskine College, in Due West, S.C., in 1920. A year later he transferred to the University of Virginia. While in Virginia, he married Helen Lannigan. In 1925 Caldwell, who had written for several newspapers while in high school, returned to journalism. He wrote obituaries for the Atlanta Journal and book reviews for the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer. He also wrote fiction, which publishers rejected. His luck changed in 1929, however: a short story was accepted. Within a few months, several had been accepted. The same year his first naturalistic novel, The Bastard, was published. The novel introduced readers to earthy characters who were rural and poor, and had very few morals. To say that his characters were unenlightened would be an overstatement. Most of them were uninhibited and degenerate, and usually survived by trying to farm on land that had been farmed too often. Poor Fool followed a year later. In 1932 Tobacco Road, a naturalistic novel, was published. The novel concerns Jeeter Lester, an impoverished Georgia farmer who lives with his mother, his sickly wife, his son, and his daughter Ellie May. Another daughter, Pearl, is married to Lov Benson. When Pearl runs away from Benson, Ellie May takes

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her place. Jeeter and his wife are eventually killed when the shack in which they live burns to the ground. A year later God’s Little Acre appeared. Ty Ty Walden has allocated an acre of land to the church. He believes that gold is buried on the acre, so he gives another acre of land to the church and, with the help of his family, digs for the gold. Will Thompson, who is married to Ty Ty’s daughter Rosamund, makes love to Ty Ty’s other daughter, Darling Jill, and is almost killed by Rosamund. He then makes love to Griselda, the wife of Ty Ty’s son Buck. Eventually, Will is killed when mill workers riot. Ty Ty’s oldest son, Jim Leslie, attempts to seduce Griselda. He is killed by Buck, who then commits suicide. Ty Ty, undeterred, continues to dig for the gold. Journeyman, which concerns Semon Dye, a self-proclaimed minister who preaches to farmers and seduces their wives, appeared in 1935. The same year Caldwell published Some American People, which contains several expose´s and some two dozen sketches. Some of the sketches are straight reportage, some are fiction, and some are a combination of the two. Later in the 1930s and early 1940s, Caldwell wrote several documentaries, all illustrated with photographs by Margaret Bourke-White, to whom he was married from 1939 to 1942. You Have Seen Their Faces (1937) concerns the South; North of the Danube (1939), Czechoslovakia; Russia at War (1942). His nonfiction novel All-Out on the Road to Smolensk was published in 1942. Caldwell married June Johnson in 1943. Although he wrote some volumes of nonfiction after the 1940s, he concentrated primarily on naturalistic fiction, which for the most part was set in the rural South. Trouble in July (1940), Tragic Ground (1944), A Lamp for Nightfall (1952), Claudelle Inglish (1959), Close to Home (1962), Miss Mamma Aimie (1967), The Weather Shelter (1969), and The Earnshaw Neighborhood (1971) were the most critically acclaimed. Caldwell’s numerous short stories, which contained themes similar to those of his novels, were collected in We Are the Living (1933), Kneel to the Rising Sun (1935), and Jackpot (1940). Caldwell died in 1987. His fourth wife, Virginia Moffett Fletcher, whom he had married in 1957, survived him. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Bastard, 1929 Poor Fool, 1930 Tobacco Road, 1932 God’s Little Acre, 1933 Journeyman, 1935 Trouble in July, 1940 All-Out on the Road to Smolensk, 1942

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Tragic Ground, 1944 A Lamp for Nightfall, 1952 Claudelle Inglish, 1959 Close to Home, 1962 Miss Mamma Aimie, 1967 The Weather Shelter, 1969 The Earnshaw Neighborhood, 1971

REFERENCES Arnold, Edwin T., ed. Conversations with Erskine Caldwell. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1988. ———, ed. Erskine Caldwell Reconsidered. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1990. Beach, Joseph Warren. American Fiction: 1920–1940. New York: Macmillan, 1941. Benedict, Stewart H. “Gallic Light on Erskine Caldwell.” South Atlantic Quarterly, 60 (August 1961): 390–397. Caldwell, Erskine. With All My Might: An Autobiography. Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers, 1987. Cantwell, Robert. “Caldwell’s Characters: Why Don’t They Leave?” Georgia Review, 11 (1957): 252–264. Collins, Carvel. “Erksine Caldwell at Work.” Atlantic, 202 (July 1958): 21–27. Cook, Sylvia Jenkins. From Tobacco Road to Route 66. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1977. ———. Erskine Caldwell and the Fiction of Poverty: The Flesh and the Spirit. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1991. Devlin, James E. Erskine Caldwell. Boston: Twayne, 1984. Frohock, W. M. “Erskine Caldwell: Sentimental Gentleman from Georgia.” Southwest Review, 31 (Autumn 1946): 351–359. Hersey, John. Life Sketches. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. Korges, James. Erskine Caldwell. Pamphlets on American Writers, no. 78. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1969. MacDonald, Scott, ed. Critical Essays on Erskine Caldwell. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1981. Miller, Dan B. Erskine Caldwell: The Journey from Tobacco Road. A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. Mixon, Wayne. The People’s Writer: Erskine Caldwell and the South. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995. Sale, Richard B. “An Interview in Florida with Erskine Caldwell.” Studies in the Novel, 3 (Fall 1971): 316–331. Thompson, James J., Jr. “Erskine Caldwell and Southern Religion.” Southern Humanities Review, 5 (Winter 1971): 33–44

Willa Cather (1873–1947) Willa Cather was a realistic writer who focused primarily on the inhabitants of Nebraska. Her characters, who had settled in Nebraska to farm the land, endure problems similar to those that others endured as they settled the land west of the Mississippi River. Cather was born on December 7, 1873, near Winchester, Virginia. When she was nine, she moved with her parents to Webster County, Nebraska, where her father, Charles Cather, attempted to earn a living from farming. Two years later she moved with her parents to Red Cloud, where her father sold insurance. Cather attended high school in Red Cloud. In addition, she studied French and German with neighbors. In 1891 she enrolled at the University of Nebraska, where she was a columnist for the Nebraska State Journal. She graduated in 1895, and she moved in 1896 to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she worked as an editor of Home Monthly and later taught English in a high school. In 1906 she moved to New York City, where she was an editor of McClure’s Magazine. Although she had written numerous short stories since her days at the University of Nebraska, her first novel, Alexander’s Bridge, did not appear until 1912. The novel’s protagonist, Bartley Alexander, is building a bridge across the Saint Lawrence River. He is married, but in love with an actress. Eventually he decides to divorce his wife so he can marry the actress. He is summoned to the bridge to solve several structural problems. As Alexander inspects the structure, the bridge collapses and he is killed. In 1913 Cather visited her brother, who had moved to the Southwest, and members of her family who lived in Red Cloud, and gathered material for another novel. O Pioneers! (1913) concerns Alexandra Bergson and members of her family who attempt to earn a living from the land. The land wins, however; Alexandra eventually dies and becomes part of it.

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The Song of the Lark (1915) focuses on Thea Kronborg, of Moonstone, Colorado, who studies music in Chicago, then becomes a leading soprano. The novel’s attraction is Cather’s development of Kronborg’s life. Kronborg of course has to sacrifice in order to achieve success. My A´ntonia (1918) is undoubtedly Cather’s best novel about Nebraska. The ´ ntonia Shimerda, but the story is told through the eyes of novel focuses on A ´ ntonia’s, who lives on his grandparents’ nearby farm. Jim Burden, a friend of A ´ Antonia Shimerda—who is based on Annie Sadilek, who lived near the Cathers in Nebraska—is a member of a Bohemian family that is attempting to earn a living in a New World. Jim Burden attends college and eventually becomes a ´ nsuccessful lawyer in the East. When he returns to Nebraska, he learns that A tonia had been seduced and had given birth to an illegitimate child. Subsequently she married and had several more children. In 1920 Cather published Youth and the Bright Medusa, a collection of short stories. A novel about World War I, One of Ours (1922), received mixed reviews. A Lost Lady (1923) concerns Marian Forrester, the wife of Captain Forrester, a former politician and a pioneer railroad builder in Sweet Water, Colorado. Marian has an affair with Frank Ellinger, who also is married. When Captain Forrester dies, Marian becomes involved with Ivy Peters, an unscrupulous businessman who has no intention of marrying her. Finally, Marian marries an Englishman and moves to South America. In 1925 Cather published The Professor’s House, which concerns Professor Godfrey St. Peter, a middle-aged historian who has to face a major change in his life: moving from a house he loves to one his wife has built. Cather’s insightful historical novel Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) is a fictionalized account of Archbishop John Baptist Lamy, the first bishop of New Mexico. In 1851 Father Latour (Lamy), appointed vicar apostolic of New Mexico, and his associate, Father Vaillant, arrive in Santa Fe. Despite numerous obstacles—including the vast, empty land, gringos, and an apparent disregard for religion—Latour builds a cathedral. Later he becomes an archbishop, then dies. Cather’s novel traces the evolution of civilization in the southwestern United States. Shadows on the Rock (1931) concerns the early history of Quebec, a Canadian outpost. Obscure Destinies (1932) is a collection of short stories about Nebraska. In 1935 Cather published Lucy Gayheart, a novel about a piano teacher who loves a famous singer who is married. They drown in separate accidents. Sapphira and the Slave Girl, a historical novel set in Virginia before the Civil War, was published in 1940. Cather’s health declined in the 1940s. At the time of her death from a cerebral hemorrhage on April 24, 1947, she was living with her companion, Edith Lewis, in New York City.

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REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Alexander’s Bridge, 1912 O Pioneers! 1913 The Song of the Lark, 1915 My A´ntonia, 1918 One of Ours, 1922 A Lost Lady, 1923 The Professor’s House, 1925 Death Comes for the Archbishop, 1927 Lucy Gayheart, 1935

REFERENCES Bennett, Mildred. The World of Willa Cather. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1961. Bonham, Barbara. Willa Cather. Philadelphia: Chilton, 1970. Brown, E. K. Willa Cather: A Critical Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953. Brown, Marion Marsh, and Ruth Crone. Willa Cather: The Woman and Her Works. New York: Scribner’s, 1970. ———. Only One Point of the Compass: Willa Cather in the Northeast. Danbury, Conn.: Archer Editions, 1980. Bryer, J. R., ed. Sixteen Modern American Authors. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1973. Fryer, Judith. Felicitous Space: The Imaginative Structures of Edith Wharton and Willa Cather. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986. Gerber, Philip L. Willa Cather. Boston: Twayne, 1975. Lewis, Edith. Willa Cather Living. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953. McFarland, Dorothy Tuck. Willa Cather. New York: Ungar, 1972. Murphy, John J., comp. Critical Essays on Willa Cather. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1984. O’Brien, Sharon. Willa Cather: The Emerging Voice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. Reynolds, Guy. Willa Cather in Context: Progress, Race, Empire. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996. Robinson, Phyllis C. Willa: The Life of Willa Cather. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1983. Stouck, David. Willa Cather’s Imagination. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1975. Woodress, James. Willa Cather: Her Life and Art. New York: Pegasus, 1970.

Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1858–1932) Charles Waddell Chesnutt was one of the first realistic writers to explore the social and economic problems of African Americans, depicting his small-town characters with sympathy and understanding. Chesnutt was born to Maria Sampson Chesnutt and Andrew Chesnutt on June 20, 1858, in Cleveland, Ohio. The Chesnutts were free African Americans who had moved to Ohio from Fayetteville, North Carolina. Chesnutt’s father served in the Union Army during the Civil War. When the war ended, he was released from the army, and he moved his family to North Carolina. Despite the physical and economic conditions of North Carolina, as well as the prejudice of whites, Charles Chesnutt learned to read and write well enough to gain employment as a teacher in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and later in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1877 he became an assistant principal of a teachertraining school in Fayetteville, and the following year he married Susan Perry. Chesnutt became principal of the school in 1880. He resigned three years later and moved to New York City, where he worked as a journalist for the New York Mail & Express. Chesnutt grew tired of his surroundings and his job, however. He moved to Cleveland, where he took a job as a stenographer. In his spare time, he studied law with the help of a lawyer, Judge Williamson. In 1887 he passed the bar examination. Chesnutt wrote short stories that realistically depicted slavery and its effects on blacks. They were published in several magazines, including the Atlantic Monthly. In 1899 Chesnutt collected seven of these stories and published them as The Conjure Woman. These stories are unified by their subject matter and by the character Uncle Julius McAdoo. The same year Chesnutt published The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, a collection of short

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stories about mulattoes, and the numerous social and legal problems they face living free in a white man’s world. Chesnutt continued his exploration of race relations in the realistic novel The House Behind the Cedars (1900). The novel concerns John Walden and his sister, Rena, mulattoes who move to South Carolina, where they pass as white. George Tryon, a white man, grows to love Rena, as does Jeff Wain, a mulatto. Rena rejects both men, then dies of pneumonia. In 1901 Chesnutt published The Marrow of Tradition, which treats the societal problems of the post-Reconstruction South. Although he had intended this novel to challenge Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, it pales in comparison because of the rambling plot and melodrama. The Colonel’s Dream (1905) depicts the inhabitants of a small southern town. The novel is about Henry French, who grew up in Clarendon, North Carolina. He has made a fortune in business in New York City, then returns to Clarendon primarily to save it. However, several residents, particularly a man named Fetters, fear French’s intentions and plot against him. French realizes that the residents prefer the status quo; as a result, he returns to New York City. Although Chesnutt wrote additional works of fiction, nothing was accepted for publication. In addition to working in the legal stenography business, he became active in public affairs, especially in seeking rights for African Americans. Chesnutt died of arteriosclerosis in 1932. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Conjure Woman, 1899 The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, 1899 The House Behind the Cedars, 1900 The Marrow of Tradition, 1901 The Colonel’s Dream, 1905

REFERENCES Andrews, William L. The Literary Career of Charles W. Chesnutt. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1980. Chesnutt, Helen M. Charles Waddell Chesnutt: Pioneer of the Color Line. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1952. Heermance, J. Noel. Charles W. Chesnutt: America’s First Great Black Novelist. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1974. Keller, Frances Richardson. An American Crusade: The Life of Charles Waddell Chesnutt. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1978. Render, Sylvia Lyons. Charles W. Chesnutt. Boston: Twayne, 1980.

Kate Chopin (1851–1904) Kate O’Flaherty Chopin was considered by many scholars to be a colorist or regionalist who wrote realistically about the inhabitants of north central Louisiana. However, during the past few decades her themes have come to be seen as more universal. Consequently, many consider her a realist, not just a colorist. Chopin was born to Eliza Faris O’Flaherty and Thomas O’Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1851. She attended the St. Louis Academy of the Sacred Heart, from which she graduated in 1868. Two years later she married Oscar Chopin, a Louisianian, and moved with him to New Orleans, then to Cloutierville, Louisiana. They had six children. Her husband died in 1883, and in 1884 Chopin and her children moved in with her mother in St. Louis. Her mother died in 1885, leaving Chopin the house and a small inheritance. Chopin, who had experienced Creole society when she lived in Louisiana, began to write short stories about Creoles, Acadians (“Cajuns”), and the “free men of color” (children of white Creole fathers and African-American mothers). Her first collection of short stories, Bayou Folk (1894), contains sketches and vignettes about the social and racial problems of the old South. Her second collection, A Night in Acadie (1897), includes similar sketches and vignettes. Critics considered the stories too sensual. The Awakening (1899) concerns Edna Pontellier, the wife of Leonce Pontellier, a successful businessman. Although her husband is kind to her, he does not exhibit any passion. In order to fulfill certain physical needs, she commits adultery. When she realizes that she cannot have her lover, Robert Lebrun, she commits suicide. Because of the subject matter, the novel was very controversial when it was published.

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Kate Chopin suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on August 20, 1904 and died two days later. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Bayou Folk, 1894 A Night in Acadie, 1897 The Awakening, 1899

REFERENCES Arner, Robert. “Kate Chopin.” Louisiana Studies, 14 (Spring 1975): 11–39. Elfenbein, Anna Shannon. Women on the Color Line: Evolving Stereotypes and the Writings of George Washington Cable, Grace King, Kate Chopin. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1989. Ewell, Barbara C. Kate Chopin. New York: Ungar, 1986. Papke, Mary E. Verging on the Abyss: The Social Fiction of Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1990. Rankin, Daniel S. Kate Chopin and Her Creole Stories. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1932. Seyersted, Per. Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969. Skaggs, Peggy. Kate Chopin. Boston: Twayne, 1985. Taylor, Helen. Gender, Race, and Region in the Writings of Grace King, Ruth McEnery Stuart and Kate Chopin. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989. Toth, Emily. Kate Chopin. New York: William Morrow, 1990.

Winston Churchill (1871–1947) Winston Churchill was one of the first realistic writers to examine the serious problems of his time. As a result, he provided the reader with considerable insight into how his generation thought. Churchill was born on November 10, 1871, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Emma Bell Churchill and Edward Spaulding Churchill. His mother died three weeks after Churchill’s birth, and his father died when he was a child. An aunt and uncle who lived in St. Louis raised him. Although his childhood friends were from prominent families, he was not from a wealthy family. He attended the Smith Academy in St. Louis, then, when his friends went to college, he went to work. In 1890 Churchill secured an appointment to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. A good student and athlete, he graduated in 1894. He resigned his commission three months later in order to edit the Army and Navy Journal, and later The Cosmopolitan. Churchill married Mabel Harlakenden Hall, who came from a wealthy family, in 1895. His marriage brought him financial security, enabling Churchill to pursue his desire to become a writer. In 1898 he published the satiric novel The Celebrity. Next he wrote several historical romances, including Richard Carvel (1899), The Crisis (1901), and The Crossing (1904). Using the royalties from Richard Carvel, Churchill and his wife purchased land along the Connecticut River in New Hampshire and built a southern-style mansion. His admiration of Theodore Roosevelt led to an interest in politics, and in 1902 Churchill ran as a Republican for a seat in the state legislature. He was elected twice. He witnessed lobbying organizations’ manipulations of state legislators and the corruption of companies and railroads. This experience and the public’s fascination with progressivism persuaded Churchill to write about social problems. In 1906 he published Coniston, which

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concerns Jethro Bass, a corrupt politician (who was based on Ruel Durkee, head of a political party in New Hampshire). The novel recounts his rise and his association with a railroad that controls the state legislature. It realistically depicts how railroads and businesses manipulate politicians and, consequently, legislation. Churchill ran for governor of New Hampshire in 1906. Although he lost, he employed the experience of campaigning in his next novel, Mr. Crewe’s Career (1908). Again Churchill reveals the influence and power of railroads. In 1910 Churchill published A Modern Chronicle, which concerns business and its effects on the institution of marriage in American society. The Inside of the Cup (1912) presents a spiritual message for society. A Far Country (1915) deals with banking and business, and how both can corrupt the mind (but not necessarily the soul). Churchill’s last novel, The Dwelling Place of Light (1917), reveals his knowledge of Marxism. The novel focuses on a strike, and Churchill sympathizes with the workers. During a tour of war-torn Europe in 1917, Churchill became physically ill. When he returned to the United States, he was exhausted. He experienced a religious awakening, and by the early 1920s he had dismissed his previous work. In 1923 Churchill’s home burned down, and he moved into a house nearby. He filled the last years of his life with reading and painting. In 1940 he published The Uncharted Way, which presents his ideas about life. Churchill died of a heart attack in Winter Park, Florida, on March 12, 1947. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Coniston, 1906 Mr. Crewe’s Career 1908 A Modern Chronicle, 1910 The Inside of the Cup, 1912 A Far Country, 1915 The Dwelling Place of Light, 1917

REFERENCES Cooper, Frederic Taber. Some American Story Tellers. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1968. Hofstadter, Richard, and Beatrice Hofstadter. “Winston Churchill: A Study in the Popular Novel.” American Quarterly (Spring 1950): 12–28. Schneider, Robert W. Five Novelists of the Progressive Era. New York: Columbia University Press, 1965. ———. Novelist to a Generation: The Life and Thought of Winston Churchill. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1976. Titus, Warren Irving. Winston Churchill. New York: Twayne, 1963.

Samuel L. Clemens (1835–1910) Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) wrote realistic and satiric novels about growing up in America. He broke away from the literary traditions of the mid-1800s and presented authentic dialogue and carefully developed characters. In addition, he captured the humorous side of life. Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri, in 1835. In 1839 he moved with his parents to Hannibal, Missouri, where he attended public schools until his father died in 1847. Clemens apprenticed to a printer at age twelve and began to pilot boats on the Mississippi five years later. He served briefly in the Confederate Army, then moved to Virginia City, Nevada, where he worked for The Territorial Enterprise. Clemens wrote humorous sketches under the pen name Mark Twain. One of these sketches, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (1864), was the title piece of his first book, which was published in 1867. The sketch concerns a gambler and his pet frog, Dan’l Webster, which can outjump all other frogs—until a stranger stuffs the frog with quail shot. Twain moved to San Francisco and worked for the San Francisco Morning Call. He contributed articles to The Golden Era, The Californian, The Union, and Harper’s Magazine. He contributed letters and short stories to various newspapers and magazines, including the Sunday Mercury and Saturday Press. Twain moved to the Daily Alta California and became the paper’s traveling correspondent. He boarded the ship Quaker City, which cruised to Europe and the Mediterranean in 1867, and recorded quite humorously what he observed. He sent fifty-eight letters describing his journey to the Daily Alta California (it received fifty), and also contributed letters to the New York Herald and the New York Tribune. Twain visited Gibraltar, Tangier, Marseilles, Paris, Versailles, Genoa, Milan, Venice, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Naples, Athens, Constantinople,

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Odessa, Yalta, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Spain, among other cities and countries. In 1869 he published The Innocents Abroad, or the New Pilgrims’ Progress: Being Some Account of the Steamship Quaker City’s Pleasure Excursion to Europe and the Holy Land, with Descriptions of Countries, Nations, Incidents and Adventures, as They Appeared to the Author. The book was based in part on the observations he had recorded in a notebook and in part on the letters he had contributed to newspapers. Twain was no longer writing for the Daily Alta California. He had moved East and was seeing Olivia Langdon, whom he married a year later. Roughing It (1872) is a collection of humorous sketches based on Twain’s experiences from 1861 to 1866. In 1873 The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-day, written with Charles Dudley Warner, was published. The novel concerns self-deception, hypocrisy, and greed, and depicts the inhabitants of small towns who desire more than what they have. The same year Twain contributed articles about his life on the Mississippi to the Atlantic Monthly. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) realistically depicts the mischievous side of childhood. Tom Sawyer and his half brother, Sid, live with their Aunt Polly in St. Petersburg, Missouri, on the Mississippi. His aunt punishes Tom for playing hooky. Although Tom is supposed to whitewash a fence as part of his punishment, he convinces his friends that the task is a privilege. He persuades them to whitewash the fence. Tom courts Becky Thatcher, but she rejects his advances. Later, Tom and Huck Finn, pretending to be pirates, see Injun Joe kill a man. Afraid, they hide on an island and are believed dead. When they return, they tell what they have seen, and Injun Joe flees. At a picnic, Tom and Becky explore a cave and get lost. Eventually, they encounter Injun Joe, who is hiding treasure. Tom and Becky find the way out, but Injun Joe becomes trapped in the cave. The Prince and the Pauper (1882) is a tale in which the Prince of Wales exchanges places with Tom Canty of Offal Court. Life on the Mississippi (1883) is based on the articles Twain had written for the Atlantic Monthly in the 1870s. In 1885 Twain published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which follows Huck Finn after his time with Tom Sawyer. The novel concerns Huck’s relationship with the Widow Douglas, who has adopted him, then his relationship with his derelict father, who reappears. Pap, Huck’s father, brings Huck to his shack; Huck then escapes to an island and journeys down the Mississippi River on a raft with Jim, a runaway slave. They have one adventure after another, including being joined by two grifters who will do practically anything illegal for monetary gain. They sell Jim to Tom Sawyer’s aunt, but Tom rescues him by revealing that his owner, Miss Watson, had freed him in her will. Huck learns that his father is dead—and, like Jim, is free at last. In 1889 Twain published A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, a satirical commentary on two periods in man’s history: the old and the new.

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For the rest of his life, Twain enjoyed unparalleled popularity in the United States and abroad through writing and lecturing. Stories he had heard and people he had known filled his novels. During the 1890s, however, his life changed dramatically. He had very little business sense, and unexpectedly found himself in debt; the daughter whom he favored died suddenly; and the thought of having to write novels and give lectures to earn a living sent him into depression. From about 1878 to 1900, he lived abroad. In 1895 and 1896 he lectured throughout the world. In 1894 Twain published The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson, whose characters are shaped by the circumstances in which they find themselves. The novel, like Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896), was written primarily to make money. In 1900 The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, and Other Stories and Essays appeared. Unfortunately, the main story exemplifies Twain’s pessimism about so-called progress, which had appeared several years before, when Twain had gone bankrupt. What Is Man? (1906) and The Mysterious Stranger (1916) also reveal Twain’s pessimism about progress, and what it had meant for Americans and their country. Twain managed to pay off his debts, but his efforts caused his health to deteriorate. He died in Redding, Connecticut, in 1910.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1885

REFERENCES Allen, Jerry. The Adventures of Mark Twain. Boston: Little, Brown, 1954. Emerson, Everett H. The Authentic Mark Twain: A Literary Biography of Samuel L. Clemens. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984. Fatout, Paul. Mark Twain in Virginia City. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1973; Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1964. Gerber, John C. Mark Twain. Boston: Twayne, 1988. Hoffman, Andrew Jay. Inventing Mark Twain: The Lives of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. New York: William Morrow, 1997. Kaplin, Justin. Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966. ———, comp. Mark Twain: A Profile. New York: Hill and Wang, 1967. Lauber, John. The Making of Mark Twain: A Biography. New York: Noonday Press/ Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1988; New York: American Heritage Press, 1985. Macnaughton, William R. Mark Twain’s Last Years as a Writer. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1979. Neider, Charles. Mark Twain. New York: Horizon Press, 1967.

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Wagenknecht, Edward. Mark Twain: The Man and His Work. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961. Wecter, Dixon. Sam Clemens of Hannibal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1952. Welland, Dennis Sydney Reginald. Mark Twain in England. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1978.

Jack Conroy (1899–1990) John Wesley Conroy (Jack Conroy) was editor of several literary magazines as well as a naturalistic writer who explored the lives of those on the lower rungs of the social ladder. He wrote at least two proletarian novels for adults and several book-length stories for children. Conroy was born December 5, 1899, to Eliza Jane Conroy and Thomas Edward Conroy, in a coal mining camp near Moberly, Missouri. His father, who had been a Catholic priest in Canada, organized a union for miners. In 1920 Conroy entered the University of Missouri but he left after one semester, primarily because college life was not to his liking. Besides, he had to work in order to live. He returned to Moberly, where he worked at jobs ranging from putting in hay to laying bricks. He also attempted to write. In 1922 Conroy married Elizabeth Kelly. They had three children, and he continued to work at various jobs and to write. Before the decade ended, Conroy had become a member of the Rebel Poets, an organization founded by Ralph Cheyney, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World. In 1930 Conroy and Ben Hagglund, another member of the Rebel Poets, decided that the organization needed a literary magazine. The Rebel Poet first appeared in January 1931 and lasted until the October 1932 issue. Conroy and Haggland accepted material that was largely radical in nature. By this time Conroy had contributed an article about the winter of 1931 to the American Mercury, as well as articles based on his experiences to other periodicals. H. L. Mencken, the editor of American Mercury, encouraged him to write a novel based on the material he had published in the American Mercury and other periodicals. Conroy wrote it, but every publisher he submitted it to refused the manuscript until he agreed to revise it. He developed the protagonist, Larry Donovan, so that the reader experiences what he experiences. The reader

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learns about the plight of workers in America in the early 1900s: the unsafe working conditions in mines; the sweaty working conditions in steel mills and tire plants; the bosses and the workers, the radicals and the conservatives, the good people and the bad people. Larry Donovan witnesses an oppressive economic system and, influenced by the workers’ plight, eventually becomes a labor organizer. The Disinherited was published in 1933. Although the novel was critically acclaimed for its style, some reviewers complained about Conroy’s political agenda. Nonetheless, the novel sold well, considering it was a first effort. Conroy and Haggland founded the Anvil, a literary magazine for the laboring class, in May 1933. It published work by such writers as Nelson Algren, Erskine Caldwell, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright. In addition to editing copy for the Anvil, Conroy began writing another novel. A World to Win (1935) concerns the early years of two half brothers’ lives and their reactions to their vagabond, bohemian lifestyles. Unfortunately, it is not as well written as The Disinherited—it suffers from Conroy’s lack of political conviction. However, the early passages, set in rural Missouri, offer a realistic description of the place and its inhabitants. Later in 1935, at the urging of the editors of the Partisan Review, Conroy merged the Anvil with the Partisan Review, which had been founded by Philip Rahv in New York City. Conroy eventually lost editorial control of the combined effort, and Anvil was dropped from the Partisan Review title in 1937. Nelson Algren, who had suggested to Conroy that they publish a new literary magazine for the working class, invited him to Chicago. Conroy grew excited— another magazine would help him earn some money for his family. He moved to Chicago, where he was editor of the New Anvil, the first issue of which appeared in 1939. When the magazine ceased publication in 1941, Conroy remained in Chicago. He was employed by the Works Progress Administration and wrote book reviews for several publications. In 1942 Conroy and Arna Bontemps published The Fast-Sooner Hound, a book for children. Their later books for children included Slappy Hooper, the Wonderful Sign Painter (1946) and Sam Patch, the High, Wide and Handsome Jumper (1951). Conroy became an associate editor of Nelson’s Encyclopedia and of the Universal World Reference Encyclopedia in 1943. Four years later he was named senior associate editor of The New Standard Encyclopedia, a position that he held until his retirement in 1966. In 1945 Conroy published They Seek a City: A Study of Negro Migration, a work of nonfiction. It was expanded with the help of Arna Bontemps and reissued as Anyplace but Here in 1966. Conroy returned to Moberly in 1966 and remained there until his death in 1990. He contributed chapters to books edited by others as well as book reviews to various newspapers.

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REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Disinherited, 1933 A World to Win, 1935

REFERENCES Aaron, Daniel. “Introduction.” In Jack Conroy, The Disinherited. New York: Hill and Wang, 1963. Gilbert, James B. Writers and Partisans: A History of Literary Radicalism in America. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1968. Madden, David. Proletarian Writers of the Thirties. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1968. Noe, Marcia, ed. Exploring the Midwestern Literary Imagination: Essays in Honor of David A. Anderson. Troy, N.Y.: Whitston, 1993.

Rose Terry Cooke (1827–1892) Rose Terry Cooke was one of the first regionalists to write realistic fiction about New England, specifically about rural Connecticut. Cooke was born to Anne Hurlbut Terry and Henry Wadsworth Terry on February 17, 1827, near Hartford, Connecticut. When she was six years old, she moved with her parents to her paternal grandmother’s home in Hartford, where she learned to keep a house as well as a garden. Cooke attended the Hartford Female Seminary, from which she graduated when she was sixteen. She joined the Congregational Church the same year. Cooke briefly taught in Hartford, then moved to Burlington, New Jersey, where she taught at a Presbyterian school. Eventually, she became a governess in the home of a Presbyterian minister in Burlington. She had to return to Hartford four years later. A sister who had several children died, and Cooke was the only relative who could raise them. In 1848 she received a small inheritance, which allowed her some freedom from teaching. In addition to looking after her sister’s children, Cooke started writing poetry. In 1851 Charles A. Dana published several of her poems in the New York Tribune. Other poems appeared in magazines. In 1861 her first collection of poems was published. Cooke’s poetry concerned life in New England, nature, religion, and the Civil War. Cooke also wrote fiction, primarily short stories, about life in New England. These stories, which appeared in Putnam’s Magazine, Harper’s Monthly Magazine, and the Atlantic Monthly, faithfully recorded New England dialects and characteristics. Her stories concerned the grim aspects of her characters’ lives as they attempted to make a living in small towns or on farms. Cooke usually applied a certain amount of humor that made her characters more lifelike. In the 1860s Cooke, who had been in poor health for years, reduced her

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literary output. In 1873, when she was forty-six, she married Rollin H. Cooke, a thirty-year-old widower with two daughters. He was basically a ne’er-do-well who could not keep a job, so the income that her writing earned was the family’s primary means of support. In 1878 Happy Dodd; or, She Hath Done What She Could, Cooke’s first collection of realistic short stories, was published. It was followed by Somebody’s Neighbors (1881), another collection; Root-Bound and Other Sketches (1885), The Sphinx’s Children and Other People’s (1886), a collection; and No (1886), a novel for children. In 1887 Cooke and her husband moved to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he worked in a bank and sold real estate in his spare time. These jobs lasted until 1889. Cooke wrote Steadfast (1889), a novel about bigotry during the colonial period. Although the novel was accurate, it received little critical attention. In 1891 Huckleberries Gathered from New England Hills, another collection of realistic short stories, was published. In 1892 Cooke was ill with pneumonia and, later, influenza. She died at Pittsfield on July 18, 1892. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Happy Dodd; or, She Hath Done What She Could, 1878 Somebody’s Neighbors, 1881 Root-Bound and Other Sketches, 1885 The Sphinx’s Children and Other People’s, 1886 Steadfast, 1889 Huckleberries Gathered from New England Hills, 1891

REFERENCES Ammons, Elizabeth. “Introduction.” In Rose Terry Cooke, “How Celia Changed Her Mind” and Selected Stories. Edited by Elizabeth Ammons. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1986. Spofford, Harriet Prescott. “Rose Terry Cooke.” In Our Famous Women. Hartford, Conn.: A. D. Worthington, 1884. ———. A Little Book of Friends. Boston: Little, Brown, 1917. Toth, Susan A. “Rose Terry Cooke.” American Literary Journalism, 42 (Spring 1971): 170–176. Westbrook, Perry D. Acres of Flint: Sarah Orne Jewett and Her Contemporaries. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1981.

James Gould Cozzens (1903–1978) James Gould Cozzens was a realistic writer who focused on those who had the power to shape the United States. A perfectionist, he insisted on writing about what he knew or had observed. Cozzens was born to Mary Bertha Wood Cozzens and Henry W. Cozzens in Chicago on August 19, 1903, but he was reared in New York City. He attended Staten Island Academy, then the Kent School, an Episcopal preparatory school in Connecticut, where he contributed to the Kent Quarterly. Cozzens entered Harvard University in 1922. He had contributed to the Harvard Advocate; had completed his first realistic novel, Confusion; and had started his second novel when he left two years later. Cozzens realized that attending college was not necessary in order to become a successful writer. Confusion was published in 1924. Michael Scarlett, his second realistic novel, appeared in 1925, the year he moved to Cuba to tutor American children whose parents worked in a sugar mill. Two years later he was in Europe, also tutoring American children. When he returned to New York in the late 1920s, he worked as a librarian. His third and fourth realistic novels, Cock Pit (1928) and The Son of Perdition (1929), were based on his experiences in Cuba. Cozzens contributed short stories to various magazines. His realistic novel, S.S. San Pedro, based on the sinking of the passenger ship Vestris (1931), had appeared in Scribner’s Magazine a year earlier. The next novel that was based on fact—on his experiences in Europe in 1927—was published in 1940. Ask Me Tomorrow, an autobiography to a certain extent, depicts—in the guise of Francis Ellery, the main character—Cozzens’s growth as a person. In 1942 Cozzens depicted with incredible accuracy the legal process of a trial in The Just and the Unjust. The accused is charged with murder. During World

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War II, Cozzens served in the U.S. Army Air Corps. His experiences were the basis for the critically acclaimed realistic novel Guard of Honor (1948), which covers three days at an Army Air Corps base in Florida where an incident between the protagonist, General Ira Beal, and a black bomber crew creates a militarily unacceptable racial situation. The novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Cozzens wrote other realistic novels, including the critically acclaimed By Love Possessed (1957). The novel is set in Brocton, a small mid-Atlantic city, where Arthur Winner’s world practically falls apart. Winner, a partner in a law firm, has an affair with the wife of Julius Penrose, another partner in the firm. Mrs. Penrose threatens to tell her husband about the affair. However, Winner learns that Penrose has known about the affair. In this novel Cozzens realistically examines the inhabitants of a small city in America, and reveals that all are possessed by various kinds of love, including sexual love. Cozzens also wrote the commercially successful realistic novel Morning, Noon and Night (1968), which was based on fact. He died of pneumonia in Stuart, Florida, at the age of seventy-five. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Confusion, 1924 Michael Scarlett, 1925 Cock Pit, 1928 The Son of Perdition, 1929 S.S. San Pedro, 1931 Ask Me Tomorrow, 1940 The Just and the Unjust, 1942 Guard of Honor, 1948 By Love Possessed, 1957 Morning, Noon and Night, 1968

REFERENCES Bracher, Frederick George. The Novels of James Gould Cozzens. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1959. Bruccoli, Matthew J., ed. James Gould Cozzens: New Acquist of True Experience. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1979. Hicks, Granville. James Gould Cozzens. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1966. Macdonald, Dwight. “By Cozzens Possessed.” Commentary, 25 (January 1958): 36–47. Michel, Pierre. James Gould Cozzens. New York: Twayne, 1974.

Stephen Crane (1871–1900) Stephen Crane was a naturalistic writer. Unlike many of his contemporaries, who focused on characters’ situations, Crane focused on their thoughts or feelings. Traces of this style are evident in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. It is obvious in The Red Badge of Courage. Crane was born in 1871, in Newark, New Jersey. His father was Reverend Jonathan Townley Crane, and his mother was Mary Peck Crane. Crane attended the Hudson River Institute, Lafayette College, and Syracuse University. He contributed to articles that his mother published in the New York Tribune, the Philadelphia Press, the Detroit Press, and several Methodist newspapers. Before he left Syracuse in 1890, he had worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune, had written for the school newspaper, and had published a Sullivan County sketch, “A Tent in Agony,” in Cosmopolitan. He moved to New York City, where he contributed three sketches to Truth, a humor magazine; wrote occasionally for the New York Herald and Tribune; and at his own expense published Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893), under the pseudonym Johnston Smith. The naturalistic novel concerns Maggie Johnson and her brother, Jimmie, who are reared in Rum Alley, a slum in New York City. Maggie works in a sweatshop and Jimmie drives wagons. Pete, a bartender, seduces Maggie, and she grows to love him. However, he rejects her love. In order to survive, she becomes a prostitute. Eventually, she commits suicide. In 1894 Crane completed The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War, which realistically depicts the experiences of Henry Fleming, a young infantryman in the Union Army, as he struggles to stay alive in one of the worst battles of the Civil War. Although Crane had not had any war

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experience, the novel, first serialized in the Philadelphia Press, then published in 1895, was instantly successful. Crane traveled through the West and wrote for the Bacheller Syndicate in 1895. He used incidents he had witnessed as the basis for such stories as “The Blue Hotel” and “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky.” His publisher, however, requested more war stories. As a result, Crane published The Little Regiment and Other Episodes of the American Civil War in 1896. Crane set sail for Cuba in 1896 aboard the S. S. Commodore, which carried a contraband cargo of guns and ammunition for General Maximo Gomez. The vessel sank off the coast of Florida, and Crane later described his experiences in “The Open Boat.” Crane met Cora Taylor, who operated a brothel in Florida, and grew to love her. He reported on the Greco-Turkish War from Greece, where he became ill, in 1897. His reports were published in the New York Journal, the New York World, and the Westminster Gazette. In 1898 The Open Boat and Other Tales of Adventure, which contains his best naturalistic short stories, was published. Crane reported on the Spanish-American War for the New York World. He filed sketches that reported the war in such a way that readers understood the meaning of battle and what it does to men. These sketches were ultimately published in 1900 under the title Wounds in the Rain. Crane, exhausted, returned to New York. Gossip about his being a degenerate forced him to move to England in 1899. He and Cora Taylor entertained guests in their manor, Brede Place, until Crane was almost bankrupt. He died of tuberculosis in 1900 in Badenweiler, Germany. He was twenty-eight years old. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, 1893 The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War, 1895 The Little Regiment and Other Episodes of the American Civil War, 1896 The Open Boat and Other Tales of Adventure, 1898 Wounds in the Rain, 1900

REFERENCES Benfey, Christopher E. G. The Double Life of Stephen Crane. New York: Knopf, 1992. Cady, Edwin Harrison. Stephen Crane. New York: Twayne, 1962. Cazemajou, Jean. Stephen Crane. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1969. Colvert, James B. Stephen Crane. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984. Holton, Milne. Cylinder of Vision: The Fiction and Journalistic Writing of Stephen Crane. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1972. LaFrance, Marston. A Reading of Stephen Crane. Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1971.

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Linson, Corwin Knapp. My Stephen Crane. Edited by Edwin H. Cady. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1958. Soloman, Eric. Stephen Crane, from Parody to Realism. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1966. Stallman, R. W. Stephen Crane: A Biography. New York: George Braziller, 1968. Sufim, Mark. Stephen Crane. New York: Atheneum, 1992. Wertheim, Stanley. The Crane Log: A Documentary Life of Stephen Crane, 1871–1900. New York: G. K. Hall, 1994. Wolford, Chester L. The Anger of Stephen Crane: Fiction and the Epic Tradition. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983.

F. Marion Crawford (1854–1909) F. (Francis) Marion Crawford was a realistic writer who enjoyed great popularity in the United States and Great Britain. Each of his more than forty novels was a best-seller. Crawford was born on August 2, 1854, at Bagni di Lucca, Italy. His mother was Louisa Cutler Ward Crawford, whose sister was Julia Ward Howe, and his father was the famous sculptor Thomas Crawford. Following the death of her husband in 1857, Louisa returned to the United States with her children. Crawford began his formal education in New York City. Later, he enrolled in St. Paul’s School, a preparatory school in Concord, New Hampshire. He entered Harvard upon his graduation, but later sailed to England, in 1870. There he attended Cambridge University until 1874, when he moved to Germany. In 1876 he enrolled at the University of Rome, where he remained for two years. Crawford worked as a journalist primarily because his mother had lost her inheritance. He traveled throughout Europe, then in 1879 journeyed to Allahabad, India, where he edited the Indian Herald. In addition to his assignments for the newspaper, Crawford studied Oriental languages. Crawford returned to the United States in 1881. He lived in New York City and Boston, where he studied Sanskrit. He also contributed articles to several periodicals. His first novel, Mr. Isaacs: A Tale of Modern India (1882), was a realistic adventure. Crawford again left the United States in 1883 and settled in Sorrento, Italy. In 1884 he married Elizabeth Berdan, and they enjoyed a cosmopolitan style of living. Crawford continued to write. In fact, during the next twelve years, he wrote twenty-four novels. Some of these novels include Doctor Claudius: A True Story

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and To Leeward (1883); A Roman Singer and An American Politician (1884); Zoroaster (1885); A Tale of a Lonely Parish (1886); Saracinesca, Marzio’s Crucifix, and Paul Patoff (1887); Sant’ Ilario (1889); The Three Fates, Don Orsino, and The Children of the King: A Tale of Southern Italy (1892); Katherine Lauderdale (1894); and The Ralstons and Casa Braccio (1895). Saracinesca, Sant’ Ilario, Don Orsino, and Corleone: A Tale of Sicily (1897) concern a noble family in Rome. Crawford depicts honestly and dramatically the ups and downs of the members of a great aristocratic family. The novels examine the heart of nineteenth-century Italy. He was also concerned with individuals in the United States, especially the inhabitants of New York City, in The Three Fates, Katherine Lauderdale, and The Ralstons. In The Three Fates, most of the characters are based on actual persons, including Crawford himself. The novel’s protagonist is a young writer who attempts to sell his first novel to publishers in New York. The novel is accurate and insightful. In addition to novels, Crawford wrote several books of history, particularly the history of Venice and Sicily. He also produced several books on archaeology, as well as on his philosophy of writing. The latter differed from the philosophy of William Dean Howells, in that Crawford thought a novel should tell a good story—that is, entertain the reader—not necessarily instruct or educate. Crawford continued to write until his death at his villa in Sorrento, Italy, on April 9, 1909. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Mr. Isaacs: A Tale of Modern India, 1882 An American Politician, 1884 Saracinesca, 1887 Sant’ Ilario, 1889 Don Orsino, 1892 The Three Fates, 1892 Katherine Lauderdale, 1894 The Ralstons, 1895 Corleone: A Tale of Sicily, 1897

REFERENCES Elliott, Maud Howe. My Cousin: F. Marion Crawford. New York: Macmillan, 1934. Moran, John Charles. Seeking Refuge in Torre San Nicola: An Introduction to F. Marion Crawford. Nashville, Tenn.: F. Marion Crawford Memorial Society, 1980. ———. An F. Marion Crawford Companion. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1981. Pilkington, John, Jr. Francis Marion Crawford. New York: Twayne, 1964.

Edward Dahlberg (1900–1977) Edward Dahlberg was a poet, critic, and a novelist who was comfortable writing lyrical verse as well as innovative naturalistic fiction, especially naturalistic fiction based on his early life. Dahlberg was born on July 22, 1900, to Elizabeth Dahlberg in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was Saul Gottdank, a barber with whom his mother had had an affair. She gave her son her own last name. Dahlberg and his mother journeyed to London, then went to Dallas, Texas, to join his father. Gottdank taught Dahlberg’s mother how to cut hair, then stole her money and left town. Unfortunately, Dahlberg’s mother did not learn from this act. Gottdank repeated it when they reunited in Memphis, and when they reunited again in New Orleans. Broke, mother and son journeyed from one city to another, finally settling in Kansas City, Missouri, where Elizabeth Dahlberg operated a successful barbershop. Dahlberg attended a Catholic school, where he experienced discipline and rigor. Unfortunately, his mother was taken advantage of again. She lost money to Harry Cohen, a Jewish baker, and later to a jeweler. Henry Smith, a retired ship’s captain, entered their lives, and eventually persuaded Dahlberg’s mother to send her son to an orphanage so he would not be influenced by the immoral activity that occurred on the city’s streets. Dahlberg was sent to a Catholic orphanage in Kansas City, then in 1912, to the Jewish Orphan Asylum in Cleveland. His experiences there deeply affected him primarily because the children were treated almost like criminals. They were separated and were given numbers; their names were not used for administrative purposes. They did not receive any affection from adults. As a result of these conditions, some children became brutal toward others, causing fights. In 1917 Dahlberg left the orphanage. He worked for Western Union in Cleve-

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land, then returned to Kansas City, where he was employed briefly in the stockyards. Dahlberg served for a short time in the U.S. Army, then journeyed through the West, taking various jobs to earn a living. In 1919 he lived at the YMCA in Los Angeles, where Max Lewis introduced him to the writings of such authors as Samuel Butler and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Later, Lewis encouraged Dahlberg to attend college. Dahlberg enrolled in the University of California at Berkeley in 1921. In addition to majoring in philosophy and anthropology, he wrote several essays that were published in the university’s literary magazine. In 1923 he transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he earned his bachelor’s degree two years later. Dahlberg married Fanya Fass in 1926, and they moved to Europe, where they soon divorced. Dahlberg became friends with several expatriate writers, and in 1928 completed Bottom Dogs, his first naturalistic novel. Sections of the novel were published in This Quarter, a periodical, in 1929; the novel appeared in book form in England later the same year, and in the United States in 1930. Several critics labeled Bottom Dogs as a proletarian novel because of its subject matter. It was based on Dahlberg’s experiences at the orphanage in Cleveland and in the West. The novel gained attention because of its coarse language and graphic detail. Dahlberg depicted the miserable, downtrodden individuals—from blue-collar workers to farmers—he had known or met. The novel influenced other writers, including those who advocated communism, to write about members of the lowest class in America. In 1932 Dahlberg published From Flushing to Calvary, another proletarian naturalistic novel that describes characters and situations he had known or experienced. The writing, primarily because of the expressionistic style, is very poetic. Two years later, after a trip to Germany, he published the political novel Those Who Perish, which focuses on Nazism from a Marxist perspective. Dahlberg helped organize the first communistic American Writers’ Congress, which met in 1935. With Sherwood Anderson and Alfred Stieglitz, he organized the group Friends of William Carlos Williams about the same time. During the late 1930s, Dahlberg traveled to major cities in the United States and Mexico, and read works by the great writers of the 1700s and 1800s. He started writing critical essays that were written in a classical prose style. His first collection of essays, Do These Bones Live?, was published in 1941, and several critics commented favorably about his advocating a mythical kind of writing—writing similar to Dante’s. Dahlberg married Winifred Sheehan Moore in 1942; they had two sons. The death of his mother in 1946 had a dramatic impact on his life. They had been close, and he had written about their experiences in several novels. In 1950 Dahlberg married Rlene LaFleur Howell. They traveled briefly, lived in Berkeley, California, then in 1956 went abroad. His book about man’s carnal nature, The Sorrows of Priapus, was published in 1957. For the next several years, Dahlberg lived both in the United States and

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abroad. He revised and retitled his first collection of essays. Can These Bones Live? was published in 1960. Four years later his insightful autobiography, Because I Was Flesh, appeared. Dahlberg employed the devices of fiction to explain the mixed feelings he had about his early life and his relationship with his mother. He was praised by critics for his ability to mythologize his life and modern America. Another collection of literary essays, Alms for Oblivion, was published later in 1964. Dahlberg, who had taught occasionally at New York University, served as a visiting professor of English literature at the University of Missouri in Kansas City from 1964 to 1966. His first collection of poetry was Cipango’s Hinder Door (1966). The following year he published a collection of poems and literary essays titled The Leafless American. His rhythmic and lyrical poetry was compared by several critics to certain books in the Old Testament. In 1967 Dahlberg married Julia Lawlor. A year later he published The Carnal Myth, the sequel to The Sorrows of Priapus. Four years later he published The Confessions of Edward Dahlberg, the sequel to Because I Was Flesh. This book paled in comparison to his previous autobiography, however. Dahlberg died on February 27, 1977. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Bottom Dogs, 1929 From Flushing to Calvary, 1932 Because I Was Flesh, 1964

REFERENCES Billings, Harold, ed. Edward Dahlberg: American Ishmael of Letters. Austin, Tex.: Roger Beacham, 1968. Selected critical essays with an introduction by Billings. Dahlberg, Edward. The Confessions of Edward Dahlberg. New York: George Braziller, 1971. DeFanti, Charles. The Wages of Expectation: A Biography of Edward Dahlberg. New York: New York University Press, 1978. Hassan, Ihab. “The Sorrows of Edward Dahlberg.” Massachusetts Review, 5 (Spring 1964): 457–461. Madden, David, ed. Proletarian Writers of the Thirties. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1968. Moramarco, Fred. Edward Dahlberg. New York: Twayne, 1972.

Rebecca Harding Davis (1831–1910) Rebecca Harding Davis wrote one of the earliest penetrating naturalistic novels about inhumane factory working conditions in America. Davis was born on June 24, 1831, to Rachel Wilson Harding and Richard Harding in Washington, Pennsylvania. She lived in Huntsville, Alabama, with her parents, then in Wheeling, West Virginia, before she married Lemuel Clarke Davis, a lawyer, on March 5, 1863, and moved to Philadelphia. Davis learned about the industrial workers’ plight when she lived in West Virginia. Her first short story, “Life in the Iron Mills,” realistically depicts the problems of laborers in America. Davis also wrote about the Civil War in numerous short stories and novels. Although her short stories and novels were realistic in the sense that she described characters and situations accurately, they occasionally suffered from romanticism and obvious sentimentality. In 1862 Margret Howth: A Story of To-Day, a novel about a young manufacturer who chooses a girl from the slums instead of a wealthy heiress, was published. Waiting for the Verdict, a novel that expresses sympathy for African Americans, appeared in 1868. Davis had three children. In addition to being a good mother and writing short stories and novels, she became a contributing editor to the New York Tribune in 1869. Her husband stopped practicing law when he became the managing editor of the Philadelphia Public Ledger in 1870. Davis’s most important realistic novel, critically speaking, is John Andross (1874), which concerns Anna Maddox, a ruthless woman who seduces men. Several short stories about women and the problems they confront were collected in Silhouettes of American Life (1892). After her husband died in 1904, Davis moved in with her daughter Nora. Her autobiography, Bits of Gossip, was published the same year. Davis died on

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September 29, 1910, at the home of her son, Richard, in Mount Kisco, New York. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Margret Howth: A Story of To-Day, 1862 Waiting for the Verdict, 1868 John Andross, 1874 Silhouettes of American Life, 1892

REFERENCES Harris, Sharon M. Rebecca Harding Davis and American Realism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991. Langford, Gerald. The Richard Harding Davis Years: A Biography of a Mother and Son. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1961. Pfaelzer, Jean. Parlor Radical: Rebecca Harding Davis and the Origins of American Social Realism. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996. Rose, Jane Atteridge. Rebecca Harding Davis. New York: Twayne, 1993.

Richard Harding Davis (1864–1916) Richard Harding Davis wrote about Courtlandt Van Bibber, a resident of New York City, who allowed readers to understand the wealthy through his aristocrat eyes. He also influenced other writers of the 1890s to try their hands at satiric realism. Davis was born in Philadelphia in 1864. His father, Lemuel C. Davis, was a lawyer before he became the editor of the Philadelphia Public Ledger. His mother, Rebecca Harding Davis, was a successful writer of fiction. Davis attended the Episcopal Academy at Swarthmore and Ulrich’s Preparatory School at Bethlehem before enrolling at Lehigh University and, later, Johns Hopkins. He never received a degree, however. When Davis was twenty-two, the editor of the Philadelphia Record hired him. Later, he worked for the Philadelphia Press. His reporting about the Johnstown flood of 1889 was read with interest by readers and was noticed by editors of other newspapers. Davis moved to the New York Evening Sun the same year. In addition to writing news stories and features for the Sun, he contributed articles to Scribner’s Magazine. In 1891 Davis left the Sun to become managing editor of Harper’s Weekly, for which he traveled through the West, the Mediterranean, and Europe. He wrote numerous accounts of his exploits, which were later collected in The West from a Car-Window (1892), The Rulers of the Mediterranean and Our English Cousins (1894), and About Paris (1895). In the 1890s Davis reported on the conflicts in Central America, particularly the regions surrounding the Panama Canal Zone, and contributed realistic fiction to newspapers and magazines. In 1890, for instance, he wrote “Gallagher,” about a newspaper office boy, for Scribner’s Magazine. The story, together with other tales, was collected in Gallagher and Other Stories (1891). Davis wrote several

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tales that featured another interesting character Courtlandt Van Bibber, a young aristocrat who knew the most important people and places in town. These stories were collected in Van Bibber and Others (1892). In addition to short stories, Davis wrote several realistic novels, including The Princess Alive (1895), and several plays. Although he earned as much as $100,000 a year, Davis left his second wife, Bessie McCoy, almost penniless when he died at Mount Kisco, New York, in 1916. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Gallagher and Other Stories, 1891 Van Bibber and Others, 1892 The Princess Alive, 1895

REFERENCES Downey, Fairfax Davis. Richard Harding Davis: His Day. New York: Scribner’s, 1933. Langford, Gerald. The Richard Harding Davis Years: A Biography of a Mother and Son. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1961. Lubow, Arthur. The Reporter Who Would Be King: A Biography of Richard Harding Davis. New York: Scribner’s, 1992. Osborn, Scott C., and Robert L. Phillips, Jr. Richard Harding Davis. Boston: Twayne, 1978.

John William De Forest (1826–1906) John William De Forest wrote one of the first penetrating realistic novels about the American Civil War, as well as novels in the same style about both the fortunate and the less fortunate in America. De Forest was born in Humphreysville (now Seymour), Connecticut, on March 31, 1826. His father, John Hancock De Forest, was a successful manufacturer. De Forest traveled to Syria in 1848, and to Europe in 1851. He journeyed through France, Germany, and Italy. He learned to read French before he returned to the United States in 1854. His first book, History of the Indians of Connecticut from the Earliest Known Period to 1850 (1851), was a serious study. His first novel, Witching Times published serially in Putnam’s Monthly Magazine in 1856–1857, concerns the witchcraft trials and the questionable religious beliefs of those who lived in Salem, Massachusetts. De Forest married in 1856, and he and his wife lived in Charleston, South Carolina, as well as in New Haven, Connecticut. Before the Civil War he wrote the realistic, melodramatic novel Seacliff or The Mystery of the Westervelts (1859). The novel concerns Ellen Westervelt, who plots to persuade her uncle to change his will to benefit her. She eventually agonizes over her misdeeds, goes insane, and commits suicide. During the Civil War, De Forest served as a captain of the 12th Connecticut Volunteer Company, which fought in Louisiana and Virginia. When the war ended, he headed the Freedman’s Bureau at Greenville, South Carolina. He lived through the problems of Reconstruction, then wrote articles about his experiences that were published in magazines. In addition to writing about the Reconstruction, De Forest wrote one of the most realistic novels about the Civil War. Miss Ravenel’s Conversion from Se-

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cession to Loyalty (1867) concerns Lillie Ravenel, a Southerner who marries John Carter, an army officer, instead of Edward Colburne. Carter, a professional soldier of unquestionable courage, is unfaithful to his wife and steals funds from the government. Later he is killed on the battlefield. Edward Colburne also serves during the war, but is not killed. Eventually he and Lillie Ravenel are married. In addition to characters’ foibles, De Forest realistically depicts the pain of battle and the physical characteristics of the battlefields. The reader is able to visualize the muck in which men have to fight as well as the suffering they have to endure. In 1870 De Forest published two novels in Hearth and Home: Della, or the Wild Girl and Amie Howard. Overland, a novel that concerns an army lieutenant who saves a half-Spanish young woman from Apaches in the Southwest, appeared in 1871. This tour de force was followed in 1872 by Kate Beaumont, which describes the feud between the Low-Country aristocratic Beaumonts and the High-Country aristocratic McAlisters. The novel’s setting is South Carolina. De Forest published Honest John Vane, a realistic novel about political corruption, in 1875. John Vane is a congressman who rationalizes that he does not earn enough money to live in Washington, D.C., so he decides to sell his vote on a particular project. Another realistic novel about politics and bribery in Washington, D.C., is Playing the Mischief (1876). De Forest traveled abroad in the late 1870s and again in the early 1880s. After he returned, he published A Lover’s Revolt (1898), a historical romance about the Revolution that focuses primarily on the military instead of the relationship between the hero and the heroine. De Forest submitted other novels for publication, but they were not accepted. He had suffered from heart disease for years, and on July 17, 1906, he died at his son’s home in New Haven, Connecticut. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Seacliff or The Mystery of the Westervelts, 1859 Miss Ravenel’s Conversion from Secession to Loyalty, 1867 Kate Beaumont, 1872 Honest John Vane, 1875 Playing the Mischief, 1876

REFERENCES Light, James F. John William De Forest. New York: Twayne, 1965. O’Donnell, Thomas F. “De Forest, Van Petten, and Stephen Crane.” American Literature, 27 (January 1956): 575–580. Stone, Albert E., Jr. “Best Novel of the Civil War.” American Heritage, 13 (June 1962): 84–88. Wilson, Edmund. Patriotic Gore. New York: Oxford University Press, 1962.

Floyd Dell (1887–1969) Floyd Dell quite capably depicted a young man’s rebellion against the small midwestern town in which he was born. He captured every youth’s search for success, growth, and understanding. Dell was born on June 28, 1887, in Barry, Illinois. His father was a butcher; his mother, a teacher. However, his father’s business failed, and Dell tasted the bitterness of poverty at an early age. This experience caused him to examine capitalism with a jaundiced eye. The youngest of three boys and a girl, Dell studied literature in school and read about socialism after school. In addition, he held various jobs. In 1899 he moved with his parents to Quincy, Illinois, and, four years later, to Davenport, Iowa, where he was hired as a reporter for the Davenport Times. In 1906 he moved to the Davenport Democrat. Dell preferred writing articles that allowed him to express his opinions, rather than news stories. In 1908 Dell went to Chicago, where he wrote editorials and book reviews for the Chicago Evening Post and the paper’s Friday Literary Review. In 1909 he was briefly married to Margery Currey; their divorce became final in 1916. Dell served on the staff of the Friday Literary Review until 1913, when he left Chicago for New York City. His first book, Women as World-Builders, a collection of articles about feminism that had appeared in the Friday Literary Review, was published the same year. In New York City, Dell became managing editor of the Masses, a prosocialist, anti-capitalist magazine edited by Max Eastman. In addition to his work for the magazine, Dell occasionally acted in productions sponsored by the Liberal Club and, later, by the Provincetown Players. In 1917 the Masses was suppressed for its anti-American content. Dell and several other staff members were arrested and tried for what had appeared in the magazine; the trial ended with a hung jury. The following year Max Eastman

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and his wife, Crystal, founded the Liberator, which was editorially similar to the Masses. They hired Dell as associate editor. Dell married Berta Marie Gage in 1919 and moved to Croton-on-Hudson, where his sons Anthony and Christopher were born. The same year he published Were You Ever a Child?, a collection of essays about education that had appeared in the Liberator. In 1920 Dell’s first realistic novel, Moon-Calf, was published. It concerns Felix Fay, a boy from a small town who desires to learn about life and achieve considerable success. Fay moves from one town to another (much like Dell) in his quest for knowledge and achievement, until he experiences the literary world of Chicago. The novel is based on Dell’s early life. A year later Dell published his second realistic novel, The Briary-Bush which concerns Fay’s experiences, including marriage to Rose-Ann Prentiss, in Chicago and New York City. The marriage is unstable, and Felix and Rose-Ann separate, although they reconcile by the book’s end. The novel, like the first is based on Dell’s life. Janet March (1923) is a realistic novel about a young girl who rebels against her parents and the older generation in general. In addition to Janet March, the novel concerns Roger Leland, whose life parallels Janet’s. Janet and Roger meet in New York City and become involved. Janet becomes pregnant, and they eventually marry. Dell wrote several more novels in the 1920s. They include This Mad Ideal and Runaway (1925), An Old Man’s Folly (1926), and An Unmarried Father (1927). However, they are not as strong as those based on his life. In 1929 Dell published Souvenir, the third realistic novel about Felix Fay. In this novel, Fay examines his past as well as the present, especially his relationship with his nineteen-year-old son, who is a writer. However, Fay has a difficult time understanding his son and the younger generation in general. This novel pales in comparison to the previous ones about Fay. In addition to novels, Dell published works of nonfiction in the 1920s. Among them are Looking at Life (1924), a collection of essays that had appeared in the Masses and the Liberator; Love in Greenwich Village (1926), a collection of essays and vignettes that had appeared in various periodicals; and Upton Sinclair: A Study in a Social Protest (1927), a sympathetic biography. In 1931 Dell published Love Without Money, a novel that concerns numerous kinds of love among two young adults who live together. A year later Diana Stair, a lengthy historical novel set in the 1830s and 1840s, appeared. Homecoming: An Autobiography (1933) details Dell’s life up to 1924. In 1934 he published The Golden Spike, another historical novel. Dell’s popularity as a writer declined. In 1935 he accepted a position with the Works Progress Administration in Washington, D.C., for which he wrote a variety of material, including reports and speeches for the government. He retired twelve years later. Dell died at Bethesda, Maryland, on July 23, 1969.

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REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Moon-Calf, 1920 The Briary-Bush, 1921 Janet March, 1923 Souvenir, 1929

REFERENCES Aaron, Daniel. Writers on the Left: Episodes in American Literary Communism. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1961. Dell, Floyd. Homecoming: An Autobiography. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1969. Eastman, Max. Enjoyment of Living. New York: Harper, 1948. Hahn, Emily. Romantic Rebels: An Informal History of Bohemianism in America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967. Hart, John E. Floyd Dell. New York: Twayne, 1971.

Ignatius Donnelly (1831–1901) Ignatius Donnelly attacked the evils of the social and economic systems in America in his anti-utopian novel, Caesar’s Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century, and other works of fiction. His novels supported a more agrarian society and opposed industrialism. In short, he was a naturalist, much like Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser. Donnelly was born on November 3, 1831, to Catharine Gavin Donnelly and Philip Carroll Donnelly, in Philadelphia. He attended public schools in Philadelphia, including Central High School, where he edited the newspaper. In 1850, after he had graduated, he published The Mourner’s Vision: A Poem, which concerned the lack of freedom in Europe. Donnelly studied law in the office of Benjamin Harris Brewster, then opened his own office in 1852. He also became a successful orator for the local Democratic Party. In 1855, after marrying Katherine McCaffrey, he abandoned the law and moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he and John Nininger attempted to develop Nininger City, a few miles south of St. Paul. Unfortunately, the financial panic of 1857 destroyed their dream, and Donnelly turned to politics. After becoming a defender of Republican causes, Donnelly was elected lieutenant governor under Alexander “Bluff Alec” Ramsey in 1859, and served two terms. In 1863 he was elected to Congress, where he served three terms. Donnelly became known as a reformer who introduced bills for education and conservation. When he was not serving in Congress, he was employed both as a lobbyist and as a correspondent for the St. Paul Dispatch. Donnelly wrote articles about Washington, D.C., including several that revealed how money manipulated legislation. In 1870 he again ran for Congress, as an independent. Though the Democratic

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party also endorsed him, he was defeated. A year later he returned to the Republican Party. In 1872 he campaigned for Horace Greeley, who lost the presidential election. Donnelly remained in politics throughout the 1870s. He formed the Grangers into the Anti-Monopoly Party and edited the Anti-Monopolist, an independent weekly newspaper. Next he supported the Greenbackers. In 1878 he ran for Congress as a Greenbacker-Democrat, but was defeated. Donnelly then left politics. He farmed during the day and read during the evening. He devoured every article and book about Atlantis that he could find, then wrote Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, in which he attempted to prove that the continent of Atlantis existed. The book, published in 1882, sold well. In 1883 Donnelly published Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel, in which he claimed that the Earth’s sand and gravel had been caused by a comet that had hit the planet. A year later he returned to politics at the urging of several parties. He ran for Congress, but was defeated by a narrow margin. Donnelly returned to writing. Convinced that he had discovered a key to a cipher that would prove that Francis Bacon had written the plays credited to William Shakespeare, he published The Great Cryptogram: Francis Bacon’s Cipher, in the So-Called Shakespeare Plays (1888). Critics, however, claimed that his key to the cipher was inexact, and consequently dismissed his argument. Though the book was controversial, Donnelly was asked to present his thesis both in America and abroad. In 1889 he again returned to politics. He ran unsuccessfully for the state legislature, then for the U.S. Senate. Donnelly resumed writing. Instead of a piece of nonfiction, however, he wrote a futuristic novel that revealed how America’s cities and industrialists mistreated the working classes. Donnelly depicted the environment where the working classes lived and worked. Caesar’s Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century (1890) is a disturbing indictment of an America owned and/or controlled by the very wealthy. The novel’s purpose was to warn Americans of what would occur if social and political reforms were not encouraged. Donnelly became president of the Farmers’ Alliance of Minnesota in 1890. As a result of his position and popularity, he was instrumental in developing the organization into what became the Populist Party in 1891. Donnelly wrote the party’s manifesto, which claimed that the government belonged to the common people. Donnelly’s second novel, Doctor Huguet (1891), concerns the plight of African Americans during the post-Reconstruction South. In 1892 Donnelly delivered the keynote address at the Populist Party convention and ran for governor of Minnesota. He was defeated. The same year his third novel, The Golden Bottle or the Story of Ephraim Benezet of Kansas, was published. Ephraim Benezet loses his farm and with his family moves to the city, where he obtains a bottle of liquid from a stranger. The liquid causes iron to change into gold. Ephraim becomes president of the United States, and

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later he conquers the world. Ephraim awakens, realizing that he has been dreaming. Although he knows that he may lose everything he has, he is ready to meet the challenge. In 1893 Donnelly founded the St. Paul Representative, a weekly newspaper in which he espoused Populist ideas. Donnelly’s wife died in 1894. Four years later he married Marian Hanson, his young secretary. In 1900 Donnelly suffered a stroke. He died of a heart attack on January 1, 1901. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Caesar’s Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century, 1890 Doctor Huguet, 1891 The Golden Bottle or the Story of Ephraim Benezet of Kansas, 1892

REFERENCES Anderson, David D. Ignatius Donnelly. Boston: Twayne, 1980. Axelrod, Allen M. “Ideology and Utopia in the Works of Ignatius Donnelly.” American Studies, 12 (Fall 1971): 47–66. Ridge, Martin. Ignatius Donnelly: Portrait of a Politician. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.

John Dos Passos (1896–1970) John Roderigo Dos Passos (born John Roderigo Madison) was a naturalistic writer who chronicled the earlier part of the nineteenth century in an unusual literary manner. In the triology U.S.A., for instance, he mixes biographies of actual individuals with those of his characters. He also includes headlines from newspapers in order to recount the social and political events of the period. Although he obviously sided with the Left, he eventually grew to dislike what the Left had to offer. He opposed any movement that attempted to control individuals. Dos Passos was born in Chicago in 1896. His mother, Lucy Madison, was initially not married to his father, John Randolph Dos Passos, a prominent lawyer who did not wed Madison until after his first wife died. Dos Passos attended a private school in England, then attended the Choate School in Connecticut. An exceptional student, he was accepted at Harvard in 1911, at the age of fifteen. After he received his bachelor’s degree in 1916, Dos Passos traveled to Spain to study agriculture. Several months later he joined the Norton-Arjes Ambulance Group of the American Red Cross and sailed to France. He drove an ambulance until 1918, when he was fired for writing anti-war statements. Dos Passos returned to the United States dismayed by what had happened. His desire to return to Europe was so great that he joined the Medical Corps. He toured France again, and in 1919 was released to attend classes at the Sorbonne. By this time he had completed his first novel, One Man’s Initiation— 1917, which was based on his experiences in World War I. The novel was published in England in 1920. Three Soldiers, another novel about World War I, appeared in 1921. The main character, based on Dos Passos, embraces the author’s positive opinions and attitudes toward the French.

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For the next several years Dos Passos traveled and wrote, spending much of 1922 in New York City. Rosinante to the Road Again, basically a literary travel book about Spain, was published in 1922. In 1923 Streets of Night, a partly autobiographical novel, appeared. Manhattan Transfer (1925) realistically portrays New York City and its environs through a cinematic technique he later perfected in the trilogy U.S.A. Orient Express (1927), a travel book, critically examines the Soviet Union. Dos Passos married Katherine Smith in 1929, the year The 42nd Parallel, the first book of U.S.A., was published. Set in pre–World War I America, the novel is about the collapse of the American dream. A powerful indictment of the social unrest that gripped the nation, it contains an arresting story about five characters. To make the story more believable, Dos Passos incorporates “Newsreels,” which include headlines, news stories, and songs; “Camera Eyes,” which include sketches based on the author’s experiences; and biographies of actual Americans. The additional material provides the reader with candid as well as historical glimpses of what was occurring during this period. The second novel of the trilogy, 1919 (1932), focused on America’s disappointments and insecurities from a European perspective. The third novel, The Big Money (1936), focuses on New York City and the moral decay of American society. Dos Passos mixes “Newsreels,” “Camera Eyes,” and biographies with the story. The trilogy was perhaps his masterpiece because it employed unusual techniques to tell a realistic and accurate story of America. In the late 1930s, Dos Passos traveled to Spain to observe the dramatic changes that had occurred as a result of the Spanish Civil War. He returned dismayed and angry at what fascism and communism had done to Spain in particular, and to Europe in general. The novel Adventures of a Young Man (1939) explores these issues. Number One, which, like Adventures, was simpler in style and tone, was published in 1943. Katherine Dos Passos was killed in an automobile accident in 1947. Dos Passos married again in 1949, the year he published The Grand Design, which examines the New Deal from a critical perspective. Dos Passos opposed the government shaping the national destiny. The death of Dos Passos’s first wife was reflected in his writing for much of the 1950s. Chosen Country (1951), Most Likely to Succeed (1954), and The Great Days (1958) were more personal. For instance, in Chosen Country, Katherine is portrayed as Lulie, and Dos Passos, as Jag Pignatelli. These novels realistically examine Dos Passos and the world in which he lived. In 1961 Dos Passos published Midcentury, which is similar to the novels of U.S.A., in that it combines biographies of actual persons with those who lived in the author’s mind. The novel concerned the labor movement. Dos Passos died in Baltimore in 1970.

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REPRESENTATIVE WORKS One Man’s Initiation—1917, 1920 Three Soldiers, 1921 Streets of Night, 1923 Manhattan Transfer, 1925 The 42nd Parallel, 1929 1919, 1932 The Big Money, 1936 Adventures of a Young Man, 1939 Number One, 1943 Chosen Country, 1951 Most Likely to Succeed, 1954 The Great Days, 1958 Midcentury, 1961

REFERENCES Becker, George Joseph. John Dos Passos. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1974. Carr, Virginia Spencer. Dos Passos: A Life. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1984. Colley, Iain. Dos Passos and the Fiction of Despair. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1978. Landsberg, Melvin. Dos Passos’ Path to U.S.A.: A Political Biography, 1912–1936. Boulder, Colo.: Associated University Press, 1972. Ludington, Townsend. John Dos Passos: A Twentieth Century Odyssey. New York: Dutton, 1980. Pizer, Donald. Dos Passos’ U.S.A.: A Critical Study. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988. Rosen, Robert C. John Dos Passos: Politics and the Writer. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1981. Wagner, Linda W. Dos Passos: Artist as American. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979. Wrenn, John H. John Dos Passos. New York: Twayne, 1961.

Theodore Dreiser (1871–1945) Theodore Dreiser was a naturalistic writer who examined life from a defeatist perspective, primarily because he and his siblings had come from a poor family. He chronicled American life in articles for newspapers and magazines, and in novels. Dreiser was born to Sarah Maria Schanab Dreiser and John Paul Dreiser in Terre Haute, Indiana, on August 27, 1871. His family, which was of German extraction, moved constantly. Although his father was eager to work, he could not find a steady job. Nevertheless, he somehow earned enough to send his children to German-language parochial schools. In 1879 Dreiser’s parents decided that the family had to separate in order to survive. Dreiser and the younger children went with their mother. For five years they lived in several towns in Indiana, then Chicago, then Warsaw, Indiana, where Dreiser and the other children attended public schools. When Dreiser was sixteen, he left his family and went to Chicago to find work and earn money. He remained there until one of his high school teachers, Mildred Fielding, learned of his whereabouts and persuaded him to accept financial aid from her, so he could attend Indiana University. Dreiser studied, but higher education was unquestionably grueling. After a year, he returned to Chicago. He found employment in real estate offices and collection agencies. Although he did not particularly enjoy the work, he was determined to keep the jobs. In 1891 Dreiser was hired as a reporter for the Chicago Globe. He learned to write about what he witnessed. He job-hopped from one newspaper to another in Chicago, then moved to St. Louis. Dreiser met Arthur Henry, city editor of the Toledo Blade, in 1894. He hired Dreiser to cover a streetcar strike that lasted four days. During those four days

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the two discussed their ambitions to write fiction. Once the strike ended, however, Dreiser was not needed and he had to move on. He went to Cleveland, then to Buffalo, then to Pittsburgh, where he found employment as a reporter for the Pittsburgh Dispatch. For several months, he lived and worked in Pittsburgh, until he had saved enough money to travel to New York City. Dreiser learned immediately that New York was filled with reporters and hopeful novelists—and that if he got an assignment he would be paid very little. His brother, Paul Dresser, a successful songwriter, aided Dreiser on more than one occasion. In return, Dreiser suggested that his brother’s partners publish a monthly magazine filled with songs and articles concerning the music industry. Ev’ry Month was the result. Dreiser edited and wrote most of the articles. When he left two years later, the magazine was a success. Editors at other magazines knew of Dreiser, and he began to write for several of them, including Munsey’s Success, and Cosmopolitan. Dreiser continued to correspond with Arthur Henry, who visited him in 1897. Two years later he visited Henry in Ohio, and at Henry’s suggestion he began to write short stories and a novel. The novel, Sister Carrie, was more than a naturalistic novel, in the sense that Dreiser had lived with the main characters. Indeed, he was the main character’s brother. Dreiser based the story of Carrie and Hurstwood on his sister Emma, who had a torrid affair with L. A. Hopkins. Dreiser altered the story in order to pass it off as fiction because Hopkins was married and had children. When his wife learned of his infidelity, Hopkins immediately stole $3,500 from his employer and, with Emma, fled to Montreal. Of course, the newspapers published stories about the affair, and Hopkins ultimately returned most of the money. Then he and Emma moved to New York City. Frank Norris of Doubleday, Page had accepted the novel, but Frank Doubleday, the publisher, had been offended by it and was about to stop the book’s publication when he learned that Dreiser had signed a contract. The company published the book in 1900 but did not advertise it. Dreiser’s labor had been wasted, monetarily speaking. Dreiser grew depressed, and his marriage suffered as a result. He forgot writing altogether for the next several years and at one point tried to commit suicide. Fortunately, his brother Paul got him into a sanatorium, where Dreiser slowly recovered. When Dreiser was released, he could not perform any work that required concentration. To be of any use to a newspaper or magazine, he would have to increase his strength. He got a job with a railroad that forced him to use his muscles. Once he had increased his strength, he got a job as an assistant editor with the New York Daily News. In 1904 Dreiser joined Street and Smith, a publisher of paperback books. A year later he became editor of Smith’s Magazine, which was also published by Street and Smith, and saw the magazine’s circulation increase to 125,000. Dreiser obtained a higher-paying position with

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Broadway Magazine in 1906. A year later Sister Carrie was reissued by B. W. Dodge; this time it was a critical and commercial success. However, Dreiser was interested in publishing, not necessarily writing, novels. He moved in 1907 to the Butterick Publishing Company, where he supervised the staff that published the firm’s three women’s magazines. The content of the magazines included fiction, fashion, and advertisements for the company’s sewing patterns. Dreiser’s starting salary at the company was $5,000. The magazines were successful under his direction. Dreiser was fired several years later, however, when his employer learned that he was having an affair with a seventeenyear-old girl. Freed from his editing obligations, he separated from his wife and devoted his time again to writing fiction. In 1911 Jennie Gerhardt was published. The naturalistic novel, perhaps more than any other he wrote, was based on members of his family. The novel’s major character, Jennie Gerhardt, is seduced by Senator Brander and becomes pregnant. Brander dies of typhoid before the child is born, and Jennie’s father forces her to leave home. Jennie becomes a maid in the house of a wealthy family and is seduced by one of the family’s guests, Lester Kane. Kane, who grows to love Jennie, makes her his mistress. However, Kane’s father learns about the relationship and forces his son to stop seeing Jennie. Kane obeys his father and marries Letty Gerald, a woman from his social class. Several years later, before he dies, he asks to see Jennie. Later, Jennie and her father reconcile. The Financier (1912) is based on the street-railway magnate Charles Tyson Yerkes. Dreiser continued his dramatis personae, Frank Cawperwood, in The Titan (1914). The “Genius” (1915) was criticized for going too far in its assessment of artistry and in candid sexuality. For ten years Dreiser did not have another novel published, but he did produce poems, plays, short stories, and articles. He also wrote several travel books. In 1925 An American Tragedy, a novel based on an actual murder case, was published. Clyde Griffiths, the protagonist, is based on Chester Gillette, who had killed his pregnant girlfriend, Grace Brown, in 1906. The other characters, such as Griffith’s father are based on people Dreiser had met or known. The novel confirmed Dreiser’s position in American literature. He earned enough money from its sales to retire and move to the country. The remaining years of Dreiser’s life were devoted to writing The Bulwark (1946) and The Stoic (1947), and to public and political causes. Dreiser died of a heart attack in Hollywood, California, on December 28, 1945.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Sister Carrie, 1900 Jennie Gerhardt, 1911 The Financier, 1912

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The Titan, 1914 The “Genius,” 1915 An American Tragedy, 1925

REFERENCES Dudley, Dorothy. Dreiser and the Land of the Free. New York: Bachhurst Press, 1946. Elias, Robert Henry. Theodore Dreiser: Apostle of Nature. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1970. Gerber, Philip L. Theodore Dreiser. New York: Twayne, 1964. ———. Plots and Characters in the Fiction of Theodore Dreiser. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1977. ———. Theodore Dreiser Revisited. New York: Twayne, 1992. Hussman, Lawrence E. Dreiser and His Fiction: A Twentieth-Century Quest. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983. Lehan, Richard Daniel. Theodore Dreiser: His World and His Novels. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1969. Lingeman, Richard R. Theodore Dreiser. New York: Putnam, 1986. Lundquist, James. Theodore Dreiser. New York: Ungar, 1974. Matthiessen, F. O. Theodore Dreiser. New York: Sloane, 1951. McAleer, John J. Theodore Dreiser: An Introduction and Interpretation. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968. Shapiro, Charles. Theodore Dreiser: Our Bitter Patriot. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1962. Swanberg, W. A. Dreiser. New York: Scribner’s, 1965. Warren, Robert Penn. Homage to Theodore Dreiser, August 27, 1871–December 28, 1945, on the Centennial of His Birth. New York: Random House, 1971.

W.E.B. DuBois (1868–1963) W.E.B. DuBois was known for his untiring efforts to help African Americans. He wrote articles, essays, speeches, and studies that explained the numerous problems that they faced almost every day of their lives. He wrote at least one novel that could be considered an example of socialist realism. W.E.B. DuBois was born on February 23, 1868, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to Alfred DuBois and Mary Sylvina Burghardt. His father, who was of French and African extraction, deserted the family soon after his son was born. DuBois had little experience of racial prejudice, primarily because he and his mother lived in a small town that had few blacks. He was usually the only African-American child attending school and the Congregational church. At fifteen DuBois worked as the western Massachusetts correspondent for the New York Globe, a progressive African-American weekly newspaper. In 1885 he entered Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. DuBois soon learned that many whites in the South considered people like him to be inferior. DuBois enjoyed Fisk University because the university had a dedicated faculty and the student body was black; and he was able to serve on the editorial board of the monthly paper. He taught school in Tennessee during the summers. After he graduated in 1888, DuBois entered Harvard University as a junior. Two years later he graduated with honors; he received a master’s degree in 1891. Although he was interested in the sciences, he majored in philosophy at the bachelor’s level and in political economy and history at the master’s level. Then he started work on a doctorate. In 1892 DuBois left the United States to study economics and sociology at the University of Berlin; he remained in Europe for two years, long enough to learn about Marx and communism. When he returned to the United States, he taught Latin and Greek at Wilber-

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force University, an African American Methodist Episcopal college in Ohio, for two years. During this time, DuBois completed his doctoral dissertation, “The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States” (published 1896). In 1895 he became the first African American to receive a doctorate from Harvard. In 1896 he married Nina Gomer, a student at Wilberforce. They later moved to Philadelphia, where he conducted research for the University of Pennsylvania. This one-year assignment included interviewing more than 5,000 persons about African Americans living in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899) was the result. Perhaps the first book of its kind, it painted an accurate portrait of African Americans living and working in Philadelphia. DuBois had relied on environmental and historical factors rather than generic or biological factors to define his topic, a relatively new and untried approach. DuBois moved to Atlanta University in 1897. In addition to teaching economics, sociology, and history, he was responsible for the annual Atlanta University Conference for the Study of the Negro Problems, and was in charge of publishing its proceedings. DuBois stayed at Atlanta University for thirteen years and produced many studies of the Negro condition in America, as well as articles for mass circulation magazines like the Atlantic Monthly. In addition, he spoke at conferences, blaming whites and the attitude of Booker T. Washington, who advocated vocational education as the primary means for African Americans to improve themselves, for the African Americans’ dilemma in America, particularly in the South. In 1903 DuBois’s analysis of this dilemma appeared in The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. Consisting of autobiography, biography, journalism, poetry, history, sociology, and fiction, the book was unlike anything previously published. Epigraphs and bars of music from spirituals reflecting AfricanAmerican culture began each chapter. DuBois organized the Niagara Movement in 1905, in response to the jailing of William Monroe Trotter, the editor of the Boston Guardian, for disrupting a speech by Booker T. Washington. At the same time he founded the Moon Illustrated Weekly in Memphis, Tennessee, to spread his beliefs regarding African Americans. The weekly lasted a year. DuBois founded the Horizon, a monthly in Washington, D.C., in 1907, to promote the Niagara Movement. This publication lasted until the Niagara Movement failed in 1910. His adamant opposition to Booker T. Washington’s philosophy threatened DuBois’s position at Atlanta University. Tuskegee Institute, where Washington played a major role, was nearby, in Alabama, and had tremendous support. Many African Americans as well as whites in the South respected both Washington and Tuskegee. When the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was established in 1910 to fight segregation in America, DuBois played an important role. He was named director of publications and research, and founded the organization’s monthly organ, Crisis, in which he expressed

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his philosophy, condemned those who lynched African Americans, applauded those who had made a difference in society, and instilled pride in those of African descent by teaching them about their roots. DuBois edited the magazine for more than twenty years, even though he disagreed on occasion with the leaders of the organization over its contents. The monthly’s circulation increased from 1,000 copies in 1911 to more than 100,000 in 1919. The magazine’s purpose was to examine the hatred, caused by ignorance, that led to racism. Later, when DuBois realized that African Americans might never be accepted by mainstream America, he called for a separate Negro culture—a concept not unlike that proposed by Booker T. Washington. This call for a Negro nation within a white America was too much for the directors of the NAACP, which had been founded on the principle of integration. Conflicts between DuBois and the directors ensued, and DuBois resigned in 1934. While DuBois edited Crisis, he also wrote about African Americans in novels and book-length works of nonfiction. His first novel, The Quest of the Silver Fleece (1911), is structured around cotton in an attempt to reveal the economic foundation on which the American caste system was based. The novel consists of three parts. In the first part, the protagonists—Bles and Zora—plant cotton primarily to raise money for Zora’s education. However, those who control the cotton trust seize the proceeds of their labor, and Bles and Zora learn quickly about their white counterparts. The setting of the second part is Washington, D.C., where the protagonists learn about powerful groups and their manipulation of the political process. Although Bles and Zora confront the political machinery, they realize that a solution will not be introduced, let alone passed, by the political bodies. In the third part, Bles and Zora return to the South. They realize that the enemy is the cotton trust, which manipulates the politicians in the nation’s capital and promotes the American caste system. They attempt to break the trust by organizing black sharecroppers into a cooperative. Zora represents the unenlightened, almost primitive African American whose morality is suspect. Indeed, she has no scruples when it comes to stealing and lying. She is the product of the American caste system. Bles, on the other hand, is enlightened in the sense that he realizes the importance of improving oneself. In fact, he is not immediately attracted to Zora because she is coarse. However, when she is redeemed—that is, taught—his respect for her grows. Although the novel suffers from unbelievable characters and the author’s lack of consistency in diction, it accurately depicts the problems between African Americans and whites during Reconstruction. Because of DuBois’s political agenda, the novel is an example of socialist realism. The Negro, a serious scholarly history of African Americans, was published in 1915. It was followed by Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil (1920), a work similar to The Souls of Black Folk. In addition to editing Crisis and writing about the African-American experience, DuBois visited the Soviet Union, with which he was impressed, as well as countries in Europe.

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In 1928 he published another novel. Dark Princess: A Romance focuses on a group of African and Asian revolutionaries who intend to liberate the black people of the world from their white rulers. The propaganda in the novel overshadows the unrealistic plot. In 1934 DuBois returned to Atlanta University, where he taught and conducted research. Black Reconstruction: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America 1860–1880 was published in 1935. In it DuBois examines the role of African Americans in the Civil War, arguing that they revolted, and consequently forced a confrontation between the Confederacy and the Union. For the next several years DuBois contributed a weekly column to predominantly minority-owned newspapers and occasional articles to other newspapers and magazines. His book Black Folk, Then and Now: An Essay in the History and Sociology of the Negro Race (1939) includes sections from The Negro. From 1940 until his retirement from Atlanta University four years later, DuBois edited the university magazine Phylon, a scholarly journal that published studies of minorities. The first of his two autobiographies, Dusk of Dawn: An Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept (1940), examines racial theory as it related to his life. In 1944 the NAACP hired DuBois as director of special research, a position he held for four years. He wrote extensively and published critiques of capitalism, including Color and Democracy: Colonies and Peace (1945) and The World and Africa: An Inquiry into the Part Which Africa Has Played in World History (1947). DuBois leaned more toward communism than ever before, and in 1949 addressed the Conference for World Peace. Always seeking a platform from which he could express his controversial views, in 1950 he became chair of the Peace Information Center, which was formed primarily to spread the Stockholm Peace Appeal, which opposed the proliferation of nuclear weapons. In 1951, a year after his wife died, DuBois married Shirley Graham, whom he had known for several years. The same year he was indicted for being an agent for a foreign power. A federal judge acquitted him, but he was not allowed to leave the country for several years. In addition to contributing articles to the radical newspaper National Guardian, he wrote The Ordeal of Mansart (1957) the first novel of a trilogy. The second and third novels were Mansart Builds a School (1959) and Worlds of Color (1961). The trilogy depicts the life of Emmanuel Mansart, an African American born in 1876. Through hard work and dedication, he eventually leads a school in the South. The trilogy focuses on Mansart and his family up to his death in 1954. It also depicts the social and political changes that occur in the world from the late 1800s to the mid-1950s. Unfortunately, the language needs polishing. In 1958 DuBois toured Europe, the Soviet Union, and Asia. A year later, in Moscow, he received the Lenin Peace Prize. He became a member of the U.S. Communist Party in 1962, and shortly before his death he renounced his U.S.

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citizenship. He died in Accra, Ghana, where he had lived for two years, on August 27, 1963. REPRESENTATIVE WORK The Quest of the Silver Fleece, 1911

REFERENCES Broderick, Francis L. W.E.B. DuBois: Negro Leader in a Time of Crisis. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1959. DuBois, Shirley Graham. His Day Is Marching On: A Memoir of W.E.B. DuBois. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1971. DuBois, W.E.B. The Autobiography of W.E.B. DuBois: A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the Last Decade of Its First Century. New York: International Publishers, 1968. Harris, Thomas E. Analysis of the Clash over the Issues Between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. New York: Garland, 1993. Lester, Julius, ed. Seventh Son: The Thought and Writings of W.E.B. DuBois. New York: Random House, 1971. Lewis, David L. W.E.B. DuBois: Biography of a Race, 1868–1919. New York: Henry Holt, 1993. Logan, Rayford W. W.E.B. DuBois: A Profile. New York: Hill and Wang, 1971. Moore, Jack B. W.E.B. DuBois. Boston: Twayne, 1981. Rampersad, Arnold. The Art and Imagination of W.E.B. DuBois. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976. Rudwick, Elliott M. W.E.B. DuBois: Propagandist of the Negro Protest. New York: Atheneum, 1968.

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) Paul Laurence Dunbar was a popular and critically acclaimed African-American poet. He was also a writer of naturalistic fiction who explored the plight of the African American in the latter half of the 1800s. Dunbar was born to Matilda Glass Burton Murphy Dunbar and Joshua Dunbar on June 27, 1872, in Dayton, Ohio. His parents had been slaves in Kentucky. His father had escaped by the Underground Railroad and had served in the 55th Massachusetts Regiment, Company F, of the Union Army. After the Civil War, he had settled in Dayton. Dunbar’s mother had been married to R. Weeks Murphy, another slave, with whom she had two sons. After the Civil War and the death of her husband, she and her sons moved to Dayton, where she met Joshua Dunbar. They married in 1871. Dunbar’s parents separated, then divorced in 1876. His father died eight years later. Paul and his mother were close. She taught him to read before he entered school. Dunbar excelled in school. In addition to serving as class president during his senior year of high school, he edited the school newspaper and wrote a poem for his class, which he delivered at graduation in 1891. After graduating, Dunbar operated the elevator in the Callahan Building in Dayton and wrote poetry in his spare time. He also contributed short stories about the West to newspapers. Dunbar experimented with black dialect verse about blacks who lived and worked on southern plantations. These poems were published, and Dunbar was encouraged by several prominent poets, including James Whitcomb Riley, to publish a collection of poetry. Oak and Ivy appeared in 1892 (with an 1893 printing date). Enough copies were sold to pay the printing costs. In 1893 Dunbar moved to Chicago. There he met Frederick Douglass, who

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hired him to work at the Haitian Pavilion at the World’s Columbian Exposition. When the Exposition ended, Dunbar returned to Dayton, where he resumed his job and wrote poetry. In 1895 Dunbar published several poems in prominent magazines. The same year friends of his, Henry A. Tobey and Charles A. Thatcher, encouraged him to publish a second collection of poetry. Majors and Minors (1896) was favorably reviewed by William Dean Howells in Harper’s Weekly. Tobey and Thatcher introduced Dunbar to Major James B. Pond, who arranged tours for writers. Pond arranged a tour for Dunbar and also persuaded Dodd, Mead to publish Dunbar’s next book, Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896). Dunbar became engaged to Alice Ruth Moore in 1897, then sailed to England, where he remained for six months, reading his poetry to prominent individuals and the public. He also signed a contract with a publisher who desired to publish Lyrics of Lowly Life. When Dunbar returned to the United States, he was hired as an assistant clerk in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. In March 1898, he married Alice Ruth Moore. He continued to write poetry, as well as articles and short stories. Some of these stories were collected under the title Folks from Dixie (1898). Almost all of the stories are set on plantations in the South. Dunbar also wrote a slightly autobiographical novel, The Uncalled, which appeared in the May 1898 issue of Lippincott’s Monthly and was published in book form several months later. The novel focuses on white, not black, characters, and several critics claimed that the white characters are not true to life. Dunbar resigned from his job at the Library of Congress on December 31, 1898, primarily because of his health and because he desired to deliver his poetry to audiences. In 1899 he published Lyrics of the Hearthside, a collection of poetry that sold well. The same year he developed pneumonia, which was misdiagnosed as tuberculosis and almost killed him. He and his wife moved to the Catskill Mountains of New York, then to Colorado, where he wrote short stories and poems that appeared in several periodicals, including the Saturday Evening Post and Harper’s Weekly. In 1900 Dunbar published The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories. These tales concern the Underground Railroad, black migration, and lynching, among other topics. The longest story, “One Man’s Fortune,” protests racial prejudice and is based in part on Dunbar’s experiences. It concerns Bertram Halliday, a black college graduate who experiences job discrimination. Critics appreciated Dunbar’s ability to present the southern black’s dialect and thought accurately. Dunbar and his wife returned to Washington, D.C., in 1900. A romantic western, The Love of Landry, which he had written in Colorado, was published the same year. The Fanatics (1901), written in Washington, D.C., concerns sectional differences of members of two prominent Ohio families before the Civil War. Bradford Waters supports the North, and Stephen Van Doren supports the South.

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The families’ differences come to a boil when Mary Waters, Bradford’s daughter, becomes engaged to Robert Van Doren, Stephen’s son. The families’ differences become secondary, however, when escaped slaves attempt to settle in their community. Dunbar’s novel reveals that even the so-called supporters of the North were not necessarily in favor of the abolition of slavery. The characters, especially the blacks, lack depth, and the novel was a commercial failure. The Sport of the Gods, first published in the May 1902 issue of Lippincott’s Monthly, then later that year in book form, was Dunbar’s last novel. The novel concerns Berry Hamilton, a black butler who works for Maurice Oakley. He is accused of stealing money from Francis Oakley, Maurice’s brother. Although Hamilton claims that he is innocent, he is sentenced to ten years in prison. His wife and two children move to New York, where Hamilton’s son, Joe, commits murder; his daughter, Kitty, becomes a dancer. His wife, Fannie, marries a man who beats her. Maurice Oakley learns from Francis that he had made up the theft, and that Hamilton had been falsely accused. Hamilton is released after serving five years and journeys to New York, where he learns about his family. Fannie’s husband is murdered, and Hamilton remarries her. The novel naturalistically depicts not only a black man—one who has self-esteem, dignity, and freedom—and his family, but also life in Harlem. Critics throughout the country discussed the novel’s merits. In 1902, primarily because he insisted on drinking alcohol, his wife asked Dunbar to leave. He obliged, and traveled to New York, where he contributed to the musical In Dahomey. After the musical closed, he journeyed to Chicago. Dunbar’s health deteriorated; he suffered an emotional breakdown because of his separation from his wife, then contracted pneumonia. Eventually his health improved, however, and he wrote Lyrics of Love and Laughter (1903), a collection of dialect and nondialect verse, and In Old Plantation Days (1903), a collection of short stories about a plantation during the time of slavery. Many of the stories in the latter collection are brief and primarily romantic. Indeed, the slaves seem to enjoy working for their masters. Dunbar’s criticism of slavery is evident, however, in his depictions of his characters. The collection was well received by readers and critics. Dunbar returned to Dayton in 1903. The following year he published The Heart of Happy Hollow, a collection of short stories that naturalistically captures the lives of blacks who have migrated to cities. Dunbar criticizes the whites for exploiting the blacks, and the blacks for allowing themselves to be exploited by the whites. He examines such topics as political maneuvering, corruption, and lynching. Dunbar wrote two more collections of poetry, Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow (1905) and Howdy, Honey, Howdy (1905) before his death in Dayton in 1906. His reputation as a writer is based on his dialect verse. His fiction, which for the most part protests racial prejudice, examines the social and economic conditions of blacks before and after the American Civil War, and therefore should

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be read. Dunbar refused to stereotype blacks. Instead, his black characters are free and, to a certain extent, strong. Unfortunately, many are not granted the opportunity to live like their white counterparts because of racial prejudice. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories, 1900 The Sport of the Gods, 1902 In Old Plantation Days, 1903 The Heart of Happy Hollow, 1904

REFERENCES Brawley, Benjamin. Paul Laurence Dunbar: Poet of His People. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1967. Cunningham, Virginia. Paul Laurence Dunbar and His Song. New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1969. Fox, Allen. “Behind the Mask: Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Poetry in Literary English.” Texas Quarterly, 14 (Summer 1971): 7–26. Gayle, Addison, Jr. Oak and Ivy: A Biography of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor/Doubleday, 1971. Gould, Jean. That Dunbar Boy. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1958. Martin, Jay, ed. A Singer in the Dawn: Reinterpretations of Paul Laurence Dunbar. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1975. Revell, Peter. Paul Laurence Dunbar. Boston: Twayne, 1979. Schultz, Pearle Henriksen. Paul Laurence Dunbar: Black Poet Laureate. Champaign, III.: Garrard, 1974. Stronks, James B. “Paul Laurence Dunbar and William Dean Howells.” Ohio Historical Quarterly, 67 (April 1958): 95–108. Turner, Darwin T. “Paul Laurence Dunbar: The Rejected Symbol.” Journal of Negro History, 52 (January 1967): 1–13. Wagner, Jean. Black Poets of the United States: From Paul Laurence Dunbar to Langston Hughes. Translated by Kenneth Douglas. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1973.

Edith Maud Eaton (Sui Sin Far) (1867–1914) Edith Maud Eaton, using the pseudonym “Sui Sin Far,” wrote short stories that depicted the lives of Chinese and Eurasians in North America around 1900. These works were not the stereotypical short stories sometimes found in American magazines; rather, they were honest portrayals of Chinese who had immigrated to the United States or Canada in an effort to earn a living, often facing bigotry. Eaton’s father, Edward Eaton, was from a wealthy family in England. He often traveled in China to help his father’s business. In China he met Grace Trefusius, a Chinese girl who had been unofficially adopted by English missionaries who educated her. Edward Eaton married her when she was sixteen, then brought her to England, where they lived at the Eaton family estate. However, his parents disapproved of his marrying a Chinese woman. To make the rift even greater, Edward was not interested in the family business. He preferred to paint landscapes, and he made his desire to become an artist known to his father. After several years and the birth of six children, including Edith in 1867, the Eatons immigrated to the United States in 1871. They lived briefly in Hudson City, New York, where the children experienced discrimination, then in 1874 moved to Montreal, Canada. Eventually, the Eatons had sixteen children, fourteen of whom survived to adulthood. The Eatons were poor. Most of the family’s income derived from Edward Eaton’s paintings, which were sold in the neighborhood. The children learned about the arts, and several, including Edith, wrote poetry and other forms of literature. Eaton, the oldest daughter, became almost another parent. Indeed, if her siblings went out at night, she would wait for them to return, then proceed to

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question them about where they had been. She also helped her parents by making lace and selling it door-to-door. The extra income helped the family survive. Eaton contracted rheumatic fever, which affected her heart and left her bedridden periodically during her childhood. Even though she recovered, her health was never the same. Eaton continued to write, however. When she was older, she accepted a position at the Montreal Star, then worked briefly for a newspaper in Jamaica. Her first literary piece, “A Trip in a Horse Car,” which concerned the social problems of Montreal, was published in the Montreal Dominion Illustrated in 1888. Eaton contributed other impressionistic prose sketches to the Dominion Illustrated during the next several years. In 1896 Eaton published “Plea for the Chinaman,” a lengthy letter denouncing government proposals that would restrict Chinese immigration to Canada, in the Montreal Star. The same year she contributed “The Gamblers,” the first short story published under her pseudonym, to the Fly Leaf, a journal published in Boston and edited by her brother-in-law, Walter Blackburn Harte. The story concerns murder in an opium den. Later the same year Eaton published “The Story of Iso” and “A Love Story of the Orient” in Lotus, another journal edited by her brother-in-law. These stories also deal with Chinese characters and situations. In 1898 Eaton moved to San Francisco, where she worked as a stenographer for the Canadian Pacific Railroad. She also continued to write short stories about the Chinese. In 1899, for instance, her short story “A Chinese Ishmael,” concerning the inability of the Chinese to adapt to the West, was published in the Overland Monthly. “The Smuggling of Tie Co,” a short story about a Chinese woman who is helped into the United States from Canada, appeared in Land of Sunshine, a journal published by Charles F. Loomis in California, in 1900. Also in 1900 Eaton moved to Seattle, Washington. She was accepted into the Chinese community, where she worked at a Baptist mission, teaching English to Chinese immigrants. When Eaton was not teaching, she was writing short stories about the Chinese, especially Chinese women who lived in the United States and Canada and faced discrimination by Chinese men and European Americans. Eaton’s short stories appeared in the Independent, Western, Out West, Sunset, Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, the New York Evening Post, and other leading journals and newspapers of the day during the next several years. In 1910 Eaton collected some of her best short stories under the title Mrs. Spring Fragrance. The collection was published in 1912, and each story concerned the Chinese who had immigrated to the United States and Canada. These characters confronted alienation and, of course, racism. Eaton’s short stories depicted the problems of bigotry, isolationism, and misunderstanding between cultures and races. They revealed how Chinese women had to confront the

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discriminatory, archaic beliefs of Chinese men as well as the racial discrimination of European Americans. Eaton incorporated irony and humor in her short stories. She also attempted to reproduce the speech rhythms of the Chinese who had immigrated to North America. Eaton sought to educate her readers about the humanness of the Chinese. Most readers did not understand the culture, language, beliefs, and attitudes of these people. Yet, because they had become a part of society, readers needed to understand that the Chinese were people, too, many with great obstacles to overcome. The title story concerns Mr. Spring Fragrance and the problems he has in understanding his young, fragile Chinese wife, who, in his opinion, has become extremely Americanized. Although this story deals with Chinese Americans and marital relations in a positive manner, many of the short stories in the collection depict the suffering of the Chinese as they attempt to make a living. These stories reveal to the reader the sorrow, the victimization, and the inability to adapt to the Western way of life experienced by many Chinese who had immigrated to the United States and Canada. Eaton’s health deteriorated, and she moved back to Montreal, where she died on April 7, 1914. REPRESENTATIVE WORK Mrs. Spring Fragrance, 1912

REFERENCES Doyle, James. “Sui Sin Far and Onoto Watanna: Two Early Chinese-Canadian Authors.” Canadian Literature, 140 (Spring 1994): 50–58. Ling, Amy. Between Worlds: Women Writers of Chinese Ancestry. New York: Pergamon Press, 1990. Solberg, S. E. “Sui Sin Far/Edith Eaton: First Chinese-American Fictionist.” MELUS, 8 (Spring 1981): 27–39. Yin Xiao-huang. “Between the East and West: Sui Sin Far—the First Chinese-American Woman Writer.” Arizona Quarterly, 47 (Winter 1991): 49–84.

Edward Eggleston (1837–1902) Edward Eggleston was a realistic writer who recorded the local customs and belief systems of characters from Indiana and other states in the Midwest. Eggleston was born to Mary Jane Craig Eggleston and Joseph Cary Eggleston on December 10, 1837, in Vevay, Indiana. His father, a prominent lawyer, died in 1846. Eggleston’s mother had to care for him and three younger children. Eggleston’s education was irregular because of his frail health. A teacher inspired him to read as much as he could, and to write. Consequently, Eggleston used his father’s library. When he was sixteen, he went to live with his father’s relatives in Amelia, Virginia. After a year he returned to Indiana, where he taught grade school for a brief period. Eggleston then moved to Minnesota, where in 1858 he married Lizzie Snyder; they later had three daughters. In addition, he served as pastor of a large Methodist church and wrote stories for children that were published in Little Corporal magazine. In 1866 Eggleston moved his family to Evanston, Illinois, where he became associate editor of Little Corporal. He wrote stories and other material for the magazine, a column for the Chicago Evening Journal, and articles for other publications. In 1870 Eggleston moved his family to Brooklyn, New York, where he worked first for the journal Independent, then for the weekly magazine Hearth and Home. He contributed short stories and novels, including The Hoosier School-Master (1871), to the latter. The novel, which was serialized, realistically depicts an agrarian society in Indiana. Specifically, it concerns a young schoolmaster who faces numerous problems, including misguided youth and their parents. The schoolmaster solves most, if not all, of the problems, and marries Hannah Thomson. The novel is based on the experiences of Eggleston’s brother George. The novel’s major strength is the contrast between literate and illiterate

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speech of the various characters. The novel was immediately published in book form. In 1872 Eggleston published The End of the World: A Love Story; it is based on the Millerites, who believed that the world would end on August 11, 1843. The Mystery of Metropolisville, which is set in Minnesota and concerns Albert Charlton, a convict, followed in 1873. These two works failed to further his reputation as a writer, however. In 1874 Eggleston published The Circuit Rider: A Tale of the Heroic Age, which concerns a Methodist minister who journeys from one church to another. The novel is based on his own experiences as well as on the autobiography of Jacob Young. Eggleston published a collection of short stories the same year. In addition, he founded the nondenominational Church of the Christian Endeavor in Brooklyn, New York, in response to several individuals’ encouragement. Eggleston edited two books about religion in 1875, then returned to fiction. Roxy (1878), which concerns Roxy Adams; her husband, Mark Bonamy, who has an affair with Nancy Kirtley; and Roxy’s adoption of her husband’s illegitimate child, was criticized by some reviewers and praised by others. In 1879 Eggleston resigned from the Church of the Christian Endeavor and, with his family, sailed to Europe, where he remained for a year. When he returned, he wrote a novel for children. The Hoosier School-Boy (1882) concerns a lower-class boy who attempts to get an education. The Graysons (1888) features Abraham Lincoln defending a man charged with murder. Eggleston’s last novel, The Faith Doctor (1891), concerns several characters—including Phillida Callendar, a faith healer—who reside in New York. Eggleston also wrote historical articles that appeared in magazines and several historical treatises that were published in the late 1890s and early 1900s. He died at Joshua’s Rock, Lake George, New York, on September 3, 1902.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Hoosier School-Master, 1871 The Circuit Rider: A Tale of the Heroic Age, 1874 Roxy, 1878 The Faith Doctor, 1891

REFERENCES Eggleston, George Cary. The First of the Hoosiers. Philadelphia: Drexel Biddle, 1903. Nicholson, Meredith. The Provincial American and Other Papers. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1971.

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Randel, William P. Edward Eggleston: Author of The Hoosier School-Master. New York: King’s Crown Press, 1946. ———. Edward Eggleston. New York: Twayne, 1963. Stone, Edward. Voices of Despair: Four Motifs in American Literature. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1966.

Ralph Ellison (1914–1994) Ralph Ellison wrote Invisible Man (1952), one of the most insightful realistic novels about African Americans in the United States. Ralph Waldo Ellison was born on March 1, 1914, to Ida Ellison and Lewis Ellison, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He was named after the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, and when he was a child, adults frequently called him “Ralph Waldo Emerson,” which he disliked. Ellison’s father had been in the military before he opened a small coal business. When Ellison was three years old, his father was killed in an accident. Ellison’s mother worked as a domestic for whites in order to support Ellison and his younger brother, Herbert. Ellison entered the Frederick Douglass School when he was six years old. He learned to play several brass instruments, including the trumpet, before he graduated in 1931. Ellison worked briefly before he traveled by freight car to Alabama, where he attended Tuskegee Institute on a scholarship. At Tuskegee, Ellison majored in music and acted in plays. He read as much literature as he could, much as he had when he attended the Frederick Douglass School. When he read T. S. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land,” Ellison was moved. He read the works that Eliot had listed in the footnotes, and they influenced him to pursue writing instead of music as a career. At the end of his junior year, Ellison journeyed to New York City where he intended to work to earn enough money so he would not starve during his senior year. In the city Alain Locke, a philosopher whom he had met at Tuskegee, introduced Ellison to the poet Langston Hughes. Hughes, in turn, introduced Ellison to Richard Wright, a novelist who had become the editor of the journal New Challenge. At Wright’s suggestion, Ellison contributed a book review to the magazine. Wright then suggested that Ellison submit a short story, which

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he did, but the magazine ceased publication before the story was scheduled to appear. In 1938 Ellison was hired by the Federal Writers’ Project to write, among other assignments, a book that contained short stories, spirituals, and other types of material that would illustrate African-American folklore. This material was helpful when he wrote fiction that he submitted to magazines. When he left the Federal Writers’ Project in 1942, he had published several short stories. Ellison was managing editor of the Negro Quarterly before he tried to enlist in the U.S. Navy in 1943. Rejected, he joined the Merchant Marine and worked as a cook until he was discharged at the end of World War II. Ellison married Fanny McConnell, whom he had met in New York, in 1946. (Ellison had been married briefly when he was younger.) He began writing a novel about what it was like to be a black person in America. Several chapters appeared in periodicals in the late 1940s and early 1950s; the novel was published in 1952. Invisible Man’s protagonist hides in a coal cellar in Harlem, where he takes drugs and listens to jazz. The story of his predicament is revealed through flashbacks. For instance, the reader learns that when he graduated from high school, he was forced by whites to fight other blacks, for which he was given a scholarship to college. At college, during his junior year, the president of the college, Dr. Bledsoe, asked him to escort a philanthropist, Mr. Norton, around town. Unfortunately, the protagonist introduced Mr. Norton to Jim Trueblood, a sharecropper who had had incestuous relations with his daughter. Then he took Mr. Norton to a bar, where a riot erupted and Mr. Norton was injured. Dr. Bledsoe learned about these incidents and consequently expelled the protagonist. The protagonist moved to New York, where he eventually found employment at the Liberty Paint Company. However, when he put too much black in the white paint, he was transferred to a different department. He met Lucius Brockway, but they did not get along. Eventually they fought, and the protagonist was injured. When he was released from a hospital, he had forgotten who he was. He sought refuge at the YMCA in Harlem, then rented a room from Mary Rambo, who tried to help him. The protagonist met several members of the Brotherhood, a Communist-like organization, and they asked him to join their organization, which he did. The Brotherhood fought Ras the Exhorter (later Destroyer), but Tod Clifton, a member of the Brotherhood, aided Ras. Clifton was eventually killed by a police officer. At Clifton’s funeral, the protagonist was supposed to say that Clifton had been a traitor to the Brotherhood, but he did not. Ras tried to capture the protagonist, but the protagonist disguised himself. Later, Ras saw the protagonist and chased him. The protagonist fell into the coal cellar. The novel contains symbolism. Certain incidents, such as the boxing match, represent the fragile relationships between whites and blacks. In addition, character names, such as Bledsoe and Trueblood, suggest personality traits. The novel’s settings and chronology parallel the author’s life. For instance,

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Ellison had attended a college for African Americans in the South, then had moved to New York, where he had lived in Harlem, just like the protagonist. Ellison incorporated ideas that had been discussed by other writers into his novel, including praise for the average individual. Influential African Americans who read the novel did not care for it because it did not call for a revolution. However, critics praised it for its realistic depiction of relations between races, and the book became a best-seller. In 1953, it received the National Book Award, and Ellison received countless offers to lecture. Ellison lectured in Europe, then in the late 1950s accepted a teaching position at Bard College in Annandale, New York. Next he moved to the University of Chicago. In the 1960s, he held visiting professorships at Rutgers and Yale universities, and lectured at the University of California at Los Angeles. In 1964 Ellison published Shadow and Act, a collection of essays and interviews. He examined folklore, music, and African-American culture. Although readers and critics desired a second novel, which he had been writing, they saw only sections of it in the 1960s. In 1967 a fire at Ellison’s summer home in Plainfield, Massachusetts, destroyed more than 300 pages of the manuscript. Ellison was disturbed, but he continued working on the lengthy novel. In 1969 Ellison received the Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon B. Johnson. A year later he was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres in France. Also in 1970 he became Albert Schweitzer Professor of Humanities at New York University, a position he held for ten years. In addition, he lectured at Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton universities. Additional sections from the novel in progress appeared in the 1970s. A second collection of speeches and essays was published in 1986. Titled Going to the Territory, it focused on writers and musicians, and on Ellison’s beliefs about literature and American culture. When Ellison died on April 16, 1994, his massive novel had not been published. His reputation as a literary artist was based on his novel, Invisible Man, his collections of essays, and his short stories. With Ellison’s widow’s blessings, John F. Callahan has edited part of Ellison’s massive manuscript. Juneteenth: A Novel published in 1999, concerns the liberation of African Americans. However, as critics have pointed out, the novel is not as strong as Ellison’s first. REPRESENTATIVE WORK Invisible Man, 1952

REFERENCES Bishop, Jack. Ralph Ellison. New York: Chelsea House, 1988. Bloom, Harold, ed. Ralph Ellison. New York: Chelsea House, 1986.

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Busby, Mark. Ralph Ellison. Boston: Twayne, 1991. Hersey, John, ed. Ralph Ellison: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1974. McSweeney, Kerry. Invisible Man: Race and Identity. Boston: Twayne, 1988. O’Meally, Robert G. The Craft of Ralph Ellison. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980. Schor, Edith. Visible Ellison: A Study of Ralph Ellison’s Fiction. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993. Watts, Jerry G. Heroism and the Black Intellectual: Ralph Ellison, Politics and AfroAmerican Intellectual Life. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.

James T. Farrell (1904–1979) James T. Farrell wrote naturalistic fiction about the inhabitants of Chicago, usually those who occupied the lower rungs of the social ladder. He treated these characters with respect, presenting them as they were with considerable dignity. Farrell was born on February 27, 1904, to Mary Daly Farrell and James Frances Farrell, in Chicago. His father, a teamster, did not earn enough to support his growing family, so his mother had to work as well. When Farrell was three, he went to live with his mother’s parents, who reared him in a more comfortable environment. Although he did not experience any lack of affection while living with his maternal grandparents, he wondered about his identity and his relationship with his parents. Farrell attended parochial schools, then worked at menial jobs, including clerking in a retail store and pumping gas at a gas station. He attended the University of Chicago from 1925 to 1929, but he did not graduate. Most academic courses, except those in writing, bored him. In 1931 Farrell married Dorothy Butler; they moved to Paris, where he wrote about the American way of life. His naturalistic novel Young Lonigan was published in 1932, when they returned to the United States and settled in New York City. Young Lonigan, the first novel of a trilogy, introduced readers to Studs Lonigan, a young Irishman who reveals what it was like to grow up in an American city. Lonigan rejects what is good—learning and a nice girl named Lucy—and accepts what is bad—a street gang and a promiscuous girl named Iris. The second and third naturalistic novels were The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan (1934) and Judgment Day (1935). They focus on Lonigan’s life from 1916 to 1931, when he dies at twenty-nine. Lonigan succumbs to his environment and tosses aside society’s moral conventions.

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In 1936 Farrell published the first naturalistic novel in the Danny O’Neill pentalogy, A World I Never Made. It was followed by No Star Is Lost (1938), Father and Son (1940), My Days of Anger (1943), and The Face of Time (1953). The pentalogy describes O’Neill’s life from 1909 to 1927. Although O’Neill grows up in a Chicago neighborhood similar to Lonigan’s, he has enough intelligence and determination to escape. Unlike Lonigan, he moves to New York, where he becomes a successful writer, like Farrell. Farrell’s marriage ended in divorce, and in 1941 he married Hortense Alden. Farrell published Bernard Clare, the first novel in the Bernard Carr trilogy, in 1946. He had to change the name of the leading character because of a libel suit brought against him by a man with the same name. The Road Between and Yet Other Waters followed in 1949 and 1952, respectively. Carr, a Chicagoan who lives among the intellectuals of New York when communism is popular, realizes that the Communists suffer from disillusionment and, as a result, are trapped. Farrell’s depiction of Chicago is realistic; his depiction of New York, however, lacks authenticity. In 1955 Farrell remarried Dorothy Butler, but they separated several years later. Although Farrell wrote other novels and numerous short stories that were collected in several volumes, none were as strong as the works mentioned above. Farrell died on August 22, 1979, in New York City.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Young Lonigan, 1932 The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan, 1934 Judgment Day, 1935 A World I Never Made, 1936 No Star Is Lost, 1938 Father and Son, 1940 My Days of Anger, 1943 Bernard Clare, 1946 The Road Between, 1949 Yet Other Waters, 1952 The Face of Time, 1953

REFERENCES Branch, Edgar M. James T. Farrell. New York: Twayne, 1971. Gelfant, Blanche H. The American City Novel. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954.

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Gregory, Horace. “James T. Farrell: Beyond the Provinces of Art.” New World Writing, 5 (April 1954): 52–65. Rideout, Walter. The Radical Novel in the U.S. New York: Hill & Wang, 1966. Wald, Alan M. James T. Farrell: The Revolutionary Socialist Years. New York: New York University Press, 1978.

William Faulkner (1897–1962) William Faulkner wrote naturalistic fiction about the inhabitants of the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. His characters are vividly depicted, and confront major problems. Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897, to Maud Butler Falkner and Murry Cuthbert Falkner in New Albany, Mississippi. His grandfather, John Wesley Thompson Falkner, was a successful lawyer and banker who had written poetry and several novels. In 1902, Faulkner’s father moved the family to Oxford, Mississippi, where he founded several businesses before he became associated with the University of Mississippi. Faulkner attended school, but he played hooky occasionally. Although he had been a good student in grade school, he preferred playing football to studying in high school. In 1915, when he was a junior, he stopped attending school altogether. In 1916 Faulkner went to work in his grandfather’s bank. He did very little, however, and instead read literature that was brought to his attention by a friend. In addition, he spent time on the campus of the University of Mississippi, where he made new friends. Faulkner added the “u” to his last name when he enlisted in the Canadian Royal Air Force, but World War I ended shortly afterward and he was released. He returned to Oxford, where he enrolled at the University of Mississippi as a special student. He contributed poetry and at least one short story to the student newspaper and yearbook. Faulkner attended the university for more than a year, then dropped out. At the urging of a friend, he moved to New York City, where he worked in a bookstore and wrote in his spare time. Faulkner did not enjoy New York, however, and longed to return to the South.

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In 1922 he became the postmaster of the University of Mississippi’s post office. In his spare time, he contributed poetry and articles to periodicals. The Marble Faun, a collection of his poetry, was published in 1924. The same year Faulkner moved to New Orleans, where he met the playwright Sherwood Anderson. At the urging of Anderson’s wife, he contributed poetry and other kinds of writings to the Double Dealer. In addition, he published short stories in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. At the urging of Anderson, Faulkner let an editor at Boni and Liveright read his first novel. Soldier’s Pay focuses on World War I hero Donald Mahon, who is wounded and disfigured, and Margaret Powers, a widow who comforts Mahon before he dies. The firm published the novel in 1926. Faulkner’s second novel, Mosquitos (1927), written in New Orleans, focuses on different kinds of artists. In 1929 Sartoris, the first novel set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, appeared. The novel’s protagonist, Bayard Sartoris, a hero of World War I, grieves over the death of his twin brother, John, who was killed in the war. Then he begins to display erratic behavior. Soon after his marriage to Narcissa Benbow, he drives much too fast, causing an accident in which his grandfather is killed. Eventually, Bayard leaves Mississippi and is killed in Ohio, when the plane that he is piloting crashes. Also in 1929 Faulkner published The Sound and the Fury, which examines the Compson family. The novel essentially focuses on Caddy and her brother’s reactions to her. Although she is not presented as fully as her brothers, they tell her story. The reader learns about her pregnancy, her wedding, the birth of her child, and more. Concurrently, the reader learns that Benjy Compson, the youngest brother, is an idiot who loves three things, one of which is Caddy; he eventually commits suicide. Jason is the middle brother and is the most rational. The novel, like Sartoris, is an example of naturalism. Sales of the novel were modest because of the Great Depression that enveloped the country. Faulkner, who was engaged to Estelle Oldham Franklin, a divorced woman with two children, needed an income on which he could support a family. He wrote Sanctuary, but his publisher rejected it. He and Estelle married nonetheless, and he wrote As I Lay Dying, which was published in 1930. The novel concerns the financially strapped Bundren family. Faulkner employs the technique of interior monologue to present the story, which is basically about Addie Bundren’s husband, Anse, and her children bringing her body by wagon to Jefferson to be buried with her relatives, as she had requested. The novel contains humor as well as tragedy. The same year Faulkner unexpectedly received galley proofs for Sanctuary. The novel, published in 1931, became one of his most widely read novels primarily because of its sensational plot. Set in Yoknapatawpha County, the story focuses on a murder that occurs at the Old Frenchman Place. Temple Drake, the daughter of Judge Drake, and Tommy, a young friend, are left at the plantation by Gowan Stevens. Popeye, an impotent gangster from Memphis, kills

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Tommy, rapes Temple with a corncob, then introduces her to a sordid life in Memphis. Lee Goodwin, a bootlegger, is arrested for Tommy’s murder. Horace Benbow, his attorney, believes he has an ironclad case when Temple agrees to testify on his client’s behalf. However, Popeye terrorizes her by killing another person, and she testifies for the prosecution. Goodwin is killed by a mob. Temple and her father travel abroad. Popeye is charged with a murder in Alabama, which he did not commit, and is executed. Light in August (1932) concerns alienation. The novel focuses on pregnant Lena Grove, who comes to Jefferson to find Lucas Burch, her lover; Joe Christmas, a drifter who has killed Joanna Burden; and Percy Grimm, who leads a mob that kills Joe. Other characters include Byron Bunch, who assists Lena in finding her lover. When he is found, however, her lover refuses to accept responsibility. Bunch offers to marry Lena and accept her baby. In order to earn additional income, Faulkner contributed short stories to magazines, and in 1932 he went to Hollywood, where he wrote a screenplay and edited others. Faulkner worked in Hollywood on several other occasions, even though he disliked it there, because he enjoyed the salaries that the studios paid. In 1935 he published Pylon, a novel about Roger Shumann, a flyer who dies in a crash, and his wife, Laverne, who also pilots planes. Critics dismissed the novel. A year later he published Absalom, Absalom!, which concerns Thomas Sutpen and his notion of creating a perfect world for himself and his family. He learns, however, that there is no such thing as a perfect world. In 1938 Faulkner published The Unvanquished, which contains seven short stories told by Bayard Sartoris II. In essence, the stories focus on the Old South. The Wild Palms (1939) concerns Harry Wilbourne, a medical intern, who elopes with Charlotte Rittenmeyer, who is pregnant. Harry attempts to abort Charlotte’s baby, and Charlotte dies as a result. Harry is arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison. The book also concerns “Old Man,” a convict who saves a woman and her infant from a flood. In 1940 Faulkner published The Hamlet, which focuses on Flem Snopes and his ability to acquire wealth. Will Varner, the father of Eula Varner, who is pregnant, persuades Snopes to marry Eula. In return, Snopes is given the Old Frenchman plantation. Snopes wheels and deals and achieves a certain amount of success, but he refuses to help his cousin Mink Snopes, who has been convicted of murder. Go Down, Moses and Other Stories (1942) concerns both black and white characters who are descendants of Lucius Quintus Carothers McCaslin. Intruder in the Dust (1948) concerns Lucas Beauchamp, a black, who has been accused of murder. Chick Mallison and Gavin Stevens, his uncle, prove that the slain man’s brother is the actual murderer. Knight’s Gambit, a collection of short stories, followed in 1949. Faulkner’s Collected Stories was published in 1950, the year he received the Nobel Prize for literature. Requiem for a Nun (1951) continues the story of Temple Drake. The sym-

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pathetic novel was adapted for the stage. Faulkner published A Fable in 1954. The novel concerns a Christ-like figure who appears in the front lines of World War I. The novel brought Faulkner a Pulitzer Prize for literature. The Town, the second novel to feature Flem Snopes, was published in 1957. Snopes and his wife dazzle the men and women of Jefferson, where he continues his wheeling and dealing. Manfred de Spain, the mayor, and Eula become romantically involved. Although they assume Snopes is ignorant of their affair, Snopes uses it to his advantage. When Bayard Sartoris II, the president of the bank, dies, de Spain becomes president and Snopes becomes vice president. Eventually, Snopes exposes his wife’s affair with de Spain in order to become president. Eula commits suicide primarily to protect de Spain and her daughter, Linda. Two years later The Mansion, the last novel about Flem Snopes, was published. Snopes has succeeded in his acquisition of wealth. He lives in the house that de Spain formerly occupied. Linda, Eula’s illegitimate daughter, who had gone to New York and had married, but is now a widow, returns to Jefferson. Flem’s cousin, Mink Snopes, is released from prison and comes to Jefferson, where he shoots Flem for refusing to help him earlier. Flem dies, and Mink, with Linda’s help, escapes. The Reivers, also set in Yoknapatawpha County, was published about a month before Faulkner died at Byhalla, Mississippi, of a heart attack on July 7, 1962. It was made into a film released in 1969. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Sartoris, 1929 The Sound and the Fury, 1929 As I Lay Dying, 1930 Sanctuary, 1931 Light in August, 1932 Absalom, Absalom!, 1936 The Hamlet, 1940 The Town, 1957 The Mansion, 1959

REFERENCES Adams, Richard P. Faulkner: Myth and Motion. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968. Beck, Warren. Faulkner. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976. Blotner, Joseph. Faulkner: A Biography, 2 vols. New York: Random House, 1974. Brooks, Cleanth. William Faulkner: The Yoknapatawpha Country. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1963.

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Coindreau, Maurice. The Time of William Faulkner. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1971. Coughlan, Robert. The Private World of William Faulkner. New York: Harper, 1954. Hoffman, Frederick J. William Faulkner. New York: Twayne, 1961. Howe, Irving. William Faulkner: A Critical Study. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975. Karl, Frederick Robert. William Faulkner, American Writer: A Biography. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989. Millgate, Michael. The Achievement of William Faulkner. New York: Random House, 1966. Minter, David. William Faulkner, His Life and Work. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980. Oates, Stephen B. William Faulkner, the Man and the Artist: A Biography. New York: Harper & Row, 1987. Swiggart, Peter. The Art of Faulkner’s Novels. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1962.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) F. Scott Fitzgerald had the ability to capture the young and the upper class of the 1920s with unquestionable objectivity. This ability helped make him one of the major novelists of the twentieth century. F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896, to Mollie (Mary) McQuillan Fitzgerald and Edward Fitzgerald in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His actual name was Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald because of his distant relationship to Francis Scott Key, who had written the national anthem. Fitzgerald’s mother enjoyed showing him off to company—indeed, he was always the center of attention. In Saint Paul, Fitzgerald wrote plays for amateur production. He continued writing plays at the Newman School in Hackensack, New Jersey, which he attended from 1911 to 1913, and at Princeton University, which he attended from 1913 to 1917. While at Princeton he started writing his first novel. In 1917, after training at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Fitzgerald became a lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He was sent to Camp Sheridan, Alabama, where he met Zelda Sayre, from Montgomery, in 1918. Fitzgerald was attracted to her liberal behavior and her zest for life. Fitzgerald was discharged in 1919. His first novel, which he had completed while serving in the army, was published in 1920. This Side of Paradise contains poems, sections of plays, and short stories, and concerns Fitzgerald’s life at the Newman School and at Princeton University. The protagonist, Amory Blaine (Fitzgerald), enjoys life, although his happiness is suddenly dampened by a friend’s death in an automobile accident. Blaine, like Fitzgerald, serves in the military, then works in an advertising agency after his discharge. Before the novel ends, he has matured to the point that others can depend on his support. The novel depicts the generation that was thrown into World War I and, con-

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sequently, radical change. Flappers and Philosophers, a collection of short stories, was published the same year. After Fitzgerald married Zelda in 1920, they lived briefly in New York City, Westport, Connecticut, and Great Neck (Long Island), New York. They later moved to Saint Paul, where their daughter, Scottie (Frances Scott), was born in 1921. In 1922 The Beautiful and Damned, Fitzgerald’s second novel, was published. It is based on the author’s relationship with his wife, and concerns Anthony Patch and Gloria Gilbert. They frequent clubs, drink alcohol, and gamble. As a result, Patch’s wealthy grandfather disinherits him. After his grandfather’s death, Patch and his wife contest the will and receive several million dollars. Before the novel’s end, Patch’s health has deteriorated and his wife’s beauty has faded. Tales of the Jazz Age, a second collection of short stories, was published the same year. A year later Fitzgerald wrote a play titled The Vegetable, a satire about American politics that he hoped would earn lots of money. It failed. In 1924 Fitzgerald and his family moved to France, where he wrote The Great Gatsby, which was published in 1925. The novel concerns Jay Gatsby, a Midwesterner whose actual name is James Gatz. Gatsby has earned a fortune as a bootlegger and lives in a mansion on Long Island, where he throws expensive parties for countless so-called friends. He tries to have an affair with his old girlfriend, Daisy Fay, who is married to wealthy Tom Buchanan. Before their affair blossoms, however, Daisy kills Myrtle Wilson, her husband’s mistress, in a hit-and-run accident. Because she was driving Gatsby’s car, George Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, assumes that Gatsby was responsible. He kills Gatsby, then himself. Hardly anyone other than Gatsby’s father and Nick Carroway, Gatsby’s neighbor and the narrator of the novel, attends Gatsby’s funeral. Critics praised the novel for its passion and vitality, but it did not sell as well as Fitzgerald had hoped. All the Sad Young Men, another collection of short stories, was published in 1926. In 1927 Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood, where he was hired to write for the screen. Nothing he wrote reached the screen, however. He moved back east, near Wilmington, Delaware, where he drank heavily. Fitzgerald returned to France, but he was not able to work. His wife studied ballet. When she was not practicing ballet, she and Fitzgerald frequented the cafe´s. Both suffered emotionally and physically from their carousing. Finally, in 1930 Zelda suffered a mental breakdown and was placed in a sanatorium in Switzerland. In 1931 the Fitzgeralds returned to the United States. He was hired to write screenplays but, as before, nothing reached the screen. A year later Zelda’s novel, Save Me the Waltz, was published. Based on her marriage to Fitzgerald, it had been written while she was being treated for her mental disorder at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. In 1934 Fitzgerald published Tender Is the Night, which concerns Dick Diver,

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an American psychologist working in Zurich who treats Nicole Warren, who suffers from schizophrenia. Diver marries Warren in an effort to help her. Although Warren’s mental health improves, Diver seeks solace with Rosemary Hoyt, an actress. Warren divorces Diver and marries Tommy Barban, a soldier of fortune. Diver returns to the United States, where he experiences misery. Fitzgerald based the major characters on himself and his wife. Fitzgerald returned to Hollywood to write screenplays three years later. Although he was under contract for eighteen months, only one screenplay was turned into a film. He remained in California, where the columnist Sheilah Graham attempted to help him. Unfortunately, liquor had taken its toll. Fitzgerald wrote short stories in order to pay the bills. He had written part of a novel, The Last Tycoon (which was later edited and published in 1941), when he died on December 21, 1940, in Hollywood. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS This Side of Paradise, 1920 The Beautiful and Damned, 1922 Tender Is the Night, 1934

REFERENCES Allen, Joan M. Candles and Carnival Lights: The Catholic Sensibility of F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: New York University Press, 1978. Bruccoli, Matthew Joseph. Fitzgerald and Hemingway: A Dangerous Friendship. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1994. Bryer, Jackson R. F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Critical Reception. New York: Burt Franklin, 1978. Eble, Kenneth. F. Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Twayne, 1963. Geismar, Maxwell. The Last of the Provincials. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943. Goldhurst, William. F. Scott Fitzgerald and His Contemporaries. Cleveland: World, 1963. Graham, Sheilah, and Gerold Frank. Beloved Infidel. New York: Holt, 1958. Hook, Andrew. F. Scott Fitzgerald. London and New York: E. Arnold, 1992. Mayfield, Sara. Exiles from Paradise: Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald. New York: Delacorte, 1971. Meyers, Jeffrey. Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography. New York: HarperCollins, 1994. Perosa, Sergio. The Art of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1965. Roulston, Robert. The Winding Road to West Egg: The Artistic Development of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 1995. Shain, Charles E. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1961.

Paul Leicester Ford (1865–1902) Paul Leicester Ford, the great-grandson of Noah Webster, wrote or edited about seventy pamphlets and books that concerned the history of the United States. He also wrote a popular realistic novel about the political arena in America. Ford was born on March 23, 1865, to Emily Ellsworth Ford and Gordon Lester Ford, in Brooklyn, New York. Although his health—he had a humped back and was a dwarf—prevented him from attending school, he was taught by private tutors as well as by his sisters in his parents’ fabulously furnished, rambling home. His father’s library was one of the largest private libraries in the United States at the time, and Ford made considerable use of it. When he was a child, he assisted his father, a lawyer and businessman, with his work. With his brother Worthington, he printed his first book, their greatgrandfather’s Webster Genealogy, in 1876. Ford, then eleven years old, contributed “notes” to the book. With members of his family, he traveled extensively in the United States and abroad, visiting major libraries wherever they stayed. With his father and brother Worthington, Ford founded the Historical Printing Club, which published American historical documents. In 1886, he published 500 copies of Bibliotheca Hamiltoniana: A List of Books Written by, or Relating to Alexander Hamilton, one of the most extensive bibliographies of Hamilton. Two years later he addressed the constitutional period in American history with several works, including A List of the Members of the Federal Convention of 1787. In 1889 Ford published the Franklin Bibliography, one of the most extensive bibliographies of Benjamin Franklin. A year later The Origin, Purpose and Result of the Harrisburg Convention of 1788 appeared.

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Ford contributed historical articles to the New York Evening Post as well as to bulletins published by libraries and proceedings published by historical societies. In addition, in 1890 he became a coeditor of the Library Journal, to which he had contributed. Ford served in this capacity for three years. He also published scholarly articles about bibliography or American history in Harper’s Weekly, the Nation, Political Science Quarterly, and the Atlantic Monthly. In 1893 Ford was hired as managing editor of the Charities Review, a sociology journal, in New York City. However, he grew tired of this position within several months. Although Brooklyn Heights society figures, librarians, and scholars knew who he was primarily because of his previous work, his first novel, The Honorable Peter Stirling (1894) made his name known to thousands across the country. The novel concerns those who desire political power in New York City—specifically, Peter Stirling, who becomes politically savvy in the slums of the city, where he works as a lawyer representing the poor and as a Democratic Party activist. Stirling, a graduate of Harvard, had helped his wealthy classmate, Watts D’Alloi, numerous times while they were in college. Several years later D’Alloi confesses to Stirling that he has an illegitimate child. Stirling informs D’Alloi’s wife, Helen, that the child is his, not her husband’s. Before the novel ends, Stirling falls in love with D’Alloi’s and Helen’s daughter, Leonore, and becomes governor of New York. Although the novel has problems, including pacing, it reveals the philosophy of its characters, especially Stirling’s. Stirling sympathizes with those who are members of the lower class. He is disturbed at how they live and what they do in order to survive. However, he is not convinced that the problems are caused by an unjust political or social system. Rather, the problems are caused by defects in human nature. Stirling is a strong, liberal-minded man with integrity, much like Grover Cleveland. In addition, the incident in which Stirling protects his friend by claiming that the illegitimate child is his, caused readers to believe that Stirling had been fashioned after the president of the United States (who had been accused of fathering a child out of wedlock). Of course, such speculation fueled interest and consequently helped sales. Ford, it seemed, had written about the here and now, not the past. The Great K. & A. Train-Robbery, published in the August 1896 issue of Lippincott’s Monthly, and in book form a year later, is a western about a failed holdup aboard a train. The Story of an Untold Love, serialized in six issues of the Atlantic Monthly before it was published in book form in 1897, is a romance told primarily through entries in a diary. The entries written by Donald Maitland, the main character, concern his love for Maizie Walton, whom he has known since childhood. In 1899 Ford published Janice Meredith, a novel about the Revolutionary period in America’s history. Although the novel suffers from a rambling plot,

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the characters mix with actual persons and become involved in actual events of the times. Basically, the plot concerns the colonists’ efforts to gain freedom, as well as Jack Brereton’s attempts to win the heart of Janice Meredith. Although Ford continued to write fiction, primarily stories of romance, he produced several important biographies, including The True George Washington (1896) and The Many-Sided Franklin (1899). In 1900 Ford married Grace Kidder, a member of a prominent family in Brooklyn Heights, and they spent their honeymoon in Europe. They moved into a spacious home in Manhattan in 1901, and Ford continued with his writing. On May 8, 1902, in the library of Ford’s new home, Malcolm, a brother who had been disinherited because he had disobeyed his father’s wishes and who had been jealous of his brother’s literary success, fired a pistol at Ford, then shot himself. Both died. REPRESENTATIVE WORK The Honorable Peter Stirling, 1894

REFERENCES Bartlett, Maurice Arthur. “Paul Leicester Ford.” Bookman, 10 (February 1900): 563–566. “Brother Slays Paul L. Ford.” New York Tribune, May 9, 1902, p. 1. Du Bois, Paul Z. Paul Leicester Ford: An American Man of Letters, 1865–1902. New York: Burt Franklin, 1977. Eames, Wilberforce. “Paul Leicester Ford.” Bibliographer, 1 (May 1902): 197. Ford, Eliakim Reed. Ford Genealogy. Oneonta, N.Y.: Published by the author, 1916. Halsey, Francis W., ed. American Authors and Their Homes. New York: James Pott, 1901. Paltsits, Victor Hugo. “Paul Leicester Ford as Bibliographer and Historian.” Bookman, 15 (July 1902): 427–429. “Paul L. Ford Slain.” New York Times, May 9, 1902, p. 1. “Paul Leicester Ford.” Harper’s Weekly, 46 (May 17, 1902): 618. Swift, Lindsay. “Paul Leicester Ford at Home: The Man of Affairs and the Man of Letters.” Critic, 33 (November 1898): 343–349. “The Tragedy of the Ford Brothers.” New York Times, May 10, 1902. p. 8. “The Troubles in the Ford Family.” New York Times, May 9, 1902, p. 2.

Harold Frederic (1856–1898) Harold Frederic was born in Utica, New York, on August 19, 1856. His father, Henry Frederic, died when his son was an infant. His mother, Frances Ramsdell Frederic, later married William De Mott. Frederic attended public schools, but he dropped out when he was twelve and went to work. He held several jobs, including printing photographs, before he became a proofreader for the Utica Morning Herald in 1875. Later he joined the staff of the Utica Daily Observer, for which he wrote news stories and editorials. Frederic married Grace Williams in 1877. Frederic edited the Albany Evening Journal from 1882 until 1884, when he became a foreign correspondent for the New York Times. He moved to London, where he wrote for the Times and later produced realistic fiction. His first novel Seth’s Brother’s Wife, was serialized in Scribner’s Magazine before it was published as a book in 1887. The novel, set outside a small town in New York, concerns a murder committed by a farmhand, and the relationship between Isabel Fairchild, the wife of the murdered man, and her late husband’s youngest brother, Seth. Frederic captures small-town politics and small-town characters well. Frederic’s second novel, In the Valley was serialized in Scribner’s Magazine (1889–1890), then published as a book (1890). The novel depicts New York’s Mohawk Valley before and after the Revolutionary War, and focuses primarily on the Battle of Oriskany, as well as on several relationships, including the competition between Douw Mauverensen and Philip Cross for the same woman. The Lawton Girl (1890) concerns two unscrupulous men who attempt to take charge of a factory in a small industrial town in New York. Several characters from his previous novels appear in this one. Around this time Frederic met Kate Lyon. He grew to love her, but his wife

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refused to grant him a divorce. He had children with both his wife and his mistress. In 1892 Frederic published The Return of the O’Mahoney, a minor adventure and romance set in Ireland. It was followed by The Copperhead (1893), a realistic novelette about Abner Beech, a farmer in New York who is humiliated by his friends whenever he discusses peace during the Civil War. Three years later Frederic published the controversial realistic novel The Damnation of Theron Ware, which appeared in England under the title Illumination. The novel concerns Theron Ware, a minister of the Methodist Church in Octavius, New York, who desires to write a serious book about Abraham. In order to gather information, he associates with Father Forbes, the Roman Catholic priest; Dr. Ledsmar, a retired professor; and Celia Madden, who plays the organ in the Catholic church. Ware becomes infatuated with Celia and leaves his wife. Finally, Sister Soulsby, a former actress who has become a revivalist, saves him. However, he leaves the ministry in order to become a politician. Frederic’s novel, perhaps because of the subject matter, was popular among readers on both sides of the Atlantic. By this time, Frederic and Kate Lyon were living together in England. His novels Gloria Mundi (1898) and The Market-Place (1899) concern English society and finance. Frederic died on October 19, 1898, at Henley-on-Thames, England. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Seth’s Brother’s Wife, 1887 In the Valley, 1890 The Lawton Girl, 1890 The Copperhead, 1893 The Damnation of Theron Ware, 1896

REFERENCES Briggs, Austin. The Novels of Harold Frederic. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1969. O’Donnell, Thomas Francis, and Hoyt C. Franchere. Harold Frederic. New York: Twayne, 1961. Wilson, Edmund. The Devils and Canon Barham: Ten Essays on Poets, Novelists, and Monsters. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973.

Mary Wilkins Freeman (1852–1930) Mary Wilkins Freeman was a realistic regionalist who focused on the inhabitants of the New England countryside. In particular, she depicted the fragile relationships between women and men. Freeman was born in Randolph, Massachusetts, on October 31, 1852, to Eleanor Lothrop Wilkins and Warren Wilkins, a carpenter. She moved with her parents to Brattleboro, Vermont, where she attended school. In 1870 she enrolled at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Her formal education ended when her mother died in 1880. Wilkins cared for her father until 1882, when he moved to Florida; he died a year later. In order to earn a living, she wrote poetry for children, short stories for children and adults, and novels for adults. The short stories, which were published in various magazines, were collected in several volumes. In 1887, for instance, some of her short stories for adults were collected in A Humble Romance and Other Stories. Wilkins focused primarily on the proud people of Massachusetts and their customs. Her short stories were filled with settings and characters she had known. Another collection, A New England Nun and Other Stories, appeared in 1891. The stories in this collection accurately depict the stoic people, especially middle-aged spinsters, of Massachusetts. In 1894 Wilkins published Pembroke, a realistic novel that depicts members of the Thayer and Barnard families. Although Barney Thayer is in love with Charlotte Barnard, he refuses to apologize to her father after the latter orders him out of his house as a result of a heated argument. Barney and Charlotte are reunited before the novel’s end, however. The novel is based on actual families. Silence and Other Stories (1898) was followed by The Heart’s Highway: A Romance of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century (1900). The Portion of Labor (1891) is a sympathetic novel about shoe factory employees who go on strike.

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Wilkins married Dr. Charles Freeman in 1902 and moved with him to New Jersey. However, she continued to write about New England. Her last collection of short stories, Edgewater People, was published in 1918. She died at Metuchen, New Jersey, in 1930. REPRESENTATIVE WORK Pembroke, 1894

REFERENCES Foster, Edward. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. New York: Hendricks House, 1956. Freeman, Mary Eleanor Wilkins. Selected Stories of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. Edited by Marjorie Pryse. New York: W. W. Norton, 1983. ———. The Infant Sphinx: Collected Letters of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. Edited by Brent L. Kendrick. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1985. Parrington, Vernon L. The Beginnings of Critical Realism in America. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1930. Westbrook, Perry D. Acres of Flint: Writers of Rural New England. Washington, D.C.: Scarecrow Press, 1951. ———. Mary Wilkins Freeman. New York: Twayne, 1967. Rev. ed., Boston: Twayne, 1988. Williams, Blanche Colton. Our Short Story Writers. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1969.

Alice French (Octave Thanet) (1850–1934) Alice French realistically depicted the inhabitants of Arkansas in short stories that were published in periodicals, then collected in several volumes. She also wrote a realistic novel. Considered a regionalist by many scholars, French captured the dialect and the attitudes of characters living in the South. French was born on March 19, 1850, to Frances Morton French and George Henry French in Andover, Massachusetts. Six years later she moved with her family to Davenport, Iowa, where her father became a successful businessman. French studied at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1866, then attended Abbott Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, for two years. She returned to Davenport in 1868, and continued her education by reading literature. In addition, she started writing short stories and essays. Her first published short story appeared in the Davenport Gazette in 1871, under the pseudonym Octave Thanet. The same year she sailed to Europe with members of her family. Upon her return to Davenport, French continued to write. In 1879 the editor of Lippincott’s Magazine accepted an essay that, after it was published, attracted considerable attention. By 1884, however, French had stopped writing essays. Instead, she had turned her attention to short stories. In 1885 French spent the winter at Clover Bend, a plantation in Arkansas that was owned by Jane Allen Crawford, a close friend. French enjoyed Arkansas so much that she spent almost every winter thereafter at Clover Bend. In 1887 she published Knitters in the Sun, a collection of short stories that realistically deals with major issues of the period, as well as everyday incidents. In some of these stories, French skillfully employs dialect, especially for characters from Arkansas. Her novel Expiation was serialized in Scribner’s Magazine in 1890, and pub-

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lished in book form later the same year. The novel is based on legends, including feuds between families living in the woods. The hero is Fairfax Rutherford, who is returning to his family’s plantation on the Black River. He encounters Confederates, who torture him in an effort to learn where he has hidden $25,000. The guerrillas eventually leave, thinking he will die from his numerous wounds, but Rutherford survives. The novel is melodramatic, to say the least. Otto the Knight, and Other Trans-Mississippi Stories, ten short stories set in Arkansas and Iowa, was published in 1891. The stories set in Arkansas are filled with description, and concern exploitation of the weak and the poor. The stories set in Iowa are humorous, and focus on the upper classes. The same year French published We All, a novel for adolescents set in Arkansas. Stories of a Western Town, short stories about characters from the Midwest, appeared in 1893. Several stories feature characters based on actual individuals, including several members of French’s family. A year later she and her brother, Robert, went to Pullman, Illinois, where they observed laborers of the Pullman Company who were on strike because of low wages. In 1897 French published The Missionary Sheriff, a collection of short stories set in Iowa. The stories feature Amos Wickliff, an upright, good-humored sheriff. The same year A Book of True Lovers, a collection of short stories concerning marriage and its effects on individuals, especially women, appeared. Also in 1897 French and Jane Allen Crawford built Thanford, a house, at Clover Bend. The Heart of Toil (1898) and A Slave to Duty and Other Women (1898) contain short stories about labor and women’s issues, respectively. French’s popularity as a writer had increased over the years. In addition, she was a member of several civic organizations, and enjoyed entertaining relatives and friends at her homes in Iowa and Arkansas. The serious realistic novel The Man of the Hour (1905) is based on the Pullman strike. The novel features Johnny-Ivan Winslow, the son of a respected manufacturer. His mother, a Russian princess, has grown tired of fighting with her husband about her concerns for the less fortunate, and leaves for France. Johnny-Ivan, undoubtedly influenced by his mother’s beliefs, works for the labor movement, then becomes an industrialist. Eventually, he is asked to break a strike at his late father’s factory. Johnny-Ivan breaks the strike but is wounded in the conflict. Before the novel’s end, however, he has both inherited his father’s wealth and has gotten the woman he truly loves. The novel was a critical and commercial success. In 1907 French published The Lion’s Share, a novel strongly influenced by detective stories. Critics dismissed it. By Inheritance (1910) is a novel that concerns a wealthy New England spinster, Agatha Danforth, who desires to establish a university for African Americans. She comes to realize that they are not ready for higher education after going to Arkansas, primarily to care for her nephew. While there, she sees blacks living and working on her nephew’s plantation. At his suggestion, she seriously

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considers establishing a school that will teach blacks to become servants, instead of a university. French’s ideas concerning the “Negro Question” seemed logical at the time, and critics praised the novel. Although she had another collection of short stories published in 1911 and wrote a patriotic novelette, And the Captain Answered (1917), most of French’s works after 1910 were dismissed, and her popularity as a writer declined over the years. Nonetheless, she remained active in social groups and organizations. Jane Allen Crawford died and left French an inheritance that helped support her. She suffered from diabetes, which affected her vision, and died in Davenport, Iowa, on January 9, 1934. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Knitters in the Sun, 1887 Otto the Knight, and Other Trans-Mississippi Stories, 1891 Stories of a Western Town, 1893 A Book of True Lovers, 1897 The Man of the Hour, 1905 By Inheritance, 1910

REFERENCES Dougan, Michael B. “When Fiction Is Reality: Arkansas Fiction of Octave Thanet.” Arkansas Philological Association, 2, no. 3 (1976): 29–36. McMichael, George L. Journey to Obscurity: The Life of Octave Thanet. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1965. Reid, Mary J. “The Theories of Octave Thanet and Other Western Realists.” Midland Monthly, 9 (February 1898): 99–108.

Isaac K. Friedman (1869–1931) Isaac K. Friedman wrote several novels in the late 1800s and early 1900s. One of these, By Bread Alone, is an example of naturalistic fiction. Isaac K. Friedman was born on November 3, 1869, to Henrietta Kahn Friedman and Jacob Friedman, in Chicago. His father was an immigrant from Germany. Friedman grew up in Chicago, where he attended public schools, then enrolled at the University of Michigan, where he earned a bachelor of law degree in 1891. He studied political science and philosophy after his graduation, and enrolled in graduate courses in English and philosophy at the University of Chicago. Although he could have practiced law, Friedman went to work for his brother, who operated a florist shop in Chicago. When he was not working, he wrote short stories. In 1894 he became a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines in Chicago. The Lucky Number, a collection of his short stories, was published in 1896. Poor People (1900) is a realistic novel in the sense that Friedman honestly depicts characters who live in a tenement in Chicago. The characters include an old musician and his wife, who had lived in misery with their wealthy son-inlaw and their elder daughter. Now they live in happiness with their impoverished younger daughter. Other characters include a young playwright and other young people who are very much in love. Friedman’s depiction of family affection and young love with pathos brought favorable reviews for the novel. A year later Friedman published By Bread Alone, a novel concerning capitalism and labor in the United States. The novel’s protagonist, Blair Carrhart, is a wealthy, educated man who takes a lowly position in a vast steel mill run by Henry Marvin. He also breaks his engagement to Evangeline Marvin, Henry Marvin’s daughter. He believes that in order to help the workers at the mill, he

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needs to focus all of his attention on their lives and hardships. Even though he becomes the workers’ chief spokesperson and calls for a strike, he fails in his attempts to help them. Indeed, the strike is disastrous. Carrhart, disillusioned, returns to Chicago, where he marries Evangeline, who has been faithful to him. He thinks about accomplishing through political action what he failed to accomplish through personal influence. Friedman allows the reader to understand the hardships of the working class by revealing the cruelty inflicted on them by those who manage the steel mill. He believed that private enterprise abused labor, and consequently needed to be socialized. The Autobiography of a Beggar Prefaced by Some of the Humorous Adventures and Incidents Related in the Beggars’ Club (1903) is a collection of funny stories and articles that reveal a lighter side of Friedman. In 1905 Friedman became a special correspondent for the Chicago Daily News and the Chicago American, a position he held until 1912. Two years later he published The Radical, a novel focused on Bruce McAllister, a principled young man from a working-class neighborhood of Chicago, and his rapid rise in politics. He becomes a U.S. senator and tries to help the people who elected him, but his efforts are in vain. His colleagues in Washington, D.C., have not been elected to help the poor in his state; they believe they have been elected to help themselves. McAllister finally retires in disgust. He intends to enter politics again, when the attitudes of politicians have changed. Friedman traveled to Japan and China for the Chicago Daily News in 1908. He filed stories that examined economic and sociological issues. A year later he married Sara Maertz. He suddenly became ill and died in Chicago on September 22, 1931. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Poor People, 1900 By Bread Alone, 1901 The Radical, 1907

REFERENCES “By Bread Alone.” New York Times, November 23, 1901, p. 873. “Chicago Tenement House Life,” New York Times, March 24, 1900, p. 181. Friedman, Isaac K. The Autobiography of a Beggar Prefaced by Some of the Humorous Adventures and Incidents Related in the Beggars’ Club. Boston: Small, Maynard, 1903. “Isaac Friedman, Author, Dies in Loop Building.” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 23, 1931, p. 23. “A Political Novel.” New York Times, January 4, 1908, p. 9.

Henry B. Fuller (1857–1929) Henry B. Fuller was one of the first authors in America to write a realistic novel about the inhabitants of a major city. As a result, he was one of the pioneers of realism. Fuller was born in Chicago to Mary Josephine Sanford Fuller and George Wood Fuller on January 9, 1857. He grew up in Chicago, and he briefly attended the Allison Classical Academy in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Back in Chicago, Fuller worked at several jobs, then in 1879 sailed to Europe, where he visited England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and other countries. He recorded his observations in a journal. Fuller returned to Chicago in the early 1880s, and in 1883 he again sailed to Europe and recorded his experiences. When he returned to the United States, he went to Boston. His father died in 1885, and Fuller was forced to move to Chicago to manage the family’s rental properties. In 1886 Fuller, using the pseudonym Stanton Page, wrote The Chevalier of Pensieri-Vani, a novel about his observations in Europe, including his experiences in Italy. The book was privately printed in 1890. As a result of favorable reviews, a publisher accepted the book in 1892. The same year a sequel, The Chatelaine of La Trinite´, which had been serialized in the Century magazine, was published. Fuller toured Europe again, then returned to Chicago, where he observed the construction of the World’s Columbian Exposition. He wrote positive articles about the Exposition’s classical architecture for the Chicago Record. In 1893 Fuller examined the inhabitants of a Chicago skyscraper in The CliffDwellers. His realistic novel contains acts of embezzlement, blackmail, legal vengeance, and murder. In 1895 he published With the Procession, another realistic novel about Chicago. In it Fuller examines the struggle of an American

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businessman and his family to reach a higher rung on the social ladder. The characters are skillfully drawn, and the speech is accurately recorded. Several critics praised the novel’s realism. Fuller continued to write, but concentrated on plays, short stories, and satire. Before his death in 1929, he wrote two realistic novels, Gardens of This World (1929) and Not on the Screen (1930). REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Cliff-Dwellers, 1893 With the Procession, 1895 Gardens of This World, 1929 Not on the Screen, 1930

REFERENCES Bouron, Bernard R. Henry B. Fuller of Chicago: The Ordeal of a Genteel Realist in Ungenteel America. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1974. Pilkington, John. Henry Blake Fuller. New York: Twayne, 1970. Wilson, Edmund. The Devils and Canon Barham: Ten Essays on Poets, Novelists and Monsters. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973.

Zona Gale (1874–1938) Zona Gale is known primarily as a regionalist because her short stories and novels focused almost exclusively on the inhabitants of small towns in Wisconsin. Zona Gale was born on August 26, 1874, to Eliza Beers Gale and Charles Franklin Gale, in Portage, Wisconsin. Her father was a railroad engineer, and her mother was a teacher. Both were instrumental in her development, and she was devoted to them throughout their lives. Gale earned a bachelor’s degree (1895) and a master’s degree (1899) from the University of Wisconsin. From 1895 until 1901, she was a journalist for the Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, and later for the Milwaukee Journal. Next she worked for the New York Evening World. She soon tired of reporting, however, and resigned from the newspaper within two years. She then was a secretary for the poet and critic Edmund Clarence Stedman, a position that allowed her to meet writers. Gale contributed short stories to magazines, and became romantically involved with Ridgely Torrence, a poet. She broke the engagement in 1904 and returned to Portage, where she cared for her parents and wrote primarily fiction. In 1906 she published her first novel, Romance Island. This was followed by The Loves of Pelleas and Etarre, a collection of short stories, a year later. Gale continued to contribute short stories to magazines. She collected the short stories that featured the inhabitants of her fictitious town, Friendship Village, Wisconsin, under the title Friendship Village (1908). Other collections of short stories about the inhabitants of Friendship Village include Friendship Village Love Stories (1909), When I Was a Little Girl (1913), Neighborhood Stories (1914) and Peace in Friendship Village (1919). In all these volumes the reader learns how the citizens of Friendship Village interact, as well as how small

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towns in the Midwest function. Through the words of Calliope Marsh, the reader learns that the citizens of Friendship Village keep abreast of national and foreign affairs, even though they are not directly affected by what occurs outside of their small community. Although their lives seem simple, their principles and beliefs are strong and unwavering. They do not refrain from tackling political and social problems. In many instances, they are able to resolve the problems that come their way, including the differences between both generations and races. Gale’s short stories realistically depicted a microcosm of the Midwest. In 1910 Gale entered her short story “The Ancient Dawn” in a contest sponsored by The Delineator, a popular magazine. Her story won, and she was awarded $2,000. In 1911 she published Mothers to Men, a novel set in Friendship Village. Gale addressed pacifism in the propaganda novel Heart’s Kindred (1915). Two years later, in A Daughter of the Morning, she examined the abuses women endured when they moved from a small town to a large city. The novel depicts the terrible conditions in which women labored. The realistic novel Birth (1918) concerns Marshall Pitt, a salesman, and other inhabitants of Burage. Pitt marries Barbara Ellsworth, who desires the finer things in life—which puts extreme financial pressure on her husband. When his wife deserts him and their son, Jeffrey, Pitt leaves Jeffrey with Miss Copper, another resident of Burage, and moves to Alaska, where he attempts to prospect for gold and put his life in order. His son grows to understand that he is free to venture, unlike his father who is tormented by thoughts of his wife. This novel differs from Gale’s previous writing in that it depicts the harsh reality of life. Miss Lulu Bett (1920) depicts the tragic life of Lulu Bett, a frustrated, sad, unmarried woman who is thirty-three years old. Lulu lives and works in her married sister’s home. Ina and Dwight had allowed Lulu and her mother to move in when Mr. Bett died. When Dwight’s brother, Ninian, visits, Lulu is attracted to him because he has traveled throughout the world. Later, Lulu and Ninian participate in what they believe is a mock marriage ceremony performed by Dwight, then learn that the marriage is legal because Dwight is a justice of the peace. Lulu subsequently learns that Ninian is already married but his wife has deserted him. Ninian leaves Lulu to search for his wife. While Lulu waits to hear from Ninian, she dates Neil Cornish, who manages a music store. Eventually, she receives a letter from Ninian who states that their marriage is invalid because he has found his wife. Lulu and Neil then marry. The novel examines the interaction between characters, especially the sisters, and reveals the jealousy and the hatred that people sometimes exhibit. Gale adapted the novel for the theater a year later, and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her adaptation. Although she wrote other plays, none were as successful as Miss Lulu Bett. Gale’s next major realistic novel was Faint Perfume, published in 1923, the year her mother died. It concerns Leda Perrin, who lives in Prospect, another small town in the Midwest. Leda is in love with Barnaby Powers, who is di-

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vorced from Richmiel, Leda’s cousin, and has a son, Oliver. Richmiel, who does not love Oliver but has custody of him, uses him to keep Barnaby and Leda apart because Barnaby does not want to lose his son. In order to get custody of his son, Barnaby agrees to leave Prospect and Leda. This novel, like the previous two discussed, depicts the thorny side of life in America’s heartland. Gale revealed her passion for religion and mysticism in the novel Preface to a Life (1926). It concerns Bernard Mead and his spiritual relationship with his mother. Mead, a successful businessman, is married to Laura, and they have several children. He has everything except spiritual happiness. He comes to notice nature—the grass, the trees, the sky—and realizes that nature is alive, unlike him. He then proceeds to change. With time, Laura, like others in Pauquette, believe he is insane. However, his dying mother understands him; she realizes that his inner being has come to life. She assures him that when she dies, she and her mother will look after him. Mead learns that there is more to life than being a success. In 1927 Gale published Yellow Gentians and Blue, another collection of regional short stories. A year later she married William L. Breese, a widower who was a banker and manufacturer in Portage. They adopted a three-year-old girl, Leslyn. Breese also had a teenage daughter from his first marriage. In 1929, the year her father died, Gale published Borgia, a novel that explores the forces of good and evil in the character of Marfa Manchester. Manchester becomes convinced that she is the embodiment of evil because her friends experience accidents or death as a result of visiting or talking to her. Later, Manchester learns that she must be in harmony with nature—right with the world— in order to subdue her bad side. The novel was very weak, according to critics, primarily because Gale allowed her views on spirituality to dominate the plot and characterization. Bridal Pond (1930) is a collection of realistic short stories concerning frustration, jealousy, guilt, and madness. Also in 1930 Gale campaigned for Philip La Follette, who was seeking the governorship of Wisconsin. Papa La Fleur (1933) presents the differences between two generations of one family. Also in 1933 Gale represented Wisconsin at the International Congress of Women in Chicago, and collected previously published short stories under the title Old Fashioned Tales. In 1936 she was forced to take sides when Glenn Frank, the president of the University of Wisconsin, whom she had helped select in 1925, was fired by Governor Philip La Follette. She attempted to have the dismissal investigated, but her efforts failed. In 1937 she traveled to Japan, where she gave talks and toured the countryside. When she returned, she wrote a biography of Frank Miller, the founder of a spiritual retreat in California. Frank Miller of Mission Inn was published in 1938. Gale died of pneumonia in a Chicago hospital on December 27, 1938. Her last novel, Magna, which concerns several kinds of love, was published in 1939.

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REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Friendship Village, 1908 Friendship Village Love Stories, 1909 When I Was a Little Girl, 1913 Neighborhood Stories, 1914 Heart’s Kindred, 1915 A Daughter of the Morning, 1917 Birth, 1918 Peace in Friendship Village, 1919 Miss Lulu Bett, 1920 Faint Perfume, 1923 Yellow Gentians and Blue, 1927 Bridal Pond, 1930

REFERENCES Derleth, August, Still Small Voice: The Biography of Zona Gale. New York: AppletonCentury, 1940. Herron, Ima Honaker. The Small Town in American Literature. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1939. Hoffman, Frederick J. The Twenties: American Writing in the Postwar Decade. Rev. ed. New York: Collier Books, 1962. Simonson, Harold P. Zona Gale. New York: Twayne, 1962.

Hamlin Garland (1860–1940) Hamlin Garland wrote naturalistic short stories and novels that were based on his life and the lives of members of his family. They depict the drudgery of farming in the American Midwest. Hannibal Hamlin Garland was born on September 14, 1860, to Isabelle McClintock Garland and Richard H. Garland near West Salem, Wisconsin. When he was nine, he moved with his parents to northern Iowa, where he toiled in the fields alongside his father. Garland attended Cedar Valley Seminary in Osage, Iowa, from which he graduated in 1881. Also in 1881 the family moved to the Dakota Territory. Although Garland accompanied his parents to what became South Dakota, he later left the farm and wandered from one job to another, including carpentry and teaching. He stopped wandering in 1884 when he reached Boston, where he wrote book reviews for several newspapers and taught at the Boston School of Oratory. In his spare time, he went to the public library and read. In 1887 Garland returned to Iowa, then to South Dakota. He observed farmers as they worked in their fields, and noticed the small huts in which they lived. He realized that he had to write about America’s rural life, including the drudgery and loneliness. Garland wrote short stories that depicted the realities of farming. Critics admired his descriptions of farmers toiling in the fields and the miserable houses in which they lived. These stories were collected and published as Main-Travelled Roads (1891) and Prairie Folks (1893). Garland moved to Chicago in 1893. The following year he published Crumbling Idols: Twelve Essays on Art Dealing Chiefly with Literature, Painting and the Drama, in which he denounced romanticism and argued for realism in fiction. Critics claimed that his ideas, especially those about painting, were sophomoric.

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Rose of Dutcher’s Coolly (1895) concerns Rose Dutcher, a Wisconsin tomboy who matures into an attractive young woman. She eventually marries a journalist in Chicago. Garland turned away from writing naturalistic short stories and naturalistic novels, and for the next ten to fifteen years concentrated on a biography of Ulysses S. Grant and romances set in the Rocky Mountains. In 1910 he published Other Main-Travelled Roads, another collection of naturalistic short stories. A Son of the Middle Border (1917), which is autobiographical, concerns the first thirty-four years of Hamlin’s life. In A Daughter of the Middle Border (1921), a sequel, the “daughter” refers to both his mother and his wife (he had married in 1899). Trail-Makers of the Middle Border, which concerns his father’s early life, was published in 1926. The last book in the series, BackTrailers from the Middle Border (1928), focuses on Garland and his family, including his two daughters. Although Garland wrote other novels, including several mysteries, none had the authenticity of his earlier work. He died in Los Angeles in 1940. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Main-Travelled Roads, 1891 Prairie Folks, 1893 Rose of Dutcher’s Coolly, 1895 Other Main-Travelled Roads, 1910

REFERENCES Ahnebrink, Lars. The Beginnings of Naturalism in American Fiction: A Study of the Works of Hamlin Garland, Stephen Crane, and Frank Norris, with Special Reference to Some European Influences, 1891–1903. New York: Russell and Russell, 1961. Gish, Robert. Hamlin Garland: The Far West. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Press, 1976. Hagan, William Thomas. Theodore Roosevelt and Six Friends of the Indian. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997. Holloway, Jean. Hamlin Garland: A Biography. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1960. McCullough, Joseph B. Hamlin Garland. Boston: Twayne, 1978. Morgan, H. Wayne. American Writers in Rebellion: From Mark Twain to Dreiser. New York: Hill and Wang, 1965. Nagel, James, comp. Critical Essays on Hamlin Garland. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1982. Pizer, Donald. “Hamlin Garland.” American Literary Realism, 1 (Fall 1967): 45–51. ———. Hamlin Garland’s Early Work and Career. New York: Russell and Russell, 1969.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a lecturer and writer who advocated women’s rights. She was also a realistic writer who examined the hidden social codes that restricted women from pursuing what they often desired. Gilman was born on July 3, 1860, to Mary Westcott Perkins and Frederick Beecher Perkins, in Hartford, Connecticut. Her father, a grandson of Reverend Lyman Beecher and a nephew of Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, deserted the family when Gilman was a child. Gilman and her mother experienced poverty and constant change, moving nineteen times in eighteen years. Frequent change in environment, coupled with her mother’s undemonstrative behavior, left Gilman with a sense of loneliness and insecurity. Although she attended public schools, her formal education was limited. She studied at the Rhode Island School of Design for two years, learning the fundamentals of drawing and painting, then worked as a commercial artist. Later, she taught art. In 1884 she married Charles Walter Stetson, an artist who had proposed to her several times. Gilman was not greatly interested in marriage, primarily because she believed that it forced women to be subservient. Her beliefs about marriage strengthened when her daughter, Katharine Beecher Stetson, was born in 1885. Gilman grew depressed, and her husband agreed to a trial separation. Gilman journeyed west to see relatives and friends, and eventually recovered. However, when she returned to her husband and daughter, her depression reappeared within several weeks. Gilman traveled to Philadelphia to see Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, who diagnosed her condition as a breakdown of the nervous system. He instructed her to isolate herself from others, except for her family, and to do nothing physically. Within weeks Gilman’s depression had returned, and she and her husband

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agreed to separate in 1887. She and her daughter moved to Pasadena, California, where she started her career as a writer and lecturer. Although her husband came to Pasadena in the hopes of saving their marriage, they divorced in 1894. Gilman wrote satirical poetry, then became seriously involved in the reform movement. She also wrote articles and short stories, including “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (1892). The autobiographical story concerns a young woman who is driven to the brink of madness by her well-meaning husband and S. Weir Mitchell’s psychological analysis and suggestions. The story reveals that a patriarchal society is not necessarily good for women. In 1893 Gilman published In This Our World, a collection of poetry, and edited The Impress, a magazine sponsored by the Pacific Coast Women’s Press Association. In 1894, after her former husband married Grace Channing, Gilman sent her daughter to live with him and Grace. This act caused a public scandal because women who had children were not supposed to allow other women to raise them. Gilman and Helen Campbell expanded The Impress, but the Pacific Coast Women’s Press Association soon withdrew its support, and the magazine failed. Undeterred, Gilman increased the number of lectures she gave in the United States and England. In addition, she continued to write poetry, articles, and short stories that examined the plight of women in Western society. In Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution (1898), Gilman critically examines the issue of women being financially dependent on men. In 1900 she agreed to marry her first cousin Houghton Gilman, an attorney in New York, with the stipulation that she could travel, lecture, and write whenever she desired. Houghton was a dutiful husband, supporting Gilman’s beliefs and efforts. Between 1900 and 1905, Gilman examined such topics as socialized motherhood, socialized housekeeping, and the gynecocentric theory of sexual differentiation. She wrote about kitchenless homes and well-trained childcare experts in Concerning Children (1900), The Home: Its Work and Influence (1903), and Human Work (1904). She contributed articles to such popular magazines as The Saturday Evening Post and Woman’s Home Companion. In 1909 Gilman founded the Forerunner, a monthly magazine devoted to socialist causes and the rights of women. The magazine was published until 1916, and Gilman was the sole contributor: poetry, short stories, essays, and novels that were either realistic or utopian. The Crux, for instance, was serialized in 1910, then published as a book a year later. The novel concerns Vivian Lane, a sheltered girl from New England who journeys west, where she grows to love Morton Elder, who suffers from a venereal disease. Although Gilman was not the first author in America to discuss this subject in fiction, she perhaps was the first to have her heroine send away the man in her life because of it. Vivian suffers emotionally, then discovers life in the West. Over time, she grows to love Dr. Richard Hale, a physician.

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In 1912 Gilman published What Diantha Did, which features Diantha Bell, a teacher who dislikes teaching. She leaves her parents and her lover, who operates his family’s store, and keeps house for a young married couple with a child. Then she starts a domestic service business that focuses on cleaning houses and catering food. Her business expands, and Diantha offers her employees a community where they can live. Before the novel’s end, she has become a successful businesswoman and manager of a hotel complex that includes cottages and childcare facilities. Gilman’s final realistic novel, Benigna Machiavelli (1914), concerns a young woman who helps members of her family. For instance, she helps her mother establish a business, and sends her alcoholic father abroad to live with relatives. From learning how to aid members of her family, Benigna believes that she can help others in society. Although these works are didactic and, for the most part, sentimental novels of manners, they are graced with seemingly strong heroines who realize that women are not necessarily restricted to the home. Women could achieve success just like men, Gilman believed, if they disregarded the social codes to a certain extent and, of course, worked hard. Gilman’s utopian novels—Moving the Mountain, Herland, and With Her in Ourland—were published in the Forerunner in 1911, 1915, and 1916, respectively. The magazine ceased publication in the latter year, primarily because of few readers and increased publication costs. Gilman continued to write and lecture, however. In 1919, for instance, she wrote a column for the New York Tribune. In 1922 Gilman retired from public life. Ten years later she was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. After her husband died in 1934, she moved to Pasadena, California, where she committed suicide on August 17, 1935. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Crux, 1910 What Diantha Did, 1912 Benigna Machiavelli, 1914

REFERENCES Allen, Polly Wynn. Building Domestic Liberty: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Architectural Feminism. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988. Ashby, Ruth, and Deborah Gore Ohrn, eds. Herstory: Women Who Changed the World. New York: Viking, 1995. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: An Autobiography. New York: Appleton-Century, 1935. Hill, Mary A. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Making of a Radical Feminist, 1860–1896. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1979.

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Knight, Denise D. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston: Twayne, 1997. Lane, Ann J. To Herland and Beyond: The Life and Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. New York: Pantheon, 1990. Meyering, Sheryl L., ed. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Woman and Her Work. Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1989. Potts, Helen Jo. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Humanist Approach to Feminism. Denton: North Texas State University Press, 1976. Scharnhorst, Gary. Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Boston: Twayne, 1985.

Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945) Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow realistically depicted the inhabitants of Virginia in her writing. She captured the history of the state before and after the Civil War, depicting the demise of the aristocrats and their culture with incredible accuracy. She also examined female characters who achieved success. Glasgow was born into a prominent family in Richmond, Virginia, on April 22, 1873. She was educated at home, primarily because of poor health. She read numerous books about various subjects, including philosophy and science. She also traveled extensively, usually with relatives or close friends. In 1893 her mother died, and Glasgow suffered from depression. In addition, she had begun to lose her hearing as early as 1889. Her first novel, The Descendant, anonymously published in 1897, concerns Michael Akershem, a liberal, and his lover, Rachel Gavin, a talented artist. Because of her love for Akershem, Gavin loses sight of her own worth. As a result, Akershem loses interest in her and looks for another woman. He comes to realize what Gavin had meant to him, however, and returns to her before he dies of consumption. In 1899 Glasgow fell in love with a married man who refused to divorce his wife. She wrote in her autobiography, The Woman Within (1954), that he died in 1905. Glasgow continued to write novels, including The Battle-Ground (1902) and The Deliverance (1904). The Battle-Ground concerns the Lightfoots and the Amblers, two aristocratic families of Virginia, before, during, and after the Civil War. Although members of both families support the Confederate cause, their reasons are not necessarily the same. The Deliverance concerns Christopher Blake and Bill Fletcher. Blake’s family has lost its tobacco plantation because of the Civil War, and Fletcher acquires it. To avenge his family, Blake corrupts

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Fletcher’s vulnerable grandson, Will, who kills his grandfather in a fight. Blake confesses that he is responsible for Will’s behavior, however, and is sentenced to prison. When he is released, he and Maria, Fletcher’s granddaughter, plan to marry. In 1907 Glasgow became engaged to Reverend Frank Paradise. Although she enjoyed his companionship, she was not attracted to him physically. She broke the engagement in 1910. The Romance of a Plain Man (1909) is set in Richmond, Virginia, after the Civil War, and concerns the rise of Ben Starr, a man from the lower class who becomes a successful industrialist. In 1911, when she moved to New York City to live, Glasgow published The Miller of Old Church. In it she humorously depicts several members of the decaying gentry who rise in society despite their meager incomes and questionable backgrounds. Novels focusing on southern female characters followed. Virginia (1913), for instance, concerns the religious culture of Virginia and a young woman named Virginia who experiences loneliness because of her attitude toward her husband, which is partly caused by the physical changes in her appearance. Life and Gabriella was published in 1916, the year Glasgow’s father died, and she decided to return to Richmond. Gabriella, the novel’s heroine, rejects her family’s traditions and expectations, and becomes a successful entrepreneur. Glasgow became engaged to Henry Watkins Anderson, a lawyer, in 1917. However, when he was in Europe during World War I, he was attracted to Queen Marie of Romania, and gossip about their relationship hurt Glasgow to the point that she attempted suicide. They ended their engagement in 1920. Perhaps her most important novel is Barren Ground (1925). In it Glasgow sociologically analyzes the inhabitants of a small community in Virginia. She traces the life of Dorinda Oakley, a poor farm girl who falls in love with Jason Greylock. Jason is forced to marry Geneva Ellgood. Dorinda, pregnant, moves to New York City, where she suffers a miscarriage. She returns home and transforms the farm into a successful dairy operation. Dorinda marries Nathan Pedlar, who is killed in a train accident. Dorinda is financially successful, but never experiences true love. Jason is widowed when his wife commits suicide. Disheartened, he dies. The Romantic Comedians (1926) is a comedy of manners that continues Glasgow’s comparison of the old South and the new. In this novel, she examines the aristocracy of Richmond, rather than poor whites who live on farms. The novel concerns the elderly Judge Gamaliel Bland Honeywell, who persuades young Annabel Upchurch to marry him. Annabel refuses to be intimate with Honeywell, however, and leaves him for the much younger Dabney Birdsong. They Stooped to Folly (1929) depicts the impact of the First World War upon the aristocratic society of Richmond. The Sheltered Life (1932) is a tragedy of manners in which Glasgow examines the South’s code of gentility. Vein of Iron (1935) is another novel of manners.

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Glasgow, whose health deteriorated in the 1930s, suffered from a weak heart in the 1940s. She died in Richmond on November 21, 1945, following a heart attack.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Descendant, 1897 The Battle-Ground, 1902 The Deliverance, 1904 The Romance of a Plain Man, 1909 The Miller of Old Church, 1911 Virginia, 1913 Life and Gabriella, 1916 Barren Ground, 1925 The Romantic Comedians, 1926 They Stooped to Folly, 1929 The Sheltered Life, 1932 Vein of Iron, 1935

REFERENCES Auchincloss, Louis. Ellen Glasgow. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1964. Glasgow, Ellen Anderson Gholson. The Woman Within. New York: Hill and Wang, 1980, first published 1954. Godbold, E. Stanly, Jr. Ellen Glasgow and the Woman Within. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1972. McDowell, Frederick P. W. Ellen Glasgow and the Ironic Art of Fiction. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1960. Myer, Elizabeth Gallup. The Social Situation of Women in the Novels of Ellen Glasgow. Hicksville, N.Y.: Exposition Press, 1978. Raper, Julius Rowan. Without Shelter: The Early Career of Ellen Glasgow. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1971. ———. From the Sunken Garden: The Fiction of Ellen Glasgow, 1916–1945. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1980. Rouse, Blair. Ellen Glasgow. New York: Twayne, 1962. Santas, Joan Foster. Ellen Glasgow’s American Dream. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1965. Scura, Dorothy McInnis. “The Southern Lady in the Early Novels of Ellen Glasgow.” Mississippi Quarterly, 31 (Winter 1977–1978): 17–31. ———, ed. Ellen Glasgow: New Perspectives. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995. Thiebaux, Marcelle. Ellen Glasgow. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1982.

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Wagner, Linda Welshimer. Ellen Glasgow: Beyond Convention. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982. Wilson, James Southall. “Ellen Glasgow: Ironic Idealist.” Virginia Quarterly Review, 15 (January 1939): 121–126.

Michael Gold (1893–1967) Michael Gold wrote one of the most sympathetic and revealing naturalistic accounts of immigrants struggling to survive on the Lower East Side of New York City around the turn of the twentieth century. Gold was born Itzok Isaac Granich. He took the name Michael Gold years later, when he started to see his name in print. Gold was born on April 12, 1893, in New York City. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Bessarabia. To help them financially, Gold left school when he was twelve and went to work at the Adams Express Company. Although he failed to complete high school, in 1912 he enrolled in several courses in journalism at New York University. Two years later, when he attended a demonstration of the unemployed, he became sympathetic to the workers’ cause. He purchased a copy of The Masses, read it thoroughly, then wrote a poem about unemployment that was published in the periodical. In 1914 Gold persuaded the administration at Harvard to let him enroll as a special student. The work was too difficult for him, however, primarily because he did not have the necessary formal education, and he suffered an emotional breakdown. Gold continued to write poetry. He also wrote several one-act plays, which George Cram Cook’s Provincetown Players produced in 1916 and 1917. Gold went to Mexico in 1918 to avoid the military draft. When he returned in 1920, he became an editor of the radical periodical Liberator, successor to The Masses, and of the New Masses, which followed the Liberator in 1926. Gold was responsible for writing polemical essays as well as accepting essays about proletarian literature. He continued to write poetry and plays, and traveled to California, Europe, and the Soviet Union. Gold helped found the New Playwrights Theatre in New York City, for which

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he wrote Hoboken Blues, which was produced in 1928. His plays were political statements, not necessarily great dramatic literature. The Provincetown Players produced Fiesta, which was based on his experiences in Mexico, in 1929. He wrote several more plays, but none brought him literary prominence. Gold achieved a certain amount of literary success in 1930, when his autobiographical proletarian novel, Jews Without Money, was published. The novel concerns the poor and oppressed immigrant inhabitants of New York City’s Lower East Side at the turn of the century. The major characters include Mikey, the narrator; Herman, his lead-poisoned father; Katie, his sympathetic and loving mother; and Esther, his sister. Although the family, like other families who had immigrated to the United States, thought it would achieve success, and consequently wealth, it experiences only poverty and physical work. Gold penetrates the lives of these immigrants and reveals a harsh world that few readers had witnessed, let alone understood. Critics respected Gold’s novel because of its naturalistic revelations. Gold wrote additional fiction, but none equaled Jews Without Money. Most of his fiction praised communism and criticized capitalism. In 1933 Gold became a columnist for the Daily Worker. He wrote sympathetically about workers and their seemingly miserable lives—and, of course, about the virtues of communism. He also engaged in polemical debates with writers who wrote for other periodicals. In 1937 Gold collected and published some of his columns under the title Change the World! Four years later more of his columns appeared under the title The Hollow Men. He contributed a column to the Daily Worker’s successor, the Worker, until 1966. Unlike many writers who had been sympathetic to communism but later had changed their political ideology, Gold remained a Communist until his death on May 14, 1967, in San Francisco. Most of Gold’s writings have been forgotten, but his autobiographical novel may endure for another century. REPRESENTATIVE WORK Jews Without Money, 1930

REFERENCES Folsom, Michael, ed. Mike Gold: A Literary Anthology, New York: International Publishers, 1972. Madden, David, ed. Proletarian Writers of the Thirties. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1968.

Caroline Gordon (1895–1981) Caroline Gordon, a member of the Southern Renaissance, which included Allen Tate and Robert Penn Warren, wrote naturalistic fiction about the inhabitants of the South. Gordon was born on a farm in Todd County, Kentucky, on October 6, 1895. Her father operated a school for boys. When Gordon was fourteen, her father allowed her to enroll in the school, where she was exposed to the classics. Gordon then attended Bethany College, where she studied Greek literature. She graduated in 1916, then taught in a high school for several years. In 1920 she became a reporter for the Chattanooga News, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She remained with the paper until she married the writer Allen Tate in 1924. Gordon and Tate moved to New York City, where she gave birth to their daughter, Nancy, in 1925. She worked as a secretary for the writer Ford Madox Ford for several years. In 1928 Tate received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the family departed the United States for Europe. Ford met them in Paris, where he helped Gordon with her first novel. Penhally, published in 1931, traces the lives of several generations of the Llewellen family before and after the Civil War. Penhally is the family’s estate, where much of the action occurs. The novel concerns two brothers who disagree about what should be done with the estate, especially the land. One wishes to sell it, while the other desires to keep it. The former gains control, and ultimately sells it; the latter kills him for selling it. Gordon believed that tragedy results when traditional values become corrupted. Gordon received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1932, and with her family again traveled to Europe. When they returned several months later, they moved into a house near Clarksville, Tennessee, where Gordon continued to write fiction.

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In 1934 she published Aleck Maury, Sportsman, which concerns a man who prefers the outdoors, and what it has to offer, over his family and his work. The novel was particularly popular among readers whose interests were similar to those of the main character. None Shall Look Back (1937) features General Nathan Bedford Forrest and Rives Allard, a soldier in Forrest’s army. Allard, who had worked with blacks in the fields when he was young, loves the South and consequently fights for the Confederacy. Forrest’s army is defeated, and Allard is killed. His wife, Lucy, faces certain hardship alone. Also in 1937 Gordon published The Garden of Adonis, which concerns the agrarian South during the Great Depression. The novel focuses on Ben Allard, who attempts to save his family by planting lespedeza clover, and Ote, the son of Allard’s tenants, who helps him in the fields. Ote intends to marry a woman who is interested in any man who can afford her. He attempts to mow the clover before it is ready, so he can sell it and can win the woman. When Allard tries to prevent him from mowing the clover, Ote kills him. The novel contains mythological characters: Allard represents everything that is good, and Ote represents everything that is evil. The Women on the Porch (1944) focuses on Jim Chapman, a professor of history in New York City who has an affair with Edith Ross, his assistant, and his wife, Catharine, who learns about the affair. Catharine leaves Jim and moves to Tennessee, where her grandmother and other relatives live. While there, she has a brief affair. Her husband, meanwhile, realizes that he does not love Edith. Subsequently, he travels to Tennessee, where he visits Catharine. Before the novel’s end, the two are reunited. In 1951 Gordon published Strange Children, which features Sarah and Stephen Lewis, who live in Tennessee. The novel focuses on a weekend party as seen through the eyes of their daughter, Lucy, who steals a crucifix from Kevin Reardon, a guest to whom she is attracted. Lucy confesses that she has stolen the crucifix and returns it. Another guest, “Uncle” Tubby, is in love with Reardon’s wife, and they go off together before the novel’s end. The Malefactors (1956) continues Gordon’s exploration of good and evil. The novel focuses on Thomas Claiborne, a poet who has an affair with Cynthia Vail, and his wife, Vera. Although Claiborne is not a religious man, he comes to realize that his wife represents true love or salvation, whereas his mistress represents lust or damnation. As a result of his spiritual awakening, he chooses his wife. Although Gordon had converted to Catholicism in 1947, she and her husband divorced in 1959. She taught creative writing at Columbia University for several years, then helped establish a program in writing at the University of Dallas, where she taught for several years. Gordon’s last novel, The Glory of Hera (1972), depicts Heracles (Hercules) from a Catholic perspective. Gordon spent the last years of her life in Mexico, where her daughter lived. She died on April 11, 1981.

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REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Penhally, 1931 Aleck Maury, Sportsman, 1934 The Garden of Adonis, 1937 The Women on the Porch, 1944 Strange Children, 1951 The Malefactors, 1956

REFERENCES Brown, Ashley. “The Achievement of Caroline Gordon.” Southern Humanities Review, 2 (Summer 1968): 279–290. Fraistat, Rose Ann C. Caroline Gordon as Novelist and Woman of Letters. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1984. Jonza, Nancylee Novell. The Underground Stream: The Life and Art of Caroline Gordon. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1995. Makowsky, Veronica A. Caroline Gordon: A Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. McDowell, Frederick P. W. Caroline Gordon. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1966. Stuckey, W. J. Caroline Gordon. New York: Twayne, 1972. Thorp, Willard. “The Way Back and the Way Up: The Novels of Caroline Gordon.” Bucknell Review, 6 (December 1956): 1–15.

Robert Grant (1852–1940) Robert Grant was a realistic writer who captured New England’s aristocrats and those who aspired to become accepted by them in several novels. He was also a lawyer and a judge. Grant was born in Boston to Charlotte Bordman Rice Grant and Patrick Grant on January 24, 1852. His parents were wealthy, and he attended the Boston Latin School and Harvard College (University), from which he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1873. Grant continued his education at Harvard, earning a Ph.D. in English three years later and a LL.B. in 1879. He started a career in law immediately thereafter. Grant’s first novel, The Confessions of a Frivolous Girl: A Story of Fashionable Life (1880), concerns Alice Palmer, who is from a prominent family. She does not necessarily fulfill her family’s wishes—for instance, she rejects proposals from two young men because she does not wish to be married. Her family expects her to marry a young man of a similar social background; eventually Murray Hill persuades her to change her beliefs about marriage and they have a lovely daughter. Palmer finally matures into a woman who accepts her role in life. Even though this is Grant’s first novel, he realistically depicts the problems that Palmer and other young women faced. In 1883 Grant married Amy Gordon Galt; they had four sons. The same year he published the novel An Average Man, which concerns Arthur Remington and Woodbury Stoughton, who meet at Harvard as undergraduates, then continue together through its law school. They open law offices in New York, but eventually drift apart. Stoughton marries Isabel Idlewild; Remington, Dorothy Crosby. Stoughton dabbles in politics and loses those qualities that most people respect. His marriage ends when his wife sees him with another woman. Remington is more conservative and less spoiled. Grant does not examine the average

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American in this novel, but focuses on members of the upper class. His novel of manners is accurate and realistic. The Knave of Hearts: A Fairy Story (1886) is a satiric light romance about Arthur Lattimer of Boston, who has several relationships. A Romantic Young Lady (1886) concerns Virginia Harlan, whose mother has died and whose father has little time for her. Virginia is raised by others, including two aunts and a governess, and matures into an attractive young woman. She falls in love with Roger Dale, who is interested only in her money. Her father vows to disinherit her if she marries Dale. When Dale learns that she will not inherit any money, he leaves. Virginia’s father consoles her, but he soon dies, and Virginia inherits a vast sum. Francis Prime, a respectable man, becomes a banker as a result of Virginia’s anonymously financing him. Later, he meets Virginia, who pretends to be Alice Bailey. Prime offers her a job, which she accepts. He grows to love Virginia, but she refuses his proposal of marriage. Later, Prime learns that Roger Dale, who has borrowed money from the bank, has committed fraud. In financial difficulty because Dale has not paid his loan, Prime is told that if he marries his benefactress, he will be saved. Prime declares his love for Bailey/Virginia, however, and she realizes she has found the perfect man. Face to Face (1886) concerns Evelyn Pimlico, daughter of an English banker, who is rebellious. Her father sends her to the United States with Mr. Brock, a businessman from New York. Aboard ship, Evelyn pretends to be an American when she meets Ernest Clay, who is also from New York. In the United States, she grows disillusioned when she realizes that many Americans wish to be like their European counterparts. She meets Clay again, and he grows to love her. Evelyn is invited to Mr. Brock’s home in the country, which adjoins the Clay estate. Evelyn learns that Brock and Clay own two mills that have labor problems. Brock dies and leaves his fortune to Evelyn, and she becomes the manager of one of the mills. She invites the labor organizer to become the superintendent and promises him that the workers will earn more by sharing in the profits. The workers grow distressed when the competing mill undersells their mill. As a result, they confront Ernest Clay—who, they believe, owns the competing mill—and set his house on fire, almost killing him and his servant. Evelyn’s superintendent sacrifices his life to save Clay and his servant. Grant captures the period, including the milieu and the characters, well, and also addresses major topics, such as workers’ rights, that were in the public’s mind. In 1887 Grant became a member of the Boston Board of Water Commissioners, and in 1893, a probate judge for Suffolk County. He held this position until 1923, when he retired. In 1895 he was named a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard. He served on the board almost every year thereafter until 1921. Unleavened Bread (1900) concerns Selma White, who is born and reared in the Midwest. Grant depicts her maturation from an orphan living on a farm, to the wife of Lewis J. Babcock of Benham, to the mother of a daughter who dies, to a participant in women’s organizations and causes, to divorcing Babcock and marrying Wilbur Littleton of New York. In New York, she has trouble fitting

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in, and after Littleton dies, she returns to Benham, where she marries James Lyons. He is elected to Congress, and later becomes governor and a senator. Selma, who starts out poor and makes numerous mistakes in her life, ends up with a seemingly powerful husband. However, she is a hypocrite. She marries because of her husbands’ social positions, not because she loves them. The novel is Grant’s best work because of its message and its satiric examination of American society. Grant continued his examination of several Benham characters in The Undercurrent (1904), which concerns divorce, another major social issue in America. In The High Priestess (1915), also set in Benham, Grant examines the institution of marriage. The Chippendales (1909) concerns the aristocratic inhabitants of Boston during the 1880s. The novel examines the differences as well as the similarities between the older and the newer inhabitants. In 1927 Grant served on a committee, appointed by Governor Alvan T. Fuller, whose primary purpose was to review the evidence that had led to the conviction of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti. The committee’s report censured the judge for his remarks, but it did not find any evidence that the trial had been unfair. Grant set his last novel, The Dark Horse: A Story of the Younger Chippendales (1931), in Boston. It concerns the lives of several members of the family after World War I and in the 1920s. In addition to his novels, Grant wrote humorous essays about domestic issues that were collected in several volumes. He died in Boston on May 19, 1940. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Confessions of a Frivolous Girl: A Story of Fashionable Life, 1880 An Average Man, 1883 A Romantic Young Lady, 1886 Face to Face, 1886 Unleavened Bread, 1900 The Undercurrent, 1904 The Chippendales, 1909 The High Priestess, 1915 The Dark Horse: A Story of the Younger Chippendales, 1931

REFERENCES Bergmann, Frank. Robert Grant. Boston: Twayne, 1982. Grant, Robert. Fourscore: An Autobiography. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1934. Quinn, Arthur Hobson. American Fiction: An Historical and Critical Survey. New York: Appleton-Century, 1936.

Henry Harland (Sidney Luska) (1861–1905) Henry Harland wrote realistic novels under the pseudonym of Sidney Luska. These novels depict Jewish characters and their customs. These characters were based on Jews who had emigrated from Germany and had settled in New York City. Harland was born on March 1, 1861, to Irene Jones Harland and Thomas Harland, a lawyer, in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Adelphi Academy for four years, then enrolled in Public School 35, from which he graduated in 1877. Harland grew interested in the Society for Ethical Culture, which had been founded by Felix Adler, a friend and mentor, and as a result learned about Jewish life in New York. From 1877 to 1880 he attended the College of the City of New York; he dropped out during his third year. In 1881 he enrolled at the Divinity School of Harvard University as a special student, but left before the academic year ended. Harland sailed to Europe in 1883, and he stayed in Rome for almost a year. Upon his return to America, he was hired as an assistant accounting clerk in the New York City Surrogate’s Office. In 1884 he became an assistant probate clerk. Harland wrote in his spare time, usually before he went to work. The same year he married Aline Herminie Merriam, an accomplished pianist. Harland’s first novel, As It Was Written: A Jewish Musician’s Story (1885) concerns Ernest Neuman and the mysterious murder of his fiance´e, Veronika. It was Gothic, not realistic, according to critics. Mrs. Peixada followed in 1886, the year he resigned from the Surrogate’s Office in order to devote his time to writing. The novel is about Arthur Ripley, a young lawyer who is hired to find Mrs. Peixada, whose husband and coachman have been murdered. Ripley later marries Mrs. Lehmyl, who is actually Mrs.

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Peixada. Indicted for her first husband’s death, she claims in a letter that she killed in self-defense—that her husband and his coachman were planning to murder her. The charges against her are dropped. Ripley, whose health has deteriorated because of the shock—he had no knowledge that the woman he married was Mrs. Peixada—is cared for by his wife. Eventually, they sail to Europe. Like the first novel, this one depicts Jewish characters and customs. Unlike the first novel, its Jewish characters are authentic and realistic. Harland captures their expressions with great accuracy. However, several critics argued that a murder charge would not necessarily be dropped because of information in a letter. Harland’s third novel, The Yoke of the Thorah (1887), concerns Elias Bacharach, a Jew, and his desire to marry Christine, a Christian. Although members of his family are against his marrying a Gentile, he and Christine intend to wed. At the ceremony, Elias has an epileptic seizure and collapses. Members of his family persuade him that God has interceded, and Elias later informs Christine that he cannot marry her. He marries an uncultured Jewish girl instead. Before the novel’s end, he sees Christine from a distance and writes a lengthy letter in which he asks her to meet him. Christine ignores his plea, and he dies from another epileptic seizure. This novel was criticized by Jewish writers for its apparent anti-Semitic bias and its unrealistic depiction of Jewish characters’ skill with the English language. My Uncle Florimond (1888) is about a young boy in search of his uncle. Grandison Mather; or an Account of the Fortunes of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Gardiner (1889) concerns a novelist who attempts to achieve fame. It captures in realistic detail the writer, Tom Gardiner, his wife, Rose, and their marriage. Harland based the characters on himself, his wife, and their friends. Critics approved of the book’s authenticity. In 1889 the Harlands sailed to Europe, where they visited Paris before settling in London. In 1890 Harland published Two Voices and Two Women or One? From the Mss. of Dr. Leonard Benary. The first contains two long stories that examine free will and determinism. The second concerns a physician who learns that a young woman is an escaped convict. He operates on her in an attempt to rid her of her evil past. Later, she marries a sculptor, and suddenly goes blind. Another operation restores her sight, but it also allows her to remember her evil past, which haunts her, and she dies. Mea Culpa: A Woman’s Last Word (1891) concerns political refugees from Russia living in Paris. It is melodramatic and weak. Although Harland’s health deteriorated because of a lung disease, he and Aline journeyed to Paris in 1893. There he wrote short stories that were set in various parts of Europe. These stories were published in periodicals, then collected under the title Mademoiselle Miss and Other Stories (1893). In 1894, with John Lane and Aubrey Beardsley, Harland founded a literary and artistic quarterly, The Yellow Book. Harland oversaw short stories and es-

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says, and Beardsley oversaw art; Lane served as the publisher. The quarterly published stories by Henry James and less-known writers. Harland contributed a short story to each issue. These short stories were collected under the title Grey Roses (1895). The essays published in the quarterly critically examined specific literary topics. The quarterly ceased publication in 1897, primarily because of Harland’s poor health. Comedies and Errors, another collection of short stories, was published in 1898. Two years later The Cardinal’s Snuff-Box appeared. This romantic novel concerns Peter Marchdale, an Englishman who lives in Italy, and Duchess Beatrice, a lovely English widow. With her uncle’s help, she persuades Peter to convert to Catholicism, and Peter persuades her to marry him. The novel was popular among readers. Harland continued to write idealistic romance novels. The Lady Paramount, for instance, was published in 1902, when he and Aline returned to the United States. My Friend Prospero appeared in 1904. Although the novel sold well, critics claimed that the plot was too similar to that of The Lady Paramount. Harland and Aline sailed to England in 1904, then traveled to Italy, where he died at San Remo on December 20, 1905. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Mrs. Peixada, 1886 Grandison Mather; or an Account of the Fortunes of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Gardiner, 1889

REFERENCES Beckson, Karl. Henry Harland: His Life and Work. London: The Eighteen Nineties Society, 1978. Burke, Rev. John J. “Mr. Henry Harland’s Novels.” Catholic World (June 1902): 398– 403. Carpenter, William H. “The Editor of the ‘Yellow Book.’ ” Bookman (March 1895): 87–88. Glastonbury, G. “The Life and Writings of Henry Harland.” Irish Monthly (April 1911): 210–219. James, Henry. “The Story-Teller at Large: Mr. Henry Harland.” Fortnightly Review (April 1, 1898): 650–654. Parry, Albert. “Henry Harland: Expatriate.” Bookman (January 1933): 1–10.

Joel Chandler Harris (1848–1908) Joel Chandler Harris is known for his numerous short stories that feature Uncle Remus, an elderly African American who tells fables about animals. Harris also wrote regional short stories and novels; his novels were not as well developed as his short stories. Joel Chandler Harris was born on December 9, 1848, to Mary Harris, who was not married, near Eatonton, Georgia. The red-haired, freckled-face boy stuttered whenever he talked to strangers. On the other hand, he was eager to play tricks on people. His mother, with the help of others, reared him as best she could. When he was a teenager, Harris worked for the Countryman, a small weekly newspaper that was published on a nearby plantation. The owner of the plantation encouraged Harris to read the numerous books in his library, which Harris did regularly. Harris also listened to the many stories that were told by the slaves. After the Civil War the Countryman ceased publication, and Harris worked at various newspapers: the Macon Telegraph in Macon, Georgia (1866), the Crescent Monthly in New Orleans (1866–1867), the Monroe Advertiser in Forsyth, Georgia (1867–1870); and the Savannah Morning News in Savannah, Georgia (1870–1876). Harris contributed editorials and other types of journalism, including humorous anecdotes. In Savannah, he met and married Esther LaRose in 1873. They had nine children, three of whom died before reaching adulthood. In 1876 Harris moved his family to Atlanta, where he wrote editorials for the Atlanta Constitution that focused on the South and the fact that many misunderstood its culture and its people. He urged reconciliation between North and South. He disliked the stereotypes that many applied to African Americans. Indeed, he claimed that they should be judged as whites were—as individuals. He advocated that African

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Americans should be educated, so they could become part of the fabric of society. However, he acknowledged that slavery had been beneficial to African Americans because through it they had been introduced to formalized religion and civilization. When Sam Small, who had contributed a popular feature about an old African-American man, left the newspaper, Harris was asked to write a similar feature. The first contribution was similar to Small’s. Eventually, Harris made the feature his own by employing a dramatic monologue. The first animal fable, however, did not appear until 1879. Harris contributed more animal fables, and in 1880 collected several for his first book, Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings. The stories, he insisted, had been told to him years before, when he worked at the newspaper on the plantation. As a result, the stories were faithful in capturing the African-American dialect, according to critics. Some critics claimed that the character Uncle Remus did not represent the typical slave; others, that his recollections of plantation life were too positive and artificial. Nonetheless, Uncle Remus and the stories he tells became popular. In fact, the stories have not been out of print since they first appeared. In 1883 Harris published Nights with Uncle Remus: Myths and Legends of the Old Plantation, which featured not only Uncle Remus but also Aunt Tempy, who, like Uncle Remus, is very knowledgeable about plantation life. The book has other narrators, but Uncle Remus relates most of the tales about animals that are quite cunning, much like those in the previous collection. Mingo and Other Sketches in Black and White (1884) is a collection of short stories that are examples of local color or regional fiction. The title story concerns Mingo, a former slave who, even though he has been emancipated, continues to serve a lower-class white woman and her granddaughter. Other stories concern the inhabitants of northeastern Georgia. These characters are from the lower class as well, and some try to eke out a living by making moonshine. Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches, published in 1887, is another collection of regional short stories. The title story concerns Joe, a slave who has been freed by his master but has no place to go. He is lost in a world that he does not understand. The Staleys, a lower-class family of whites, endure his presence, but they do not welcome him because of his color. Joe, who has longed to see his wife, who is still a slave, eventually dies a lonely death. In this and the other stories in the collection, Harris implies that African Americans were better off being slaves. When they were freed, they were lost. In addition, many whites, especially those in the lower class, did not trust them. The underlying theme in many of these stories is reconciliation between African Americans and whites, which did not occur very often. In 1889 Harris published Daddy Jake the Runaway and Short Stories Told After Dark, which contains a lengthy story about runaway slaves and several short stories that feature Uncle Remus. The title story concerns a slave who returns home after striking an overseer. Although his master does not punish

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him for what he has done, other runaways have been punished. For instance, Crazy Sue, who hides in a canebrake, remembers falling asleep while nursing her twins, then being punished by having to work in the field, away from her babies. While working, she hears their cries. Eventually, they die. The story realistically depicts the misery that slaves experienced. Balaam and His Master and Other Sketches and Stories (1891) is another collection of regional fiction about African Americans and lower-class whites of Georgia. On the Plantation: A Story of a Georgia Boy’s Adventures During the War, an autobiographical novel, followed in 1892. Told from the perspective of Joe Maxwell, age twelve, the novel described the protagonist’s pranks and experiences in a print shop. Sister Jane: Her Friends and Acquaintances, a novel that appeared in 1896, depicts life in Georgia. Jake William Wornum tells the story of Sister Jane, a coarse but spirited woman. Harris’s next collection of regional fiction, titled Tales of the Home Folks in Peace and War (1898), which includes “The Comedy of War,” concerns reconciliation between the North and the South. These short stories lean toward romanticism rather than realism. In 1899 Harris published The Chronicles of Aunt Minervy Ann, which features Aunt Minervy, a slave who criticizes her race for its inability to accomplish anything constructive and who respects her master, Major Perdue, to the point that she physically battles two lower-class whites who insult him. On the Wing of Occasions (1900) is another collection of regional fiction which concerns spying during the Civil War. It contains the novella The Kidnapping of President Lincoln, which introduces the character Billy Sanders, a commonsense philosopher who enjoys presenting his humorous views on major topics, including politics. President Lincoln is never kidnapped, but he does trade stories with Sanders. The Making of a Statesman and Other Stories, published in 1902, is a collection of regional fiction inferior to his previous such collections, even though it captures the mannerisms and dialects of those who live in Georgia. Gabriel Tolliver: A Story of Reconstruction (1902), a novel, concerns Billy Sanders and other characters, and the stark reality of life in Georgia after the Civil War. The novel depicts the dramatic changes that occurred—from African Americans being set free to whites experiencing poverty. Although Harris tried to write more novels, these were not as successful as his collections of fables featuring Uncle Remus or his regional short stories. They suffered from his inability to construct a strong plot. In 1905 Harris published another collection of fables told by Uncle Remus. Told by Uncle Remus: New Stories of the Old Plantation has Uncle Remus telling stories to the son of the boy who had appeared in previous collections. In 1906 Harris was persuaded by his son Julian to edit Uncle Remus’s Magazine. He not only edited the periodical but also contributed articles, stories,

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poetry, and book reviews. He humorously examined various topics, including politics. He allowed some of the characters from his previous short stories to comment on issues. Harris became ill in the spring of 1908, and died in Atlanta on July 3. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Mingo and Other Sketches in Black and White, 1884 Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches, 1887 Daddy Jake the Runaway and Short Stories Told After Dark, 1889 Balaam and His Master and Other Sketches and Stories, 1891 The Chronicles of Aunt Minervy Ann, 1899 On the Wing of Occasions, 1900 Gabriel Tolliver: A Story of Reconstruction, 1902

REFERENCES Bickley, R. Bruce, Jr. Joel Chandler Harris. Boston: Twayne, 1978. ———. Joel Chandler Harris. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987. ———, comp. Critical Essays on Joel Chandler Harris. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1981. Brookes, Stella Brewer. Joel Chandler Harris—Folklorist. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1950. Cousins, Paul M. Joel Chandler Harris: A Study in the Culture of the South, 1848–1908. New York: Columbia University, 1966. ———. Joel Chandler Harris: A Biography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1968. Harlow, Alvin F. Joel Chandler Harris: Plantation Storyteller. New York: J. Messner, 1941. Harris, Julia Collier. The Life and Letters of Joel Chandler Harris. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1918. Hoffman, Daniel G. Form and Fable in American Fiction. New York: Oxford University Press, 1961. Keenan, Hugh T., ed. Dearest Chums and Partners: Joel Chandler Harris’s Letters to His Children. A Domestic Biography. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1993.

Bret Harte (1836–1902) Bret Harte recorded for posterity the fascinating characters who lived in mining towns and rural areas in northern California during the mid-1800s. His characters are authentic in dress and dialect, and his descriptions of the locations in which they live are realistic. Francis Bret Harte was born in Albany, New York, on August 25, 1836, to Elizabeth Ostrander Harte and Henry Harte, both teachers. After his father died in 1845, Harte and his two sisters and older brother moved with their mother to New York City, where he attended public schools until he was thirteen; he then dropped out to work full-time. His mother, who taught Greek, did not earn enough money to support herself and her children. His mother later married Andrew Williams, a businessman from San Francisco, and moved to California. Harte migrated to San Francisco in 1854 and worked at various jobs, including teaching, mixing drugs, riding for Wells Fargo, and setting type for the Humboldt County Northern Californian. Journalism, especially writing, appealed to him, and he contributed sketches to several publications. In 1860 Harte got a job as a printer with the Golden Era, a literary magazine published in San Francisco. He contributed sketches and short stories to the periodical. These stories, particularly “The Work on Red Mountain,” displayed his ability to capture realistically characters who lived in the small towns of northern California. “The Work on Red Mountain” was revised, expanded, and retitled M’liss: An Idyl of Red Mountain; it concerns the rags to riches story of Melissa Smith, the daughter of a gold miner who dies leaving his claim to her. Harte left the magazine in 1861 and went to work as a clerk in the Surveyor General’s office. In 1862 he married Anna Griswold, with whom he had four children. A year later he left the Surveyor General’s office and went to work in the U.S. Mint. This position provided time to write, and he contributed stories

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to the Californian, which had been founded by a friend, Charles H. Webb. Through his interest in journalism he got to know other writers, including Ambrose Bierce and Mark Twain. In 1868 Harte became the first editor of the Overland Monthly, a literary magazine that soon received considerable attention. In addition to publishing work by others, including Twain, Harte published several stories about the West that he had written. These unsigned works included “The Luck of Roaring Camp” and “The Outcasts of Poker Flat.” Harte’s depiction of the West was both honest and colorful. His descriptions of the landscape and the people were undeniably realistic. “The Luck of Roaring Camp” concerns a prostitute, Cherokee Sal, and several inhabitants of a mining camp. Cherokee Sal dies giving birth to a son who brings joy to members of the camp. The infant, however, along with the miner who is holding him, drowns in a flood. The story shows that characters with checkered pasts are human nonetheless. “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” is about several colorful characters from Poker Flat who are thrown together by a snowstorm. They learn about man’s better qualities from a younger couple before they die, trapped by the blizzard. These and other stories were published in The Luck of Roaring Camp, and Other Sketches (1870). In 1871 Harte left California and moved to Boston, where the publisher of the Atlantic Monthly offered him $10,000 for twelve poems or stories, whichever he desired to write. Harte accepted the offer, but the stories he wrote were very similar to his earlier work. Nevertheless, the publisher offered him another contract for the same amount of work. Harte accepted, but failed to meet his contractual obligation. Harte wrote stories about the West for other magazines that were collected and published under various titles. In addition, to earn more money, he gave lectures and wrote several plays. He spent more than he earned, however, and borrowed money from friends until he had few friends left. In 1876 Harte published his only novel, Gabriel Conroy, which had been serialized in Scribner’s Magazine. It concerns colorful, entertaining characters struggling to make ends meet in the West. Harte was appointed as the U.S. consul at Crefeld, Germany, in 1878. His wife and children remained in the United States. From 1880 to 1885 he served as the U.S. consul in Glasgow, Scotland. He then moved to London, where his wife joined him in 1898. Harte wrote fiction about the American West for English publications. Although these stories contained plots and characters similar to those in his earlier writings, readers in England enjoyed them. Harte died of throat cancer in London on May 5, 1902. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Luck of Roaring Camp, and Other Sketches, 1870 M’liss: An Idyl of Red Mountain, 1873

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REFERENCES Boynton, Henry W. Bret Harte. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1970; originally published 1903. Duckett, Margaret. Mark Twain and Bret Harte. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964. Harlow, Alvin F. Bret Harte of the Old West. New York: J. Messner, 1943. Merwin, Henry Childs. The Life of Bret Harte, with Some Account of the California Pioneers. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1911. Morrow, Patrick. Bret Harte. Boise, Idaho: Boise State College, 1972. O’Connor, Richard. Bret Harte: A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1966. Pemberton, Thomas Edgar. The Life of Bret Harte. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1970. Scharnhorst, Gary. Bret Harte. New York: Twayne, 1992. Stewart, George R., Jr. Bret Harte: Argonaut and Exile. Being an Account of the Life of the Celebrated American Humorist. Compiled from New and Original Sources. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1964; originally published 1931.

John Hay (1838–1905) John Hay wrote a colorful realistic novel about the Bread-Winners, a group of workmen who go on strike. The novel presents Hay’s anti-labor bias, the reasons for which were not very popular at the time. John Milton Hay was born on October 8, 1838, in Salem, Indiana, to Helen Hay and Dr. Charles Hay. He moved with his parents to Warsaw, Illinois, where he attended public schools, and later attended a private school in Pittsfield, Illinois. In 1852 he enrolled at a college in Springfield, Illinois. He transferred to Brown University three years later, when he was seventeen. Hay enjoyed studying and writing at Brown. However, a career as a man of letters was not in his future, and in 1858, after his graduation, he returned to Warsaw. Hay was depressed by his surroundings and by his uncertain future. Finally, in 1859 he decided to study law in the office of his uncle, Milton Hay, in Springfield. Through his friend John Nicolay, Hay met Abraham Lincoln. When Lincoln became the president-elect, Nicolay suggested that he hire Hay as his assistant private secretary. Lincoln agreed. After Lincoln was inaugurated, Hay moved to Washington, D.C. He realized almost immediately that Lincoln thought long and hard about issues before reaching decisions. He was impressed with Lincoln’s ability to lead the nation down the right path. Hay became assistant adjutant general in the army in 1864. Although his duties were at the White House, he observed the operations of the military for the president’s benefit. In 1865 he was appointed secretary to the American legation in Paris, where he worked for John Bigelow, the American minister. Hay remained in Paris until 1867, when he returned to the United States. Six months later Secretary of State William Seward appointed him charge´ d’affaires in Vienna. He traveled

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in Poland and Turkey before he resigned his post in 1868. In 1869 he accepted the diplomatic post of secretary of legation at Madrid, Spain. He soon tired of Spain, however, and returned to the United States. Hay turned to journalism. He accepted a position as a writer of editorials at the New York Tribune. In addition to editorials, he contributed several ballads, including “Little Breeches” and “Jim Bludso.” These and other ballads were collected as Pike County Ballads and Other Pieces (1871). Castilian Days, a book about his travels in Europe, also was published in 1871. Hay married Clara Stone of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1874, and moved to Cleveland, where he assisted his wealthy father-in-law in financial matters. Although he did not like Cleveland, he had more time to write. After his father-in-law died, Hay and his wife moved to Washington, D.C. In 1878 he was named assistant secretary of state, and became friends with Henry Adams, among other well-known American statesmen. In 1884 Hay published anonymously The Bread-Winners: A Social Study, a realistic novel about the Bread-Winners, a group of angry workmen in Buffland, on the Great Lakes, who go on strike. The novel was written primarily to present Hay’s anti-labor views, which were not necessarily popular at the time, in an effort to inform readers that labor, if organized, could have a major impact on the American economy. As a result, American society would change dramatically. In 1890 Hay, with John Nicolay, published the ten-volume Abraham Lincoln: A History, which recounts Lincoln’s life and work. The lengthy biography had been serialized in The Century. A friend of President William McKinley, Hay was appointed ambassador to Great Britain in 1897 and was accepted by London society. When the SpanishAmerican War erupted in 1898, the administration depended on Hay’s wisdom, particularly in regard to terms of peace with Spain. Later the same year he was urged by the president to serve as secretary of state; he did so reluctantly. Hay supported the president in his settlement with Spain and, in 1899, the concept of equal trade opportunity in China. A year later the Boxer Rebellion, a protest against the policies of some European countries, occurred. Hay believed that the United States should use force if necessary, and continue to deal with the government in Peking. He opposed Russian expansion, but realized that China was weak and that the United States would not go to war. When the Russo-Japanese War broke out in 1904, Hay’s poor health prevented him from voicing his opinion. In addition, President Theodore Roosevelt was in charge of Far Eastern policy. Hay died in New Hampshire on July 1, 1905. His wife and three of his four children survived him. A son had died in an accident four years earlier. REPRESENTATIVE WORK The Bread-Winners: A Social Study, 1884

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REFERENCES Clymer, Kenton J. John Hay: The Gentleman as Diplomat. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1975. Dennett, Tyler. John Hay: From Poetry to Politics. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1933. Gale, Robert L. John Hay. Boston: Twayne, 1978. Howells, William Dean. “John Hay in Literature.” North American Review, 181 (September 1905): 343–351. Jaher, Frederic Cople. “Industrialism and the American Aristocrat: A Social Study of John Hay and His Novel, The Bread-Winners.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 65 (Spring 1972): 69–93. Kushner, Howard I., and Anne Hummell Sherrill. John Milton Hay: The Union of Poetry and Politics. Boston: Twayne, 1977. Monteiro, George. Henry James and John Hay: The Record of a Friendship. Providence, R.I.: Brown University Press, 1965. Sears, Lorenzo. John Hay: Author and Statesman. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1914. Sloane, David E. E. “John Hay’s The Bread-Winners as Literary Realism.” American Literary Realism 1870–1910, 2 (Fall 1969): 276–279. ———. “John Hay (1838–1905).” American Literary Realism 1870–1910, 3 (Spring 1970): 178–188. Thayer, William Roscoe. The Life and Letters of John Hay. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1915.

Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904) Lafcadio Hearn journeyed throughout the world and recorded for readers what he observed. When he lived in New Orleans, he wrote a riveting realistic novel, Chita: A Memory of Last Island, which depicted the great storm of 1856 that destroyed Last Island and killed many of its wealthy vacationers. Hearn was born on June 27, 1850, on Santa Maura Island, Greece, to Rosa Tessima and her husband, Charles Bush Hearn, a surgeon in the British Army. When Hearn was two, his father was ordered to the West Indies. Rosa and their two sons were sent to live with Sarah Brenane, her husband’s aunt, in Dublin, Ireland. Rosa later learned that her husband was seeing another woman, so she left Ireland and divorced her husband; she eventually remarried. Sarah Brenane sent Hearn and his brother to Jesuit schools. Hearn did not like these schools because of the religious doctrine that was taught. When he was thirteen, he injured his left eye. Now partially blind, Hearn was determined to use his right eye as much as possible; as a result, that eye enlarged. His appearance gave him an inferiority complex. Hearn was sent to a school in Rouen, France, where he frequently visited the Latin Quarter in Paris. His great-aunt learned of these visits, and sent him to live with a former parlor maid. Hearn left that home when his great-aunt’s fortune diminished. Sarah Brenane, determined to rid herself of her troublesome grandnephew, planned to send him to New York, then to Cincinnati, Ohio, where some relatives lived. In 1869 Hearn arrived in New York. After two years, he had earned enough money to travel to Cincinnati. There he slept in doorways, alleys, and vacant lots, and held such menial jobs as running messages. Henry Watkin, a printer, helped him obtain a position with the Trade List. Hearn worked during the day and wrote articles at night. The Cincinnati Enquirer published most of

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his articles. These contributions helped him get a position with that newspaper in 1873. Hearn wrote features, one of which vividly described a murder victim whose corpse had been burned beyond recognition. He wrote other macabre articles for the newspaper as well as for his own short-lived publication, Ye Giglampz. He also produced graphic short sketches about poor blacks and whites, prostitutes, and criminals that captured the characters’ dress, manners, and speech. Hearn lost his job with the Enquirer when his involvement with a black woman became known. He was then hired by the Cincinnati Commercial, which in 1877 sent him to New Orleans to cover the Hayes-Tilden presidential campaign. Hearn grew interested in the city and wrote colorful descriptions about Creole life, which the editor of the Commercial did not desire. Consequently, Hearn was left in New Orleans without a job. Fortunately, he obtained a position with a struggling newspaper, the New Orleans Item, for which he wrote critical articles. He also produced reviews and columns for the Democrat. When the Democrat merged with the New Orleans Times in 1881, Hearn was offered a position writing editorials and a column. In 1882 George Washington Cable helped Hearn sell several articles to The Century. Cable also told Hearn about a great storm in 1856 that had literally destroyed Last Island. Intrigued by the story, Hearn did research at the offices of the New Orleans Picayune, which had published numerous stories about the storm and its aftermath. He then wrote Chita: A Memory of Last Island, a realistic novel that describes the wealthy Creoles vacationing on the island before the storm hit. Chita appeared in Harper’s Magazine before it was published between hard covers in 1889. The novel concerns Chita, the daughter of Julien LaBrierre, a doctor in New Orleans. She and her mother are vacationing on the island when the great storm comes ashore. Chita survives but her mother does not, and LaBrierre believes that both have perished. Years later, while treating Chita’s foster father, he recognizes his daughter because of her resemblance to her mother. Hearn describes the beauty of the island before the storm and its ugliness afterward. The harrowing novel was a critical success, and Hearn journeyed to New York, where he persuaded the editor of Harper’s Magazine to send him to the West Indies. In Martinique, he wrote travel sketches about what he observed. These sketches appeared in the magazine, then some were collected and published under the title Two Years in the French West Indies (1890). Also in 1890 Hearn published the novel Youma: The Story of a West-Indian Slave, which failed to excite the critics. Upon his return to New York, Hearn persuaded the editor of Harper’s to let him go to Japan. Weeks later, however, he severed relations with the magazine. In 1891 he married Setsuko Koizumi, with whom he had three sons, and in 1894 he wrote for the Kobe Chronicle. He resigned from this position when he was offered the chair of English literature at Imperial University in Tokyo. In

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addition to teaching, he wrote about Japanese folktales for readers living in the West. On September 26, 1904, he died of a stroke. REPRESENTATIVE WORK Chita: A Memory of Last Island, 1889

REFERENCES Bisland, Elizabeth, ed. The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn. 2 vols. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1906. Cott, Jonathan. Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. Kunst, Arthur E. Lafcadio Hearn. New York: Twayne, 1969. McWilliams, Vera Seeley. Lafcadio Hearn. New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1970; originally published 1946. Stevenson, Elizabeth. Lafcadio Hearn. New York: Macmillan, 1961. Temple, Jean. Blue Ghost: A Study of Lafcadio Hearn. New York: Haskell House, 1974. Tinker, Edward Larocque. Lafcadio Hearn’s American Days. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1924.

Larry Heinemann (1944–

)

Larry Heinemann is a Vietnam veteran who has written two realistic novels about the ground war in Vietnam. Close Quarters and Paco’s Story are brutally honest and paint a dark canvas of what young men endured. Heinemann was born in Chicago on January 18, 1944, one of four sons of Dorothy Heinemann and John Heinemann. He attended public schools, including Glenbrook North High School, from which he graduated in 1962. Although he desired to become an architect, his grades in math prevented him from enrolling in an architecture program. Nonetheless, he went to work for an architectural firm. His observations caused him to lose interest in becoming an architect. Young men were being drafted into the army, and Heinemann realized that he had to resume his formal education in order to avoid being drafted. He enrolled in Kendall College, where he grew interested in acting. Kendall was a two-year college at the time, but Heinemann stayed for almost three years, until he earned an associate’s degree in 1966. He desired to continue his formal education, but he was out of money, and his father, who drove a city bus, could not help him. He was drafted within a few months, and went through basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana. Then he trained at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Eventually, he was assigned to the 32nd Armored Division at Fort Knox. In March 1967, Heinemann was sent to Vietnam, where he served in at least two reconnaissance platoons and participated in operations Cedar Falls and Junction City. He was not wounded. Upon his return to the United States, Heinemann experienced what thousands of other Vietnam veterans experienced. Many Americans who opposed the Vietnam War accused those who had served in the armed forces of murdering both children and adults. These accusations, together with his experiences in Vietnam, haunted him.

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Heinemann married Edith Smith, a young woman from Long Island whom he had met while he was stationed at Fort Knox, and they moved to Chicago, where he obtained a job driving a city bus. The assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy, as well as the confrontations at the Democratic Convention in Chicago (all occurring in 1968), persuaded him that the war abroad had caused a war at home. He quit his job and resumed his formal education at Columbia College in Chicago, where he enrolled in a writing course taught by John Schultz. The course had a dramatic impact on his life. He read novels about war, and wrote. In 1971 he earned his bachelor’s degree, then was offered a part-time position at the college, which he accepted. Although he had contributed fiction to magazines and had at least one short story published in Penthouse in 1974, Heinemann’s first realistic novel, Close Quarters, which he had worked on for several years, was not published until 1977. The novel’s protagonist, Philip Dosier, experiences several of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War, just like Heinemann. Then he returns to Chicago, his home, where he marries a girl he met while stationed at Fort Knox. However, Dosier returns with deadened senses. Life does not seem to be important to him, and he has an extremely difficult time adjusting. Heinemann describes Dosier’s experiences in Vietnam, including the carnage, and reveals how soldiers think and act before and after a battle, as well as before and after their tours of duty. Numerous critics favorably reviewed the novel. Heinemann was offered a full-time teaching position at Columbia College in 1977, which he accepted. He also continued to write. In 1979 he received a considerable advance from his publisher for his next novel. Paco’s Story was published in 1986, when Heinemann quit his full-time position at Columbia. The novel concerns Paco Sullivan, who survives an artillery attack on Alpha Company at Fire Base Harriette. He lies wounded among the bodies of his friends, for two days. Finally, on the third day, a medic finds him, and Paco is sent to a field hospital, where he recovers enough to be shipped to the United States. The medic who finds Paco has a heart attack, then spends the remainder of his life drinking. Paco gives the driver of a bus every dime he has and tells him to take him as far as he can. He ends up in Boone, a small town in the Midwest, and gets a job as a dishwasher in a diner. He tries to make sense of what has happened to him, but events and ghosts haunt him. Heinemann allows Paco’s friends who died in combat to tell the story, an unusual but effective means for presenting the narrative. Numerous critics enjoyed both the plot and how it unfolded. Paco’s Story brought Heinemann the 1986 National Book Award. He also got a big advance from his publisher for a nonfiction book about post-traumatic stress syndrome, which plagues many Vietnam veterans. In addition, he received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and several regional awards. In 1991 Heinemann contributed an arresting article to Harper’s about his return trip to Vietnam. His third novel, Cooler by the Lake, was published in 1992. It features Maximilian Nutmeg, a confidence man who finds a wallet with

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$800 in it. He grapples with his conscience, and several members of his family, about whether he should try to locate the owner. Finally, he attempts to find the owner. As he does so, he informs the reader about the inhabitants of Chicago. Unlike the novels about Vietnam, this novel is humorous and warm. Heinemann has published other work in such magazines as Playboy and TriQuarterly, and in several anthologies. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Close Quarters, 1977 Paco’s Story, 1986

REFERENCES Cronin, Cornelius A. “Historical Background to Larry Heinemann’s Close Quarters.” Critique, 24 (Winter 1983): 119–130. Lyon, Jeff. “Author 1st Class.” Chicago Tribune Magazine, February 7, 1988, pp. 10– 15, 18–19, 22–25, 29. Schroeder, Eric James, ed. Vietnam, We’ve All Been There: Interviews with American Writers. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1992.

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) Ernest Hemingway wrote many realistic short stories and several realistic novels that captured the lives of expatriate Americans who lived and traveled in Europe during the earlier part of the 1900s. He depicted the horrors of war with great ease, and revealed war’s troubling psychological effects on those who fought in them. Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois, to Grace Hall Hemingway and Dr. Clarence Hemingway. He graduated from Oak Park High School in 1917. Instead of going to college, he became a reporter for the Kansas City Star. Although Hemingway enjoyed working for the newspaper, he volunteered to serve with the Red Cross in Italy, where he was wounded, then treated in a hospital in Milan. When Hemingway returned home, he wrote short stories based on his experiences, in the style he had learned while working for the Star. In 1920 he contributed journalistic pieces to the Toronto Star, and he eventually became a foreign correspondent for the newspaper. Hemingway married Hadley Richardson in 1921, and they traveled throughout Europe, finally settling in Paris. The numerous American writers who lived there inspired him, and he filled notebook after notebook with descriptive sketches. In 1923 Hemingway published Three Stories and Ten Poems. This was followed by In Our Time (1924). Both were published in Paris. The latter, which was published in the United States in 1925, contains realistic vignettes and short dramatic stories about his youth. Gertrude Stein, Sherwood Anderson, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, among other writers, praised Hemingway’s writing. When The Sun Also Rises was published in 1926, his reputation was internationally established. His style improved with each realistic short story or novel. The Sun Also Rises contains characters who belong to the “lost generation”

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that had been affected by World War I. Most, if not all, of them are based on people Hemingway had met or known in France or Spain. The novel contrasts the world of the characters to that of the fiesta at Pamplona and the bullring. Hemingway is represented by the main character, Jake Barnes, a young reporter who has been wounded in the war. Hemingway remained in Paris until 1928, even though his position as a correspondent had ended in 1924. In 1927 he and Hadley Richardson, the parents of a son, divorced, and Hemingway married Pauline Pfeiffer. They left Europe in 1928 and moved to Key West, Florida. Later the same year Pauline gave birth to a son, and Hemingway’s father, who was in ill health, used a pistol to commit suicide. In 1929 A Farewell to Arms, loosely based on Hemingway’s experiences in World War I, was published. It concerns a love affair between Frederic Henry, an American officer in the Italian ambulance service, and Catherine Barkley, a British nurse. Catherine dies giving birth to their child. In 1931 Pauline gave birth to another son, Hemingway’s last child. During the 1930s, Hemingway experienced adventure, from hunting and deep-sea fishing to covering the Spanish Civil War for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Nonetheless, he found time to write short stories, a novel, a play, and two works of nonfiction, including the descriptive Green Hills of Africa (1935), which concerns his exploits on safari. The novel To Have and Have Not (1937) and the play The Fifth Column, which appeared in The Fifth Column and the First Forty-nine Stories (1938), concern economic and political injustices. For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) has as its hero Robert Jordan, an American who believes in democracy and aids the Loyalists of Spain as they resist fascism. Jordan helps the guerrillas detonate a bridge, an action that injures some, including Jordan, and kills others. Jordan, armed with a machine gun, waits for the enemy. Hemingway’s second marriage ended in 1940, and he and his third wife, Martha Gellhorn, a reporter with whom he had covered the war in Spain, moved to Cuba. Four years later he became a correspondent for Collier’s magazine and traveled to Europe, to cover World War II. In 1945 he divorced Martha and, a year later, married Mary Welsh in Havana, Cuba, where they made their residence. Across the River and into the Trees (1950) received mixed reviews. The Old Man and the Sea (1952) brought Hemingway the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. The novel concerns an aged Cuban fisherman and his attempts to bring one of the largest fish he has ever caught to shore. Sharks eat the marlin, despite Santiago’s efforts to keep them away. Hemingway received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. A year later he was severely injured in a plane crash. Injuries from the crash, together with those he had sustained in previous accidents, forced him to realize that he was not invincible. He was suffering both physically and psychologically, just as his father had before he committed suicide.

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When Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba, Hemingway and his wife moved to Ketchum, Idaho, where he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on July 2, 1961. Hemingway’s short stories and realistic novels, particularly The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls, record the exploits of American expatriates who find themselves in precarious situations, including war. His style of writing, which was influenced by his years of being a reporter and correspondent, allows readers to visualize and experience through his characters’ words and actions. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS In Our Time, 1925 The Sun Also Rises, 1926 A Farewell to Arms, 1929 To Have and Have Not, 1937 For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1940

REFERENCES Baker, Carlos Heard. Hemingway: The Writer as Artist. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1952. ———. Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story. New York: Scribner’s, 1969. Burgess, Anthony. Ernest Hemingway and His World. New York: Scribner’s, 1978. Donaldson, Scott. By Force of Will: The Life and Art of Ernest Hemingway. New York: Viking Press, 1977. Fenton, Charles A. The Apprenticeship of Ernest Hemingway: The Early Years. New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1954. Griffin, Peter. Along with Youth: Hemingway, the Early Years. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. Hemingway, Mary Welsh. How It Was. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976. Hotchner, A. E. Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir. New York: Random House, 1966. ———. Hemingway and His World. New York: Vendome Press, 1989. Lynn, Kenneth Schuyler. Hemingway: The Life and the Work. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987. McCaffery, John K. M., ed. Ernest Hemingway: The Man and His Work. New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1969. Mellow, James R. Hemingway: A Life Without Consequences. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992. Meyers, Jeffrey. Hemingway: A Biography. New York: Harper & Row, 1985. Rouit, Earl H. Ernest Hemingway. New York: Twayne, 1963. Shaw, Samuel. Ernest Hemingway. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1973. Young, Philip. Ernest Hemingway: A Reconsideration. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1966.

Robert Herrick (1868–1938) Robert Herrick wrote several realistic novels that were indictments of American society. He believed that many Americans were materialistic, assuming that a product could provide them with happiness. Herrick was born on April 26, 1868, to Harriet Peabody Emory Herrick and William Augustus Herrick, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He attended private schools because his mother was determined that her children would have the best that Cambridge had to offer. He graduated from Harvard in 1890. Herrick taught writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for three years, then was professor of English at the University of Chicago (until 1923). He married Harriet Peabody Emory, his first cousin, in 1894. They had three children, only one of whom lived to become an adult. In 1898 Herrick published The Gospel of Freedom, a novel that concerns Adela Anthon, who inherits wealth from her father, a manufacturer. Unlike her father, however, Adela is attracted to the bohemian culture in Paris. When she tires of Paris, she marries a Chicago businessman who desires to earn a lot of money. Before the novel’s end, she divorces her successful husband and devotes her time and wealth to private charities. The Web of Life (1900) features Howard Sommers, a physician from Ohio who goes into practice with a doctor from Chicago. Events such as the rail strike of 1894 cause him to question his successful practice on Chicago’s West Side, where the poor reject him. He has an affair with Alves Preston, but she commits suicide because she believes she is not worthy of his attention. Then he travels to Cuba, where he practices medicine in field hospitals during the SpanishAmerican War. When he returns, he marries a woman of social standing and practices medicine in an established middle-class neighborhood. The Common Lot, one of Herrick’s most important novels, was published in

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1904. The novel’s protagonist is Jackson Hart, an architect, who is a modern American. He is interested in becoming successful and wealthy. He designs an apartment complex for a builder who uses shoddy materials. The complex burns, and numerous residents die. Hart, shocked, feels guilty because he knew the builder had used inferior materials. For the rest of his life, he designs buildings that are built of sound materials. Memoirs of an American Citizen (1905) concerns Edward Van Harrington, a self-made capitalist who becomes a senator. Although Harrington rationalizes his behavior—indeed, he believes that his success is inevitable, if not ordained—he fails to realize that he cannot change the system that has enabled him to achieve success and wealth. The novel realistically depicts the inhabitants of the Midwest. In 1914 Herrick published Clark’s Field, one of his best novels. The novel focuses on the Clarks, who own land near Alton, Massachusetts. They dream of earning a vast sum once the land is developed. Adelle Clark, who inherits the land just before it is developed, makes a fortune and starts to purchase whatever she desires. Eventually, she realizes that she must put her energy and her financial resources into the land’s development. Instead of building inexpensive complexes, like other developers, she builds houses that will appreciate in value, along with community centers that will attract the middle class. Waste (1924) concerns commercialism and its effects on Jarvis Thornton, an engineer who has grown disillusioned with the Progressive Movement. Chimes (1926) is about commercialism and its relationship to institutions of higher education. Herrick explored sexual liberation and the decadence that is related to it in The End of Desire (1932). His last novel, Sometime (1933), concerns commercialism and its negative impact on society. Herrick believed that for American society to change for the better, Americans’ dependence on material goods had to decrease. In addition to his novels, Herrick wrote articles about politics for such magazines as the New Republic. In 1935 Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes appointed him government secretary of the Virgin Islands. Herrick died on December 23, 1938, in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. For the most part, his novels concern the industrial revolution and its relationship to capitalism and society. His characters invariably sacrifice their values for worldly gain or become empty reflections of their former selves. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Gospel of Freedom, 1898 The Web of Life, 1900 The Common Lot, 1904 Memoirs of an American Citizen, 1905

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Clark’s Field, 1914 Waste, 1924 Chimes, 1926 The End of Desire, 1932 Sometime, 1933

REFERENCES Budd, Louis J. Robert Herrick. New York: Twayne, 1971. Cooper, Frederic Taber. Some American Story Tellers. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1968. Franklin, Phyllis. “Robert Herrick’s Postwar Literary Theories and Waste.” American Literary Realism, 1870–1910, 11 (1978): 275–283. Howells, William Dean. “The Novels of Robert Herrick.” North American Review, 189 (June 1909): 812–820. Nevius, Blake. Robert Herrick: The Development of a Novelist. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962.

J. G. Holland (1819–1881) Josiah Gilbert Holland wrote at least one novel that captured a capitalist who steals his way to success and wealth. The novel was published at a time when other writers were exploring the topic as it applied to America. Holland was born on July 24, 1819, in Belchertown, Massachusetts, to Anna Gilbert Holland and Harrison Holland. His father, a mechanic and inventor, worked in manufacturing firms. In order to stay employed, however, he had to transfer from one firm to another. Consequently, the family moved several times. When Holland was three, the family moved to Heath, and later, to South Hadley, Granby, and Northampton. Holland’s early formal education was sporadic. He attended public schools during the winter and worked on farms during the summer. In Northampton he attended high school, where he prepared for college. He experienced ill health, however, and was bedridden for months. When he recovered, Holland started teaching in local schools. When he was not working, he wrote poetry. Later, he realized that he could not earn enough to live from writing poetry, so he decided to study medicine in the office of Drs. Parrett and Thompson. Then he attended the Berkshire Medical College at Pittsfield. When he graduated in 1844, he and a classmate opened a practice in Springfield. He met and married Elizabeth Chapin in 1845. In 1848, primarily because he did not enjoy medicine, Holland stopped practicing and founded The Bay State Courier, a weekly newspaper that proved to be unprofitable. Within six months he had accepted a position at a private school in Richmond, Virginia. Later, he became superintendent of the public schools of Vicksburg, Mississippi. When Holland went to Vicksburg, there was no true school system. After hard work and overcoming numerous obstacles, he developed a system that attracted even the aristocratic class.

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In 1850 Holland returned to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he and Samuel Bowles edited the Springfield Republican. Holland wrote human interest stories; Bowles, the newspaper’s founder, pieces on public affairs. Holland also wrote letters, supposedly by Max Mannering, that humorously examine the differences between those who live in town and those who live in the country. In addition, he contributed the History of Western Massachusetts, which was published in book form in 1855. His first novel, The Bay-path: A Tale of New England Colonial Life, was serialized in the newspaper before it appeared in book form in 1857, the year he sold his financial interest in the newspaper. Holland then contributed numerous “Letters to Young People,” signed by Timothy Titcomb, which were collected in 1858 under the title Titcomb’s Letters to Young People, Single and Married. Timothy Titcomb became a household name throughout the United States, and Holland became a much-in-demand speaker. Holland continued to contribute to the newspaper, and these writings were eventually collected in book form: Gold Foil Hammered from Popular Proverbs (1859), Lessons in Life (1861), and Letters to the Joneses (1863). In 1862 Bowles went to Europe because of his health, and Holland served as the newspaper’s editor in chief. Bowles resumed the task when he returned months later. In addition to contributing to the newspaper, Holland wrote a popular biography, Life of Abraham Lincoln (1866). He relinquished his interest in the newspaper in 1867 but continued to write. In 1868 Holland sailed with his family to Europe, where he remained for two years. He met Roswell Smith while touring in Switzerland, and the two became close friends. Upon his return, Holland, Smith, and the publisher Charles Scribner founded Scribner’s Monthly in 1870. Holland moved his family to New York because of his involvement with the magazine, which was an immediate success with readers. He both edited the publication and contributed columns, several novels, and poetry to its pages. For instance, he serialized Arthur Bonnicastle: An American Novel, Sevenoaks: A Story of Today, and Nicholas Minturn before these appeared in book form in 1873, 1875, and 1877, respectively. He also published several collections of verse that had appeared in the magazine. Sevenoaks: A Story of Today is an example of realistic fiction. The novel is about a robber baron named Belcher who owns the small town of Sevenoaks. Belcher is coarse and somewhat brutal in his associations with people. He steals patents from inventors in order to earn money, of which he already has plenty. Since he owns the mill, which is the only place for those who live in the small town to work, he controls the people who live in Sevenoaks. Belcher sells phony oil stocks, almost with the buyers’ blessings. He creates fraudulent holding companies and other businesses. As his wealth increases, he almost tells people how he has cheated them. Nevertheless, these people have a certain respect for him— after all, he has become successful. Holland’s descriptions of Belcher, his mill, and the citizens of Sevenoaks are carefully drawn. The people of Sevenoaks are

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like those of small towns throughout the United States. Holland based his descriptions on what he had observed. Holland died of a heart attack at his home in New York City, on October 12, 1881. His wife and three children survived him. REPRESENTATIVE WORK Sevenoaks: A Story of Today, 1875

REFERENCES “Josiah Gilbert Holland.” The Century Magazine, 23, no. 2 (December 1881): 161–167. Merriam, George S. The Life and Times of Samuel Bowles. 2 vols. New York: Century, 1885. Plunkett. H. M. Josiah Gilbert Holland. New York: Scribner’s, 1894.

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (1859–1930) Pauline Hopkins wrote several novels and short stories that examine the lives of African Americans after the American Civil War, as well as the issues of miscegenation and racial prejudice. Pauline Hopkins was born to Sarah Allen Hopkins and Northrup Hopkins, in Portland, Maine, in 1859. When she was young, her family moved to Boston, where she attended public schools, including the Girls High School, from which she graduated. Her ability to write was revealed when she was fifteen. She submitted an essay about the evils of intemperance to a contest sponsored by the Congregational Publishing Society of Boston, and won $10. Hopkins wrote the musical drama Slaves’ Escape; or the Underground Railroad in 1879. The Hopkins Colored Troubadours, which included Hopkins and members of her immediate family, presented it in Boston in the summer of 1880. Hopkins toured with the Colored Troubadours frequently and also wrote at least one other play. She continued her formal education by studying to become a stenographer. Later she worked in the Bureau of Statistics for four years, then lectured about black history to various groups. In 1900 Hopkins’s short story “The Mystery Within Us” appeared in the first issue of the Colored American magazine, which was published by the Colored Co-operative Publishing Company of Boston. The same year that company published her novel Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South, which contains numerous subplots. On the surface, the novel seems to be a historical romance that depicts the lives of more than one generation of a family. Grace and Charles Montfort of Bermuda move to North Carolina in 1790, and invest in a plantation. A neighbor, Anson Pollock, lusts for Grace, even though he suspects that she has African blood in her veins. He conspires

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to kill Charles and take Grace as his mistress, and their sons, Charles and Jesse, as his slaves. When Charles is killed, however, Grace commits suicide. The boys are separated; Charles is sold to a man from England who frees him, and Jesse becomes one of Pollock’s slaves. Later, he escapes to New England, where he marries an African-American woman with whom he has several children. The major part of the novel concerns Jesse’s grandchildren, Dora and Will Smith, who live in Boston. Will studies at Harvard, and Dora helps manage the family’s boardinghouse. Among the boarders are Sappho Clark, a beautiful young woman from the South, and John Langley, who is engaged to Dora. Will and Sappho grow to love one another, but Langley, who lusts for Sappho, causes her to depart suddenly. She leaves a letter for Will in which she explains her disappearance. Will shares the information with Dora, who breaks her engagement to Langley. Will searches for Sappho but fails to find her. When he graduates from Harvard, he sails to Europe. Dora marries Dr. Arthur Lewis, whom she has known for years. Lewis heads a technical school for African Americans in Louisiana. When Will returns to America, he visits his sister and brother-inlaw in Louisiana, where he is reunited with Sappho. They marry before the novel’s end. On a deeper level, the novel deals with the mulatto, who was not accepted by either African Americans or whites at the time. It also examines racial prejudice, women’s issues, and the philosophical differences between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, both of whom had lectured on African Americans and the road they should take to become worthy citizens of a predominantly white society. Hopkins’s novel Hagar’s Daughter: A Story of Southern Caste Prejudice was serialized in Colored American magazine (1901–1902) under the pseudonym Sarah A. Allen. It concerns miscegenation and prejudice. Winona: A Tale of Negro Life in the South and Southwest, serialized in Colored American in 1902, is another historical romance. In this story, Hopkins protests against racial bigotry, but does not provide a logical solution. Of One Blood; or the Hidden Self also first appeared in Colored American in (1902–1903). Although it examines the scientific discoveries in archaeology and psychology at the time, it is basically an adventure—if not science fiction— romance set in exotic locations, including Egypt. The underlying theme is miscegenation and racial prejudice. Without question, Hopkins first novel was the most powerful and realistic. However, every novel that she penned examined racial injustice, and revealed her belief that African Americans had to take responsibility for their lives and actions. She believed that they had to be virtuous, too, and respect the concept of marriage. When they did these things, they would progress and eventually become accepted members of society. Hopkins, who had helped Walter W. Wallace launch the Colored American, was hired as its literary editor in 1903, when the magazine changed hands. Together with others, she advocated that African Americans follow the advice

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of W.E.B. DuBois, not Booker T. Washington, in their efforts to be recognized as citizens. She wrote brief biographies of African-American women and men, and helped establish the Colored American League in Boston. In 1904, primarily as a result of mismanagement, Colored American was in debt. In an effort to save it, it was sold. Booker T. Washington, whom Hopkins philosophically opposed, and Frederick R. Moore bought it, and moved it to New York City, and named T. Thomas Fortune the editor. Hopkins was retained as an assistant editor, but was forced to resign later that year. Fortune wrote that she had stepped down because of her health. Hopkins continued to write, however, and in 1916 became an editor of New Era, a magazine published in Boston. In her story “Topsy Templeton,” she examines the problematic relations between African Americans and whites. When the magazine ceased publication, Hopkins worked as a stenographer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Later, Hopkins developed neuritis. She died on August 13, 1930, when her bandages caught fire as a result of her being near a stove. At the time of her death, her writings had been largely forgotten. REPRESENTATIVE WORK Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South, 1900

REFERENCES Bone, Robert A. The Negro Novel in America. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1958. Logan, Rayford W., and Michael R. Winston, eds. Dictionary of American Negro Biography. New York: W. W. Norton, 1982. Pryse, Marjorie, and Hortense J. Spillers, eds. Conjuring: Black Women, Fiction, and Literary Tradition. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985. Shockley, Ann Allen. “Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins: A Biographical Excursion into Obscurity.” Phylon, 33 (Spring 1972): 22–26. ———, ed. Afro-American Women Writers 1746–1933: An Anthology and Critical Guide. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1988.

E. W. Howe (1853–1937) Edgar Watson Howe wrote several realistic novels that capture the American West. His first realistic novel, The Story of a Country Town, excited critics and made his reputation as an American realistic novelist. The novels that he published thereafter were didactic and, to say the least, inferior. Howe was born on May 3, 1853, to Elizabeth Irwin Howe and Henry Howe, in a rural community that ultimately became Treaty, Indiana. His mother had two children from a previous marriage. His father, a Methodist minister and abolitionist, moved his family to Fairview, Missouri, when Howe was three years old. During the Civil War, his father served in the Union Army, then he moved his family to Bethany, Missouri, where he purchased the Union of States, a small newspaper. Howe learned to compose type at his father’s newspaper. In 1865 his father deserted his family because he was in love with another woman. As a result, Howe had to find employment as a printer to help support the family. He worked in Iowa, Illinois, and Nebraska. In 1870 he was employed at the Nemaha Valley Journal in Falls City, Nebraska, and fell in love with Clara Frank, who was six years his senior. He moved to Colorado, purchased the Golden Eagle, which he renamed the Golden Globe, then returned briefly to Falls City to marry Clara. They had five children. In 1877, when they moved to Atchison, Kansas, two of their children died of diphtheria. Howe and his half brother James published the Atchison Globe, which reported the news in Atchison and presented the beliefs and opinions of Howe. Howe worked on the newspaper during the day and wrote about his youth at night. His realistic novel, The Story of a Country Town (1833) concerns Ned Westlock and members of his family, who live in a small Midwestern farming

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community. The characters are narrow-minded and petty; their lives, monotonous and vulgar. In this work Howe writes about his youth, and the story is filled with failure and tragedy. Howe wrote additional realistic novels about the West, but they paled in comparison. The Mystery of the Locks (1855) is about Dr. Allan Dorris, who purchases the Locks, a mysterious mansion. He later marries, but is murdered soon afterward. Howe and his family traveled to Europe in 1885. Upon their return, he wrote A Moonlight Boy (1886), which traces the maturation of King Cole from cowboy to city slicker. A Man Story (1889), An Ante-Mortem Statement (1891), and The Confession of John Whitlock, Late Preacher of the Gospel (1891) suffer from Howe’s diatribes about love, marriage, and religion, and are not as realistic as he believed. For the most part, critics were not enthusiastic. In 1901 Howe separated from his wife, and during the next two decades he concentrated on journalism and traveling abroad. Some of his journalism was collected and published in book form. In 1911 Howe lost interest in the newspaper and founded E. W. Howe’s Monthly, which he published until his death near Atchison, on October 3, 1937. His autobiography, Plain People, was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post in 1928 and published in book form a year later. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Story of a Country Town, 1883 The Mystery of the Locks, 1885 A Moonlight Boy, 1886

REFERENCES Bucco, Martin. E. W. Howe. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Press, 1977. Calder, M. Pickett. Ed Howe: Country Town Philosopher. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1968. Sackett, S. J. E. W. Howe. New York: Twayne, 1972.

William Dean Howells (1837–1920) Through several essays and numerous columns that advocated its value, William Dean Howells was responsible for the growth of realism in American letters. He also wrote more than forty works of realistic fiction, which helped secure a place for him in the history of American literature. Howells was born in Martins Ferry, Ohio, on March 1, 1837. His father, William Cooper Howells, published newspapers in several Ohio villages. His mother, Mary Dean Howells, cared for their seven children. Howells learned to write journalism by working for his father and other printers in Ohio. When he was nineteen, he moved to Columbus, the state capital, where he worked at the Ohio State Journal and contributed pieces to other publications. In 1860, when he was twenty-three, Howells collaborated with John J. Piatt on the book Poems of Two Friends, to which he contributed thirty-two poems. The same year he wrote a campaign biography of Abraham Lincoln. Howells then visited Boston, where he attempted to obtain a position at the Atlantic Monthly. No position was open, so he visited New York. When Abraham Lincoln became president, he appointed Howells U.S. consul at Venice, Italy. Howells left for Europe in 1861, several months after the outbreak of the Civil War. He had been in Italy for more than a year when he married Elinor Mead, who was from Vermont. They had three children. They explored both Venice and the rest of Italy, and Howells wrote vignettes that depicted the scenes he observed. Under the title Venetian Life, they were published in the Boston Advertiser, a newspaper. In 1865 Howells and his wife returned to Boston, where he was hired as the assistant editor of the Atlantic Monthly in 1866. The same year his vignettes about Italy were published in book form, to considerable acclaim. Howells wrote

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a few more books about his experiences and observations in Italy, primarily because Venetian Life was popular with readers. As a result of living in Boston and his association with the Atlantic Monthly, Howells became friends with Henry James, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Francis Parkman, and Mark Twain. In 1872, after he had become editor in chief of the Atlantic Monthly, he published his first novel. Their Wedding Journey features vignettes about Basil and Isabel March as they travel from Boston to Niagara Falls and Montreal. Howells’s characters are based on himself and his wife. The novel reveals his ability to capture places and people with considerable realism. In A Chance Acquaintance (1873) the main characters, Kitty Ellison and Miles Arbuton, engage in numerous discussions about the values of Americans as they journey up the Saguenay River of Canada. A Foregone Conclusion (1874) is set in Venice. The novel concerns Florida Vervain, a girl from America, and Don Ippolito, a priest who grows to love Vervain and, as a result, decides to leave the priesthood. However, when he reveals his feelings to Vervain, she informs him that she does not love him. The priest dies soon after, and Vervain marries Henry Ferris, the American who had introduced her to Don Ippolito. The novel was the most successful that Howells had written. Howells, who had embraced realism in a review of Edward Eggleston’s novel The Hoosier School-Master, claimed that realism told the truth about the motives, impulses, and principles that shaped the lives of men and women. He wrote additional realistic novels, including The Lady of the Aroostook (1879), which focuses on an American girl, and A Fearful Responsibility and Other Stories, which was published in 1881, before he resigned from the Atlantic Monthly. No longer confined to editing a magazine, Howells focused on writing novels. A Modern Instance (1882) depicts the complex and tragic marital relationship between Bartley Hubbard, a small town newspaper editor, and Marcia Hubbard, the daughter of a local attorney. A Woman’s Reason (1883), which was first serialized in The Century, a literary magazine, examines Boston’s Back Bay society. The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) illustrates with incredible accuracy the milieu of the noveaux riches. Howells traces the rise of Lapham, a self-made successful paint manufacturer who is not always kind to others, on his rise to the top, and his relationships with members of his family. He presents the Gilded Age and the numerous moral problems associated with it. Although Lapham ultimately is financially ruined, he maintains his integrity. In 1886 Harper and Brothers of New York offered Howells a contract that he could not turn down: he would receive $10,000 a year for his writing. He was obligated to write at least one novel a year as well as a monthly column for Harper’s magazine. His first novel for the magazine was Indian Summer, which concerns an American who traveled in Europe as a young man and later returns to Italy to write a book. Colville, the protagonist, meets Mrs. Bowen

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and her ward, Imogene Graham. Although he thinks he is in love with Imogene, he later realizes that he loves Mrs. Bowen. The same year the Haymarket Square riot, between strikers and nonstrikers, occurred in Chicago. The police fired into the crowd, killing at least one man and wounding several others. The following day protesters rallied; the police approached them; and one of the protesters threw a bomb, which exploded. Several policemen died of their wounds and scores were injured. Several anarchists were arrested and tried; four were condemned to death. When Howells read about the incident and the subsequent trial, he realized that something was disturbingly wrong with the country. Eventually, he became somewhat of a socialist who wrote what he called critical realism—literature that discussed conditions in society—in an effort to move men to improve or correct those conditions. In 1889, after the death of one of his two daughters, Howells moved his family to New York City. His novel, Annie Kilburn, which focuses on class contrasts in a small town in New England, was published the same year. A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890), which concerns several characters who move from other states to New York, is actually about the nation. Through the various characters’ conversations and deeds, Howells depicts society in America. In 1891 he collected some of the columns that he had written for Harper’s and published them as Criticism and Fiction. This collection explains his ideas about realism. According to Howells, realism is not necessarily new. In fact, writers such as Jane Austen had written novels that were honest. He contends that numerous writers in the nineteenth century were writing realism; their work focused on character, probability, the present, the ordinary person, and objectivity. In addition, their work depicted commonplace situations and employed everyday speech. According to Howells, these features define realism. A Traveler from Altruria (1894), a utopian romance, depicts what was wrong with society in America and what was right with society in Altruria. A sequel, Through the Eye of the Needle (1907), continues Howells’s indictment of the country. Howells’s wife had suffered from poor health for twenty years, and died in 1910. Howells continued to write. For instance The Leatherwood God (1916), a historical novel about Ohio, is based on fact. It concerns Joseph Dylks, a stranger, who arrives in Leatherwood Creek, Ohio, on a hot day in August. He persuades numerous citizens that he is God. When he cannot perform any miracles, however, they realize that he is not God. Howells died in New York City on May 11, 1920.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Their Wedding Journey, 1871 A Chance Acquaintance, 1873

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A Foregone Conclusion, 1874 The Lady of the Aroostook, 1879 A Fearful Responsibility and Other Stories, 1881 A Modern Instance, 1882 A Woman’s Reason, 1883 The Rise of Silas Lapham, 1885 Indian Summer, 1886 Annie Kilburn, 1889 A Hazard of New Fortunes, 1890 A Traveler from Alturia, 1894 Through the Eye of the Needle, 1907 The Leatherwood God, 1916

REFERENCES Bennett, George N. William Dean Howells: The Development of a Novelist. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1959. Brooks, Van Wyck. Howells: His Life and World. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1959. Cady, Edwin Harrison. The Road to Realism: The Early Years, 1837–1885, of William Dean Howells. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1956. ———. The Realist at War: The Mature Years, 1885–1920, of William Dean Howells. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1958. Carter, Everett. Howells and the Age of Realism, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1954. Cooke, Delmar G. William Dean Howells. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1922. Crowley, John William. The Black Heart’s Truth: The Early Career of William Dean Howells. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985. Eble, Kenneth Eugene. William Dean Howells. Boston: Twayne, 1982. Firkins, Oscar. William Dean Howells: A Study. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1924. Gibson, William M. William Dean Howells. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1967. Hough, Robert Lee. The Quiet Rebel: William Dean Howells as Social Commentator. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1959. Howells, William Dean. My Literary Passions. New York: Harper, 1895. Kirk, Clara M., and Rudolf Kirk. William Dean Howells. New York: Twayne, 1962. Lynn, Kenneth Schuyler. William Dean Howells: An American Life. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971. McMurray, William J. The Literary Realism of William Dean Howells. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967. Wagenknecht, Edward. William Dean Howells: The Friendly Eye. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969.

Henry James (1843–1916) Henry James wrote numerous realistic novels that concern either the artist in conflict or the expatriate American in Europe. They are realistic in the sense that each captures the characters’ environment as well as their manners and speech. Henry, the younger brother of the philosopher William James, was born on April 15, 1843, in New York City, to Mary Robertson Walsh James and Henry James, Sr., who had inherited considerable wealth. His father, a philosopher, studied the writing of Emmanuel Swedenborg, then developed his own thesis in a series of books. James experienced Europe before he was two years old, for his father believed that his children could be educated by visiting the museums and galleries of Europe. When the Jameses returned to the United States in 1845, they lived in Albany, New York, then in New York City. James frequented the theaters in the city and saw numerous plays. He received his early education both at schools and from private tutors. In 1855 the family returned to Europe. They spent most of the time in London and Paris, with excursions to Switzerland and Germany. To supplement his formal education, James read constantly, especially when the family was in England. The family returned to the United States in 1858, and lived in Newport, Rhode Island, where James attended a private religious school. The following year they were again in Europe. James studied at the Institution Rochette, a preparatory school for those who desired a career in architecture or engineering. The family returned to Newport, Rhode Island, in 1860. William studied art under William Hunt and Henry attempted to master sketching, but his primary interest was in French literature. In 1861 James was injured in a fire; when he

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had recovered, he enrolled in the Harvard Law School in 1862, but soon realized that law was not for him. In 1864 James was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, living with his parents and pursuing a career as a writer. He published “A Tragedy of Error,” a short story about a married woman who attempts to have her handicapped husband murdered, in the Continental Monthly. William Dean Howells, the assistant editor of the Atlantic Monthly, accepted the short story “The Story of a Year.” James contributed book reviews to several magazines, including the Nation. His reputation as a writer quickly grew. In 1869 James returned to Europe. He journeyed from England to Italy, meeting writers along the way. When his cousin Minny Temple died, he returned to the United States. James had loved Minny primarily because she was in love with life and was one of the most moral persons he had known. She had personified every good thing in the world. Eventually, she became the basis for characters in several of his novels. In 1870 and 1871, James lived with his parents in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and continued to write. In 1872 he settled in Paris. He also journeyed to Rome and other cities, making new friends and renewing old friendships. In addition, he wrote short stories. Before he returned to the United States in 1874, he had begun Roderick Hudson. James lived in New York for several months, then returned to Europe in 1875, living in Paris and, occasionally, London. Whenever he grew tired of these cities, he journeyed to others in Europe. He visited his family in the United States but never stayed long. In 1876 Roderick Hudson, which had appeared serially in the Atlantic Monthly, was published. The novel concerns a young American sculptor who studies his craft in Italy, where he grows to love a young expatriate American woman, Christina Light. Christina, however, marries an Italian prince. Roderick follows her to the Swiss Alps, where he falls from a mountain and dies. The American, a novel about Christopher Newman, an honest, successful American businessman who journeys to Paris to learn about its culture, and to meet and marry a Parisian woman, was published in 1877. Although Newman grows to love a young widow, Claire de Cintre, they do not marry. The Europeans (1878), a novel concerning several Europeans traveling to New England, depicts New England with great accuracy. Daisy Miller, a novelette about a young American woman touring Europe, also was published in 1878. Frederick Winterbourne, an American who lives in Europe, attempts to save Daisy from several indiscretions, but she persists in her behavior. Eventually she contracts a fever, and dies. Washington Square, another novelette, appeared in 1881. The same year, after writing much of it in Florence, James published The Portrait of a Lady, a novel about Isabel Archer, an American woman who moves to England to visit her relatives and is courted by three men, including her invalid cousin. She travels throughout Europe and eventually meets an expatriate American, Gilbert Os-

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mond, who lives in Italy. She marries Osmond but she remains friends with the men who had courted her, which irritates Osmond. When her invalid cousin lies dying in England, she defies Osmond’s orders and goes to him. Although her cousin and another make their feelings known to her, she eventually returns to Osmond. The novel is not just about Americans who move to Europe; it is also about freedom and entrapment. James visited his aging parents in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1881, then went to New York City. He was in Washington, D.C., when his mother grew seriously ill and died in 1882. He returned to Europe to write about his travels, but was called home several months later, when his father became ill and died. When James finally returned to Europe in 1883, he settled in London. He journeyed to other cities in Europe from time to time. In 1884 he published The Bostonians, a novel about the feminist movement in New England. Although he had used imagery and symbolism to a certain extent in earlier novels, James used both extensively in the novels published between 1886 and 1901. The Princess Casamassima (1886) concerns Hyacinth Robinson, the illegitimate child of an English nobleman and French prostitute. The Tragic Muse (1890) is about Miriam Rooth, a Jewish girl living in England who becomes a great actress. During the next few years, James wrote several plays, which were not very successful, and several pieces of short fiction, which were critically successful. In 1897 he published The Spoils of Poynton, a novelette about a virtuous young woman, and What Maisie Knew, a novel about Maisie Farange, who is exploited by her morally bankrupt parents. The Turn of the Screw (1898) is a novella that concerns a young governess who encounters two ghosts—a man and a woman—on the grounds of an English country estate. The Awkward Age (1899) is a novel about aristocrats, and The Sacred Fount (1901) concerns the social interactions of an assemblage of guests at a country estate. From 1902 until his death, James wrote novels and short stories that had Americans as the major characters. The Wings of the Dove (1902) concerns Milly Theale, a young orphan from America who has a terminal disease. She travels to Europe, where she meets Kate Croy, an attractive but poor woman who desires to marry Merton Densher, a poor journalist. Kate, a conniver, realizes that Milly is both wealthy and seriously ill. She encourages Merton to court Milly, primarily so she will put him into her will. Merton grows fond of Milly, however, and refuses to marry Kate after Milly’s death. The Ambassadors (1903) is about Lambert Strether’s journey to Paris to bring Chad Newsome back to Woolett, Massachusetts, and to the family’s business. Strether learns that Chad is in love with a woman almost old enough to be his mother, and urges Chad to remain in Paris, where he is happy. Chad’s sister, another ambassador, replaces Strether. Like Strether, she attempts to bring Chad back to his family. Eventually, Chad abandons his love and returns to Woolett. The Golden Bowl (1904) concerns a young woman who marries, and her

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widowed wealthy father who remarries. Later, the young woman and her father realize that their spouses are seeing one another. During 1904 and 1905, James lived in the United States, first with his brother William and his family in New England, then in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. He journeyed through Virginia on his way to Richmond, then he stopped in Charleston, South Carolina, on his way to Florida. He gave lectures in St. Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis, and other cities. Although his best novels had appeared by this time, he continued to write. In addition to novels, he produced short stories and several works of nonfiction, including the controversial The American Scene (1907), which is based on his travels in the United States. James became a British subject in 1915. He died in London on February 28, 1916. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Roderick Hudson, 1876 The American, 1877 The Europeans, 1878 Daisy Miller, 1878 The Portrait of a Lady, 1881 Washington Square, 1881 The Bostonians, 1884 The Princess Casamassima, 1886 The Tragic Muse, 1890 The Spoils of Poynton, 1897 What Maisie Knew, 1897 The Awkward Age, 1899 The Sacred Fount, 1901 The Wings of the Dove, 1902 The Ambassadors, 1903 The Golden Bowl, 1904

REFERENCES Anderson, Quentin. The American Henry James. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1957. Bellringer, Alan W. Henry James. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988. Dupee, Frederick Wilcox. Henry James. New York: Sloane, 1951. Edel, Leon. Henry James. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1953. ———. Henry James, the Master: 1901–1916. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1972. ———. Henry James, a Life. New York: Harper & Row, 1985.

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Edgar, Pelham. Henry James: Man and Author. New York: Russell & Russell, 1964. Hutchinson, Stuart. Henry James, an American as Modernist. Totowa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble, 1983. Hyde, H. Montgomery. Henry James at Home. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969. James, Henry. Henry James: Autobiography. Edited by Frederick W. Dupee. New York: Criterion Books, 1956. Kaplan, Fred. Henry James: The Imagination of Genius: A Biography. New York: William Morrow, 1992. Kelly, Cornelia Pulsifer. The Early Development of Henry James. Rev. ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965. Lewis, R.W.B. The Jameses: A Family Narrative. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1991. Long, Robert Emmet. Henry James: The Early Novels. Boston: Twayne, 1983. Macnaughton, William R. Henry James: The Later Novels. Boston: Twayne, 1987. Matthiessen, F. O. Henry James, the Major Phase. New York: Oxford University Press, 1963. McElderry, Bruce Robert. Henry James. New York: Twayne, 1965. Moore, Harry Thornton. Henry James. New York: Viking Press, 1974. Tanner, Tony. Henry James: The Writer and His Work. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1985. Weinstein, Philip M. Henry James and the Requirements of the Imagination. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971. West, Rebecca. Henry James. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1968.

Sarah Orne Jewett (1849–1909) Sarah Orne Jewett realistically depicted the small coastal villages and rural areas, including small farming communities, of New England in several novels and numerous short stories. Jewett was born to Caroline Frances Perry Jewett and Dr. Theodore Herman Jewett, a prominent physician, on September 3, 1849, in South Berwick, Maine. She resided in the house where she was born for all of her life. When she was young, Jewett accompanied her father as he traveled the countryside to help the sick. She attended Miss Raynes’s School and Berwick Academy, from which she graduated. In addition, she learned from her father, who insisted that she read English literature, including the writings of John Milton, Matthew Arnold, and Henry Fielding. Jewett learned that rural society, particularly its customs, was dying as the population increased and shifted to urban areas. Her observations of rural life were presented in colorful sketches that contained humor and sentiment. They appeared in several periodicals, including the Atlantic Monthly, then in the book Deephaven (1877). Jewett became good friends with James T. Fields, the publisher of the Atlantic Monthly, and his wife, Annie, in the late 1870s. After Fields died in 1881, Annie and Jewett became almost inseparable. Jewett visited Annie at her homes in Boston and Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, and they traveled to Europe, Florida, and the Caribbean. Jewett’s father died in 1878. She used him as the model for Dr. Leslie in the novel A Country Doctor (1884). The novel concerns the maturation of Nan Prince, who at a very young age learns about medicine from Dr. Leslie, a country physician. As a result, she decides to study medicine, and becomes a doctor.

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In 1885 Jewett published A Marsh Island, which had been serialized in the Atlantic Monthly. The novel concerns the brief relationship of Doris Owen and Dick Dale. Owen lives on a farm in northeastern Massachusetts. Dale, an artist, comes to stay with her family, primarily to paint scenes of their farm and the countryside. Although Owen and Dale grow to enjoy one another’s company, they eventually realize that they are from different worlds. Owen stays on the farm, and Dale returns to the city. Jewett focuses on the different belief systems of these characters and reveals that rural and urban lifestyles not only are different, but are based on different value systems. A White Heron and Other Stories (1886) contains tales about urban and rural life. After writing a book about history, Jewett published The King of Folly Island and Other People, another collection of short stories, in 1888. It was followed by a novel for young girls and two collections of stories, Strangers and Wayfarers (1890) and A Native of Winby and Other Tales (1893). The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) is a novel about a visitor from Boston who spends a summer with Mrs. Almira Todd at Dunnet Landing, Maine, a forgotten port that is no longer prosperous. The town’s inhabitants remember fishing, the primary means of earning a living, with fondness and occasional fantasy. The visitor learns that Mrs. Todd’s brother, William, who lives with their mother on Green Island, has been courting Esther Hight for forty years. They have not married because Esther has to care for her invalid mother. Jewett’s novel realistically depicts the physical changes in a small town in New England and their dramatic effects on the inhabitants. Even though several characters in the novel realize that the old days are gone, they do not lose their spirit. Jewett’s last collection of short fiction, The Queen’s Twin and Other Stories (1899), includes two sketches about Dunnet Landing. These were added to the new edition of the novel The Country of the Pointed Firs. The Tory Lover, a historical romance about John Paul Jones and his experiences in Maine during the Revolutionary War, was published in 1901. In 1902 Jewett suffered severe injuries to her head and spine when she fell from her carriage. As a result, she could not write lengthy fiction. On June 24, 1909, she died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Deephaven, 1877 A Country Doctor, 1884 A Marsh Island, 1885 The Country of the Pointed Firs, 1896

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REFERENCES Blanchard, Paula. Sarah Orne Jewett: Her World and Her Work. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1994. Cary, Richard. Sarah Orne Jewett. New York: Twayne, 1962. Donovan, Josephine. Sarah Orne Jewett. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1980. Frost, John Eldridge. Sarah Orne Jewett. Kittery Point, Me.: Gundalow Club, 1960. Matthiessen, F. O. Sarah Orne Jewett. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1929. Roman, Margaret. Sarah Orne Jewett: Reconstructing Gender. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1992. Sherman, Sarah Way. Sarah Orne Jewett: An American Persephone. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1989. Silverthorne, Elizabeth. Sarah Orne Jewett: A Writer’s Life. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 1993. Westbrook, Perry D. Acres of Flint: Sarah Orne Jewett and Her Contemporaries. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1981.

James Jones (1921–1977) James Jones wrote naturalistic fiction principally about World War II, which he had experienced as an enlisted soldier. Jones was born to Ada Blessing Jones and Ramon Jones on November 6, 1921, in Robinson, Illinois. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1939. Ordered to Hawaii, Jones transferred to the infantry and experienced the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Later, he was wounded at Guadalcanal. He recuperated at Kennedy General Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star, he was released from service in 1944. His experiences during World War II were incorporated in Jones’s first published novel, From Here to Eternity (1951). The naturalistic novel, which concerns soldiers during peacetime, focuses on Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt, a welterweight boxer, and 1st Sergeant Milton Anthony Warden. Both are career soldiers. Other soldiers approach Prewitt about trying out for the regimental boxing team, but he refuses. Jones captures the military as an institution and a way of life for many enlisted men. He depicts the language, the behavior, and the relationships both on and off the base with great accuracy. The novel was a best-seller, won the National Book Award in 1952, and was made into a successful film in 1953. Jones, who had been helped by Lowney Handy when he had been a struggling writer, helped Lowney and her husband, Harry, establish a writers’ colony in Marshall, Illinois, where he had a house built. Jones broke his relationship with the Handys when he married Gloria Mosolino in 1957, the year his second novel, Some Came Running, was published. Some Came Running was a commercial success, but reviewers considered it weak compared to the first novel. The novel concerns the Second World War’s

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impact on a small town in Illinois. Its protagonist, Dave Hirsch, is a struggling writer and veteran who returns to Parkman, Illinois, where he associates with others who are from blue-collar families. Although Hirsch wishes to attract Gwen French, he fails, and eventually marries Ginnie Moorehouse, an uneducated factory worker who has been intimate with numerous men. Many critics complained that the novel was too long and poorly written. Some complained about the author’s emphasis on sex. In 1958 Jones and his wife moved to Paris, where they remained for the most part until 1974. In 1959 he published The Pistol, which is about Private Richard Mast and his attempts to keep a military .45 pistol. Five soldiers try to get the pistol from him; three succeed. The private in charge of the supply room requests that the pistol be returned, and it is. The novel is very close to being an allegory about man’s effort to find and retain happiness. The Thin Red Line (1962) concerns the members of an infantry unit, Charlie Company, as it fights in two major battles on Guadalcanal. Based on the author’s experiences during World War II, the novel naturalistically depicts the horrors of combat. The dialogue reveals that American soldiers were reduced to using gutter language that any English-speaking person could understand. It also shows that American soldiers came from many different social backgrounds— from high school-educated to college-educated, from wealthy to poor, from being open-minded about issues and people to being closed-minded about issues and people. In 1967 Jones published Go to the Widow-Maker, which focuses on civilians, some of whom had served in the military during World War II. The major characters, Ron Grant and his wife, Lucia Vivendi Grant, experience life in their dealings with others and in their dealings with nature, including diving and sailing in the Caribbean. Grant, a playwright, mingles with the wealthy of New York, Texas, and Jamaica. Although others tend to comment favorably about him as a person, he is shown as an alcoholic and adulterer. His wife, who is also an adulterer, has weaknesses of her own. The novel was popular with readers, but critics practically dismissed it, claiming that the characters were caricatures rather than individuals. Jones suffered a heart attack in 1970. In 1971 he published The Merry Month of May, which features Jonathan James Hartley III, a failed novelist and husband who edits a literary journal and has a lot of free time to read and relax. To do the latter, he enjoys the streets and restaurants of Paris as well as the home of his good friends, the Gallaghers. Hartley watches the younger generation, including the younger members of Harry Gallagher’s family, rebelling against the older generation, but does not understand the political and sexual revolutions of the 1960s. Unfortunately, the novel’s protagonist is not an engaging character because Jones places him in situations that Jones does not understand. Jones had witnessed students rebelling in Paris, but he did not comprehend their reasons. In 1973 Jones published A Touch of Danger, a mystery that excited most

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critics. The same year he went to Vietnam for the New York Times Magazine, to observe the evacuation of the U.S. armed forces. A year later he published Viet Journal, which was based on his brief visit. Jones moved his wife, daughter, and son to the United States in 1974. He briefly taught creative writing at a university in Florida before he purchased a house on Long Island. In 1975 his WWII: A Chronicle of Soldiering, a nonfiction picture book for which he wrote the copy, was published. Jones was writing Whistle when he died in Southampton, New York, on May 9, 1977. The novel is about four wounded soldiers who return home after their tour of duty during World War II. Willie Morris, a friend who had discussed the book with Jones, wrote the last three or four chapters of the novel. The novel was published in 1978. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS From Here to Eternity, 1951 Some Came Running, 1957 The Pistol, 1959 The Thin Red Line, 1962 Whistle, 1978

REFERENCES Garrett, George. James Jones. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984. Giles, James R. James Jones. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1981. Jones, James. To Reach Eternity: The Letters of James Jones. Edited by George Hendrick. New York: Random House, 1989. MacShane, Frank. Into Eternity: The Life of James Jones, American Writer. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985. Morris, Willie. James Jones: A Friendship. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1978.

Henry F. Keenan (1850–1928) Henry F. Keenan wrote The Money-Makers: A Social Parable, a realistic novel about the Gilded Age, primarily in response to John Hay’s The Bread-Winners: A Social Study. His other novels were neither as controversial nor as realistic. Keenan was born on May 4, 1850, in Rochester, New York, where he attended public schools. After he graduated he served as a private in the Union Army during the Civil War, and was severely wounded at the battle of Drewry’s Bluff, in Virginia. After he was released from the army and had recuperated, Keenan got a job as a journalist for the Rochester Chronicle, where he exhibited a nose for news and an interesting style of writing. Although he was eventually promoted, he left the Chronicle when he was offered a similar position at the Chicago Times. Keenan later worked at the Philadelphia Times, the Philadelphia Press, and the New York Star. He increased his salary each time he moved. After leaving the Star, he was a correspondent in Washington, D.C., and later in Paris, for several publications. He was the editor of the New York Graphic when he retired from daily journalism in 1883, to devote his time to other types of writing. Keenan’s first novel, published anonymously in 1884, was The MoneyMakers: A Social Parable. It was the first, and the most successful, rebuttal to John Hay’s The Bread-Winners: A Social Study, published several months before, which had defended the captains of capitalism. The Money-Makers has a setting similar to that of Hay’s novel—a mediumsized industrial city of the mid-1800s. Unlike Hay, however, Keenan peels back the layers of the city and shows the reader an industrial city from an entirely different perspective. The novel depicts the captains of capitalism as hypocritical thieves who earn vast sums from the sweat of others. Unfortunately, Keenan fails to present a solution to the problem he addresses.

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The novel features Alfred Carew, a journalist who observes the very wealthy in New York, Saratoga, and Veledo, a fictional industrial city in the Midwest. It shows how the wealthy manipulate numerous employees, politicians, and members of the press. They also live extravagantly, often wasting money on superficial goods or causes. Keenan’s depiction of Aaron Grimstone, a multimillionaire who manipulates others in order to amass a fortune, reveals how captains of capitalism finagled their way to financial success. Hay believed that these individuals had achieved financial success primarily because of their families. Keenan also shows how money separates the classes. Carew becomes the editor of a newspaper and criticizes several captains of capitalism, especially Grimstone, and provides logical explanations of why laborers should rise up against their employers. When Grimstone suspends some workers and reduces the wages of others, the workers go on strike, and later riot. Although those who riot behave like a mob, Carew realizes that the captains of capitalism have manipulated them, and consequently writes that the strikers have been duped. The rioters are investigated, and a grand jury puts the blame on the captains of capitalism. The strikers involved in the riot are exonerated. Keenan’s novel is realistic in that it concerns a topic that was current. In addition, the characters, the dialogue, and the situations are unquestionably representative of actual individuals, the language of the period, and actual incidents. In fact, Aaron Grimstone is based on John Hay’s wealthy father-in-law, Amasa Stone. Trajan: The History of a Sentimental Young Man, with Some Episodes in the Comedy of Many Lives’ Errors (1885), published under Keenan’s name, is about Trajan Gray, an artist, and Theo-Carnot, a very clever businesswoman who acts as an agent for Americans. The novel, a romance, is set primarily in France. The Aliens (1886) concerns two families—the Boynes, who are from Ireland, and the Ritters, who are from Germany—who have settled in New York State. The novel’s plot lacks continuity, and the characters and dialogue are not realistic. One of a Thousand (1887) and The Iron Game (1991), as well as additional novels, were not as realistic as The Money-Makers. Keenan died in Washington, D.C., on March 7, 1928.

REPRESENTATIVE WORK The Money-Makers: A Social Parable, 1884

REFERENCES Bender, Clifford A. “Another Forgotten Novel.” Modern Language Notes, 41, no. 5, (May 1926): 319–322.

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Blake, Rodney. “How John Hay Suppressed a First Edition.” Biblio, 1 (October 21, 1926): 77–78. Dunne, Robert. “Dueling Ideologies of America in The Bread-Winners and The MoneyMakers.” American Literary Realism, 1870–1910. 28, no. 3 (Spring 1996): 30–37.

William Kennedy (1928–

)

William Kennedy has explored the history and the citizens of his hometown, Albany, New York, in regional naturalistic novels, including Ironweed, which received the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1983. Kennedy was born on January 16, 1928, to Mary Elizabeth McDonald Kennedy and William Joseph Kennedy in Albany, New York. His mother was an accountant and his father held several jobs, including deputy sheriff. Growing up in an Irish Catholic home in an Irish Catholic neighborhood, Kennedy attended Public School 20, then the Christian Brothers Academy, from which he graduated. Although he thought about becoming a priest, he changed his mind when he experienced journalism during the seventh grade. In high school, his passion for journalism blossomed when he worked on the school newspaper. Kennedy enrolled at Siena College, where he became the executive editor of the college newspaper. Following his graduation, he worked briefly as a columnist for the Post Star in Glens Falls, New York. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1950 and worked as a journalist in Europe. When he was discharged two years later, he became a general assignments reporter with the Times-Union in Albany, New York. In 1956 Kennedy went to work for the Puerto Rico World Journal, which ceased publication within a year. He next worked briefly for the Miami Herald, then returned to Puerto Rico, where he served as a correspondent for KnightRidder newspapers and Time-Life publications. He married Ana Daisy Dana Segara, an entertainer, on January 31, 1957. They had three children. Kennedy became the founding managing editor of the San Juan Star in 1959 and enrolled in a creative writing course taught by Saul Bellow at the University of Puerto Rico. He left the Star in 1961 because of his interest in writing fiction

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and because he had to return briefly to Albany to see his father, a widower who had become seriously ill. Two years later Kennedy moved his family to Albany, where he tended to his father. He accepted a part-time position with the Times-Union, for which he wrote features about Albany’s history and citizens, including its colorful politicians. Kennedy also contributed book reviews to the National Observer. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles that he had written in 1965 for the Times-Union. Kennedy’s first novel, The Ink Truck (1969), is based on a strike at the TimesUnion in 1964. Although the actual strike had lasted only a few days, the strike in the novel lasts more than a year. The protagonist is a former newspaper columnist named Bailey, who leads the Newspaper Guild members in a strike. However, over time many Guild members are enticed back to work by the newspaper’s manager. Bailey, too, is tempted to return several times, and is beaten for his actions, but does not yield to temptation or physical punishment. Kennedy stopped writing features for the newspaper in 1970, but continued to contribute book reviews to the National Observer. Later, he contributed book reviews to several other magazines, including Life, the New Republic, and the Saturday Review. For his next novel, which also was set in Albany, Kennedy spent several years researching the major character. Legs, which concerns the last year and a half of the life of the gangster “Legs” Diamond, was published in 1975. Kennedy’s fictionalized account depicts Legs’s warm, humorous side as well as his cold, cruel side. Kennedy focuses on the collapse of Diamond’s criminal empire and his murder, which occurred on December 18, 1931, in an Albany rooming house. The novel’s narrator, Marcus Gorman, Diamond’s lawyer, tells the story from memory. Gorman appears in at least two other novels by Kennedy. Kennedy’s third novel, Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game (1978), also was based on actual individuals who had lived in Albany. Kennedy had published articles about the O’Connells, who had been extremely powerful in Albany in the 1930s, in the Times-Union. Kennedy had learned about the kidnapping of John O’Connell, Jr., the heir apparent to the political machine, which had occurred in 1933. In the novel, the O’Connells are the McCalls, and John O’Connell, Jr., is Charlie Boy McCall. When Charlie Boy is kidnapped, the McCalls suspect that Morrie Berman is responsible. They ask Billy Phelan, a petty gambler, to watch Morrie. Morrie is a friend of Billy’s, however, and Billy refuses. The McCalls put the word out, and Billy is no longer admitted to Albany’s bars and clubs. Although Billy knows that others have killed themselves or have left town as a result of crossing the McCalls, he perseveres and is eventually exonerated. Critics praised the novel for its shady characters and their language, and some pointed out that these characters existed in a world that most people had never experienced. The novel was not well received by readers. Ironweed (1983) was Kennedy’s next novel set in Albany. The novel’s pro-

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tagonist is Francis Phelan, Billy Phelan’s father, who returns to Albany in 1938, after twenty-two years away. Francis has been involved in several tragic situations—from having killed a man during a strike to having fatally dropped his infant son while changing his diaper. While away, Francis experienced life as a derelict who had to protect himself from others, and death followed him wherever he wandered. Upon his return to Albany, Francis earns $5 each time he votes. Eventually he gets a job at the cemetery where his mother, father, and infant son are buried. Later, he confesses his sins to his wife and grows to know his other son, Billy. Ironweed was praised by critics for its depiction of people and places, and earned the 1983 National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. O Albany! Improbable City of Political Wizards, Fearless Ethnics, Spectacular Aristocrats, Splendid Nobodies and Underrated Scoundrels (1983) is a collection of essays about Albany, especially its people (including the author’s family) and its history. Quinn’s Book (1988), a novel about the Quinns and Daughertys of Albany in the mid-1800s, is a historical romance about Daniel Quinn and Maud Lucinda Fallon, whose love for one another is strong enough to survive time and separation. Very Old Bones (1992), set in Albany during the 1950s, concerns the Phelans. The novel also employs flashbacks to present other Phelans who lived during the early 1800s. The novel focuses on Orson Purcell, the bastard son of Claire Purcell and Peter Phelan. Orson lives with his father, who has arranged a family reunion primarily to “straighten out” the Phelans and give them objects that clutter the house. The reader learns about the Phelans and Orson through Orson’s memoir, which is woven into the plot. The Phelans are also revealed through Peter’s paintings. Orson believes he has been a failure: he has suffered a mental breakdown, been involved in illegal activities, and ruined his physical health by consuming too much alcohol. As he writes his memoir, Orson learns as much about himself as he does about the Phelans. In 1993 Kennedy was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Three years later he published The Flaming Corsage, also set in Albany. The novel concerns Edward Daugherty, a playwright, and his wife, Katrina. Characters from previous novels also appear, including Katrina’s lover, Francis Phelan, and Edward’s lover, Melissa Spencer. The novel moves from a scandalous murder and suicide in Manhattan in 1908 to the 1880s, then to 1912. Although other themes are introduced, including Catholicism and Irish-Democratic politics, the primary theme is the precarious relationship between Edward and Katrina, who are surrounded by death and deceit. The novel was praised by critics for its depiction of an earlier period in Albany’s history. In addition to his novels about Albany, Kennedy has written plays, screenplays, and, with his son, books for children.

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REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Ink Truck, 1969 Legs, 1975 Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game, 1978 Ironweed, 1983 Quinn’s Book, 1988 Very Old Bones, 1992 The Flaming Corsage, 1996

REFERENCES Agrest, Susan. “Tough Guy with a Golden Touch.” Hudson Valley Magazine (July 1987): 42–49, 72. Allen, Douglas R., and Mona Simpson. “The Art of Fiction CXI—William Kennedy.” Paris Review, 31 (Fall 1989): 35–59. Barbato, Joseph. “PW Interviews William Kennedy.” Publishers Weekly, December 9, 1983, pp. 52–53. Bonnetti, Kay. “William Kennedy: An Interview.” Missouri Review, 8, no. 2 (1985): 71–86. Croyden, Margaret. “The Sudden Fame of William Kennedy.” New York Times Magazine, August 26, 1984, pp. 33, 43, 52–53, 57, 59, 64, 68, 70, 73. Hunt, George W., and Peter Quinn. “William Kennedy’s Albany.” America, 150 (March 17, 1984): 189–191. Reilly, Edward C. “On an Averill Park Afternoon with William Kennedy.” South Carolina Review, 21 (Spring 1989): 11–24. ———. William Kennedy. Boston: Twayne, 1991. Robertson, Michael. “The Reporter as Novelist: The Case of William Kennedy.” Columbia Journalism Review, 24 (January–February 1986): 49–50, 52. Van Dover, J. K. Understanding William Kennedy. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1991.

Clarence King (1842–1901) Clarence King was not a realistic novelist per se, but in his book Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada he depicted with realism what it was like to conduct geological study in the mountains of the West. King was born on January 6, 1842, to Florence Little King and James Rivers King in Newport, Rhode Island. He attended the Hopkins Grammar School in Hartford, Connecticut. After his father died in 1848, his mother was responsible for his developing a strong interest in literature and writing, even though he seemed to be devoted to science. Indeed, he studied liberal arts at Yale College before enrolling at Yale’s Sheffield Scientific School, from which he graduated in 1862. A year later King accompanied James Gardiner, a geologist, to the West. In Nevada, they studied the Comstock Lode, then crossed the Sierras. They ended their journey in San Francisco. There King met William H. Brewer, who worked for Josiah Dwight Whitney, the head of the California Geological Survey. He worked for Whitney, exploring various regions. In 1865 and 1866, he worked for General Irvin McDowell, who explored the desert regions of southern California. On the basis of his experiences, King proposed that an area about 1,000 miles wide, from eastern Colorado to the border of California be surveyed. This proposal, referred to as the Fortieth Parallel Survey, was approved by Congress. King was appointed by President Andrew Johnson to lead the geological team. In the West, King wrote about what he observed. His essays were published in the Overland Monthly and the Atlantic Monthly. He worked both in the field and in an office in San Francisco, and later, in an office in Washington, D.C. King’s teams of geologists produced important data. He was responsible for some of the writing and most, if not all, of the editing of information that

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ultimately appeared in seven volumes. Several of these volumes became models for later publications based on geological surveys. Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada (1872) contains the personal essays that had been published in the Overland Monthly and the Atlantic Monthly. In it King depicts his experiences as a geologist and, more important, carefully drawn characters who eke out an existence in areas that few readers knew anything about, let alone had seen. Each chapter presents a region in such detail that the reader can visualize what King describes. The book became popular because of its realistic depiction of both regions and characters. In 1878 Congress established the United States Geological Survey, and invited King to manage it, appointing the staff and helping them get the organization under way. Systematic Geology (1878), the purported first volume of the Report of the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, was a major contribution to geological science that brought much praise from other scientists. King resigned from the Geological Survey in 1881, to work as a mining engineer. Except for a few scientific articles that appeared in the 1880s and 1890s, King’s reputation as a geologist was based largely on the publications mentioned above. His reputation as a writer of realism rested largely on his book of personal observations. Friends assumed that he would write a realistic novel because his friends Henry Adams and John Hay had, but he never did. King made and lost money in various ventures, including cattle and mining. He married Ada Todd, an African American, and they lived in New York State, where they kept their marriage a secret. In the 1890s King’s worries about his family’s financial problems caused an emotional breakdown. After a brief period in an institution, his mental health improved. His physical health, on the other hand, suffered. He contracted pneumonia, then tuberculosis. He was living alone in Arizona when he died of tuberculosis on December 24, 1901. REPRESENTATIVE WORK Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, 1872

REFERENCES Adams, Henry. The Education of Henry Adams. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1918. Emmons, Samuel Franklin. “Biographical Memoir of Clarence King, 1842–1901.” National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs. Vol. 6. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, 1909, pp. 25–55. Hay, John. Addresses of John Hay. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1970. O’Grady, John P. Pilgrims to the Wild: Everett Ruess, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Clarence King, Mary Austin. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1993. Wild, Peter. Clarence King. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Press, 1981. Wilkins, Thurman. Clarence King: A Biography. New York: Macmillan, 1958.

Edward Smith King (1848–1896) Edward King, a journalist who frequently traveled in the United States and abroad, wrote several novels. One of them, Joseph Zalmonah, an expose´ of the slums and sweatshops in New York City, preceded the naturalistic novels of Upton Sinclair and others. King was born on September 8, 1848, to Lorinda Smith King and Edward King, in Middlefield, Massachusetts. When King was about three years old, his father, a Methodist minister, disappeared while on a cruise to improve his health. His mother taught school for several years, then in 1860 moved with King to Huntington, Massachusetts. There she married Samuel W. Fisher, also a minister. Fisher later became a teacher, and taught King what he thought the boy should know. In his early teens, King worked in a factory. When he was about sixteen, he moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he began his career as a journalist with the Springfield Daily Union. After two years he became a reporter for the Springfield Republican. In 1867 he was sent to Europe, primarily to cover the Paris Exposition. While there, he toured the city and recorded his observations and experiences. He turned his notes into the romantic book My Paris: French Character Sketches (1868). King returned to Paris in 1869, then traveled to Spain. There he met Henry M. Stanley, who, like him, reported on the Republican uprising that preceded the Second Carlist War. In 1870, while covering the Franco-Prussian War for the Boston Morning Journal, King was arrested by the Germans. He served as an emergency nurse to the wounded while reporting on the Paris Commune for the Journal in 1871. Later that year he returned to the United States. Though he was only in his early twenties, his reporting had helped him earn a reputation as a capable journalist.

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King drew on his observations and experiences in Europe for his first novel, Kentucky’s Love (1873) which concerns the exploits of a group of correspondents. He also described his adventures in articles and poems. Dr. Josiah Gilbert Holland, the editor of the Springfield Republican when King was a reporter, became the editor of Scribner’s Monthly, and in 1872 hired King to tour the South and write articles about what he observed. King explored the South from state to state in 1873 and 1874, taking notes, then writing and editing his articles for the magazine. After the articles appeared in Scribner’s Monthly, he rewrote the material for the book The Great South (1875). King covered in depth the physical and economic problems that the Civil War had inflicted on the South. He also included interesting comments and positive observations about the landscape and the people who lived there. In New Orleans King met a struggling writer named George Washington Cable. He read several short stories that Cable had written, then suggested to Holland that he consider one or more of the short stories for Scribner’s Monthly. Holland read the short stories and published several. In 1875 King returned to Paris, where he reported on various events for the Boston Morning Journal, and contributed features to other newspapers and magazines. A year later he was in Philadelphia, to report on the Centennial Exposition. The same year he published French Political Leaders, which contained minibiographies of politicians. In 1877 and 1878, King journeyed through the Balkans during the RussoTurkish War, reporting on what he observed. His first collection of poetry, Echoes from the Orient (1880), focuses on the Balkans. King’s novel The Gentle Savage (1883) is about an Oklahoma Indian in Europe. In 1884 he began to work on Europe in Calm and Storm: Twenty Years’ Experience and Reminiscences of an American Journalist, which was published in 1885. The book, based on his articles for newspapers and magazines, describes the people, the manners, the historical places, and the scenery. In 1885, King returned to Paris, where he invested in a business venture that ultimately failed. He suffered heavy losses even though he was not responsible for the failure. The Golden Spike (1886), a novel about the opening of the Northern Pacific Railroad, was a minor effort. A Venetian Lover (1887) is a collection of blank verse. In 1888 King joined the New York Morning Journal, for which he wrote editorials, then worked briefly for Collier’s Once a Week. Later, he returned to the New York Morning Journal. During this time he attempted to repay the debts that he had incurred in the business failure. King attended the World’s Fair at Chicago in 1893, and wrote several articles about what he observed. The same year he published the naturalistic novel, Joseph Zalmonah, which depicts the brutal conditions in which Russian Jews

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lived and worked in New York City. The novel is well written and unquestionably powerful in its honest portrayal of individuals who have escaped miserable conditions abroad, only to die from malnutrition and overwork in sweatshops in the United States. The novel explores the culture and the personal lives of the Jews who try to survive in a Lower East Side ghetto. Joseph Zalmonah preceded similar novels by Upton Sinclair and David Graham Phillips. King never married, and in his later years lived with his half sister and her husband in Brooklyn, New York. After a brief illness, he died on March 27, 1896. REPRESENTATIVE WORK Joseph Zalmonah, 1893

REFERENCES Johnson, Allen, and Dumas Malone, eds. Dictionary of American Biography. Vol. 10. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1928. King Edward. The Great South. Edited by W. Magruder Drake and Robert R. Jones. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1972; originally published 1875. Kunitz, Stanley J., and Howard Haycraft, eds. American Authors, 1600–1900: A Biographical Dictionary of American Literature. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1938.

Grace King (1852–1932) Grace King wrote realistically and passionately about the inhabitants of New Orleans, especially about the Southern woman who attempted to move from the shadows of the Southern gentleman and into the light. According to King, the Southern woman desired to play a more active role in society. King was born on November 29, 1852, to Sarah Ann Miller King and William Woodson King in New Orleans. Her father was a successful lawyer who escaped to the family’s plantation before New Orleans was surrendered to the Union Army during the Civil War. Her mother, despite numerous obstacles, later brought the rest of the family to the plantation, where they remained for the duration of the war. When the war ended, they returned to New Orleans, where King attended the Institut St. Louis, which she described later in a short story. She was taught also by Miss Heloise Cenas, who nurtured King’s interest in writing. Other tutors helped King learn Spanish and German. King’s first piece of realistic fiction, “Monsieur Motte,” was published in the New Princeton Review in January 1886. King had written the short story in response to Richard Watson Gilder, who had inquired why people in New Orleans criticized George Washington Cable’s depiction of Creoles in his fiction. King attempted to depict Creoles more honestly and objectively. The story is about Marie Modeste, who is about to graduate from a private school in New Orleans. Her parents are deceased, and Marie has assumed that an uncle, Monsieur Motte, has paid for her education. In reality, a black hairdresser who had been reared by Marie’s parents has paid for her education. In 1888 King published Monsieur Motte, a novel that includes the title short story and three others that are tied together by the presence of Marie Modeste.

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Marie marries a man who, like herself, is an orphan. Several reviewers praised the novel for its authentic dialogue. King published a novelette, “Earthlings,” in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, and short stories in Harper’s Monthly and other periodicals. Tales of a Time and Place (1892) is a collection of short stories set in Louisiana. These stories, especially “Bayou L’Ombre,” feature young women who fantasize about winning the Civil War for the Confederacy. Balcony Stories (1893) is a collection of short stories that had appeared in Century Magazine. They concern female strength and comradeship as well as male weakness. Over the next several years King collaborated with John Ficklen on two books about the history of New Orleans and Louisiana. She also wrote about her native city and state on her own. The Pleasant Ways of St. Medard (1916), unquestionably King’s best novel, is based on her family’s efforts to rebuild their lives after the Civil War. The novel’s characters are well defined. Mr. Talbot, the father, is ruined. Although he almost dies from illness, his wife nurtures him back to health. The novel realistically and honestly depicts what one family experienced in New Orleans during Reconstruction. La Dame de Sainte Hermine (1924) concerns Marie Alorge, a young woman of French descent who is a member of a colony in Louisiana, and Jean Baptiste le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, a governor of Louisiana. The novel failed to excite critics primarily because it attempted to tell two stories simultaneously. King served as the secretary of the Louisiana Historical Society and the editor of its magazine. She had completed Memories of a Southern Woman of Letters when she died in New Orleans on January 12, 1932. The book was published several months later.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Monsieur Motte, 1888 Tales of a Time and Place, 1892 Balcony Stories, 1893 The Pleasant Ways of St. Medard, 1916

REFERENCES Bush, Robert. “Grace King (1852–1932).” American Literary Realism, 8 (Winter 1975): 43–49. ———. Grace King: A Southern Destiny. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1983. Elfenbein, Anna Shannon. Women on the Color Line: Evolving Stereotypes and the Writ-

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ings of George Washington Cable, Grace King, Kate Chopin. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1989. King, Grace. Memories of a Southern Woman of Letters. New York: Macmillan, 1932. ———. Grace King of New Orleans: A Selection of Her Writings. Edited by Robert Bush. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1973. Taylor, Helen. Gender, Race, and Region in the Writings of Grace King, Ruth McEnery Stuart, and Kate Chopin. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989.

Caroline Kirkland (1801–1864) Caroline Kirkland realistically depicted frontier life in the West, especially in A New Home—Who’ll Follow? Or, Glimpses of Western Life and Forest Life. Kirkland was born Caroline Matilda Stansbury to Elizabeth Alexander Stansbury and Samuel Stansbury on January 11, 1801, in New York City. Her parents were educated members of the middle class, and they made certain that their daughter received an education in the arts, particularly literature, from her aunt, Lydia Mott, who was headmistress of several seminaries. Kirkland eventually became a teacher in one of her aunt’s seminaries in New Hartford, New York, where in 1819 she met William Kirkland, who taught at Hamilton College. After William had returned from studying in Europe, they married in 1828. The Kirklands moved to Geneva, New York, where they opened a school for girls. They had four children; their son Joseph later became a writer of realistic fiction. The school failed, however, and William attempted to find work. In 1835 the Kirklands moved to Michigan, where William served as the principal of the Detroit Female Seminary. He started investing in land northwest of Detroit, until he had amassed more than 1,300 acres of woodland. He resigned his position in 1837 and moved his family to the land he had purchased. William started developing a town, and Caroline looked after their home and children. When she had time, she wrote about her experiences and observations. Unlike other writers who had written about the West, Kirkland produced vignettes that were not romantic or sentimental. Indeed, her short stories capture the harshness of the untamed wilderness with candor and occasional humor. These vignettes were published under the title A New Home—Who’ll Follow? Or, Glimpses of Western Life, by Mrs. Mary Clavers, a collection that depicts everyday life in the West. For instance, Kirkland graphically describes the ex-

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perience of maneuvering a horse and buggy through a mud hole. She also depicts the typical log cabin in which people lived. These cabins leaked when it rained, and were cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Kirkland also describes the dress, the mannerisms, and the speech of the people, especially the women, who had moved to the West. She presents their attitudes and beliefs with subtle humor, and examines their predicament (as well as her own) with honesty and humility. King also reveals the unethical ways in which frontiersmen made money—for instance, they often sold swampland as virgin woodland. Forest Life (1842) is another collection of vignettes about everyday life in the West. Like the previous collection, it focuses on ordinary individuals, particularly women, who had moved to the Michigan frontier. The Kirklands moved to New York City in 1843 because they had been swindled by a land agent William had hired, and because of the animosity exhibited by some of their neighbors. Apparently they had not enjoyed Caroline’s portrayal of them and their customs. The Kirklands started a school in their home, which brought in some needed revenue. They also contributed articles and short stories to magazines. However, Caroline’s fiction was not realistic because, in order for it to be accepted by editors, it had to be romantic. Even when she wrote about the West, the pieces were sentimental or romantic. Some of these short stories were collected under the title Western Clearings (1845). In 1846 William Kirkland became the editor of the New York Evening Mirror. Although their lives had become culturally enriched as well as financially secure, the financial situation changed when William drowned late in 1846. Suddenly, Caroline Kirkland was responsible for the family. In addition to teaching, she became the editor of the Union Magazine of Literature and Art. Kirkland contributed articles and realistic short stories about the frontier to the magazine. In 1849 the magazine was sold, and John Hart became Kirkland’s coeditor. Kirkland stayed with the publication until 1851, when she left to pursue other literary endeavors. She published several collections: The Evening Book; or, Fireside Talk on Morals and Manners, with Sketches of Western Life (1852), Garden Walks with the Poets (1852), A Book for the Home Circle; or Familiar Thoughts on Various Topics, Literary, Moral and Social (1853), and Autumn Hours, and Fireside Reading (1854). A biography, Personal Memoirs of George Washington, appeared in 1857. Kirkland contributed articles about the Civil War to magazines during the 1860s. She also published another collection of poetry, The School-Girl’s Garland (1864). She died of a stroke on April 6, 1864, in New York City.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS A New Home—Who’ll Follow? Or, Glimpses of Western Life, 1839. Forest Life, 1842

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REFERENCES Kirkland, Caroline M. A New Home or Life in the Clearings. Edited by John Nerber. New York: G. P. Putnam, 1953. ———. Western Clearings. The American Short Story Series. Vol. 68. New York: Garrett Press, 1969; originally published 1845. Osborne, William S. Caroline M. Kirkland. New York: Twayne, 1972. Twamley, Edna M. “The Western Sketches of Caroline Mathilda (Stansbury) Kirkland.” Michigan Historical Collections, 39 (1915): 89–124.

Joseph Kirkland (1830–1893) Though Joseph Kirkland was fifty-seven when he published his first realistic novel about the Midwest, he introduced Midwestern characters and their means of expression to numerous readers. Kirkland was born on January 7, 1830, to Caroline Stansbury Kirkland and William Kirkland in Geneva, New York. His father was a director of a school, and his mother wrote several books about the Michigan wilderness. The family lived in Michigan from 1835 to 1843. Kirkland was educated at home by his parents. After his father died in 1846, he became a mate on a ship that sailed to Europe. Kirkland journeyed extensively in England, France, Germany, and other countries. When he returned to America a year later, he worked at several jobs in New York City. In 1852 Kirkland accepted a job at Putnam’s Monthly Magazine. Three years later he moved to Chicago, where he became an auditor for the Illinois Central Railroad. He moved to Tilton, Illinois, in 1858. There, in addition to being a supervisor at a coal company, he worked for the Republican Party. Kirkland enlisted in the Union Army in 1861 and served under generals George McClellan, Ambrose Burnside, and Horace Porter. Although he had become a commissioned officer, he resigned in 1863. Almost a year later he married Theodosia Wilkinson, and they made their residence in Tilton, where he returned to the position of supervisor at the coal company. After his mother died in 1864, Kirkland, with his brother and sister, founded the Prairie Chicken, a literary publication that had a brief life. In 1865 he opened a business in Tilton. Two years later he opened a branch office in Chicago and moved his family there. The Chicago fire of 1871 destroyed Kirkland’s business and his home, as well as property throughout the city. He attempted to rebuild his business, but the

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weak economy forced him to seek employment. Kirkland got a job with the federal government, and in his free time, he studied law. In 1880 he was admitted to the bar and started practicing law. The same year he began to contribute reviews to the Dial and other periodicals. He submitted other forms of writing, including poetry, to magazines, with some success. In 1884 Kirkland started writing a novel about the Midwest. Three years later Zury: The Meanest Man in Spring County was published. The novel is based on the author’s early life in Michigan and Illinois, and realistically depicts the rise of Zury Prouder. Prouder, whose parents were poor and consequently could not provide their son with anything when he was young, is determined to accumulate much when he is grown. He becomes a very wealthy man primarily because of his work ethic and business acumen. He also becomes hardened and mean. The novel concerns Prouder’s romantic relationship with Anne Sparrow, a teacher, who eventually marries him. Sparrow’s love causes his disposition to change. The characters’ dialects ring true as a result of Kirkland’s phonetic spellings and unusual vocabulary. Reviewers praised the novel for its realistic, graphic descriptions and well-defined characters. The McVeys (1888) is a sequel that concerns Prouder’s rise as a legislator in Illinois. Although the novel features characters from Zury, it is not as realistic, and the characters’ dialects have lost some of their appeal. Kirkland is not as forthright as he was in the previous novel when he writes about physical love. Because of these obvious problems, reviewers were not excited about the novel. The Captain of Company K (1891), Kirkland’s last novel, is based on his experiences in the Civil War. It concerns the experiences of a captain of a company of young, inexperienced volunteers who confront the enemy on the battlefield. The novel depicts combat and its impact on individuals. Kirkland had completed the first volume of The Story of Chicago, a historical treatise published in 1891, and part of the second volume before he died in Chicago on April 28, 1893. The second volume was completed by his daughter and published in 1894. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Zury: The Meanest Man in Spring County, 1887 The McVeys, 1888 The Captain of Company K, 1891

REFERENCES Flanagan, John T. “Joseph Kirkland, Pioneer Realist.” American Literature, 11 (November 1939): 273–274. Henson, Clyde E. Joseph Kirkland. New York: Twayne, 1962.

Meyer Levin (1905–1981) Meyer Levin wrote realistic novels that focus on Jewish life in the United States and the Middle East. Only one or two of his numerous novels captured the public’s attention, however. Levin was born in Chicago on October 8, 1905, to Goldie Batiste Levin and Joseph Levin, who encouraged their son to get a good education. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1924, then accepted a position as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News. In 1925 he traveled to Europe, where he studied painting in Paris. He also visited Palestine, which aroused his curiosity about his religion. He worked for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency for about a year, then returned to the Chicago Daily News. His first realistic novel, Reporter (1929) was withdrawn when a female reporter threatened to sue for libel because she thought one of the characters was based on her. Actually, the novel was based on Levin’s experiences as a reporter. Levin moved to Palestine in 1929, but he returned periodically to the United States. His second novel, Frankie and Johnnie (1930), concerns love in a large city. Critics dismissed the novel. Levin’s third novel, Yehuda (1931), is based on his experiences in a farming community in Palestine. It concerns a young violinist who works on a farm and loves a young girl from a nearby village. It was one of the first novels to examine life in Palestine. In 1932 Levin published a collection of Jewish folktales, The Golden Mountain. The New Bridge (1933) concerns a family who resists being evicted from a tenement in New York City. Because of the family’s refusal to leave, a child is killed. The novel was reviewed favorably by critics who thought that Levin had realistically depicted the tenants who were indirectly responsible for the boy’s death.

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Levin married Mabel Schamp Foy in 1934. Three years later he published The Old Bunch, which examines the lives of several Jewish people from 1921 to 1934. Although these individuals are emotionally different, and have different professional careers, their interests and their ethnicity tie them together. The novel realistically captures these young Jewish individuals as they make their way in Chicago, Paris, and other cities. The novel is similar to John Dos Passos’s U.S.A., in that it contains multiple stories and actual people as well as fictitious characters. Some reviewers praised the novel’s realism, while others criticized Levin’s style of writing, which seemed to be social criticism. However, the book enjoyed a certain amount of success. In addition to writing realistic novels, Levin worked as a film critic for Esquire magazine and contributed short stories to the Saturday Evening Post, the Nation, and other magazines. He also opened a marionette theater in Chicago. In 1940 Levin published Citizens, which was based on the strike by steelmill workers in Chicago on Memorial Day 1937. The police prevented the workers from establishing a picket line in front of the Republic Steel plant. As a result, ten strikers were killed. Levin’s style was that of a reporter. Indeed, he had observed and had written about the incident several years earlier. Reviewers criticized the novel because of his style of writing. The novel is realistic because it depicts in careful detail both those who attempted to strike and a corrupt political system that denied individuals their rights under the Constitution. From 1941 to 1945, Levin served in the U.S. Office of War Information, then worked for the Overseas News Agency. He visited concentration camps in Europe, and later went to Palestine, where he witnessed the birth of modern Israel. My Father’s House (1947), a novel based on Levin’s experiences in Europe and Palestine, tells the story of a Jewish boy’s journey from Poland to Palestine. Levin wrote a screenplay based on the novel the same year, and the film version (1947) was made in Palestine. Levin, who had divorced his first wife in 1944, married Tereska Szwarc, a French novelist, in 1948. In 1950 he published In Search: An Autobiography. In it Levin discusses his childhood and how he feared being a Jew, then his adult experiences in Europe, Palestine, and modern Israel, and how he accepted his heritage. One of Levin’s most successful realistic novels, Compulsion (1956), is based on the Leopold-Loeb case. Leopold and Loeb had abducted and murdered Bobby Franks in Chicago in 1924. Levin’s characters, Artie Strauss and Judd Steiner, are sons of wealthy Jewish families in Chicago. They, like Leopold and Loeb, have no motive for the murder other than their belief that they are superior, and consequently above the laws of man. The novel focuses on the murder, the murderers, their trial, and the trial’s impact on the community. The novel was the basis for a popular film (1959). Eva (1959) concerns Eva Korngold during and after World War II. Eva, an industrious Jewish woman, flees Poland, disguised as a Ukranian peasant. She escapes the clutches of the Nazis several times, including death at Auschwitz,

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and eventually journeys to Israel with a group of illegal immigrants. Levin’s descriptions of her life allow the reader to understand the hardships, and even death, that many experienced under the Nazis. In 1964 Levin published The Fanatic, which concerns Maury Finklestein, a rabbi who writes a play that is based on the writings of a young Jewish man who was exterminated during the Holocaust. The novel is based on Levin’s experiences with Anne Frank’s diary, which she had written before she was killed during the Holocaust. Levin had secured an American publisher for Otto Frank, who owned the rights to the diary. In return, Levin was granted permission to write a play based on the diary. However, after he wrote the play, several prominent individuals informed him that his play was not dramatic. The play ultimately written for Broadway was very similar to Levin’s, except that it did not adhere to Frank’s diary in every instance. Levin successfully sued. His action caused producers and publishers to be cautious when they worked with him. The Stronghold (1965) deals with World War II and the Holocaust, but suffers because the characters are stereotypical. They serve only to espouse Levin’s political opinions. Gore and Igor: An Extravaganza (1968) concerns two misfits—one from California and the other from Russia—who end up fighting in Israel’s Six-Day War. In 1972 Levin published The Settlers, which concerns Palestine from the beginning of the century to 1920. Yankel and Feigel Chaimovitch and their children journey from Russia to establish their home on the banks of the Jordan River. The novel is realistic because it is filled with history. It depicts with great accuracy the struggles that dedicated individuals face while attempting to establish their home in Palestine. The Harvest (1978) continues the story of the Chaimovitch family from 1920 to 1948 and the birth of modern Israel. Like the previous novel, The Harvest is filled with history, and the reader learns how modern Israel developed. Levin died in Israel on July 9, 1981. His last novel, The Architect, published several months later, concerns the rise of Andrew Lane, an architect in Chicago. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Reporter, 1929 Yehuda, 1931 The New Bridge, 1933 The Old Bunch, 1937 Citizens, 1940 My Father’s House, 1947 Compulsion, 1956 Eva, 1959

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The Fanatic, 1964 The Settlers, 1972 The Harvest, 1978 The Architect, 1981

REFERENCES Furman, Andrew. Israel Through the Jewish-American Imagination: A Survey of JewishAmerican Literature on Israel, 1928–1995. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997. Levin, Meyer. In Search: An Autobiography. New York: Horizon Press, 1950. ———. The Obsession. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1973. Melnick, Ralph. The Stolen Legacy of Anne Frank: Meyer Levin, Lillian Hellman, and the Staging of the Diary. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1997. Rubin, Steven J. Meyer Levin. Boston: Twayne, 1982.

Alfred Henry Lewis (1857–1914) Alfred Henry Lewis wrote regional realistic fiction about the West and at least one example of naturalistic fiction about political corruption. Alfred Henry Lewis was born to Harriet Tracy Lewis and Isaac J. Lewis on January 20, 1857, in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended public schools, then studied for the bar examination, which he passed in 1876. Lewis opened a law office and immediately became involved in local politics. In 1880 he became Cleveland’s prosecuting attorney. A year later Lewis accompanied his parents to Kansas City, Missouri. He worked as a cowboy on several ranches in the Cimarron region of Kansas, enjoying the freedom of the open spaces and the numerous stories that were told in front of a blazing fire. In addition to driving cattle to Dodge City, Kansas, and other towns, Lewis explored the Southwest, including Texas and New Mexico. In Watrous, New Mexico, he was hired as the editor of the Mora County Pioneer, a small newspaper. Lewis enjoyed journalism, especially writing. In Las Vegas, New Mexico, he served briefly as the editor of the Las Vegas Optic, in which he displayed an outrageous sense of humor. Lewis journeyed to Tombstone, Arizona, then returned to Kansas City to be with his parents. In 1885 he opened a law office there and married Alice Ewing, who was from Ohio. His brother, the city editor of the Kansas City Times, asked him to contribute a short story to the newspaper. Lewis recalled his experiences in the West, then wrote an imaginary interview with an Old Cattleman who supposedly lived at the St. James Hotel. The story, for which he was not paid, was extremely popular when it was published in 1889. Lewis earned $360, however, for his next short story, which also featured the Old Cattleman. The Old Cattleman philosophized as he reminisced about his days in Wolfville, Arizona, a mythical town that was based on Tombstone, Arizona. The short stories

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were popular because they realistically captured the unusual characters who settled the West. The publisher of the Kansas City Star, William Rockhill Nelson, hired Lewis as a reporter in 1890. A year later Lewis moved to Washington, D.C., where he was a correspondent for the Chicago Times. In 1894 the Chicago Herald purchased the Chicago Times. Although Lewis was offered a position with the newspaper in Chicago, he became the head of the Washington bureau of the New York Journal, which was published by William Randolph Hearst. Lewis wrote interesting dramatic stories that resembled literary journalism. They capture scenes, individuals, and incidents as if Lewis had been present. Most concern the legislative process and how lobbyists manipulated legislators. Lewis was not objective in his reporting; his editorial position was clear— intentionally so. He was determined to reveal the truth. In addition to expose´s and reform stories, he contributed investigative pieces to Cosmopolitan, which also was published by Hearst. Wolfville (1897) is a compilation of “Old Cattleman” short stories that had been published in various newspapers. The book, his first, was immediately successful. The Old Cattleman tells the short stories—even providing the dialogue for all the characters—in his own words. Wolfville is an unsophisticated small town in the West, and its citizens have a simple and honest way of life. They do not spend time and money on incarcerating criminals. Quick trials are followed by swift executions. Lewis reveals the various characters—from Whiskey Billy, who lives up to his name, to Cherokee Hall, a card dealer who knows how to handle a knife—through the Old Cattleman’s descriptions and dialogue. The reader learns about the troublemakers who ride into town as well as the Committee of Vigilance that enforces the law. Lewis also reveals that African Americans, Chinese, and Mexicans are considered inferior, and consequently are not welcome in Wolfville. Wolfville was followed by other collections of short stories told by the Old Cattleman: Sandburrs (1900); Wolfville Days (1902); Wolfville Nights (1902); The Black Lion Inn (1903), Wolfville Folks (1908), and Faro Nell and Her Friends: Wolfville Stories (1913). In 1898 Lewis resigned from the Journal’s Washington bureau and moved to New York City, where he edited The Verdict, a weekly Democratic paper, for more than a year. Lewis attacked the wealthy and demanded reform. As he became entrenched in New York politics, he realized that the corruption he had witnessed in Washington, D.C., was not isolated. It was everywhere. He investigated the “robber barons,” including the Havemeyers and the Rockefellers. Lewis knew that the common people would be powerless unless certain laws were enacted. If a particular law failed to eliminate the corruption that festered in cities, he believed that another law should be enacted, until corruption was eliminated. After The Verdict ceased publication in 1900, Lewis continued to write investigative articles for magazines. For instance, he examined the New York City

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Police Department and the New York City government, including Tammany Hall. He investigated the corrupt politicians who had been purchased like any other commodity by the exceedingly wealthy, and condemned both in print. The information he gathered also filled several books. For instance, in 1901 he published the insightful biography Richard Croker, which concerned the boss of Tammany Hall. Two years later he published the naturalistic novel The Boss, and How He Came to Rule New York, which was based on Richard Croker. Although the novel was interesting because it depicted the life of a man who had achieved success through manipulation and corruption, it was not as successful as his short stories about Wolfville. The President (1904) concerns political maneuvering between the White House and Capitol Hill. It also features a Russian who desires to marry the daughter of a U.S. senator and to steal from the U.S. Treasury. The novel was interesting, but it too, was far less successful than the short stories about Wolfville. Lewis edited Human Life: The Magazine About People from about 1905 until 1911, when it changed hands. The magazine, which was based in Boston, published articles about muckraking journalists as well as articles about the graft and corruption that routinely involved business barons and members of city, state, and federal governments. In addition to other novels, Lewis published The Story of John Paul Jones (1906), When Men Grew Tall: The Story of Andrew Jackson (1907), and An American Patrician; or, The Story of Aaron Burr (1908). Lewis died suddenly of an intestinal disorder on December 23, 1914, in New York City. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Wolfville, 1897 Sandburrs, 1900 Wolfville Days, 1902 Wolfville Nights, 1902 The Black Lion Inn, 1903 The Boss, and How He Came to Rule New York, 1903 Wolfville Folks, 1908 Faro Nell and Her Friends: Wolfville Stories, 1913

REFERENCES Filler, Louis. The Muckrakers. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976. Ravitz, Abe C. Alfred Henry Lewis. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Press, 1978.

Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) Sinclair Lewis wrote realistic novels that examined individuals who live in typical American small towns. Besides discussing their narrow-mindedness and their regressive way of thinking, he satirized the major topics of the day, including medicine and religion. Harry Sinclair Lewis was born to Emma Kermott Lewis and Edwin J. Lewis, a physician, on February 7, 1885, in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. His father and mother called him Harry, Hal, or “Red”—the latter because of the color of his hair. Except for the fact that his mother died when he was six, the early years of his life were uneventful. After attending public schools in Sauk Centre and a year at the Academy of Oberlin College, Lewis entered Yale in 1903. He left in 1906, then attempted to earn a living in New York City and later in Panama. He returned to Yale, and during his senior year worked at Helicon Hall, Upton Sinclair’s socialistic colony. He graduated from Yale in 1908. Lewis worked as a journalist in Iowa and in California. About a year later he worked for a magazine in the nation’s capital. In 1910 he moved to New York City, where he sold plot outlines to Jack London, then worked at several publishing firms. He wrote fiction while commuting to and from work and on weekends. His first novel, Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man, was published in 1914, the year he married Grace Hegger, an editor at Vogue. His second novel, The Trail of the Hawk, followed a year later. Lewis resigned from his position at the George Doran Company, a publishing house, to devote most of his time to writing. Lewis’s novels The Job: An American Novel and The Innocents were published in 1917, and Free Air, in 1919. He also wrote short stories that appeared in numerous magazines. His stories depicted the typical small town in America,

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and he traveled extensively throughout the country to find new settings and characters for his fiction. In 1920 Main Street, a realistic novel that captures the heartland of the United States, was published. Lewis had searched his roots for the novel’s setting and characters. He returned to his hometown, and criticized the citizens for their backwardness and narrow-mindedness. The novel’s main character, Carol Milford, is an idealistic college graduate who marries Dr. Will Kennicott. When they move to Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, she learns that the townsfolk and, to a certain extent, her husband boast of being progressive. Yet, when she attempts to be progressive by introducing new ideas, she is unsuccessful. Carol leaves her husband to go to Washington, where she helps in the war effort. When she returns to her husband, she has a more patient attitude. The novel was a commercial and critical success. The realistic novel Babbitt (1922) is set in Zenith, in the state of Winnemac (based on Cincinnati, Ohio). The main character is George F. Babbit, a successful, middle-aged real estate salesman who praises American capitalism and occasionally cheats on his wife. Though he has achieved a certain amount of financial success, he lacks an appreciation for intellectual pursuits such as art and religion. The novel was a commercial and critical success. In 1923 Lewis travelled with Paul de Kruif, a young medical researcher. He collected information for his next realistic novel, which he wrote in France and revised in London. Arrowsmith (1925) concerns Martin Arrowsmith, a young medical student who learns how to conduct medical research. Arrowsmith marries Leora, and they move to the Midwest, where he practices medicine. Unfortunately, his patients are suspicious of modern medicine, and he grows disillusioned. Arrowsmith is offered a position by his old mentor at the McGurk Institute in New York, which he accepts. Arrowsmith, his wife, and Gustaf Sondelius, a fighter of epidemics, go to the West Indies to combat bubonic plague. Arrowsmith’s efforts eventually conquer the disease, but not before it kills his wife and colleague. Arrowsmith returns to the Institute, and eventually remarries. Primarily to escape his boring existence in New York, he goes with Terry Wickett, a friend, to Vermont to conduct medical investigations. Lewis criticizes several aspects of the medical profession, particularly physicians who exploit American society. Although Arrowsmith is a caring physician to a certain extent, he tends to be irritable whenever recognition for his efforts is slow in coming. Arrowsmith was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, which Lewis rejected. He thought he should have received the prize in 1921 for Main Street. (Main Street had been nominated, but the prize had been awarded to Edith Wharton for The Age of Innocence.) The controversy helped increase sales of Arrowsmith. In 1927 Lewis examined religion in America through the eyes and actions of Elmer Gantry, a character based on several popular evangelists at the time. The realistic novel, Elmer Gantry, was banned in Boston and other cities because of

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its questionable depiction of religious practitioners, especially the immoral Elmer Gantry. The bans of course stimulated sales of the novel. Lewis divorced Grace Hegger in 1928 and married Dorothy Thompson, a journalist, the same year. He had a son by each wife. In Dodsworth (1929) Samuel Dodsworth, an engineer, builds a successful automobile company, then sells it. Dodsworth then travels with his wife, Fran, to Europe. When Dodsworth travels briefly to the United States, Fran remains in Europe. When he returns to his wife, he learns that she has a lover. She takes a second lover, then asks for a divorce. Dodsworth agrees, but stipulates that she wait a while. He travels to Italy and finds solace in the arms of Edith Cortwright. Fran comes to her senses and tries to reconcile with Dodsworth. He does not trust her, and has found happiness in the arms of Edith. In 1930 Lewis was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. He was the first American to receive this prize. Lewis continued to write novels that examined American institutions, but most of them paled in comparison to his previous work. Ann Vickers (1933) concerns the main character’s radical ideas and efforts at prison reform. Work of Art (1934) is about the hotel business. It Can’t Happen Here (1935) concerns the possibility of fascism rising in America. The Prodigal Parents (1938) is about the differences between children and their parents. Bethel Merriday (1940) depicts an aspiring actress. These novels were not critically acclaimed. Lewis started drinking heavily and cheating on his wife. In 1942 he divorced Dorothy Thompson and moved to Minnesota, where he lectured briefly at the University of Minnesota. Cass Timberlaine (1945) concerns marriage in America. Kingsblood Royal, a weak attempt to examine the plight of the black in American society, appeared in 1947. Lewis moved from Minnesota to a farm outside Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1946, and to Italy in 1949. On January 10, 1951, he died of heart disease in Rome.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Main Street, 1920 Babbitt, 1922 Arrowsmith, 1925 Elmer Gantry, 1927 Dodsworth, 1929 Ann Vickers, 1933

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REFERENCES Boynton, Percy Holmes. More Contemporary Americans. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1927. Cowley, Malcolm, ed. After the Genteel Tradition. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1964. Dooley, David Joseph. The Art of Sinclair Lewis. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967. Geismar, Maxwell. The Last of the Provincials: The American Novel, 1915–1925. New York: Hill and Wang, 1949. Grebstein, Sheldon N. Sinclair Lewis. New York: Twayne, 1962. Hersey, John. Life Sketches. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. Hilfer, Anthony C. The Revolt from the Village. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1969. Hutchisson, James M. The Rise of Sinclair Lewis, 1920–1930. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996. Kazin, Alfred. On Native Grounds. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1942. Lewis, Grace. With Love from Gracie: Sinclair Lewis, 1912–1925. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1955. Light, Martin. The Quixotic Vision of Sinclair Lewis. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 1975. Lundquist, James. Sinclair Lewis. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1973. Nevius, Blake. The American Novel: Sinclair Lewis to the Present. New York: AppletonCentury-Crofts, 1970. O’Connor, Richard. Sinclair Lewis. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971. Schorer, Mark. Sinclair Lewis: An American Life. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961. ———, ed. Sinclair Lewis: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1962. Sheean, Vincent. Dorothy and Red. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1963. Sherman, Stuart Pratt. The Significance of Sinclair Lewis. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1971. Tuttleton, James W. The Novel of Manners in America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1972. Whipple, Thomas K. Spokesmen. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963.

Jack London (1876–1916) Jack London depicted the harsh Yukon in several naturalistic novels that focus on individuals and their relationships with specific animals. He also examined agriculture and ranching in California. London was born to Flora Wellman on January 12, 1876, in San Francisco. His father was supposedly William Henry Chaney, with whom his mother was living at the time. Chaney deserted Flora when he learned that she was pregnant, and on September 7, 1876, she married John London, a widower who worked as a carpenter. Although he had children of his own, he adopted Flora’s boy. London attended public schools in Oakland, California. His parents were impoverished, however, and he was forced to work at numerous jobs before he was fourteen. He learned about the sea from sailors and harpooners. When he was fifteen, his interest in adventure and intrigue led him to become an oyster pirate. He enjoyed robbing oyster beds in San Francisco Bay until he was persuaded to join the other side. His law enforcement career was brief, primarily because he did not enjoy being an informant. In 1893 London signed on the Sophia Sutherland as a seaman. He enjoyed his new occupation; nothing satisfied him more than traveling and the sea. When he returned later that year, he entered a contest for which he wrote an account of a typhoon that the ship had encountered near Japan. The article won, and was published in the San Francisco Morning Call. London had hoped that he could support himself by writing, but a depression gripped the United States; newspapers, magazines, and books were suffering economically, just like other businesses. Determined, London had two stories published in Evenings at Home in 1894. He realized that such efforts were not enough, however, and that the jobs he could obtain demanded too much effort and time for too little pay.

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Jacob Coxey of Ohio had gathered thousands of unemployed Americans to march to Washington, D.C., and Kelly of San Francisco formed a similar army. London was determined to become a member. He missed the train, however, so like a hobo he tramped on another until he caught up with Kelly in Iowa. London, like others who were starving, deserted the army in Missouri and then journeyed to Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York City and Niagara Falls, where he was arrested. For thirty days he labored in the Erie County Penitentiary, where he saw men tortured and even beaten to death. He listened to hardened criminals as they complained about their miserable lives. When he was released, he went to Canada and tramped to Vancouver, where he boarded a vessel bound for San Francisco. As a result of his exploits, London came to believe that only socialism would help those who yearned for an income. At the same time, he realized the importance of an education. He entered high school, where he wrote several articles for the school newspaper. After several months, he decided to study for the entrance examinations for the University of California at Berkeley. He passed the entrance examinations and enrolled at the university, but his family’s need for financial assistance ended his formal education after one semester. In 1897 London, like others who had dreams of finding a fortune, journeyed to the Yukon, where he fell ill with scurvy. He did not find gold, but his experiences were of use to him. As soon as he was home, he started writing. The Overland Monthly accepted “To the Man on Trial” in 1898, and the Atlantic Monthly accepted “An Odyssey of the North” a year later. Houghton Mifflin published a collection of his naturalistic short stories, The Son of the Wolf: Tales of the Far North, in 1900, the year he married Elizabeth Maddern. London’s reputation as a writer of considerable merit began to spread, and in 1901 another collection of naturalistic short stories was published. Most of these tales were based on his experiences in the Yukon. London’s first novel, A Daughter of the Snows, appeared in 1902, the year he traveled to England for the American Press Association. London lived among the poor in the slum districts of London. His experiences were recorded in The People of the Abyss, literary journalism that was based on his observations and conversations. London applied what he had seen and heard in his fiction. He recorded what he observed, then rearranged or adjusted the information to suit the story. Nonetheless, his fiction was authentic and naturalistic. London’s most critically acclaimed novel, The Call of the Wild (1903), concerns Buck, a large dog that is stolen and brought to the Klondike. Buck becomes a sled dog that is passed from one owner to another. Eventually, John Thornton buys Buck, and a bond develops between them. Indians kill Thornton, and Buck becomes a leader of wolves in the wilderness. Writing naturalistic novels was not enough to satisfy London, however. He missed the excitement of adventure. In 1904 he covered the Russo-Japanese War for the San Francisco Examiner. His naturalistic novel The Sea-Wolf was

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published the same year. It concerns Wolf Larsen, a captain of a sealing schooner who understands that only the strong survive. Larsen saves Humphrey Van Weyden when the boat he is on collides with another. Van Weyden, a member of the upper class, is put to work scrubbing the deck. Over time, he becomes a capable seaman. Larsen later saves Maude Brewster, who is attracted to Van Weyden because of his similar plight. Eventually, they escape to Endeavor Island, where Larsen arrives several weeks later, on his wrecked schooner. Deserted by his crew, he is alone and dying of a brain tumor. Van Weyden and Brewster are rescued before the novel ends. The novel was extremely popular among readers. London’s marriage to Elizabeth Maddern failed in 1905, and he immediately married Clara Charmian Kittredge. He purchased land in California and made his home there. In 1906 London published White Fang, which concerns a wolf. Dogs that are owned by Gray Beaver, his Indian master, mistreat White Fang, and he grows mean. Beaver sells the wolf to Beauty Smith, who forces the wolf to fight and kill dogs. Weedon Scott purchases White Fang and grows to love the wolf, who ultimately becomes a loyal and loving pet. London, with his wife and four crewmen, sailed to Hawaii and the South Seas in 1907. Then they traveled to Australia, where London became seriously ill. They returned home in 1909. Martin Eden, published later that year, was to a certain extent autobiographical. Martin Eden is a young sailor who falls in love with Ruth Morse, a cultivated woman who inspires him to learn as much as he can. He reads the great writers and the great philosophers, and attempts to write, although Ruth and others encourage him to get a regular job. Martin receives one rejection letter after another, and Ruth leaves him. Finally, rejection letters become acceptance letters, but it is too late. Martin realizes that fame and financial success breed greed and materialism. Disenchanted, he boards a ship bound for the South Seas. Somewhere in the Pacific he falls from the ship and drowns. For the remaining years of his life, London produced short stories, essays, and novels, including Burning Daylight (1910), The Valley of the Moon (1913), and The Little Lady of the Big House (1916). These novels concern characters who survive by their wits, by the love of women, and by the land on which they work. They reflect London’s interest in agriculture and ranching. London sailed his yacht, The Roamer, in San Francisco Bay and elsewhere. Although sailing, his ranch, and his wife had filled a void in his life, his last seven years were not always satisfying. In 1910, for instance, his only son died at birth. (He had three daughters—two with Elizabeth and one with Clara.) Three years later he sued the Balboa Amusement Company for making a film based on one of his novels. At the time, copyright laws were unclear because the film industry was relatively new. London won his suit and set a precedent. His health worsened, and later in 1913 his almost completed house was destroyed by fire.

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London signed with Collier’s magazine as a war correspondent in 1914 and went to Vera Cruz, Mexico, where his health became exceedingly bad. When he developed uremia, doctors warned that he needed to change his habits. It was too late, however; London had abused his body too long. At the time of his death on November 22, 1916, in Sonoma County, California, he had written approximately fifty books. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Son of the Wolf: Tales of the Far North, 1900 A Daughter of the Snows, 1902 The Call of the Wild, 1903 The Sea-Wolf, 1904 White Fang, 1906 Martin Eden, 1909

REFERENCES Auerback, Jonathan. Male Call: Becoming Jack London. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1996. Day, A. Grove. Jack London in the South Seas, New York: Four Winds Press, 1971. Hedrick, Joan D. Solitary Comrade: Jack London and His Work. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1982. Johnston, Carolyn. Jack London—An American Radical? Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984. Kershaw, Alex. Jack London: A Life. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. Labor, Earle. Jack London. Rev. ed. New York: Twayne, 1994. London, Charmian K. The Book of Jack London. 2 vols. New York: Century-Crofts, 1921. London, Joan. Jack London and His Times: An Unconventional Biography. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1968. McClintock, James I. Jack London’s Strong Truths. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1997. O’Conner, Richard. Jack London: A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1964. Ownbey, Ray Wilson, ed. Jack London: Essays in Criticism. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Peregrine Smith, 1978. Sinclair, Andrew. Jack: A Biography of Jack London. New York: Harper & Row, 1977. Stasz, Clarice. American Dreamers: Charmian and Jack London. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988. Stone, Irving. Sailor on Horseback: The Biography of Jack London. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1938. Tavernier-Courbin, Jacqueline, ed. Critical Essays on Jack London. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1983. Walker, Franklin. Jack London and the Klondike: The Genesis of an American Writer. San Marino, Calif.: The Huntington Library, 1966.

Norman Mailer (1923–

)

Norman Mailer explored the realities of World War II in his first novel, The Naked and the Dead (1948). Compared with his later work, this novel is unquestionably his most realistic. Mailer was born to Fanny Schneider Mailer and Isaac Barnett Mailer on January 31, 1923, in Long Branch, New Jersey. He moved with his parents to Brooklyn, New York, in 1927. Mailer graduated from Boys High School and at sixteen entered Harvard University, where he majored in engineering. His talent for creative writing was recognized when his short story “The Greatest Thing in the World” was judged the best entry in Story magazine’s 1941 college contest. Mailer graduated from Harvard in 1943, married Beatrice Silverman in 1944, then served in the U.S. Army. He saw action in the Philippines and Japan before he was discharged in 1946. His experiences are graphically depicted in the realistic novel The Naked and the Dead, a cruel, honest portrayal of men who attempt to seize a Japanese-held island in the Philippines during World War II. The novel’s characters include General Cummings, Lieutenant Hearn, and Sergeant Croft, as well as enlisted men (among them two Jews, Goldstein and Roth). Goldstein was reared in a ghetto in New York City; Roth, in an affluent neighborhood. Goldstein is tough; Roth cannot cut it as a soldier. He is weak, and the others in the platoon often taunt him. When he tries to leap across a mountain chasm he falls to his death. Goldstein develops a bond with Ridges, a Christian, as a result of their carrying another soldier through the jungle for several days. The soldier dies, and his body is washed away when Goldstein and Ridges attempt to ford a river. Critics praised the novel for its realism. Mailer was young, however, and influenced by many “isms.” As his novel’s main characters combated internal and external forces, Mailer did, too. His next

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novel, Barbary Shore (1951), reflects these internal and external forces. In contrast to The Naked and the Dead, Barbary Shore is short. Instead of being filled with numerous interesting characters, it concerns a few dull characters who live in a boardinghouse in Brooklyn, New York. Furthermore, the novel is not necessarily realistic. The characters are not what they seemed to be especially once the protagonist, Mikey Lovett, an aspiring novelist, gets to know them. Most critics dismissed Barbary Shore. Mailer continued to write. In 1952 he divorced his first wife and moved to Greenwich Village in New York City, where he grew interested in the “beat” way of life. He married Adele Morales, an artist, in 1954. The Deer Park (1955) concerns the film industry in Hollywood. It depicts producers who blacklist a film director after he refuses to testify before a congressional committee. The novel examines those who create films primarily because they are interested in art or because they are interested in earning money. It examines a controversial period in Hollywood’s history—in the early 1950s, federal authorities attempted to pressure members of the movie industry to reveal the Communist sympathizers among them. Mailer strongly believed that the book would be well received, but the critics claimed it was a minor effort. Frustrated, Mailer began to write for the Village Voice, which he, Daniel Wolf, and Edwin Fancher had founded earlier. Mailer focused his attention on producing articles, essays, and fiction for such periodicals as Dissent, Esquire, the New York Review of Books, and Commentary. Advertisements for Myself (1959) was a volume of short stories, plays, articles, excerpts from novels, columns from the Village Voice, poems, essays, interviews, and letters. The “Advertisements,” which were critical commentaries, not only linked the short stories, plays, and excerpts from novels but also revealed Mailer’s negative, radical philosophy. Mailer’s frustrations continued to haunt him throughout the 1960s, and he became known for his actions rather than for his words. In 1960, for instance, he stabbed his wife, Adele Morales, after an all-night party at their apartment. Although wounded, she did not press charges. She recovered, and they remained together until their divorce in 1962. Mailer soon married Lady Jeanne Campbell. The marriage ended in divorce a year later. Mailer married Beverly Bentley in 1963. He was later arrested for arguing with police officers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and for arguing with the management of a New York nightclub over a liquor bill. Mailer’s writing during this period included The Presidential Papers (1963) a collection of articles that criticize President John F. Kennedy’s shortcomings; Cannibals and Christians (1966), a collection of short stories, political essays, interviews, and reportage on professional boxing; An American Dream (1965); and Why Are We in Vietnam? (1967). The last two novels metaphorically explore the ugly side of human nature. In the former, a celebrated novelist murders his wife so that his image will be tarnished. In the latter, a foul-mouthed teenager realizes that corrupt and hypocritical adults manage America.

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In Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, the Novel as History (1968) Mailer depicts his activist role in the antiwar march on the Pentagon and how the march affected him. Through the use of the names “Mailer,” the “Existentialist,” the “Historian,” the “General,” and the “Novelist,” among others, Mailer explains quite humorously what happened to him, the other demonstrators, and the soldiers. The reader gains insight from a participant who not only was arrested but also questioned and analyzed the events as they occurred. The book was widely acclaimed, and received the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Mailer’s gift as a chronicler of events is displayed in Miami and the Siege of Chicago (1968), a personal account of the 1968 presidential nominating conventions. Mailer was a candidate in the New York City Democratic mayoralty primary election in 1969. He was unsuccessful, partly because of his proposal to make the city the fifty-first state. The same year he wrote a series of articles for Life magazine that philosophically analyzed and questioned the U.S. space program. From these articles came the book Of a Fire on the Moon (1970). A year later Mailer was attacked for being a male chauvinist by feminists such as Kate Millett. He explores his relationship with women in The Prisoner of Sex (1971). In it he criticizes Millet’s attacks on Henry Miller and D. H. Lawrence. The biographical novel Marilyn: A Biography appeared in 1973. It was followed by The Fight (1975), which concerns Mailer’s observations of a heavyweight boxing championship fight. In 1979 Mailer published The Executioner’s Song, which he called “a true life novel” about the murderer Gary Gilmore, who was executed in 1977. His depiction of the execution is concise, but he increases the suspense with extensive description—as if he were present, recording every second. It is as if he had observed each person present; some mental or physical reaction by each is dramatically depicted. In 1980 Mailer married and divorced Carol Stevens, then married Norris Church. Two years later he received national attention from the media when Jack Henry Abbott, an ex-convict for whom Mailer had helped secure an early release from prison, was accused of murder. Ancient Evenings (1983), a lengthy fantasy about ancient Egypt, received mixed reviews. Tough Guys Don’t Dance, a short, seamy murder mystery with psychic overtones, appeared in 1984; a film version was released in 1987. Harlot’s Ghost (1991) is a lengthy critical novel about the Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold War. Although the book was favorably reviewed, the topic was not particularly timely because the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was for the most part over. The impressive artistic book Oswald’s Tale: An American Mystery (1995) concerns both the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the mysterious personality of his accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. The book is based on hundreds of interviews and official documents. Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man:

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An Interpretive Biography, which focuses on Picasso’s love for Fernande Olivier, also appeared in 1995. The Gospel According to the Son (1997), a novel in which Jesus explains his life, is based on Mailer’s interpretation of the four gospels. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Naked and the Dead, 1948 The Deer Park, 1955 The Executioner’s Song, 1979

REFERENCES Adams, Laura. Existential Battles: The Growth of Norman Mailer, Athens: Ohio University Press, 1976. ———. ed. Will the Real Norman Mailer Please Stand Up. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1974. Braudy, Leo, ed. Norman Mailer: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972. Bufithis, Philip H. Norman Mailer. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1978. Kaufmann, Donald L. Norman Mailer: The Countdown: the First Twenty Years. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1969. Leeds, Barry H. The Structured Vision of Norman Mailer. New York: New York University Press, 1969. Lucid, Robert Francis. Norman Mailer: The Man and His Work. Boston: Little, Brown, 1971. Manso, Peter, ed. Running Against the Machine: The Mailer-Breslin Campaign. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969. Merrill, Robert. Norman Mailer. Boston: Twayne, 1978. ———. Norman Mailer Revisited. New York: Twayne, 1992. Middlebrook, Jonathan. Mailer and the Times of His Time. San Francisco: Bay Books, 1976. Poirier, Richard. Norman Mailer. New York: Viking Press, 1972. Radford, Jean. Norman Mailer: A Critical Study. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1975. Rollyson, Carl E. The Lives of Norman Mailer: A Biography. New York: Paragon House, 1991. Solotaroff, Robert. Down Mailer’s Way. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1974.

John P. Marquand (1893–1960) John Phillips Marquand was a realistic novelist who depicted the upper-middle and upper classes of New England, especially Boston, in popular novels that were published in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Marquand was born on November 10, 1893, in Wilmington, Delaware. His mother was Margaret Marquand and his father was Philip Marquand, a civil engineer. When Marquand was fourteen, he lived with three aunts in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where he attended a public school. Later he enrolled at Harvard, from which he received his bachelor’s degree in 1915. Marquand assisted the managing editor of the Boston Transcript for a year, then served in France during World War I. Upon his return to the United States, Marquand accepted a position with the New York Herald Tribune, then he worked for the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency. In 1921 he decided to devote most of his time to writing fiction. His first novel, serialized in the Ladies Home Journal before it was published as a book in 1922, was The Unspeakable Gentleman, a historical novel about Newburyport. Marquand traveled extensively throughout Europe in 1922. Upon his return to the United States later that year, he married Christina Sedgwich. The Marquands lived in Boston, where John P. Marquand, Jr., their first child, was born in 1923. Marquand continued to write fiction. In addition to novels that were serialized in popular magazines, he produced numerous short stories that appeared in magazines including Collier’s and the Saturday Evening Post. These works concerned the romantic past, business, and war. Marquand and his wife divorced in 1953. Two years later he married Adelaide Hooker, with whom he had two sons and a daughter.

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Marquand’s most important novels, which realistically scrutinize the upper class of Boston society, appeared in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. The Late George Apley, the first novel in which he explored a Bostonian family, was published in 1937. The novel traces the life of George Apley from his birth in 1866 to his death in 1933. The reader learns that Apley attends Harvard, just as his relatives had. Then he marries the proper woman. He dislikes the choices his son and daughter make, as well as the changes that occur in American society. Apley dies a disappointed man. Marquand received the Pulitzer Prize for this novel in 1938. Wickford Point (1939), based to a certain extent on Marquand’s life, depicts a deteriorating family. The novel’s main character is Jim Calder. H. M. Pulham, Esquire (1941) concerns Harry Pulham—another George Apley to a certain extent—who works for an advertising agency in New York and reflects on his life. Pulham, a Bostonian at heart, realizes that he has to live with the choices he has made. While Marquand served in U.S. Army Intelligence during World War II, he continued to write novels. So Little Time (1943) concerns Jeffrey Wilson, a successful script doctor who lives in New York City with his wife and children. Wilson reflects on his life and evaluates it from every perspective. B. F.’s Daughter (1946), which concerns the federal bureaucracy, depicts the lives of Polly Fulton and Bob Tasmin, among other characters, who work in Washington, D.C., during World War II. Point of No Return (1949) is about Charles Gray, a bank executive, and his success, which is brought about by his wife’s manipulations. Gray longs for the small New England town he has left behind, but he lacks the courage to give up what he has in order to return. Melville Goodwin, USA (1951) concerns the life of a professional soldier related from the perspective of a famous journalist. Another novel that focuses on the American businessman is Sincerely, Willis Wayde (1955). It concerns the rise of a lower-middle-class youth who, as a result of his success, becomes a “son of a bitch,” according to his father. Life at Happy Knoll (1957) depicts characters who play golf at an exclusive country club. Marquand and his wife divorced in 1958, the year Women and Thomas Harrow was published. The novel concerns the three marriages of Harrow, a successful playwright. Before his death at Newburyport, Massachusetts, on July 16, 1960, Marquand had written several successful detective novels, including some that featured Mr. Moto, a Japanese investigator.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Late George Apley, 1937 Wickford Point, 1939

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H. M. Pulham, Esquire, 1941 So Little Time, 1943 B. F.’s Daughter, 1946 Point of No Return, 1949 Melville Goodwin, USA, 1951 Sincerely, Willis Wayde, 1955 Life at Happy Knoll, 1957 Women and Thomas Harrow, 1958

REFERENCES Bell, Millicent. John P. Marquand: An American Life. Boston: Little, Brown, 1979. Birmingham, Stephen. The Late John Marquand: A Biography. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1972. Gross, John J. John P. Marquand. New York: Twayne, 1963. Hamburger, Philip. J. P. Marquand, Esquire. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1952. Holman, C. Hugh. John P. Marquand. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1965. Wires, Richard. John P. Marquand and Mr. Moto: Spy Adventures and Detective Films. Muncie, Ind.: Ball State University Press, 1990.

Carson McCullers (1917–1967) Carson McCullers suffered from both physical and mental illness, and drank too much alcohol. She explored the lives of troubled adolescent females in at least two realistic novels set in the South. Lula Carson Smith was the first child of Marguerite Waters Smith and of Lamar Smith, the owner of a jewelry store. She was born on February 19, 1917, in Columbus, Georgia. Smith began to play the piano when she was in elementary school; her father purchased a piano and hired a music teacher so that she could practice at home. When she was fifteen, she contracted rheumatic fever, which was misdiagnosed as pneumonia and consequently damaged her heart. Smith graduated from Columbus High School in 1933. On the advice of her former music teacher, she enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. Her father had given her the money for her tuition, but Smith lost the money or someone stole it soon after she arrived in New York. Smith worked during the day and attended classes in creative writing at Columbia University. She wrote short stories that concerned the problems of adolescents. In 1935 she returned to Columbus, where she met James Reeves McCullers, Jr., who was stationed at Fort Benning. McCullers shared her interests, and they were married on September 20, 1937. They moved to North Carolina, but experienced periods of separation. For instance, whenever McCullers felt ill, she returned to her mother’s house. She also lived from time to time at February House in Brooklyn, New York, which was operated by the editor George Davis. She also lived intermittently at Yaddo, a writers’ and artists’ colony in Saratoga Springs, New York. In addition to the separations, their bisexuality created problems between them. McCuller’s first novel was completed in 1939. Originally titled The Mute, it was retitled The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter before its publication in 1940. When

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the novel was published, Carson McCullers was twenty-three years old. Critics wondered how an author so young could know so much about loneliness. The novel is about five people who live in a small town in the South. The main character is Mick Kelly, an adolescent tomboy, whose father works at various jobs and whose mother rents rooms in their house to boarders. Mick takes care of her younger brothers when she is not in school. She also visits the New York Cafe´, which is owned by Biff and Alice Brannon, who live in the apartment upstairs. Biff becomes friends with Jake Blount, a stranger who criticizes those who work at the mill because of the conditions in which they labor. Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland is an African-American physician who treats members of his race who live in town. These characters talk to John Singer, who rents a room from the Kellys and eats at the New York Cafe´. Singer is a deafmute who has not spoken in years, yet he seems to be a good listener. He visits another deaf-mute, Spiros Antonapoulos, who has been placed in an institution, and unburdens himself to Antonapoulos. When Singer learns that his friend has died, he commits suicide. Those who used to talk to Singer do not understand his actions, and realize they did not know him. Some critics called the novel proletarian, and others said it was an allegory. Whichever group of critics one agrees with, one must realize that McCullers realistically depicts those who have to struggle to survive in a complicated world. McCullers’s second novel, Reflections in a Golden Eye, was published in 1941, the year she was divorced. It concerns two officers, an enlisted man, two women, and a Filipino at an army base in the South. Leonora Penderton, the wife of Captain Weldon Penderton, has an affair with Major Morris Langdon. Alison Langdon suffers from depression because her child has died and her husband is having an affair. Anacleto is her affectionate and understanding servant. Private Elgee Williams takes care of Firebird, Leonora Penderton’s horse, and occasionally spies on Leonora as she sleeps in her bed. Leonora’s husband is a latent homosexual who is attracted to the men who are attracted to her. However, he dislikes Williams, who is not like him, and eventually kills him. The novel received mixed reviews. In 1943 The Ballad of the Sad Cafe´ appeared in Harper’s Bazaar. The novella, which was adapted for Broadway by Edward Albee in 1963, is set in a small town in the South. Miss Amelia Evans whose physique resembles that of a tall, strong man, owns a cafe´ that has gone out of business. She was married briefly to Marvin Macy, a scoundrel who becomes a criminal. Lymon Willis, a hunchbacked dwarf, arrives in town and claims that he is Evans’s cousin. Primarily because Willis is not a threat to her, Evans is attracted to him. Macy returns to town to punish Evans. Willis is attracted to him, and Macy uses him against Evans. Eventually, Evans confronts Macy in the cafe´ and pins him to the floor. Willis attacks Evans from behind, and he and Macy beat her. After the men leave town, Evans hides inside the cafe´. In 1944 McCullers’s father died. A year later she remarried her ex-husband, who had served as an officer during World War II, and they purchased a house

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in France. In 1948 McCullers attempted suicide by slashing her wrist, and immediately sought psychiatric help. The Member of the Wedding was published both in Harper’s Bazaar and in book form in 1946. The partly autobiographical novel concerns Frankie Addams, who struggles through adolescence into womanhood. The novel depicts Addams as a tomboy in part 1; as a girl who reinvents herself by taking a new name, F. Jasmine, in part 2; and as a young woman who accepts her given name, Frances, in part 3. The novel received mixed reviews. Tennessee Williams, a friend, persuaded McCullers to adapt the novel for the stage; she did so, with help from others. The play opened on Broadway on January 5, 1950. It was made into a film in 1953, the year McCullers was divorced for the second time. Later that year her ex-husband died from an overdose of drugs and alcohol. McCullers’s mother died in 1955, and McCullers grieved for several years. In 1958 her play The Square Root of Wonderful was published. It had opened on Broadway on October 30, 1957, but had only a brief run. Her last novel, Clock Without Hands (1961), is set in a small town in the South. The four main characters, men who represent two generations, live through the changes that occur in the South. The characters are not fully developed, however, and the plot is seriously flawed. Consequently, reviewers criticized the novel. McCullers’s health deteriorated. In addition to having surgery to repair several limbs, she suffered a heart attack and had a cancerous breast removed. During the last few years of her life, she wrote nonsense rhymes for children. She suffered a stroke on August 15, 1967, and died in Nyack, New York, on September 29, 1967.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, 1940 The Member of the Wedding, 1946

REFERENCES Bloom, Harold, ed. Carson McCullers. New York: Chelsea House, 1986. Carr, Virginia Spencer. The Lonely Hunter: A Biography of Carson McCullers. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1975. Carr, Virginia Spencer. Understanding Carson McCullers. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1990. Cook, Richard. Carson McCullers. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1975. Edmonds, Dale Harlan. Carson McCullers. Austin, Tex.: Steck-Vaughn, 1969. Evans, Oliver Wendell. The Ballad of Carson McCullers: A Biography. New York: Coward-McCann, 1965. Graver, Laurence. Carson McCullers. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1969.

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James, Judith Giblin. Wunderkind: The Reputation of Carson McCullers, 1940–1990. Columbia, S.C.: Camden House, 1995. McDowell, Margaret B. Carson McCullers. Boston: Twayne, 1980. Presley, Delma. “Carson McCullers and the South,” Georgia Review, 28 (Spring 1947): 19–32.

Maria Cristina Mena (Maria Cristina Chambers) (1893–1965) Maria Cristina Mena wrote numerous short stories about the inhabitants of Mexico, where she was born. They are examples of local color writing or regional fiction because she captured not only the people and their language but also their manners and customs. Maria Cristina Mena was born in Mexico City on April 3, 1893. Her Spanish mother and Mexican father were a prominent couple who had the financial means to educate their daughter privately. Mena attended an English boarding school, and when she was fourteen, her parents sent her to friends in New York City so that she would not experience the political turmoil in Mexico. She lived in New York for most of her life, and contributed short stories about her native country to popular magazines. Mena’s first short story to be published was “John of God, the Water-Carrier,” which appeared in Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine in 1913. The story presents the Spanish language as well as Mexican customs, and thus is authentic. However, the editor of the magazine removed the Spanish words. The story concerns an Indian boy who leaves his small village in order to find employment as a water carrier in Mexico City. He soon learns that Mexico City is not like the small village from which he has come. People do not go barefoot or walk everywhere; they wear sandals and ride in carriages or automobiles. In addition, his job of carrying water to those who pay him may be eliminated by water pumps—if he installs the pumps for his customers. He refuses to do so, because he knows that the pumps will put him out of a job. Eventually John of God’s brother, who has not considered the consequences, installs the pumps. Mena shows that progress has a dramatic impact on one’s future and one’s culture. The story was republished in the Monthly Criterion in 1927 and was selected for the Best Short Stories of 1928. “The Gold Vanity Set,” another short story about Mexico and its people, was

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published in American Magazine the same year. Again Mena incorporated Spanish words into the story. The editor realized that readers would not understand these words, and asked her to delete most, if not all, of them. She deleted some. “The Gold Vanity Set” concerns the invasion of a Mexican hacienda, which is owned by Don Ramon, by several Americans. They are led by a woman who insists on taking a picture of one of the Mexican girls who waits on tables. The girl has never seen a camera, and is terrorized by the sight of it. The American woman persists, until the girl becomes so frightened that she falls to the floor and cries. Don Ramon, on the other hand, is used to Americans and their lack of respect for others, especially those who live in another country and thus are different. He has learned their language and their customs, and often overlooks their questionable behavior. He has even purchased one of their inventions, the automobile, which he enjoys. In 1914 the editor of Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine accepted “Dona Rita’s Rivals,” a short story filled with Spanish words and phrases that also presents Mexican customs. The story examines the social and economic classes of Mexico in the late 1800s and early 1900s, a topic about which few readers in the United States knew. Mena focused on the lower class in Mexico, believing its members had been misrepresented by other writers and had been stereotyped, especially in fiction. She was intent on correcting the stereotypes and presenting a more realistic portrait of the Mexican people. Mena also focused on progress, particularly on the inventions and goods brought into Mexico from the United States. She examined how these changed the lives of those who lived in Mexico. In 1916 Mena married Henry Kellett Chambers, a writer from Australia who lived in the United States and later served as editor of the Literary Digest, a popular magazine. They lived in a mansion on Long Island Sound, and were friends with prominent writers including D. H. Lawrence. In 1935 her husband died, leaving Mena destitute. She moved from the mansion on Long Island Sound to Brooklyn, New York. She continued to write short stories about the people of Mexico, contributed articles to magazines, and published several novels for juveniles. The last included The Water-Carrier’s Secrets (1942), The Two Eagles (1943), The Bullfighter’s Son (1944), The Three Kings (1946), and Boy Heroes of Chapultepec: A Story of the Mexican War (1953). They were written to teach young people in the United States about their neighbors to the South. Mena lived as a recluse in dingy apartments, and friends made certain that she had enough to eat. She died penniless in Brooklyn on August 9, 1965. Mena’s short stories, which some critics claimed were sentimental and condescending, presented a positive picture of the inhabitants of Mexico. In 1997 they were collected and published in a lengthy book. REPRESENTATIVE WORK The Collected Short Stories of Maria Cristina Mena, 1997

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REFERENCES Garza-Falcon, Leticia. Gente Decente: A Borderlands Response to the Rhetoric of Dominance. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998. Simmen, Edward, ed. North of the Rio Grande: The Mexican-American Experience in Short Fiction. New York: Penguin Books, 1992. Tatum, Charles M. Chicano Literature. Boston: Twayne, 1982.

Samuel Merwin (1874–1936) Samuel Merwin, with his childhood friend, Henry Kitchell Webster, wrote three realistic novels that critically examine the individuals responsible for building American railroads as well as other major capitalist enterprises. Merwin was born on October 6, 1874, to Ellen Bannister Merwin and Orlando H. Merwin, in Evanston, Illinois. He attended Evanston High School, but devoted so much time to The Boys Herald, a semiprofessional publication, that he failed to graduate. He later enrolled in a special course at Northwestern University. Merwin wrote plays and comic librettos. Later, he worked for the Evanston Index, a newspaper, and served as a local correspondent for the Chicago Evening Post. In addition, he wrote verses that appeared in the Youth’s Companion. Merwin’s first realistic novel, written with his childhood friend Henry Kitchell Webster, was titled The Short Line War (1899). In it the protagonist, Jim Weeks, a serious-minded businessman, battles others, including politicians, for ownership of a railroad. The authors allow the reader to see another side of Weeks as he falls in love with a woman who eventually leaves him. The novel accurately depicts the questionable practices of businessmen and politicians at the turn of the century. Readers are introduced to characters who resemble specific capitalists, such as Jay Gould. In 1901 Merwin married Edna Earl Fleshiem; they had two sons and adopted another. The same year he and Webster wrote the realistic novel Calumet K, which also was about business at the turn of the century; it was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post before it was published in book form. The novel was a commercial success because the authors provide critical insight into how businesses and their owners operated. The novel concerns a young engineer who is brought to Chicago to oversee the construction of a large grain elevator,

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“Calumet K.” The project has dragged along primarily because the person responsible has not paid any attention to the correspondence in the office nor to a railroad that cannot supply cars to haul lumber to the project. Bannon, the engineer, not only resolves these problems but also confronts a group of financiers in Chicago, as well as others, who desire to thwart his efforts. Bannon succeeds, and the elevator is completed on time. Bannon also marries the woman he has grown to love. Novels that Merwin wrote by himself include His Little World (1903), The Merry Anne (1904), and The Road Builders (1905). For the most part, these sensational and romantic novels reflect his personal philosophy, which developed after he had read works by John Stuart Mill, Ellen Key, George Bernard Shaw, and Havelock Ellis. In 1905 Merwin became associate editor of Success magazine. Two years later he journeyed to China to investigate the opium trade for the magazine. Also in 1907 he and Webster published their third realistic novel, Comrade John. It concerns Herman Stein, the leader of a new religion, whose followers live in Beechcroft, a community in the Catskill Mountains. Stein has hired John Chance, a freethinking architect, to design and build a great temple. When it is finished, Stein announces its completion in print, and hordes of people arrive to join the cult. As a result, Chance is hired to build other buildings, and Beechcroft grows. The novel received mixed reviews. In 1909 Merwin was promoted to editor of Success magazine, a position he held until 1911. He then tried to start The National Post, a magazine, but it failed and Merwin returned to writing fiction. In 1912 he published The Citadel. This novel was followed by The Charmed Life of Miss Austin (1914), The Honey Bee (1915), and The Trufflers (1916). He produced a novel each year thereafter until 1925. In addition to novels, he wrote numerous short stories that were published in magazines. Merwin and his family moved to Concord, Massachusetts, where he operated a theater for fifteen years. Besides producing plays by others, he was coauthor of several plays. They include The Girl Outside, written with John King Hodges, which was produced in 1932 at the Little Theatre in New York City. In 1933 Merwin wrote the pamphlet My Favorite Club, which contains the reminiscences of several members, including himself, of the Players on Gramercy Park, in New York City. The same year he suffered a severe heart attack. Merwin died of a stroke while dining at the Players on Gramercy Park in New York City, on October 17, 1936. He was sixty-two years old.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Short Line War, 1899 (with Henry Kitchell Webster) Calumet K, 1901 (with Henry Kitchell Webster) Comrade John, 1907 (with Henry Kitchell Webster)

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REFERENCES “A Romance of Spirited Facts.” New York Times, November 16, 1901, p. 844. “Briefs on New Books: Railroading Up-to-Date.” The Dial, 27, no. 314 (July 16, 1899): 52–53. “Community Life Story.” New York Times, February 1, 1908, p. 61. Merwin, Samuel. “Hitting Bottom: Autobiography.” Collier’s, December 13, 1924, pp. 20–21, 51. “Novel Notes: The Short Line War.” Bookman (July 1899): 475. “Samuel Merwin.” Bookman (July 1912): 460–461. “Samuel Merwin, Novelist, 62, Dead.” New York Times, October 18, 1936, p. 8N.

S. Weir Mitchell (1829–1914) Silas Weir Mitchell was better known as a physician than as a realistic novelist during his lifetime. His novels realistically depict the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Civil War, life in Philadelphia, and the field of medicine. Mitchell was born on February 15, 1829, to Sarah Matilda Mitchell and John Kearsley Mitchell, in Philadelphia. He attended the University Grammar School, then in 1844 enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania. When he was a senior, he had to withdraw because of illness. He later enrolled at Jefferson Medical College, where his father was a professor, and graduated in 1850. Mitchell sailed abroad and studied with the physiologist Claude Bernard and the microscopist Charles Philippe Robin in Paris. He returned in 1851 and became an assistant to his father, who practiced medicine in Philadelphia. Mitchell engaged in medical research. His first scientific paper, “Observations on the Generation of Uric Acid and Its Crystalline Forms,” was published in the American Journal of Medical Sciences in July 1852. Other research papers followed. By 1855 Mitchell had taken over his father’s practice because his father had become ill. His father died three years later. Mitchell married Mary Middleton Elwyn; they had two sons before she died from diphtheria in 1862. During the Civil War, Mitchell was an assistant surgeon, working with G. R. Moorehouse and William W. Keen. With them, he published Gunshot Wounds and Other Injuries of Nerves (1864) and Reflex Paralysis (1864). Both were based on his research with wounded soldiers. In 1864 Mitchell resigned from the army, and sailed to England and France. He stayed abroad about two months, then returned to Philadelphia, where he resumed practicing medicine and conducting medical research. Before 1870 he had written articles about peripheral nerve paralysis, the cerebellum, opium, and toxicology, among other topics. In 1870 he became associated with the Phila-

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delphia Orthopaedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases, and was a professor at the Philadelphia Polyclinic and College for Graduates in Medicine. Mitchell’s Wear and Tear; or, Hints for the Overworked (1871) concerns Americans’ inability to play, and the nervous disorders that this inability caused. Mitchell married Mary Cadwalader, the daughter of General Thomas Cadwalader and a member of one of Philadelphia’s most prominent families, in 1874. They had a daughter, who died of diphtheria twenty-two years later. Mitchell wrote more articles, then the book, Fat and Blood: An Essay on the Treatment of Certain Forms of Neurasthenia and Hysteria (1877), which concerns rest, massage, electrotherapy, and physiotherapy in the treatment of nervous disorders. It was followed by Lectures on the Diseases of the Nervous System, Especially in Women (1881), as well as other articles and books based on his research. Mitchell had written poetry and fiction under the pseudonym Edward Kearsley. In 1880 he acknowledged that he was the author of Hephzibah Guinness, Thee and You, and A Draft on the Banks of Spain, his first book of fiction. In 1882 The Hill of Stones, the first collection of poetry to appear under his name, was published. Although the poetry is skillfully written, most critics claimed that it lacked originality. Nonetheless, his poetry was popular and he published several more collections over the years. Mitchell had written a short story about a soldier who fought in the Civil War in 1866, and it had been published anonymously in the Atlantic Monthly. He returned to the Civil War for his first major novel, In War Time, which was published serially in the Atlantic Monthly in 1884, and as a book in 1885. It concerns Dr. Ezra Wendell, who works in an army hospital in Philadelphia. Mitchell provides a realistic description of the Civil War and he accurately depicts the effects—both physical and psychological—of the Civil War on the characters. The novel contains skillfully drawn, complex characters, historically accurate information, and realistic detail. Roland Blake (1886) concerns a Union soldier who understands the meaning of “valor” and the bedridden invalid Octopia Darnell, who easily manipulates those around her. Darnell is one of the first unsympathetic female characters who seems to have been based on an actual person. Other novels followed, including Far in the Forest (1889), set in the wilderness region of Pennsylvania; Characteristics (1892), which consists of conversations about a physician; and When All the Woods Are Green (1894), which is based on Mitchell’s fishing expeditions in Canada. In 1896–1897 Mitchell’s well-researched historical novel about the American Revolution, Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker, was serialized in Century Magazine; it was published in book form a year later. Although Hugh Wynne is fictitious, Mitchell knew the history of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania so well that he seems real. Every detail, including customs and speech patterns, rings true. Hugh Wynne is reared in a strict Quaker home, but he strays to some extent when he attends the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania) and

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when he listens to his worldly aunt, Gainor Wynne. Arthur Wynne, Hugh’s British cousin, competes with him for the hand of Darthea Peniston. Arthur is an officer in the British Army. Hugh fights for the Continental Army at the Battle of Germantown, and is captured, then imprisoned. His British cousin shuns him. Hugh escapes, then becomes a captain under George Washington. Before the novel’s end, he wins the hand of Darthea. The novel depicts the sights and sounds of Philadelphia during the Revolutionary period with authenticity. Critics praised the novel for its historical accuracy. In 1898 The Adventures of Francois, Foundling, Thief, Juggler, and FencingMaster During the French Revolution was serialized in Century Magazine before it was published as a book in 1899. The novel is set during the French Revolution. Mitchell’s descriptions of places and people are historically accurate. Dr. North and His Friends (1900) is a sequel to Characteristics that includes a new character, Sybil Maywood, who had two distinct personalities. Circumstance (1901) is set in Philadelphia and concerns an adventuress, Lucretia Hunter, immediately after the Civil War. Mitchell examines an emotionally disturbed woman in the novel Constance Trescott (1905). The title character, who is both passionate and emotionally unstable, seeks revenge for the death of her husband. Several critics claimed that this was one of Mitchell’s best novels. In The Red City: A Novel of the Second Administration of President Washington (1908) Mitchell examines the struggle between the Democrats and the Federalists during George Washington’s second term as president of the United States. Mitchell’s last novel, Westways: A Village Chronicle (1913), concerns the Civil War from the perspective of a surgeon who was in Pennsylvania during the Battle of Gettysburg. Mitchell received honorary degrees from universities in the United States and Europe before he died on January 4, 1914, in Philadelphia.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS In War Time, 1885 Roland Blake, 1886 Characteristics, 1892 Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker, 1898 Dr. North and His Friends, 1900 Constance Trescott, 1905 Westways: A Village Chronicle, 1913

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REFERENCES Burr, Anna Robeson. Weir Mitchell: His Life and Letters. New York: Duffield, 1925. Earnest, Ernest. S. Weir Mitchell: Novelist and Physician. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1950. Lovering, Joseph P. S. Weir Mitchell. New York: Twayne, 1971. Quinn, Arthur Hobson. “Weir Mitchell: Pioneer and Patrician.” In American Fiction: An Historical and Critical Survey, ed. by Arthur Hobson Quinn. New York: Appleton-Century, 1936, pp. 305–322.

Toni Morrison (1931–

)

In 1993 Toni Morrison was the first African American to win the Nobel Prize for literature. Several of her novels are unquestionably naturalistic, depicting the lives of African Americans who attempt to live in a white world. Morrison was born on February 18, 1931, to Ramah Willis Wofford and George Wofford, in Lorain, Ohio. Named Chloe Anthony Wofford, she was the second of four children. Her parents had a difficult time supporting the family, especially during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Her father worked at several jobs, including construction and welding. Because of his experiences with white people, he became a racist. Her mother worked at menial jobs, but she believed that whites would change eventually. Both parents encouraged their children to rely on themselves and on the black community, not on whites and society at large. Morrison attended public schools, and when she was young, worked to help the family make ends meet. An avid reader of literature, she was also exposed to music and storytelling. Her mother, for instance, sang at home and at church. Both parents told stories, especially ghost stories, and both encouraged their children to do likewise. Following her graduation from high school, Morrison enrolled at Howard University, where she majored in English. She changed her name to Toni because people had trouble pronouncing Chloe. Morrison became a member of the Howard University Players, who performed throughout the South. She graduated from Howard in 1953, then immediately entered Cornell University, from which she received a master’s degree in 1955. Morrison accepted a faculty position at Texas Southern University in Houston, where she taught English, and a similar position at Howard University two years

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later. She married Harold Morrison, an architect from Jamaica, and they had two boys. The marriage did not last, however. Morrison left Howard in 1964 because she did not have a doctorate. Divorced and unemployed, she returned to Lorain, where she lived with her parents. A year and a half later, she became an editor with a subsidiary of Random House in Syracuse, New York. When she was not working on textbooks at the office, she was taking care of her children and writing The Bluest Eye, which was based on a short story she had written while teaching at Howard. Numerous publishers rejected the manuscript before Holt, Rinehart and Winston published it in 1970. The novel concerns Americans’ placing value on a person’s looks rather than on his or her thoughts and feelings. Morrison claims that this Western attitude causes problems in African-American communities because black women do not have blond hair and blue eyes. The novel’s protagonist is Pecola Breedlove, a young African American who is blossoming into a woman. She believes that she needs blue eyes in order to be pretty and to be loved. Her mother, Pauline, ignores Pecola. Her father, Cholly, demonstrates his love by raping her while drunk. Pecola becomes pregnant. The baby dies, and Pecola is never the same. The novel received mixed reviews, although most critics acknowledged that Morrison had potential as a writer of fiction. Morrison became a senior editor at Random House in New York City. In this position, she helped African-American female writers see their work accepted for publication. In her second novel, Sula (1973), Morrison continues to examine the values of whites and the impact of these values on the African-American community. The novel concerns the inhabitants of Bottom and Medallion. Bottom is a hilltop community of blacks and Medallion is a valley community of whites. The inhabitants in Bottom include Sula and Nel, opposites (evil and good) who are friends; Eva, Sula’s mother who has had her leg amputated so she can receive disability checks; and Helene, Nel’s mother, who has accepted some values of the whites. Inhabitants of Bottom die of diseases or accidents. The inhabitants of Medallion, on the other hand, are blessed with economic prosperity. A few of them long for the simple life that those in Bottom have. The novel, which received mostly favorable reviews and was excerpted in Redbook magazine, was nominated for the National Book Award. Morrison’s third novel, Song of Solomon, was published in 1977. Its protagonist, Milkman, attempts to learn about himself by learning about his people’s history. He journeys to Pennsylvania in an effort to find gold. He travels to Danville, a small town where his grandfather, a proud owner of land, not only was stripped of Lincoln’s Heaven, as he called the land, but was murdered. Then he goes to Shalimar, where his transformation begins. Even more than in the first two, Morrison indulges in myth and the supernatural. Indeed, Milkman eventually learns to fly. However, unlike the first two novels, Song of Solomon

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offers its characters hope instead of despair. The novel was praised by some critics and was a commercial success, especially in paperback. In 1980 President Jimmy Carter appointed Morrison to the National Council on the Arts. A year later she was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In the same year her fourth novel, Tar Baby, was published. The novel focuses on several different cultures on a Caribbean island. Even though members of these cultures are dependent on each other for their livelihood, they are alienated because there are too many value systems. The novel, which depicts racial conflict as well as class conflict, received mixed reviews. Morrison’s next novel, Beloved (1987), is based on an actual incident in which a slave named Margaret Garner murdered her child so it would not have to be a slave. Morrison’s character, Sethe, escapes to freedom and subsequently lives with her children. The novel, which received mixed reviews, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. In 1988 Morrison accepted the Robert F. Goheen Professorship of the Humanities at Princeton University. Four years later her sixth novel, Jazz, was published. It focuses on the relationships between several African Americans, including Joe, a cosmetics salesman; Violet, his wife; and Dorcas, a teenage girl with whom Joe has an affair. When Dorcas starts seeing a younger man and stops seeing Joe, he shoots her. The novel also features Vera Louise, a wealthy white woman; Golden Gray, her mulatto boy; and True Belle, Violet’s grandmother, who takes care of Vera Louise and Golden Gray. Morrison weaves the two stories together, even though one occurs during Reconstruction and the other, during the Jazz Age. The novel received mixed reviews. Paradise (1998) concerns the founding of Haven in Oklahoma Territory by a band of former slaves and the founding of Ruby, Oklahoma, after World War II. The heart of the novel, however, occurs in 1976. A new minister arrives, bringing all that is wrong with the world—from civil rights to rioting in the streets—to Ruby. Nonetheless, his message appeals to the disenchanted young. Several miles away, at a former girls’ school called “the Convent,” women who have been abused move in. The town’s black fathers fear that these individuals have too much influence on the town, and consequently arm themselves and go to the “Convent.” The novel was praised by critics for its parallels to stories in the Bible. Morrison’s novels tend to mix the present with the past. She uses history in order to explain the present. Her novels often focus on the frustrations of African Americans as they struggle to survive in a white world. She uses naturalism in an effort to depict the subjects that she has chosen.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Bluest Eye, 1970 Sula, 1973

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Beloved, 1987 Jazz, 1992 Paradise, 1998

REFERENCES Carmean, Karen. Toni Morrison’s World of Fiction. Troy, N.Y.: Whitston, 1993. Coser, Stelamaris. Bridging the Americas: The Literature of Paule Marshall, Toni Morrison, and Gayl Jones. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995. Furman, Jan. Toni Morrison’s Fiction. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996. Harris, Trudier. Fiction and Folklore: The Novels of Toni Morrison. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1991. Heinze, Denise. The Dilemma of “Double-Consciousness”: Toni Morrison’s Novels. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1993. McKay, Nellie Y., ed. Critical Essays on Toni Morrison. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1988. Mobley, Marilyn Sanders. Folk Roots and Mythic Wings in Sarah Orne Jewett and Toni Morrison: The Cultural Function of Narrative. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1991. Otten, Terry. The Crime of Innocence in the Fiction of Toni Morrison. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1989. Samuels, Wilfrid D., and Clenora Hudson-Weems. Toni Morrison. Boston: Twayne, 1990.

Willard Motley (1909–1965) Willard Motley wrote naturalistic fiction that depicts poor or oppressed individuals who sometimes break the law in an effort to survive. Motley was born in Chicago on July 14, 1909, to Florence Motley. He was reared by his maternal grandparents, Mary Motley and Archibald Motley, Sr., a morally righteous couple who provided their grandson with a middle-class African-American home. Motley’s first piece of fiction appeared on the children’s page of the AfricanAmerican newspaper Chicago Defender when he was thirteen years old. Under the pseudonym Bud Billiken he wrote a weekly column for the newspaper that concerned such topics as poverty and race. Motley attended Englewood High School, and served as a member of the newspaper and yearbook staffs. He graduated in 1929 and desired to attend the University of Wisconsin, but he did not have the money. Motley rode a bicycle to New York City, then traveled by car to the West Coast. He worked at odd jobs and wrote fiction in his spare time. He submitted short stories and articles to magazines, but he had no success until the late 1930s, when several travel pieces were published. Motley was an editor, with Alexander Saxton and William P. Schenk, of HullHouse Magazine (1939–1941). He contributed articles and short stories to the publication, and read the works of others. He met other writers when he worked for the Federal Writers’ Project, which was part of the Works Progress Administration. In the early 1940s, Motley started a naturalistic novel based on his experiences with juvenile delinquents and research on the penal system. Knock on Any Door (1947) concerns Nick Romano. His father, an Italian immigrant, loses his business during the Great Depression and subsequently moves his family to Denver.

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Unfortunately, Nick associates with the wrong crowd and begins to commit crimes. He is arrested and sent to a reform school, where he experiences physical abuse. When he is released, the family moves to Chicago, and he continues a life of crime. Finally, Nick is arrested and sentenced to death. He is executed in the electric chair when he is twenty-one years old. The novel was popular with readers and critics because of its authenticity. Motley knew the environment in which his protagonist lived, and he understood the language that his protagonist used. In the novel Motley claims that poverty caused Nick’s initial criminal activity and the penal system caused his criminal behavior. In 1951 Motley published We Fished All Night, an ambitious novel in which he attempts to present the negative side of World War II. He focuses on three men: Don Lockwood, Aaron Levin, and Jim Norris. Lockwood, an actor, loses a leg in the war, returns to Chicago, and becomes a politician who is manipulated by a political boss, Tom McCarran. Levin, a poet, suffers emotionally and deserts his company during the war. He is court-martialed and dishonorably discharged. When he returns to Chicago, he rejects Judaism and turns to Catholicism. He grows disillusioned and wanders the streets of Chicago. Norris, a union organizer, serves in the army during the war. When he returns home, his devotion to the union is not as strong as it had been. He is attracted to young girls who remind him of a young prostitute in France, and eventually he is accused of raping a young girl. He is killed by a police officer during a strike. Although Motley attempts to blame World War II for the problems that these three men experience, the problems are of their own making. Lockwood was an opportunist before he served in the war; Levin suffered emotionally before the war; and Norris was sexually maladjusted before the war. The novel accurately depicts Chicago’s political machine and the struggles that labor confronted. Critics dismissed the book as inferior to his first. In 1952 Motley moved to Mexico City, where he lived with an adopted son. In 1958 he published Let No Man Write My Epitaph, which depicts the lives of Nick Romano, Jr., and his mother, Nellie Watkins. Nellie, a waitress, attempts to rear Nick in a lower-class neighborhood. Being a single parent who has to work most of the time in order to make ends meet, causes her to drink alcohol excessively and to use drugs. Louie Romano, Nick, Jr.’s uncle, becomes involved in crime. Nick, Jr., who abuses drugs, is saved by people who help him find a cure. Louie is saved by his Aunt Rosa and by Judy, a beautiful African American who loves him. In this novel Motley deals with the impact the environment has on an individual and racial prejudice. Even though critics and readers dismissed the novel, a company in Hollywood purchased the film rights. Motley also published articles about Mexico that concerned such topics as food. He died in Mexico City on March 4, 1965. His ill health was caused primarily by poverty; his income had been sporadic, especially in the latter years of his life. His last novel, Let Noon Be Fair, published in 1966, is about Las Casas, a fictional seaside community that changes from a small fishing village

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to a favorite destination for the American rich. As a result of this change, the local inhabitants lose their land and their values. The novel was criticized for its emphasis on sex. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Knock on Any Door, 1947 We Fished All Night, 1951 Let No Man Write My Epitaph, 1958

REFERENCES Fleming, Robert E. Willard Motley. Boston: Twayne, 1978. Major, Clarence. The Dark and Feeling: Black American Writers and Their Work. New York: Third Press, 1974. Rayson, Ann. “Prototypes for Nick Romano of Knock on Any Door.” Negro American Literature Forum, 8 (Fall 1974): 248–251. Rideout, Walter. The Radical Novel in the United States, 1900–1954. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1965. Wood, Charles. “The Adventure Manuscript: New Light on Willard Motley’s Naturalism.” Negro American Literature Forum, 6 (Summer 1972): 35–38.

Mary N. Murfree (Charles Egbert Craddock) (1850–1922) Mary Noailles Murfree wrote primarily local color short stories and novels about the inhabitants of the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee. Murfree was born to Fanny Priscilla Dickinson Murfree and William Law Murfree, a lawyer, on January 24, 1850, near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. They lived at the family’s estate, Grantland, until 1856, when they moved to Nashville. Murfree attended the Female Academy in Nashville, enrolled at the Chegary Institute in Philadelphia, where she was an avid reader and a good student. The experiences she had and the people she met at Beersheba Springs, a resort in the Cumberland Mountains which her family visited during the summers, had a major influence on her writing. In 1869 Murfree returned to Nashville, where she lived with her parents. Three years later, when she was twenty-two, she returned with her parents to Murfreesboro. Grantland, their original home, had been destroyed during the Civil War, and her father built another Grantland. It was in this house that Murfree started writing short stories about the inhabitants of the mountains. Her first story to be published was “The Dancin’ Party at Harrison’s Cove,” which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 1878, under the pseudonym Charles Egbert Craddock. Primarily because readers were curious about the inhabitants of the South, especially the inhabitants of the mountains, the story was popular. It concerns a dance at which a mountain man exhibits his four single daughters to eligible men. Two young men fight until a preacher stops them with words. Murfree describes the characters’ dress and mannerisms, and records their speech patterns. The adults who live in the mountains consider dances to be sinful, but their children do not. The children enjoy themselves on the dance floor while their parents, particularly their fathers, go outside to drink moon-

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shine. Murfree describes the magnificent landscape in great detail, so that readers can visualize it. Other wholesome, noncontroversial stories followed. Most, if not all, are based on incidents that requires the major characters to resolve some external conflict; as a result, they learn something about themselves. The characters’ dialects, which are faithfully presented, supposedly are variations of Old English. Murfree’s male characters are usually independent, proud men who enjoy the outdoors. They have little respect for legal authority. Her female characters become old before their time because of their responsibilities, which include giving birth, rearing children, and doing hard work. In 1881 Murfree moved with her parents to St. Louis. She continued to write, and Thomas Bailey Aldrich of the Atlantic Monthly suggested to an editor at Houghton Mifflin that the company should publish a collection of Craddock’s short stories. Houghton Mifflin published In the Tennessee Mountains, a collection of short stories that had appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 1884. The book became a best-seller, and Murfree traveled to Boston to meet Aldrich, who had assumed that Craddock was a man. When Craddock’s identity was revealed to the public, sales of Murfree’s collection of short stories increased. Murfree published her first novel the same year. Titled Where the Battle Was Fought, the novel is partly autobiographical. She recounts her experiences during the Civil War, and the reader learns about the horrors of combat. In 1885 Murfree published Down the Ravine, a novel for juveniles, and The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains, about the inhabitants of those mountains. The latter concerns Hiram Kelsey, the prophet of the title, who has doubts about his faith, and Dorinda Cayce, who is committed to Kelsey as well as to Rick Tyler, another man of the mountains. Other characters in the novel include Dorinda’s relatives, who attempt to murder the sheriff but mistakenly kill Kelsey. The novel concerns these characters’ struggles with life and its meaning, as well as the mountain people’s culture. Other novels about the people of the mountains followed, including In the Clouds and The Despot of Broomsedge Cove (1888). For the most part, these novels were not critically acclaimed. In 1890 the Murfrees returned to Grantland, and a year later Murfree published another realistic novel about the people of the mountains, titled In the “Stranger People’s” Country. Its protagonist is Fee Guthrie, a powerful man of the mountains who, like Kelsey, has doubts about his faith. Litt Pettingill, whom Guthrie loves, has other men of the mountains as well as an archaeologist, an outsider, who desire to be with her. Guthrie promised his father before he died that he would take care of his stepmother. Although Guthrie wishes later that he had not made the promise, he keeps it until he dies. Murfree wrote several more novels about the people of the mountains, including His Vanished Star (1894), The Juggler (1897), The Windfall (1907), and The Ordeal: A Mountain Romance of Tennessee (1912). These novels did

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not appeal to readers because local color or regional fiction was declining in popularity, and because Murfree’s characters and plots were basically the same. Murfree collected the short stories that she had written about the people of the mountains: The Bushwackers & Other Stories (1899), The Frontiersmen (1904), and The Raid of the Guerilla, and Other Stories (1912). However, In the Tennessee Mountains was unquestionably the best collection, critically speaking. Murfree also wrote several historical short stories and novels about the settlers of Tennessee, as well as short stories and novels about the gentry class of Mississippi. Murfree’s health deteriorated; she lost her sight and she was confined to a wheelchair several years before she died in Murfreesboro on July 31, 1922. Her reputation as a writer had declined considerably at the time of her death. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS In the Tennessee Mountains, 1884 The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains, 1885 In the “Stranger People’s” Country, 1891 The Bushwackers & Other Stories, 1899 The Frontiersmen, 1904 The Raid of the Guerilla, and Other Stories, 1912

REFERENCES Cary, Richard. Mary N. Murfree. New York: Twayne, 1967. Parks, Edd Winfield. Charles Egbert Craddock (Mary Noailles Murfree). Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1972; originally published 1941.

Alice Moore Dunbar Nelson (1875–1935) Alice Moore Dunbar Nelson realistically depicted the problems that African Americans confronted during the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction periods after the Civil War. Alice Moore Dunbar Nelson was born on July 19, 1875, to Patricia Wright Moore and Joseph Moore, in New Orleans. Her father was a seaman and her mother was a seamstress. Nelson attended public schools. After she graduated in 1889, she enrolled at Straight College (now Dillard University), where she studied education, law, literature, nursing, and music. After completing the two-year teacher’s program at Straight, Moore accepted a position at the Old Marigny Elementary School in New Orleans. She also wrote poetry and short stories about the Creole culture of the city. In 1895 she published Violets and Other Tales, a collection of poetry and romantic short stories. In the title short story, the heroine places several violets in a letter addressed to her sweetheart. She dies about a year later, and her former sweetheart, who is now married, discovers the flowers. He asks his wife if she had sent the flowers to him; she replies that she hates flowers, and tells him to throw the violets away. The poetry in the collection also features violets. In 1895 Paul Laurence Dunbar, a poet, saw a photograph of Moore in the Boston Monthly Review and subsequently wrote to her. She responded. In 1896 she moved with her parents to West Medford, Massachusetts, and continued to correspond with Dunbar. A year later Moore moved to New York, where she accepted a teaching position at Public School 83 in Brooklyn. Subsequently she helped to found the White Rose Mission in Harlem and transferred to Public School 66. She met Dunbar when he was leaving for England, and they became engaged. They continued to see each other upon his return, and in 1898 they secretly married. She moved to Washington, D.C., where Dunbar lived.

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In 1899 Dunbar published The Goodness of St. Rocque, a collection of local color or regional fiction about the Creole culture of New Orleans that features females as protagonists. Some of these characters face problems when they date; some are jilted by their boyfriends; and some have problems making ends meet, even though they have talent or skill that would normally help them achieve success. The title story which mixes dialect and Standard English, focuses on Manuela, a girl who competes with Claralie for Theophile, the love of her life. She prays to St. Rocque and also uses voodoo to gain his affection. Two other stories detail the consequences of a girl’s dressing as a man during Mardi Gras, and the lonely life of a woman who has achieved considerable success as a professional singer. Still another story reveals the differences between generations. Juanita, a young Creole girl, expresses her love for Mercer, an American, to her grandfather who is also her guardian. Her grandfather objects to her seeing Mercer primarily because he has nothing. Nonetheless, Juanita and Mercer promise their love to each other if Mercer wins a sailing race. When a storm threatens the boats, Mercer leads the sailors to safety and becomes a hero. Juanita’s grandfather is impressed with his heroism and allows them to marry. Nelson’s descriptions of the characters, their culture, and the locations are extremely realistic. Though Paul Laurence Dunbar died in 1906, Alice was still referred to as his widow years later. She married Henry Arthur Callis, a teacher from Delaware, in 1910. The marriage ended in divorce. In 1914 Dunbar edited a compilation of speeches, Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence, and started seeing Robert J. Nelson, a journalist. They were married in 1916. During World War I, Nelson tried to help in the war effort, but she confronted racial discrimination. In 1918 she joined the Circle of Negro War Relief, which offered its services to African-American soldiers and their families. As a member of the Women’s Committee of the Council of Defense, she helped AfricanAmerican women in nine southern states to organize and donate their time to the war effort. Nelson also donated her time to political causes. In 1920 her position as a teacher was terminated because of her work for the Republican Party. Undeterred, she edited and published the Wilmington (Delaware) Advocate, a weekly newspaper, and The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer, a literary magazine. Nelson also contributed poetry, reviews, and essays to other newspapers and magazines. Her major topics were racial discrimination, the lynching of African Americans, and the problems that African-American women confronted almost daily. Nelson helped found the Industrial School for Colored Girls in Marshalltown, Delaware. She taught and served as a parole officer at the school from 1924 until 1928. In 1926 she contributed a regular column to the Pittsburgh Courier, an African-American newspaper. The column ran for almost a year. Also in

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1926 Nelson began a regular column in the Washington Eagle, another AfricanAmerican newspaper, that appeared until 1930. She worked for the American Friends Interracial Peace Committee from 1928 until 1931. Nelson’s diary, which was edited and published in 1984, reveals her varied interests and her thoughts about gender, race, and sexuality. She died of heart disease on September 18, 1935, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although she had written poetry and short stories after the collection The Goodness of St. Rocque, she could not interest a publisher in another collection. She also had written at least two novels, neither of which were published. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Violets and Other Tales, 1895 The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories, 1899

REFERENCES Ammons, Elizabeth. Conflicting Stories: American Women Writers at the Turn into the Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. Ascher, Carol, Louise DeSalvo, and Sara Ruddick, eds. Between Women: Biographers, Novelists, Critics, Teachers and Artists Write about Their Work on Women. Boston: Beacon Press, 1984. Brown, Dorothy H., and Barbara C. Ewell, eds. Louisiana Women Writers: New Essays and a Comprehensive Bibliography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992. Dunbar-Nelson, Alice. Give Us Each Day: The Diary of Alice Dunbar-Nelson. Edited by Gloria T. Hull. New York: W. W. Norton, 1984. Toth, Emily, ed. Regionalism and the Female Imagination: A Collection of Essays. New York: Human Sciences Press, 1985.

(Benjamin) Frank(lin) Norris (1870–1902) Frank Norris wrote naturalistic novels concerning the dramatic changes that occurred before the end of the 1800s. These changes were the result of scientists’ learning more about the world and theorists’ speculating on man’s role in it. Born in Chicago on March 5, 1870, Benjamin Franklin Norris, Jr., moved with his parents to San Francisco in 1884. His mother, Gertrude Doggett Norris, had been an actress. His father, Benjamin Franklin Norris, Sr., was a successful businessman who had become wealthy selling jewelry in Chicago. He purchased real estate in California, where he earned even more. Frank, as Norris was called, attended the Belmont Academy, a private school, then Boys’ High School in San Francisco. In 1887, when the family traveled abroad, Norris studied painting in Paris. He abandoned painting two years later when he returned to the United States. He enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley, where, during his sophomore year, he wrote the lengthy poem “Yvernelle: A Legend of Feudal France” and contributed to the university magazine, as well as to The Overland Monthly and The Wave. When his parents divorced, Norris had attended the university for four years. He had failed to earn a degree, however, because he had not applied himself to his studies. He moved with his mother to Massachusetts and enrolled at Harvard, where he studied French and writing. Norris had started at least two naturalistic novels before he left Harvard in 1895 to report on the Boer War in South Africa. He became involved in the hostilities, however, and was ordered to leave in 1896. He had written a few articles about his experiences, and all but one had been published in the San Francisco Chronicle and The Wave. Norris became an editorial assistant at The Wave upon his return to the United States. In addition to numerous articles, he contributed Moran of the Lady Letty:

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A Story of Adventure off the California Coast, an adventure story published in brief sections, as well as sections of other novels. (Moran of the Lady Letty was published in its entirety as a book in 1898.) Although he enjoyed living in California, especially in San Francisco, Norris accepted a position with McClure’s Magazine in New York, and became a special correspondent when the Spanish-American War erupted. In 1899 Norris became a reader for Doubleday, Page, a publishing company in New York, and published the naturalistic novel McTeague: A Story of San Francisco, which concerns McTeague, an unlicensed dentist practicing in San Francisco who marries Trina Sieppe. Sieppe wins $5,000 in a lottery and changes dramatically. McTeague’s friend Marcus Schowler, who is bitter because he had been in love with Sieppe, reports McTeague to the authorities. McTeague, unable to find employment, deserts Sieppe, then returns and murders her. Schowler and the police pursue McTeague to Death Valley, where he kills Schowler—who handcuffs McTeague’s wrist to his own before he dies. Norris depicts the seamier side of life with great accuracy. His characters, driven by desperation and greed, represent the inhabitants of the impoverished neighborhoods of San Francisco. In 1900 Norris married Jeannette Black, with whom he had a daughter. In 1901 The Octopus: A Story of California, the first novel of an intended trilogy titled Epic of the Wheat was published. It concerns the Mussel Slough riot, which occurred in the San Joaquin Valley of California when the Southern Pacific Railroad enticed farmers to specific lands to grow wheat then exploited their efforts. The farmers united and battled, but were forced to capitulate to the monopoly. The Pit: A Story of Chicago, the second novel of the intended trilogy, was published posthumously in 1903. To a certain extent it recounts the 1897 manipulation of the grain market by Joseph Leiter. Curtis Jadwin, the protagonist of the novel, attempts a similar feat but fails. Meanwhile, his wife, Laura Dearborn, is about to elope with her lover, Shelton Corthell. Jadwin, now ruined, needs his wife, and Laura decides to stay with him. Blix (1899), A Man’s Woman (1900), and Vandover and the Brute (1914) are not as well written or broad in scope as the novels discussed above. Norris died of appendicitis in San Francisco on October 25, 1902.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS McTeague: A Story of San Francisco, 1899 The Octopus: A Story of California, 1901 The Pit: A Story of Chicago, 1903 Vandover and the Brute, 1914

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REFERENCES Dillingham, William B. Frank Norris: Instinct and Art. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1969. French, Warren G. Frank Norris. New York: Twayne, 1962. Graham, Don. The Fiction of Frank Norris: The Aesthetic Context. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1978. Marchand, Ernest. Frank Norris: A Study. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1942. McElrath, Joseph R. Frank Norris Revisited. New York: Twayne, 1992. Morgan, H. Wayne. American Writers in Rebellion: From Mark Twain to Dreiser. New York: Hill and Wang, 1965. Pizer, Donald. The Novels of Frank Norris. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966. ———, ed. The Literary Criticism of Frank Norris. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964. Walker, Franklin. Frank Norris: A Biography. New York: Russell & Russell, 1963.

Joyce Carol Oates (1938–

)

Joyce Carol Oates received the 1970 National Book Award for the naturalistic novel Them and has earned other awards for her writing as well. Joyce Carol Oates was born on June 16, 1938, to Carolina Bush Oates and Frederic James Oates in Millersport, New York. Her mother was a housewife, and her father was a tool-and-die designer at the Harrison Radiator Company in Lockport. Oates grew up on a farm that had belonged to her maternal grandparents, and was encouraged by her parents to create narratives by using pictures. She read books by Lewis Carroll and other writers when she was a child. Oates attended a one-room schoolhouse in Millersport before she entered a larger junior high school. In high school, she wrote several novels, including one about a drug addict who takes care of a black stallion. She submitted the manuscript to a publisher, but it was rejected because the story was too disturbing for young readers. Oates graduated from the Williamsville Central High School in 1956, then enrolled in Syracuse University, where she majored in English and contributed to the university’s literary magazine. She also submitted a short story to Mademoiselle magazine that earned a fiction award and was published in 1959. Oates graduated valedictorian from Syracuse in 1960, then enrolled in the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she met and married a doctoral student, Raymond Joseph Smith. After Oates earned her master’s degree in English in 1961, she and her husband moved to Beaumont, Texas, where he taught. Oates enrolled at Rice University in Houston. However, after one of her short stories appeared in Best American Short Stories, she stopped working on her doctorate and started working on a collection of short stories. By the North Gate (1963) contains stories in which characters use violence to get what they desire or to solve their prob-

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lems. Some critics noticed the stories’ poetic realism. By the time the collection was published, Oates and her husband had moved to Detroit, where she taught English at the University of Detroit. Oates’s first novel was published in 1964. With Shuddering Fall concerns the turbulent and destructive love affair between an innocent country girl and a race car driver. The story is set in the fictitious Eden County, which is based on the county in which Oates had been reared. The novel received mixed reviews. A second collection of short stories, Upon the Sweeping Flood (1966), received critical praise. Oates’s second novel, A Garden of Earthly Delights (1967), depicts the miserable world of the migrant laborer and the dismal world of the social outcast. The novel concerns the sordid life of Clara, who, like her father, is introduced to the world of the migrant laborer. She eventually settles in Tintern, in Eden County, and becomes pregnant by Lowry, a young man who goes to Mexico. Revere, a wealthy married man who is interested in Clara, makes her his mistress. After his wife dies, he marries Clara and adopts her son, Swan. Later, Swan shoots his stepfather, then himself, and Clara goes mad. Some critics praised the novel for its realism, but others dismissed the contrived ending. The same year Oates and her husband moved across the Detroit River to Windsor, Ontario, where she taught English at the University of Windsor. Expensive People (1968) concerns the problems of the upper-middle class. Richard Everett is the eighteen-year-old son of Natashya Romanov, a minor writer, and Edward Everett, a successful executive. He reads a story that his mother has written, and behaves like the protagonist in the story. He commits murder, then he begins to kill himself by overeating. Some critics claimed that the novel’s mix of satire and suspense failed. Them (1969) is a naturalistic novel about Loretta Wendall, her son, Jules, and her daughter, Maureen. Loretta and her children are members of the lower middle class who experience physical violence as well as mental anguish. Loretta’s brother murders her first lover when she is only sixteen. She marries Howard Wendell, a policeman who is suspended from the force and later is killed in an industrial accident. Loretta sleeps with one man, then another. Jules has an affair with a woman who introduces him to Bernard Geffen, a wealthy man who longs to be a gangster. Geffen hires Jules as his chauffeur. After Geffen is killed, Jules persuades Geffen’s niece, Nadine, to go with him to Texas. He attempts to make love to her, but she rejects him and then leaves. Later, they meet and make love. Nadine shoots Jules and herself. Jules recovers and becomes a pimp in Detroit, where he is involved in the 1967 riots. He becomes a friend of one of the riot’s organizers, and they move to California. Jules’s sister, Maureen, visits the library, where she reads the classics. She dreams of great wealth, and at fourteen she becomes a prostitute in order to earn money. Her stepfather asks questions about the money he finds in her room, then beats her. Maureen leaves her family and seduces a part-time college teacher, who marries her. Oates graphically depicts the lives of these characters from the Great Depression to

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the riots of 1967, and several critics were impressed by the in-depth details. The novel received the National Book Award in 1970. Wonderland (1971) depicts the life of Jesse Harte, the sole survivor of his father’s murderous attack upon his family. (His father then committed suicide.) Dr. Pedersen, a famous physician whose wife is an alcoholic, adopts Harte, who attempts to help Mrs. Pedersen. As a result, he is forced from the Pedersen home. He studies medicine, marries the daughter of one of his professors, and becomes a successful surgeon. The novel received mixed reviews. In Do with Me What You Will (1973) Oates depicts the life of Jack Morrissey, a lawyer who works for the poor as well as for liberal causes. The novel was favorably reviewed. The Assassins: A Book of Hours (1975) concerns political corruption, especially the assassination of a right-wing politician, Andrew Petrie, and its effect on members of his family. Critics dismissed the novel. Childwold (1968) is set in Eden County and concerns Fitz John Kasch and his relationship with the Bartletts, especially Laney, the young daughter of Arlene. Kasch lusts after Laney, but marries Arlene. Most critics claimed that the novel was similar to the best of her short stories. In 1978 Oates and her husband moved to Princeton, New Jersey, where she became a professor and writer in residence at Princeton University. The same year her novel Son of the Morning was published. It concerns the rise and fall of the evangelist Nathan Vickery. The novella Cybele (1979) focuses on Edwin Locke, a successful married man with children, who has a midlife crisis. Locke has one sexual encounter after another, and eventually he is killed by one of his lovers and her friends. Unholy Loves (1979) concerns the social and physical relationships of several faculty members at Woodslee University in upstate New York, as well as academic politics. Critics were not impressed. Bellefleur (1980), a lengthy gothic novel about six generations of the Bellefleur dynasty, has among its major characters Gideon and Leah Bellefleur, who try to restore the Bellefleur estate. Most critics enjoyed the novel; a few had reservations. Angel of Light, which concerns the attempt by Kirsten and Owen Halleck to avenge the death of their father, Maurice Halleck, was published in 1981. Maurice Halleck apparently committed suicide by driving his car into a swamp, but Kirsten and Owen believe that their mother, Isabel, and her lover, Nick Martens, caused his death. Violence erupts; Isabel and Owen die as a result. Nick confesses his guilt before the novel ends. In the gothic novel A Bloodsmoor Romance (1982) Oates examines the lives of five sisters. Mysteries of Winterthurn (1984) concerns a female writer who tried to exist in a male-controlled world. Solstice (1985) depicts a precarious relationship between two women. Marya: A Life (1986) examines the life of a female journalist who had been molested by her cousin and deserted by her mother.

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You Must Remember This (1987) focuses on an adolescent girl’s physical relationship with her uncle. Some critics praised the novel for its realism. In American Appetites (1989) Oates examines the life of a man who accidentally kills his wife during an argument. Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart (1990) depicts the relationship between an African-American family and a white family, and a murder. Black Water, a novella based on an incident that occurred on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, was published in 1992. Mary Jo Kopechne, a young woman, died when the car in which she was a passenger plunged into the water. Senator Edward Kennedy had been driving the car. The novella, which depicts a similar incident, was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang (1993) concerns several adolescent girls who are gang members. What I Lived For (1994) features Jerome “Corky” Corcoran, whose father was murdered on the steps of his home when Corcoran was a child. Corcoran’s mother became mentally unstable after the incident, and Corcoran went to live with his aunt and uncle. Corcoran eventually becomes a successful politician but is haunted by the past. He indulges in sex, food, and drink in an effort to forget what happened. The novel received favorable reviews. First Love: A Gothic Tale (1996) is a novella about a young girl who is sexually abused by her older cousin and psychologically abused by her mother. Zombie (1996) depicts the mind of Quentin P., a thirty-one-year-old serial murderer whose father is a college professor. We Were the Mulvaneys (1996) concerns a family of six who live on a farm in upstate New York. Their happiness ends when Marianne, one of the four children, either is raped or has consensual sex with a boy. As a result of this incident, the family is destroyed. Mike Mulvaney, the father, becomes an alcoholic, and the family eventually loses the farm. The novel received favorable reviews. Man Crazy: A Novel (1997) concerns Ingrid Boone, who hides with her mother, Chloe, in an effort to regain some sense of her life. Ingrid is alienated from her father; consequently, she attempts to find a replacement, first with drugs, then with a charismatic cult leader, Enoch Skaggs. Ingrid is rescued when police surround the cult’s compound. The novel received mixed reviews. My Heart Laid Bare (1998) depicts the Lichts, who live in a house by a haunted swamp in New England. Abraham Licht, the father, teaches his children confidence games so they can swindle gullible people out of their hard-earned money. The novel traces the Lichts during the earlier part of the century. Several children grow tired of confidence games and subsequently become members of respected professions. Broke Heart Blues (1999) concerns John Reddy Heart, who is tried for the murder of his mother’s lover and is sentenced to a detention center. After serving his time, he returns to Willowsville, New York, to resume his high school education. Although he becomes a legend in the community, he later leaves Wil-

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lowsville. The novel is told by members of the community as well as by Heart. The novel received favorable reviews. Blonde: A Novel (2000) is a fictionalized biography of the film star Marilyn Monroe. In addition Oates has published collections of short stories, as well as poetry, biography, and fiction for children. REPRESENTATIVE WORK Them, 1969

REFERENCES Bender, Eileen Teper. Joyce Carol Oates, Artist in Residence. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987. Creighton, Joanne V. Joyce Carol Oates. Boston: Twayne, 1979. ———. Joyce Carol Oates: Novels of the Middle Years. New York: Twayne, 1992. Daly, Brenda O. Lavish Self-divisions: The Novels of Joyce Carol Oates. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996. Friedman, Ellen G. Joyce Carol Oates. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1980. Grant, Mary Kathryn. The Tragic Vision of Joyce Carol Oates. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1978. Johnson, Greg. Invisible Writer: A Biography of Joyce Carol Oates. New York: Dutton, 1998.

John O’Hara (1905–1970) John O’Hara was a realistic writer of short stories and novels, including Ten North Frederick, which received the National Book Award in 1956. Born to Katharine Delaney O’Hara and Patrick Henry O’Hara in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in 1905, John O’Hara attended Catholic schools, which he disliked; was dismissed from the Fordham Preparatory School in New York City and the Keystone State Normal School; and failed to graduate from the Niagara Preparatory School. Rebellious and undisciplined, he enjoyed the company of the opposite sex and alcohol. His father, a prominent physician, eventually forced him to find employment. O’Hara worked for the Pottsville Journal. His father died in 1925, so the family needed an income. Unfortunately, O’Hara was not particularly attuned to keeping a job. He was fired from the newspaper in 1926. He then secured a position with the Tamaqua Courier, but was fired three months later. For part of 1927, O’Hara traveled to Europe as a waiter on the liner George Washington. When he returned to America, he left for the West in pursuit of a newspaper job, but did not find one. Despondent, he returned home. In 1928 he moved to New York City, where he worked for the New York Herald Tribune and contributed short stories to The New Yorker. He continued to drink and to date many women; consequently he moved from the Herald Tribune to Time, Editor & Publisher, the New York Daily Mirror, and the New York Morning Telegraph. In 1931 O’Hara married Helen R. Petit. The marriage ended in divorce in 1933, the year he moved to Pittsburgh, where he tried managing the BulletinIndex. After four months, however, he returned to New York, where he turned his attention to writing fiction. O’Hara’s first novel, Appointment in Samarra (1934), is set in Gibbsville,

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Pennsylvania, a fictitious community based on Pottsville. The realistic novel, which was commercially successful, concerns the last three days of Julian English’s life. At a Christmas Eve party, he drinks too much and throws a drink into the face of Harry Reilly, a wealthy parvenu to whom he owes money. Julian, an immature, spineless man, thereby embarrasses himself and his wife, Carolyn, in front of Gibbsville’s elite. He commits suicide by inhaling the exhaust fumes from his Cadillac. The novel reveals the shallow, selfish, and immoral inhabitants of Gibbsville and their obsession with social status. O’Hara returned to Gibbsville often; characters from Gibbsville filled many short stories and several novels. The devotion to the area he knew best gave his stories and novels a sense of reality. Residents of Pottsville believed they knew several characters who appeared on the pages of his short stories and novels. O’Hara’s ability to realistically depict characters and situations applied to most areas of the country, not just Pennsylvania. Butterfield 8 (1935) is based on Starr Faithful, a sexually promiscuous woman who had known numerous men from New York’s speakeasy society and who had mysteriously drowned. O’Hara’s novel features Gloria Wandrous, a promiscuous woman who attempts to find love through sexual encounters. She never finds love, however, and falls overboard into a paddle wheel, which kills her. Also in 1935 O’Hara published The Doctor’s Son and Other Stories. In 1937 O’Hara married Belle M. Wylie, with whom he had a daughter. Wylie brought stability to O’Hara’s life. In 1938 Hope of Heaven was published. Files on Parade, a collection of short stories, followed a year later. From 1940 to 1942, O’Hara wrote the column “Entertainment Week” for Newsweek, and saw Rodgers and Hart’s Pal Joey become a hit musical. O’Hara had written the book for the production from his short stories that had been published in The New Yorker. In 1944, O’Hara was a war correspondent for Liberty magazine. When he returned to the United States, he wrote numerous short stories that were ultimately collected and published, and several screenplays in Hollywood. His next novel, A Rage to Live (1949), concerns the upper-class inhabitants of Fort Penn, Pennsylvania—specifically, the troubled marriage of Grace and Sidney Tate, who have a nice home and three children. Grace has an adulterous affair, and Sidney learns about it. He confronts her, claiming that she has disobeyed the rules they are supposed to follow. Sidney and their son, Billy, die from polio. Grace continues to have affairs. In 1951 O’Hara published the novella The Farmers Hotel. From December 1953 to June 1954 he wrote the column “Sweet and Sour” for the Trenton Sunday Times-Advertiser, and from February 1954 to September 1956 he contributed the column “Appointment with O’Hara” to Collier’s magazine. In 1954 Belle O’Hara died. A year later he married Katharine B. Bryan. Ten North Frederick (1955) depicts the life of Joseph Chapin, one of the most respected citizens of Gibbsville, Pennsylvania. Chapin is born into a prominent wealthy family. He attends Yale University, marries a woman in his social class,

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and opens a law office with a friend. However, Chapin desires more. In an effort to become president of the United States, he bribes the local Republican Party that is headed by Mike Slattery, who believes that Chapin could not win any election, let alone the presidency of the United States. Chapin, disappointed, becomes reclusive. His son and daughter become strangers to him; his wife becomes angry with him. Chapin has a brief affair with a younger woman, then drinks his life away in his library. The novel, which reveals Gibbsville’s past as well as its present, received the National Book Award in 1956, the same year A Family Party, a novella, was published. From the Terrace (1958), a lengthy realistic novel, traces the life of Alfred Eaton, who attends Princeton University, serves as an officer in World War I, obtains wealth and power in aviation and finance, and serves as an assistant secretary of the navy during World War II. His marriage to Mary St. John ends in divorce; that to Natalie Benziger endures. Eaton suffers major disappointments: his best friend is killed in an accident; his business plans go awry; and Natalie has a stillborn child. The novel was a commercial success. Several collections of short stories and several novels were published in the 1960s. Among the novels, Ourselves to Know (1960) concerns Hedda and Robert Millhouser. The Big Laugh (1962) is about the actor Hubert Ward. Elizabeth Appleton (1963) centers on the woman of the same name and her husband, John. The Lockwood Concern (1965) depicts four generations of the Lockwood family. The Instrument (1967) concerns the playwright Yancey Lucas. Lovey Childs: A Philadelphian’s Story (1969) focuses on Lovey Childs, who lives up to her name. O’Hara wrote the columns “My Turn” for Newsday from October 1964 to October 1965, and “Whistle Stop” for Holiday from September 1966 to May 1967. O’Hara died at Princeton, New Jersey, in 1970. His novel The Ewings, published in 1972, concerns Bill and Edna Ewing’s rise in the world of big business. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Appointment in Samarra, 1934 Butterfield 8, 1935 Hope of Heaven, 1938 A Rage to Live, 1949 Ten North Frederick, 1955 From the Terrace, 1958 Ourselves to Know, 1960 The Big Laugh, 1962 Elizabeth Appleton, 1963 The Lockwood Concern, 1965

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The Instrument, 1965 Lovey Childs: A Philadelphian’s Story, 1969 The Ewings, 1972

REFERENCES Bruccoli, Matthew J. The O’Hara Concern: A Biography of John O’Hara. New York: Random House, 1975. Carson, Edward Russell. The Fiction of John O’Hara. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1961. Farr, Finis. O’Hara: A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1973. Grebstein, Sheldon. John O’Hara. New York: Twayne, 1966. MacShane, Frank. The Life of John O’Hara. New York: Dutton, 1980.

John Milton Oskison (1874–1947) John Milton Oskison sympathetically explored the lives of Native Americans. He depicted their rich heritage as well as their struggle to survive in naturalistic western tales and novels. He also wrote numerous articles about the subject for various publications. John Milton Oskison was born in Vinita, Indian Territory (Oklahoma), near Tahlequah, on September 21, 1874, to Rachel Crittenden Oskison, who was part Cherokee, and John Oskison, who was from England. He moved with his parents to Oregon, where his mother became critically ill. She was longing for other members of her family, so they returned to Indian Territory, where his mother died. Oskison’s father became a rancher, and Oskison and his siblings helped. The work required numerous hours and Oskison often missed school. In 1894 Oskison graduated from Willie Halsell College in Oklahoma, then enrolled at the newly founded Stanford University, earning a bachelor’s degree in law four years later. He then attended Harvard University, where he studied language and literature. Oskison wrote a short story, “Only the Master Shall Praise,” for a competition sponsored by Century Magazine; the story won the competition, and was published by the magazine in 1900. Oskison decided to become a professional writer. In 1903 he married Florence Ballard Day, with whom he had two children, and accepted a position as an editorial writer at the New York Evening Post. In addition to editing copy and writing editorials for the newspaper, he contributed essays about the problems of Native Americans to other newspapers and magazines. In 1904 Oskison was awarded the Black Cat Prize for the short story “The Greater Appeal.” Although journalism required much of his time, he continued to write fiction whenever he had a chance. In 1907 Oskison moved to Collier’s Weekly as an associate editor and writer.

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In addition, he contributed articles about Native Americans to other national magazines. “Remaining Causes of Indian Discontent” was published in North American Review in 1907, and “Making an Individual of an Indian” appeared in Everybody’s Magazine the same year. In these and numerous other articles about Native Americans, Oskison implied that many of the problems Native Americans experienced would be alleviated, if not eliminated, when they became recognized and accepted members of American society. He usually discussed both sides to each issue, such as American education versus Native American education, or American values versus Native American values. When Oskison wrote an article that would be published in Indian Territory, he often quoted politicians’ views about a specific issue, but he did not present his opinions. He attempted to depict Native Americans as thinking human beings, not stereotypes, who worked the land or became professionals as a result of furthering their education. Oskison became the financial editor at Collier’s Weekly in 1910. He also wrote about financial matters for a newspaper syndicate, and about Native American matters for various newspapers and magazines. In addition, he continued to produce short stories that concerned the West, particularly Indian Territory and its inhabitants. Unlike the typical short story about the West that was popular at the time, his short stories featured mixed-blood or full-blooded Native Americans who were patterned after the author or his relatives. Usually the main character observes, then records his observations. For the most part, his short stories present the narrative from the Native American’s perspective. In addition, each short story contains Native American myths or legends, as well as spirits that help those who find themselves in trouble or in need of guidance. During World War I, Oskison served as an officer in the North American Cavalry, then with the American Expeditionary Force in France, where he and his first wife divorced in 1920. When he returned to the United States, he married Hildegarde Hawthorne, a writer. He did not return to Collier’s Weekly, however; instead, he contributed to various periodicals. Although he continued to write essays about Native American matters, he also wrote articles about inventions, inventors, captains of industry, politicians, politics, and the military. He also produced features about his experiences at home and abroad. Oskison’s first novel, Wild Harvest: A Novel of Transition Days in Oklahoma (1925), is set in Indian Territory and depicts the harsh reality of a father and his daughter trying to survive. Nan Forest, the daughter, grows to appreciate the land and the people, as she becomes involved in the Native Americans’ attempts to quarantine cattle against disease. Tom Winger, a cowboy, captures Nan’s heart; Harvey Stokes, who competes for Nan’s affection, kills himself when Nan accepts Tom. The novel is based on fact—the federal government had promised to give land to several groups of Native Americans, but later gave the land to white settlers. The novel contains naturalistic violence. Black Jack Davy (1926) features some of the characters that appeared in Wild Harvest. Jim Dawes and his handicapped wife, Mirabelle, have migrated from

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Arkansas. They have an adopted teenage son named Davy, who helps his parents run the ranch that they have rented from Ned Warrior, a Cherokee. Indian Territory also attracts men who have broken the law, however. Violence erupts between Jim Dawes and an evil neighbor, and Dawes is killed. In addition to learning about hard work and violence, Davy also learns about love. A Texas Titan: The Story of Sam Houston (1929) is a biography that also contains elements of fiction as it reveals the interesting and dangerous life of Sam Houston. Brothers Three (1935) is an autobiographical novel because it depicts Oskison’s parents and their family. His brother Richard is Timmy (Bud), who is the oldest and desires to be a mechanic and storekeeper. His brother Bert is Roger (Bunny), who is the next oldest and desires to be a cattleman. Oskison is Henry (Mister), who is the youngest and desires to become a writer. Oskison’s father is Frances Odell, who wanders to Indian Territory, where he settles down and marries a woman who is part Cherokee. He learns to understand the land, and prospers. The first part of the novel concerns Timmy, who helps his father and attends to his sickly mother. Timmy learns about discrimination as whites move to Indian Territory. Although they lease land from Native Americans, they believe they are superior to them. The second part concerns Roger, who, when he matures, leaves home and becomes a cattleman. The third part concerns Henry, who desires an education. He goes to Stanford University, then moves to New York. Instead of writing about the inhabitants of Manhattan, however, he writes about the people he had known on his parents’ ranch. Like his brothers, Henry learns that no matter what he learns and no matter where he goes, he longs for those days when he was living on his parents’ ranch in Indian Territory. Oskison’s novels, especially Brothers Three, are filled with colorful characters and lengthy descriptions. They depict the harsh reality of ranching in Indian Territory and the cultural differences between the newcomer whites and Native Americans. These differences are depicted realistically and from the Native Americans’ perspective, which was rare, if not unique, at the time. In 1938 Oskison published another biography that contained the elements of fiction. Tecumseh and His Times: The Story of a Great Indian depicts Tecumseh as he attempts to form a confederation of Native Americans in order to confront whites. Oskison and his second wife had divorced before he died in New York City on February 25, 1947. His autobiography, which he had completed, has not been published.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Wild Harvest: A Novel of Transition Days in Oklahoma, 1925 Black Jack Davy, 1926 Brothers Three, 1935

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REFERENCES Allen, Paula Gunn. Voice of the Turtle: American Indian Literature, 1900–1970. New York: Ballantine Books, 1994. Kronenberger, Louis. “Brothers Three and Some Other Recent Works of Fiction.” New York Times Book Review, September 15, 1935, p. 6. Littlefield, Daniel F., Jr., and James W. Parins. “Short Fiction Writers of the Indian Territory.” American Studies, 23, no. 1 (Spring 1982): 23–38. Strickland, Arney L. “John Milton Oskison: A Writer of the Transitional Period of the Oklahoma Indian Territory.” Southwestern American Literature, 2 (1972): 125– 134. Wiget, Andrew. Dictionary of Native American Literature. New York: Garland, 1994.

Thomas Nelson Page (1853–1922) Thomas Nelson Page wrote local color short stories and novels about the South shortly after the Civil War. They were romantic, but realistic in the sense that Page captured the characters’ speech, dress, and manners with great accuracy. Page was born on April 23, 1853, to Elizabeth Burwell Nelson Page and Major John Page, an officer in the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War. He was born at “Oakland,” his parents’ plantation in Hanover County, Virginia, and grew up listening to stories about the South before the Civil War. Page attended local schools, and read numerous books that were in his parents’ library. In 1869 he entered Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. Page left in 1872, and read law books at home. In 1873 he enrolled in the University of Virginia, where he studied law. He received an LL.B. degree in 1873, then moved to Richmond, Virginia, where he practiced law. Page married Anne Seddon Bruce in 1886. His first book, a collection of short stories, titled In Ole Virginia, was published a year later. The short stories concern the South before, during, and after the Civil War. “Marse Chan,” one of the stories in the collection, is about a Whig who desires to keep Virginia in the Union. He loves Anne Chamberlain, whose father, Colonel Chamberlain, desires to have Virginia secede from the Union. They have a duel with pistols, and Colonel Chamberlain’s shot misses. Chan fires his pistol in the air, thus insulting the colonel by not following the code of Southern gentlemen. Virginia secedes from the Union, and Chan enlists in the military as a private. Anne eventually writes that she is in love with him, but the letter arrives too late; Chan has been killed in a battle. The tragic ending is reminiscent of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, which is not surprising, for Page based several stories on the play. Other stories in the collection depict life on plantations as happy, with benevolent masters and loyal slaves. The dialects are authentic.

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His wife died in 1888 and Page, depressed, sailed to Europe. When he returned to the United States, he traveled across the country, giving lectures, and published Two Little Confederates, a book for children (1888). Page continued to practice law and to write short stories for adults and children. He also wrote essays about the South, some of which were collected in The Old South: Essays Social and Political (1892). He married Florence Lathrop Field in 1893, and stopped practicing law. He and his wife moved to Washington, D.C., where they made influential friends and he continued to write. In 1898 Page published what would become his most respected novel. Red Rock depicts Northerners and Southerners during and after the Civil War. Lawrence Middleton, the ranking Union officer in the district of Red Rock, is sent to the Northwest. Jonadab Leech, a scoundrel from the North, attempts to imprison Steve Allen, a Southerner who has been involved in the Ku Klux Klan. Leech intends to call Ruth Welch, the daughter of Major Welch, a Union officer, to testify against Allen, but she is married to Allen, and a wife cannot testify against her husband. Another plot in the novel concerns Major Welch, who has purchased the estate of Red Rock. When he learns that his purchase is tainted with fraud, he refuses to accept the estate. Although the novel has flaws, it nonetheless captures the setting, speech, and dress of the period. In 1913 Page became the American ambassador to Italy. When World War I started, he helped hundreds of Americans leave the country. He recorded what Italy had done during the war in Italy and the World War, which was published in 1920, a year after he had resigned his ambassadorship. Page returned to the United States and continued to write. His wife died in 1921, and his health deteriorated. He died in Oakland, California, on November 1, 1922. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS In Ole Virginia, 1887 Red Rock, 1898

REFERENCES Flusche, Michael. “Thomas Nelson Page: The Quandary of a Literary Gentleman.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 84 (October 1976): 464–485. Gross, Theodore. Thomas Nelson Page. New York: Twayne, 1967. Holman, Harriet R. The Literary Career of Thomas Nelson Page, 1884–1910. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1947. Page, Rosewell. Thomas Nelson Page: A Memoir of a Virginia Gentleman, by His Brother. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1969; originally published 1923.

Will Payne (1865–1954) Will Payne wrote numerous local color or regional short stories, as well as several realistic novels about business and finance and those who attempt to achieve success both ethically and unethically. Payne was born on January 9, 1865, to Caroline Ferris Payne and William Augustus Payne, in rural Illinois. His parents owned a farm, and Payne was given numerous chores when he was young. He attended a country school for several years. Later, when the family moved to Nebraska, he obtained a job in a bank, where he learned about finance. In 1888 Payne became a reporter for the Chicago Daily News; by 1893 he had become the city editor. Later, he was promoted to financial editor. In 1896 he married Katherine Whitney and left the Daily News to become the financial editor of the Chicago Chronicle. Also in 1896 Payne’s first book, Jerry, the Dreamer, was published. Set in Chicago, which Payne knew extremely well, the novel concerns a young man who leaves his home in rural central Illinois in order to seek his fortune in the city. Although he has some success, his personal weaknesses limit his achievements. Payne’s plot is similar to those of other writers of the period, and carefully records the ambitions of numerous young men before the turn of the century. In 1897 Payne left the Chicago Chronicle to become the financial editor of the Chicago Economist. When he was not working at his office, he was writing fiction. His second book, The Money Captain (1898), concerns the lives of stockbrokers and speculators who gamble in the stock market and make unscrupulous deals in hopes of earning vast sums of money. Although the story is set in Chicago rather than New York, it is nonetheless realistic because Payne discloses unscrupulous practices that occurred at the time. The Story of Eva (1901) depicts the tragic life of a woman who has hardly

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any education and who lives in the country. Eva, a strong woman who understands what her needs and desires are, is married to a man who is unfaithful and worthless. She finally leaves him and moves to Chicago, where she obtains a job in a publishing company. She is attracted to a young man who works at the company, and they decide to live together, even though she is still married. In order to avoid a scandal, they pose as husband and wife. When her husband dies, the young man refuses to marry her; Eva attempts to leave him, but he pleads with her to stay. This novel is more realistic than the previous two, primarily because of the characters, who are more authentic. On Fortune’s Road: Stories of Business (1902) is a collection of short stories. Mr. Salt (1903) shows American business in action. The novel features a stenographer who commits perjury to help her employer, a captain of industry, whom she loves. The romantic aspect of the novel is secondary to the depiction of American enterprise. When Love Speaks (1906) is perhaps Payne’s most realistic novel. Set in a small town in western Michigan, it focuses on David and Louise Donovan and their friends. David, a zealous district attorney, conducts a campaign against corruption, thereby causing numerous problems for himself and his wife because they know those whom David is investigating and are friends with them. David and Louise differ in their points of view about the matter, which puts a strain on their marriage. David discovers that the forces of evil are too powerful, even for him, to cope with; he also realizes that he loves his wife. In 1909 Payne published The Automatic Capitalists and The Losing Game. The latter concerns a telegraph operator who marries a stenographer. She explains to him how he can become wealthy as a result of his wire-tapping abilities. When he becomes rich, however, he divorces his wife and marries a woman who aspires to become a respected member of society. By the novel’s end, the protagonist has lost his wealth. Most critics who reviewed the novel thought it faithfully captured a specific segment of America. Payne became an editorial writer at the Saturday Evening Post and occasionally contributed features, including a lengthy series about railroads in America, to the magazine. He also published numerous local color or regional short stories in other magazines. The Scarred Chin appeared in 1919. A year later Payne published Overlook House, a mystery about the disappearance of a maid who may have been murdered by one of her employers. Payne retired to Florida. After suffering from ill health for several years, he died on May 20, 1954, in the home of his daughter-in-law. He was ninety years old.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Jerry, the Dreamer, 1896 The Money Captain, 1898

American Naturalistic and Realistic Novelists The Story of Eva, 1901 Mr. Salt, 1903 When Love Speaks, 1906 The Losing Game, 1909

REFERENCES “Jerry, the Dreamer.” Dial, 21, no. 244 (August 16, 1896): 95. “The Losing Game.” The Nation, 90 (April 14, 1910): 35. “The Money Captain.” Dial, 25, no. 297 (November 1, 1898): 305. “The Story of Eva.” Dial, 31, no. 365 (September 1, 1901): 137–138. “Will Payne, Noted as Author, Was 90.” New York Times, May 21, 1954, p. 28.

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Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (Ward) (1844–1911) Elizabeth Stuart Phelps wrote numerous realistic short stories and novels that were popular with readers before 1900. They concern members of various economic classes, particularly of the lower class. Phelps was born in Boston on August 31, 1844, to Elizabeth Wooster Stuart Phelps and Austin Phelps. Her mother was a successful writer and her father was a respected minister. She was christened Mary Gray Phelps, and grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, where she attended Mrs. Edwards’ School for Young Ladies. In 1850 her father became a professor at Andover Theological Seminary. Two years later, when Phelps was eight, her mother, who had been in frail health, died giving birth. Phelps, who had been very close to her mother, took her mother’s name soon afterward. She describes her relationship with her mother and mother’s death in her autobiography, Chapters from a Life (1896). Her mother’s success as a writer probably influenced Phelps to choose writing as a profession. She published her first short story, which was for children, when she was thirteen years old. Other short stories for children followed. In 1858 her father married Mary Ann Johnson. She had a positive impact on Phelps, who liked her, though she could not take the place of her mother. When Phelps finished school, she became ill, just like her mother. Her health later improved, but she suffered from illness periodically for the rest of her life. Phelps’s close friend Samuel Hopkins Thompson was killed in the Civil War. Phelps wrote short stories about the war that usually focus on those left at home, particularly young wives who learn that their husbands have been killed in battle. She explores the anguish that these wives experience and reveals that they sacrifice not only their husbands but also their happiness to the war. One of these

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short stories, “A Sacrifice Consumed,” was published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in 1864 and received considerable attention. In 1868 the editor of the Atlantic Monthly accepted Phelp’s short story “The Tenth of January,” which concerns the fire that had consumed Pemberton Mills and its young female employees. The Gates Ajar (1868) was the first of three Gates novels about deceased characters who have a wonderful afterlife. Phelps’s first collection of short stories for adults, Men, Women, and Ghosts (1869), contains ten short stories, including “The Tenth of January.” Most of the stories focus on the differences between men and women. Hedged In (1870) is a novel about a lower-class orphan, Nixy Trent, who at sixteen is alone and pregnant. After her baby is born, Nixy realizes that taking care of an infant and trying to gain employment as a servant will be difficult, so she abandons her baby. She has a difficult time finding work until Margaret Purcell helps her. Nixy gets an education, then becomes a teacher. Later she reclaims her child, but the boy dies. Nixy eventually becomes an invalid and dies. The novel realistically explores motherhood among single, young, poor women, a daring topic for the time. The Silent Partner (1871) concerns Perley Kelso, a young woman who has been spoiled by her wealthy parents, especially her father. After her father dies in an accident at his mill, his partners attempt to keep Perley out of the business. However, she learns about milling, then dedicates herself to her father’s business. In addition, she helps the mill’s employees by improving their working environment and raising their salaries. She breaks her engagement because of her commitment to the business and rejects a second proposal. The novel realistically depicts the mill and those who work in it. The strongest character is, of course, Perley, who is intelligent and independent. She proves that a woman can manage a business as well as a man. From about 1870 to 1875, Phelps spent the summers at coastal retreats near Gloucester, Massachusetts. She befriended several fishermen and their families, and later became an advocate on their behalf. She also wrote regional short stories and at least two semi-autobiographical novels that were based on her experiences. The Story of Avis (1877) concerns Avis Dobell, an artist who has studied in Europe. She marries Philip Ostrander, a professor, and soon loses the passion to paint. Instead, she cares for their two children and manages their house, duties that cause her to become gravely ill. Philip, whose work at the university is suspect, loses his job and subsequently grows depressed. He has an affair before he sails to Europe to recuperate. Their son dies from pneumonia, and later Philip dies in an accident. Avis, who has to raise her daughter by herself, teaches her daughter to become self-sufficient. Sealed Orders (1880) is a collection of seventeen short stories about men and women who question the norm and live outside the boundaries of what is considered acceptable or fashionable by most people.

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Friends: A Duet (1881) concerns Reliance Strong and Charles Nordhull. Reliance, a widow who enjoys her life as a philanthropist, finally marries Charles, a good friend of her late husband. Charles believes that the sexes are equal and should be treated as such, while Reliance believes in advocating women’s rights. Doctor Zay (1882) depicts a country physician who is dedicated to her work and her patients. Waldo Yorke, a lawyer who lives on an inheritance from an uncle, falls from a horse outside the small community where Dr. Zay practices medicine. She helps him, and during his recuperation he grows to love her and subsequently proposes marriage. Dr. Zay rejects the proposal, but Waldo is persistent, and finally she accepts, even though she is concerned about the marriage’s effect on her practice. Although Phelps had been physically and psychologically ill more than once in the 1880s, in 1888 she married Herbert Dickinson Ward, who was seventeen years younger. Ward had graduated from Andover Theological Seminary, but he desired to become a writer instead of a minister. They collaborated on several short stories and novels. Their marriage all but ended after a few years, however, because they were apart for months, especially when he went sailing or traveling. They did not have any children. After her marriage, Phelps’s heroines became more stereotypical. Instead of the independent, strong-willed women of her earlier work, they are weak and dependent, catering to the men in their lives. In 1891 Phelps published Fourteen to One, a collection of short stories about working-class people in New England as well as the Civil War. A Singular Life (1895) features Emanuel Bayard, a minister who is spoiled by his maid and his wife, both of whom are devoted to him. Although Bayard’s father-in-law has helped prepare him for the ministry, Bayard rebels against the doctrine of the church. He establishes a ministry in a small fishing community, where he saves the souls of the downtrodden before he is killed by those who earn their living from selling liquor. The Successors of Mary the First (1901) depicts the relationship between women of different economic and social classes. Confessions of a Wife (1902), which Phelps wrote under a pseudonym, concerns Marna Trent, whose husband deserts her even though they have children. He has an affair and becomes addicted to opium. A down-and-out drug addict, he returns to Marna, who believes that her love and care will help him recover. Walled In (1907) features Professor Myrton and his flirtatious wife, Tessa. Myrton falls off his steam carriage and becomes an invalid as a result. His restless wife seeks pleasure with one of his former students, and drowns while canoeing. Myrton grows to love his sister-in-law, a nurse, who eventually helps cure him. Though Life Us Do Part (1908) focuses on Cara Sterling. She marries Dr. Chaunceford Dane, who enjoys the company of numerous women. Dane soon grows tired of Cara, has an affair, and abandons her. Cara, who has a child to

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support, becomes successful in business. Dane, who has been disfigured in a sailing accident, returns to Cara, who takes him back. The last three novels discussed depict women who are too forgiving. They accept their husbands for what they are. They do not question anything that they have done; they merely take them back. These female characters are weak and overly dependent. Critics did not consider these novels as examples of her best work. In addition to writing regional short stories and realistic novels, Phelps produced essays about various subjects, including women’s issues, temperance, and life after death. She also wrote novels for children, plays, biographies, and poetry. Phelps died in Newton, Massachusetts, on January 28, 1911. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Men, Women, and Ghosts, 1869 Hedged In, 1870 The Silent Partner, 1871 The Story of Avis, 1877 Sealed Orders, 1880 Friends: A Duet, 1881 Doctor Zay, 1882 Fourteen to One, 1891 A Singular Life, 1895 The Successors of Mary the First, 1901

REFERENCES Bennett, Mary Angela. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1939. Coultrap-McQuin, Susan Margaret. Doing Literary Business: American Women Writers in the Nineteenth Century. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Donovan, Josephine. New England Local Color Literature: A Women’s Tradition. New York: Continuum, 1988; originally published 1983. Kelly, Lori D. The Life and Works of Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Victorian Feminist Writer. Troy, N.Y.: Whitston, 1983. Kessler, Carol Farley. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. Boston: Twayne, 1982. Nathan, Rhoda B. Nineteenth-Century Women Writers of the English-Speaking World. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1986. Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart. Chapters from a Life. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1896. Stansell, Christine. “Elizabeth Stuart Phelps: A Study in Rebellion.” Massachusetts Review, 13 (1972): 239–256.

David Graham Phillips (1867–1911) David Graham Phillips was an investigative journalist who wrote “The Treason of the Senate,” a series of articles about Senator Chauncey Depew which irritated Theodore Roosevelt to the point that he gave the famous speech “Man with the Muck-Rake” in response. Roosevelt implied that some investigative reporters were mere muckrakers because of what and how they reported. Phillips also wrote naturalistic and realistic fiction in which he explored American individualism and politics. He also examined women’s roles in American society. Phillips was born on October 31, 1867, to Margaret Lee Phillips and David Graham Phillips, Sr., in Madison, Indiana. His mother was a homemaker who taught her five children—three girls and two boys—how to read. His father was a prominent banker who conducted family prayer each morning. Phillips graduated from Madison High School in 1882. Then he entered Asbury College (now DePauw University) at Greencastle, Indiana, where he studied history and political science, and met Albert J. Beveridge, whose individualism impressed him. In 1885, before he had graduated from Asbury College, Phillips enrolled at Princeton University, where he majored in the arts. He graduated in 1887, then became a reporter for the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, often walking the streets in search of a story. Later he joined the Cincinnati Times-Star. In 1890 Phillips moved to New York City, where Charles A. Dana hired him as a reporter for the New York Sun. Phillips wrote stories for the newspaper and contributed human-interest features to several magazines, including Harper’s Weekly and McClure’s. He examined the members of the lower class as well as the members of political parties. Phillips joined Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World in 1893. He served as the newspaper’s correspondent in England, where he reported on a disastrous col-

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lision of two battleships later that year. When he returned to New York, he wrote a series of articles about large businesses and trusts. He enjoyed investigating political corruption and exposing poverty. He also served as an editorial writer. Phillips, who never married, lived with an older sister, Carolyn. Phillips’s first novel, The Great God Success, was published in 1901. The protagonist is a journalist named Howard. He is an honest reporter at first, but he becomes a pawn of the Coal Trust, for which he is rewarded—he becomes the ambassador to France. In 1902 Phillips resigned from the New York World to devote all of his time to writing articles and novels. The same year he published Her Serene Highness and A Woman Ventures. A year later Golden Fleece: The American Adventures of a Fortune Hunting Earl and The Master Rogue: The Confessions of a Croesus appeared. Golden Fleece depicts European noblemen who take advantage of wealthy American women. The Master Rogue concerns a successful American businessman who exerts his power by crushing those who get in his way or by purchasing favors from members of Congress. The Cost (1904) is about Hampden Scarborough, an idealistic politician who is based on Phillips’s friend Albert J. Beveridge, who had become a senator. Scarborough, who loses the love of his life to another man, successfully combats a greedy businessman. The Plum Tree (1905) depicts another stage in Scarborough’s life. The reader learns that Scarborough, who is running for president, is from the Midwest, where he attended college. Harvey Sayler, a political boss who has sold out, has enormous ability. At one time he was idealistic, but he has grown very cynical and power hungry. Unlike Scarborough, he believes that a relationship between big business and politics is progressive; as a result, the legislation that is written for big business will ultimately benefit the workers. Like the previous novel, Plum Tree has a romantic subplot. Also in 1905 Phillips published The Deluge, which examines capitalism and its impact on the country. Light-Fingered Gentry (1907) features an insurance company executive in New York City. A Midwesterner who is taunted by his superiors, he rises to power and saves the company and all its employees. The subplot of the novel concerns the maturation of the executive’s former wife. Phillips examined the institution of marriage as well as the independence of women in several novels and a play. In The Hungry Heart (1909) he examines the life of Courtney Vaughan, whose husband, a chemist, is dedicated to his work. She desires to play a major role in his life, even though he does not make time for her. Eventually she has an affair, but she does not respect her lover or his beliefs. Before the novel ends, she returns to her husband, who seems to have grown aware of her needs. Also in 1909 Phillips published The Fashionable Adventures of Joshua Craig, which concerns a well-respected society woman who opposes an idealistic senator from the Midwest. Phillips published other novels about women, including The Grain of Dust (1911), The Conflict (1911), and The Price She Paid (1912). However, it was

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his last novel, Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise, which received the most critical attention. Phillips did not live to read all of the reviews. Fitzhugh Goldsborough, a deranged man, had persuaded himself that Phillips had written critically about his family in The Fashionable Adventures of Joshua Craig. He stalked Phillips as he walked near Gramercy Park in New York City on January 23, 1911, confronted Phillips, then fired several bullets into his body. Then he turned the pistol on himself and fired, ending his life. Phillips died the next day. Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise, like some of Phillips’s previous novels, was serialized in a magazine before it was published in book form in 1917. The novel concerns Susan Lenox, who is born out of wedlock in Indiana. When she matures, her foster parents arrange for her to marry a local farmer, whom she does not love. She leaves him and travels to Cincinnati, then to New York City. Eventually she sails to Europe. Phillips allows the reader to experience Susan’s growth and maturation: she works in a factory, where she is exploited, and as a prostitute. Susan ultimately journeys to success—from being a fashion model to being a prominent actress. However, the experiences she has as a laborer and as a prostitute are the reasons Phillips wrote the novel. To him, the factory and prostitution are symbols of American capitalism, both of which exploit the common person. To Susan, working as a prostitute is better than working in a factory. Prostitution allows her to earn more in fewer hours, and she is in control of her life. Like most women, Susan desires respect from others, especially from men. Finally, she meets a successful writer who is not concerned about her past. He believes in her and in her ability to act. Unfortunately, he is killed before she reaches stardom. The novel depicts problems of the time as well as the author’s views about injustices in society. Phillips’s novels and articles were controversial, but his work initiated interest in three constitutional amendments, which were ultimately ratified. These were the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Nineteenth amendments, which allowed the government to collect income taxes, voters to elect U.S. senators directly, and women to vote. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Great God Success, 1901 Golden Fleece: The American Adventures of a Fortune Hunting Earl, 1903 The Master Rogue: The Confessions of a Croesus, 1903 The Cost, 1904 The Deluge, 1905 The Plum Tree, 1905 Light-Fingered Gentry, 1907 The Fashionable Adventures of Joshua Craig, 1909

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The Hungry Heart, 1909 Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise, 1917

REFERENCES Chalmers, David Mark. The Social and Political Ideas of the Muckrakers. Salem, N.H.: Ayer, 1984; originally published 1964. Cooper, Frederic Taber. Some American Story Tellers. New York: H. Holt, 1911. Filler, Louis. Voice of the Democracy: A Critical Biography of David Graham Phillips, Journalist, Novelist, Progressive. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1978. Marcosson, Isaac Frederick. David Graham Phillips and His Times. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1932. Ravitz, Abe C. David Graham Phillips. New York: Twayne, 1966.

Ernest Poole (1880–1950) Ernest Poole, a muckraking journalist, wrote several realistic novels about oppressed individuals and the obstacles they faced when attempting to succeed. Ernest Cook Poole was born on January 23, 1880, to Mary Howe Poole and Abram Poole, in Chicago. He was the fifth of seven children. His father was a successful stockbroker and his mother, who came from a prominent family, was a housewife. Poole attended the University School for Boys, where he worked briefly on the school’s paper. Then he entered Princeton University, where he attempted to learn to write and learned about the masses, who had little despite the many hours they toiled in almost inhumane working conditions. Poole was briefly a reporter for the Princetonian and contributed material to literary magazines. Before he graduated cum laude in 1902, he had read How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis, which concerns the immigrants who lived in the slums of New York City. This book, more than any other, influenced his political and social beliefs as well as his desire to write about the oppressed. Poole moved to New York City, where he lived in the University Settlement House, on the Lower East Side. He was a social worker, which gave him the opportunity to observe European immigrants. Poole was shocked to learn that children were paid little for their labor and that they frequently missed school. He wrote a report about child labor for the New York Child Labor Committee that was published in 1903. Sections of it appeared in several magazines. Although he was encouraged to become a reformer as a result of his report, Poole wished to write fiction, not nonfiction. However, the Committee on the Prevention of Tuberculosis asked him to produce accounts of those who suffered and died as a result of living in the slums. His stories were published in pamphlet form and in magazines. Poole realized from this experience that something had

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to be done to prevent others from suffering or perishing. He testified before a committee of state legislators, but the state government refused to act. He contributed articles about disease and employee abuse to magazines. In 1904 two short stories were accepted by the editor of Everybody’s Magazine, and Poole returned to Chicago, where he and William Hard reported on a strike by the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen for the Outlook. They were sympathetic to the plight of the employees whose union was eventually defeated. Later in 1904 Poole’s mother died of cancer. In 1905 Poole journeyed to Russia to cover the revolution for the Outlook. Posing as a businessman, he interviewed workers and students in St. Petersburg, peasants in small villages in the Ukraine, and militant nationalists in Georgia. He left Russia when he had gathered enough material for a series of articles and traveled to France, where he wrote several of the fourteen articles that eventually appeared in magazines. These articles were filled with descriptions of scenes and people, as well as the people’s perspectives. They represent some of his best writing. Poole’s first novel, The Voice of the Street: Story of Temptation (1906), is based on the boys he had interviewed for the report about child labor. The protagonist, Jim, finally escapes the slums and becomes a singer. However, the novel is filled with cliche´s and unrealistic dialogue, and the characters are artificial. In 1907 Poole married Margaret Winterbotham, and they moved into a house in Greenwich Village. Margaret provided him with a comfortable home as well as emotional stability and support. They had three children. Poole turned to writing plays during the next several years, but only three were produced. Poole became involved with the Socialist Party in 1908 but did not become a member. He later contributed numerous articles to the organization’s newspaper, the New York Call, that presented the opposition’s perspectives in a humorous vein. Realizing that he would not achieve great success by writing plays, Poole returned to the novel. He collected background material about Brooklyn Heights, its harbor, and the people who lived and worked there. He had completed most of the novel when World War I began. Poole became a correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post, and for three months wrote about the war from Germany and France. Upon his return to the United States he completed The Harbor, which was published in 1915. The novel concerns Billy, who grows up in a home overlooking New York Harbor and his father’s warehouse. He attends college with the intention of becoming a writer. Although Joe Kramer, a friend, urges him to write about the forces that cause changes in society, Billy dismisses the idea. He moves to Paris, where he writes, and Joe becomes a muckraking journalist. When Billy’s mother dies of cancer and his father goes bankrupt, he returns to New York, where he writes about the harbor in order to support his father and sister, Sue. Billy eventually finds success as a writer, and marries Eleanor Dillon, whose father

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is a well-known civil engineer. Although Billy becomes a member of the uppermiddle class, his friend Joe Kramer, who has become a socialist, attempts to persuade him that labor will wage war soon. Joe organizes the longshoremen and prepares them for a strike. Billy, who observes the longshoremen’s living and working conditions, grows sympathetic to Joe’s efforts and agrees to write articles about the movement. When the strike occurs, Billy believes that the federal government will intervene. However, the government does not interfere, and the owners, with the help of the police and militia, attack the strikers. Billy is knocked to the ground and jailed; Joe is tried for murder, but the jury finds him not guilty. Joe then moves to Europe, where he helps workers organize. Billy writes about social injustice in an effort to arouse Americans to demand legislative reform in order to avoid class warfare. The novel was well received by readers and critics because of its subject and its realistic depiction of locations and characters. Poole had based much of the plot on actual incidents and individuals. To say that The Harbor is merely a socialist novel would be inaccurate. It is larger in scope because it concerns Billy and his maturation. His Family (1917) concerns Roger Gale, a widower with three grown daughters. Edith, the eldest, is married and has a family. Deborah, the next eldest, is a school principal who is married to her job, although she does date Allan Baird. Laura, the youngest, is spirited and carefree; she resists listening to her father, and marries Harold Sloane, a financier. Gale tries to persuade Deborah to marry Baird, and after refusing, she finally agrees. When Edith’s husband is killed and she needs financial help, Gale takes out a mortgage on his house to pay her bills. Although Edith needs additional help, Deborah, who has postponed her wedding, helps those who live in the slums instead. Laura and her husband both commit adultery; they divorce, then she and her lover move to Italy. When Gale learns that he has only a short time to live, he decides to sell his house and move Edith and her children to the family farm in New Hampshire. John Geer, a young man who works for Gale, saves Gale’s business. In time, earnings from the business enable Gale to keep his house. Gale persuades Deborah to marry, and after her wedding, he gives the couple the house. Deborah and Baird start a family. Gale has a stroke, and before he dies, he realizes that he will live on in the lives of his children and grandchildren. The novel depicts the struggles between members of a family in both the same and different generations. The characters, especially Gale, are more realistic than those in Poole’s previous novels. The reader comes to know Gale through his words, deeds, and thoughts. The novel received the first Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1918. Poole’s work on his next novel was interrupted when he served as a correspondent in Russia for the Saturday Evening Post. He wrote articles on the Russians and their revolution, about which Americans were eager to learn. He expanded these articles into the books “The Dark People”: Russia’s Crisis and The Village: Russian Impressions, which were published in 1918.

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Poole completed the interrupted novel, His Second Wife, which was serialized in McClure’s Magazine, then published in book form in 1918. It concerns Ethel Knight, who visits her married sister, Amy Lanier, in New York. Amy attempts to help Ethel find a wealthy husband, but dies before she can do so. Ethel remains in New York to take care of her sister’s baby and look after her sister’s husband, Joe, a successful real estate speculator. She grows to love Joe, and they marry. Ethel tries to resurrect Joe’s interest in architecture by having his former friends around, and Joe mistakenly believes that she is having an affair. Finally he learns the truth, and he and Ethel travel to Paris. The novel seems to have been written in haste, for the characters are not developed and the dialogue is not realistic. The critics were not impressed when they compared the novel to Poole’s earlier work. Blind (1920) is about Larry Hart, who is blinded in World War I. As part of his therapy, he types his autobiography, which covers the years from the mid1870s to 1919. It features Steve McCrea, his friend; Dorothy Hart, his cousin; and, of course, himself. He reveals how happy they were when they were children, presents his experiences in college, recounts his brief career as a muckraking journalist, and depicts his life as a successful playwright. Steve becomes a surgeon, and then, because of losing a hand in an accident, a psychiatrist. Dorothy becomes a socialist, marries a German chemist, and moves to Germany. Hart then discusses each person’s experiences during World War I. Writing the book helps Hart’s attitude toward what has happened to him. The book is filled with numerous incidents and lengthy passages based on Poole’s experiences, almost to the point that the reader wonders if the book is fiction. Another weakness is that the author tries to cover the lives of three characters who are not fully developed. Beggars’ Gold (1921) concerns Peter Wells, who as a young man dreams about seeing the world, especially China. He begins teaching, then marries. He and his wife, Katherine, start a family. When he and his wife are older, he realizes that his wife and family have brought more happiness to him, even though they have had difficult times, than a trip to China. The novel paints a realistic picture of Wells and his wife because both characters are fully developed. The novelette Millions (1922) depicts the relatives of Gordon Cable, who has been seriously injured in an automobile accident and is in a coma. His relatives think about how much money they are going to inherit if he dies. Cable lives, however, and his relatives’ dreams fade. The reader learns that Cable is actually in debt. The novelette is tightly written and filled with arresting dialogue. Danger (1923) reveals the impact of war on several people, including Maud Brewer, the middle-aged sister of Dallas Brewer, who suffers from shell shock. Maud manipulates Dallas by reminding him that she worked so he could get an education before he went off to war. Dallas believes that he is indebted to his sister, who operates a club that attempts to rehabilitate soldiers who fought in the war. When Dallas marries Natalie Darrow, Maud becomes jealous. Natalie

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is young and fresh; Maud is old and has experienced a war through others. When soldiers leave Maud’s club, she has no place to go. Dallas allows her to live with him and Natalie, though Natalie opposes Maud’s presence. Maud causes problems by insinuating to Dallas that Natalie is having an affair. She then claims that Jack, Natalie’s brother, intends to harm her. Dallas, pistol in hand, confronts Jack; they fight for the pistol, which fires, killing Dallas. Jack is tried for murder. Maud’s testimony reveals that she is insane, and she soon kills herself. Jack is freed. Before the novel’s end, Natalie gives birth to Dallas’s child. The situations are carefully depicted, and the characters, especially Maud and Natalie, are fully developed. The novel was popular with readers, but not with critics. Some believed that the language was too graphic or coarse. The Avalanche (1924) concerns Dorothea Farragut, who breaks her engagement to Tom McKane, a newspaperman, so she can marry Llewellyn Dorr, a neurologist. Dorothea persuades Dorr, who intends to conduct serious research, to seek wealth and fame instead. He becomes overworked and suffers a fatal heart attack. The novel, which satirizes modern society, was criticized for its failure to examine any topic in depth. In The Hunter’s Moon (1925), Amory Barnes, a nine-year-old, escapes the constant bickering of his parents by going to the roof of the apartment complex where he lives. There, he plays games and fantasizes about living in the country. The novel was not well received by some critics because they thought Barnes was rather strange. Other critics thought he was not believable. With Eastern Eyes (1926) concerns Pavel Boganoff, an astronomer from Russia who visits Bertram Dana, an American scientist, in New Hampshire. He becomes involved in the lives of Dana and his family, and eventually prevents a family crisis. The novel, which is well written, contains some of the author’s most developed characters, including Jo Dana, Bertram’s wife, and Bertram himself. However, some critics claimed that the novel was inconsequential. Silent Storms (1927) focuses on the marriage of Madeleine de Gronier, a countess from France, and Barry McClurg, an international banker from the United States. Although they are from different generations and different cultures, and have different political philosophies, they try to make the marriage work. However, having too many differences causes them to separate, and McClurg returns to the United States. The novel was popular with readers and critics. The Destroyer (1931) features Jack Wyckoff, who returns from the war intending to marry Leonie Marquand, his childhood sweetheart. He learns that she is to marry his brother, Blair, who is a successful banker. Jack, hurt, writes plays that criticize society’s infatuation with material goods, and becomes rich as a result. Over time he becomes a nihilist. Eventually he seduces his brother’s wife, then feels guilty about it. He walks the streets and observes those who have little, if anything. He contracts pneumonia and dies. The novel contains realistic characters and situations, and scintillating dialogue. Without question Jack, a

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victim of a materialistic culture, is one of the author’s most developed male characters. Critics dismissed the novel, however. Great Winds (1933) is a novel about the Great Depression and its impact on Gilbert Blake, an architect, and his family. In presenting his beliefs about materialism, Poole sacrifices plot and characterization. Consequently, the novel failed to interest readers and critics. One of Us (1934) concerns Ted Gale, a shopkeeper in New Hampshire, whose wife, Leila, leaves him and their two children in order to become a muckraking journalist. Ted and his children witness changes over the years. Ted’s son is killed in World War I. His death breaks Ted’s spirit, but he endures. After his daughter marries, her children provide comfort, and Ted has hope for the future. The novel is better than Great Winds because Poole allows his views about materialism to be revealed by Ted Gale’s hard work, faith, and words. The minor characters are not as well developed as the protagonist, however. Nonetheless, many reviewers enjoyed the novel. The Bridge: My Own Story (1940) examines the first sixty years of Poole’s life. His last novel, The Nancy Flyer: A Stagecoach Epic (1949) concerns the relationship between Nancy Hubbard, an innkeeper, and Bob Gale, a stagecoach driver. The novel has so much historical detail that characterization and plot are overwhelmed. Poole died of pneumonia in New York City on January 10, 1950. Most of his novels had been forgotten at the time of his death. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Harbor, 1915 His Family, 1917 His Second Wife, 1918 Blind, 1920 Beggars’ Gold, 1921 Millions, 1922 Danger, 1923 The Avalanche, 1924 With Eastern Eyes, 1926 Silent Storms, 1927 The Destroyer, 1931 One of Us, 1934

REFERENCES Cuff, Robert. “Ernest Poole: Novelist as Propagandist, 1917–1918. A Note.” Canadian Review of American Studies, 19 (1988): 183–194.

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Keefer, Truman Frederick. Ernest Poole. New York: Twayne, 1970; originally published 1966. Poole, Ernest. The Bridge: My Own Story. New York: Johnson Reprint, 1971; originally published 1940.

William Sydney Porter (O. Henry) (1862–1910) William Sydney Porter wrote under several pseudonyms before he finally adopted “O. Henry.” His short stories present authentic pictures of America in the early 1900s. Porter was born to Mary Jane Virginia Swain Porter and Algernon Sydney Porter on September 11, 1862, in Greensboro, North Carolina. His mother, an educated woman from the South, died giving birth to their third son when Porter was three years old. His father, an unlicensed physician, grew depressed after his wife died and lost interest in his practice. He let Porter’s paternal grandmother raise Porter and his brother, Shirley. (The youngest son had died in infancy.) Porter attended a private school that was run by his paternal aunt, Miss Lina, until he was fifteen. He then worked in his uncle’s pharmacy, where he learned enough to become a licensed pharmacist before he was twenty. In 1882 Porter journeyed with Dr. James Hall and his wife to Denison, Texas, where he remained for two years. He lived on a ranch that belonged to Richard Hall, Dr. Hall’s son, and listened to stories told by Lee Hall, another son, who had been a Texas Ranger. In 1885 Porter accepted a job as an accountant in Austin, Texas. Two years later he became an assistant to a draftsman in the state land office in Austin. The same year he married Athol Estes, whose stepfather operated a grocery store. Their first child, a boy, was born in 1888 but died in infancy. Their second child, Margaret, was born in 1889. Athol’s health deteriorated after her birth. In 1890 Porter became a teller in the First National Bank of Austin. In his offhours, he wrote short stories and poems that he submitted to various publications. Porter and James P. Crane bought the Iconoclast, a small monthly publication,

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in 1894. They changed its frequency of publication and its name to Rolling Stone. The weekly was filled with Porter’s satirical musings rather than advertising that was needed to cover expenses. Advertisers were not interested in the publication because of its sophomoric humor, and Porter began to borrow from accounts at the bank where he worked to keep the publication afloat. Eventually a federal bank examiner discovered the discrepancy, and Porter resigned from the bank. His father-in-law agreed to pay part of the discrepancy, but Porter was indicted for embezzlement. In 1895, while waiting for his trial to begin, Porter worked as a reporter and columnist for the Houston Post. The following year, when the trial was about to begin, he traveled by train to New Orleans, where he stayed a few weeks, then he journeyed to Honduras, where he remained until 1897, when he learned that his wife was seriously ill. He returned to his family, and Athol died several months later. Porter and his daughter moved into an apartment above his fatherin-law’s grocery, and he waited for the trial to begin. In early 1898, Porter was indicted for flight to avoid prosecution as well as for embezzlement; he was sentenced to five years. Ashamed of what he had done, he became a model prisoner at the Federal penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio. He was released for good behavior in 1901. He wrote about four short stories each year he was in prison, and four of these were published before he was released. Porter journeyed to Pittsburgh, where his in-laws and daughter were living. He contributed briefly to the Pittsburgh Dispatch, and wrote several short stories that were accepted by popular magazines. In 1902 Porter moved to New York City, where he continued to write short stories for popular publications. In 1903 he joined the Sunday World, which was published by Joseph Pulitzer. Porter contributed a short story a week to the newspaper, and was well paid. He moved to a more fashionable neighborhood and frequently dined in the best restaurants. He tended to live beyond his means, drinking at the best bars and attending plays on Broadway. In order to pay his bills, Porter published more than sixty short stories in 1904. In addition, he developed a novel from several short stories that had been published in magazines. Cabbages and Kings, published in 1904, was favorably reviewed but it did not sell as well as he had wished. The novel focuses on Miraflores, the president of Anchuria, who is ousted during a revolution and replaced by the popular Losada. Miraflores, with his lover, Isabel Guilbert, and $100,000 that he has stolen, flees to Coralio, a village from which they intend to leave the country. Churchill Wahrfield, the president of the Republic Insurance Company of the United States, along with his daughter and $100,000 that he has stolen, is also in Coralio. Frank Goodwin apprehends the man he believes is Miraflores. Actually the man is Wahrfield, who kills himself. Goodwin, who attempts to keep the $100,000, marries Wahrfield’s daughter. However, a derelict who had seen Goodwin with the money blackmails him, and the money is returned to the insurance company. Miraflores and his lover escape. Later, Lo-

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sada falls from power, and speculators from the United States dream up schemes to exploit the country. The novel presents Latin America from an adventurous and romantic perspective while depicting unsavory and despicable individuals from the United States. In 1906 Porter collected more than twenty previously published short stories in the book The Four Million. This favorably reviewed collection sold extremely well and made Porter’s pseudonym well known. Porter collected more stories for the books The Trimmed Lamp and Heart of the West, which were published in 1907. Both sold well, and brought him additional fame and recognition. In 1907 Porter married Sara Lindsay Coleman, whom he had known when he was a child. Apparently he could not adjust to married life after having been single for several years. Sara moved to Asheville, North Carolina, in 1908. He visited her several times, but she refused to return to New York City. Porter continued to write short stories because he was in debt. His tastes had grown more expensive. In 1908 he collected short stories for the books The Voice of the City and The Gentle Grafter. In addition, he got an advance for an outline of a novel—never written—about his life. In 1909 Porter published the collections Roads of Destiny and Options. He also attempted to write plays. Lo!, a musical based on one of his short stories, failed before it reached Broadway. Later that year his health deteriorated, and he died in New York City on June 5, 1910, at the age of forty-seven. Strictly Business, a collection of short stories, was published before his death in 1910, and Whirligigs, another collection, was published posthumously the same year. Porter’s numerous short stories vary in subject matter. He wrote about outlaws and sheriffs of the old West, hoboes and scoundrels of the Midwest, the lovely ladies and honorable gentlemen of the old South, and the poor and affluent of the East. Many of his short stories are based on his observations and experiences. Most are similar to the tall tales of the old West or to the often sentimental local color or regional stories that appeared after the Civil War. His short stories about the West and Latin America are filled with characters who typically survive by following their instincts. Usually the plots concern at least two men competing for the affections of a woman; the troubling relationship between a man and a woman; or the attempted capture of an outlaw by an officer of the law. Porter was interested in realistically depicting human conflict. In his short stories, which tend to end with novel twists, his characters are described with care, their mannerisms are realistic, and their speech is authentic. For instance, “The Duplicity of Hargraves” (1902) concerns Major Pendleton Talbot, an honorable old man from the South, and Hargraves, a young actor from the North, who live in the same boardinghouse. Realizing that Talbot needs money, Hargraves offers the old man cash, but he refuses. Hargraves then impersonates an old African American who has borrowed money from Talbot. When he informs Talbot that he wishes to pay what he borrowed, Talbot accepts. The characters are fully developed and the dialogue is authentic. Porter realistically captures the South in this short story.

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Porter introduced the Cisco Kid to readers in 1907. Unlike the character depicted in the television program and films, however, his Cisco Kid is a renegade outlaw intelligent enough to escape capture. One of Porter’s best-known short stories is “The Ransom of Red Chief” (1907). The story concerns two scoundrels who kidnap the redheaded son of a wealthy man in Illinois in order to raise money for a scheme that, once implemented, they hope will raise more money. However, the boy becomes too much for them to handle, and they have to pay the boy’s father to take him back. The story, which is told in the first person, is filled with humor, much like that found in the works of Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain). Porter’s short stories usually have a beginning that grabs the reader, a narrator who keeps back some information until the very last minute, one or more questionable characters, coincidence, and a novel twist at the end. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Cabbages and Kings, 1904 The Four Million, 1906 Heart of the West, 1907 The Trimmed Lamp, 1907 The Gentle Grafter, 1908 The Voice of the City, 1908 Options, 1909 The Roads of Destiny, 1909 Strictly Business, 1910 Whirligigs, 1910

REFERENCES Current-Garcia, Eugene. O. Henry. New York: Twayne, 1965. Langford, Gerald. Alias O. Henry: A Biography of William Sydney Porter. New York: Macmillan, 1957. Long, E. Hudson. O. Henry: The Man and His Work. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1949. ———. O. Henry, American Regionalist. Austin, Tex.: Steck-Vaughn, 1969. Smith, C. Alphonso. O. Henry Biography. New York: Doubleday, Page 1916.

Opie Read (1852–1939) Opie Pope Read had several careers—from a journeying newspaperman who worked at several newspapers and cofounded the Arkansaw Traveler to a writer of local color or regional short stories and novels that capture representative Southern characters. Opie Read was born on December 22, 1852, to Elizabeth Wallace Read and Guilford Read, in Nashville, Tennessee. The youngest of eleven children, he moved with his family to Gallatin, Tennessee, soon after his birth. Read grew up both listening to stories and telling them. The telling bothered his parents, who believed that his stories were nothing but lies and that he would get into trouble. Read was educated by a private instructor, then at a nearby school, where he was encouraged to read. He was influenced by The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Andrew Kelley, who lived nearby, had been a typesetter and reporter for a newspaper in New York. When he became the editor of the Franklin (Kentucky) Patriot, he hired Read, and Read learned to set type. He continued his formal education at Neophogen College in Gallatin, Tennessee, where he remained for about two years. In addition to attending classes, Read set type for the college’s magazine. Before he left Neophogen College, he contributed a colorful sketch about a resident of Gallatin to the Franklin Patriot. Read returned to the Franklin Patriot, where he perfected his skills as a writer. Kelly, who was still the editor, influenced Read so much that the publisher told Read that if he did not stop allowing Kelly to influence him, he would have to leave. Read left the newspaper when he was offered a half-interest in the Scottsville (Kentucky) Argus. Within a few months he and his partner were evicted because they had not paid the rent, and the newspaper ceased publication. Read moved to Nashville, where he worked as a compositor, then journeyed

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toward Memphis. He set type for a while, then competed for the affections of a divorced woman. Read was accused of vagrancy in Jackson, Tennessee, and ordered to leave. He wrote letters for a tribe of Gypsies and later worked at the weekly Bulletin in Bolivar, Tennessee. With Henry Warner, with whom he had worked in Scottsville, Kentucky, Read founded the Prairie Flower in Carlisle, Arkansas. Because of debts, it soon ceased publication. Read returned to Kentucky, was the editor of the Bowling Green Pantagraph, then moved to the Louisville Courier-Journal. Read soon missed his friends, however, and returned to Arkansas, where he met Ada Benham, a college-educated woman. Read was attracted to her, but he did not have a job. He therefore moved to Little Rock, where he became the city editor of the Little Rock Democrat. The owner of the newspaper ordered him to write news stories, but when the publisher was shot in a duel, the editor wanted a sympathetic story. Read wrote a news story, however, and was subsequently fired. In 1873 Read was hired by the New York Herald to report on the yellow fever epidemic in Memphis. Although the assignment did not last long, it allowed him to sharpen his skills as a reporter. Read returned to Little Rock in 1878, and became the editor of the Arkansas Gazette. He wrote sketches about ordinary individuals, and interviewed prominent politicians, generals who had served during the Civil War, and well-known writers and speakers. He continued to see Ada Benham whenever he could. In addition to writing for the Arkansas Gazette, Read contributed colorful sketches to newspapers in the North. Successful at last, he married Ada Benham in 1881. Later that year he moved to the Cleveland Leader. He grew dissatisfied within several months, however, and returned to Little Rock, where the Arkansas Gazette offered him more money. A few months later the job no longer appealed to him. When P. D. Benham, his brother-in-law, suggested that they start a newspaper, Read was interested. The Arkansaw Traveler, a humorous and literary weekly, began publication in 1882. Benham was the business manager and Read was the journalist. The newspaper was selling 10,000 copies a week within a few months and 85,000 copies a week within a few years. Read contributed local color short stories as well as other kinds of writing. The newspaper also reprinted articles that had appeared in other newspapers. Although the venture was successful, some people, including several politicians, thought that Read’s sketches were an insult to those who lived in the South. His short stories accurately depicted characters’ dress and speech. Little Rock’s post office could not handle all of the copies of the Traveler that went out of the city and state. Consequently, the owners agreed to move the venture to Chicago in 1887. There, Read changed the newspaper’s format from six columns to three columns, and started running more pictures. He also serialized several novels he had written. Read and Benham joined the Chicago Press Club, where they met the leading

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newspapermen and writers of Chicago. Read also learned to play golf, which he grew to enjoy. His time at home was devoted to his eight children or to writing. By 1892 Read had grown tired of the newspaper, so he resigned from his position. When Benham married and moved to St. Louis, the Review Printing Company published the weekly. Although Read occasionally contributed sketches and articles to newspapers and magazines, he devoted most of his time to writing novels. Len Gansett (1889) concerns an orphan who moves to Arkansas to live with his grandparents, and eventually becomes the editor of a political newspaper. Len enjoys the company of a country girl, but this romance is secondary to the novel’s plot. The novel, which is presented mostly through dialogue, was serialized in the Arkansaw Traveler before it was published in book form. A Kentucky Colonel also was serialized in the Traveler before it was published in book form in 1890. The novel is about Colonel Osgood, a gentleman of Kentucky who enjoys drinking mint juleps. Osgood hires Burwood to help him write the history of Shellcut County, where he lives. Burwood helps Osgood write the history and also grows to love Osgood’s attractive daughter, Lizelle. Later, he attempts to find a publisher for Osgood’s history; when he is unsuccessful, Osgood publishes the book himself. Burwood and Lizelle marry, and Burwood becomes the overseer of Osgood’s plantation. The novel is filled with interesting, colorful characters whose speech is carefully depicted. In A Tennessee Judge (1893) the modern clashes with the old. Hawley, a native of Chicago, goes to Gallatin, Tennessee, primarily to rest. There he meets a judge and other narrow-minded characters who live according to tradition, as well as the judge’s granddaughter, whom he comes to love. He invites the judge and his granddaughter to Chicago, where the judge observes progress and as a result changes his mind about holding on to one’s past. Hawley marries the judge’s granddaughter, but he is suspected of murdering a man. Finally, the murderer is apprehended. Some of Read’s novels seem to have been written in haste because of the confusing plots, but A Tennessee Judge is carefully plotted. The Wives of the Prophet (1894) is a utopian romance set in Tennessee. The Suwanee River, a sentimental romance also set in Tennessee, appeared in 1895. The Jucklins (1896) concerns Bill Hawes, who teaches in the hills of North Carolina and rooms with the Jucklins. Lim Jucklin, a farmer, has a daughter named Guinea and a son named Alf. Hawes loves Guinea and Alf loves Millie, the daughter of General Lunsford, a respected southern gentleman. However, Millie is seeing Dan Stuart. Alf and Dan have an argument, and Dan is found dead. Alf is arrested and tried for murder, and General Lunsford breaks off all ties with the Jucklins as a result. Disgraced, Lim Jucklin sells part of his farm to Bill Hawes, then leaves with his family. Bill discovers mica on the farm, which he sells for more than half a million dollars. Bill then finds the Jucklins, brings them back to the hills, and marries Guinea. When it is determined that Dan died of a heart attack, Alf is freed. Later, he marries Millie. Through dress,

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mannerisms, and dialect, The Jucklins depicts characters who could have inhabited the hills of North Carolina and Tennessee. The novel sold more than one million copies. My Young Master (1896) is about Dan, a former body servant of the Guilford Gradley family. Through the generosity of Bob Gradley, Dan is provided with an education before he is set free after the Civil War. He moves to the North, where he marries and becomes a successful politician. The novel depicts Kentucky before and after the Civil War. Read wrote other novels that were set in the South and were based on what he had observed or experienced. He also wrote several novels about big business and politics that are set in Chicago. These novels, unlike those by Theodore Dreiser, were not realistic. After 1910, Read’s writing decreased while his speaking engagements increased. He had become a popular speaker on the Chautauqua lecture circuit. He traveled throughout the country, and his huge frame—he stood about sixfeet-four—dominated every platform. He told jokes along with stories about common folk that were warmly received by audiences, as was his simple philosophy of life. Eventually, he made about 300 appearances a year. When radio became a popular medium, however, those who were part of the Chautauqua lecture circuit had a difficult time. People were not interested in paying to hear someone when they could listen to the radio at no cost. Read’s wife died in 1928, and he moved into an apartment in Chicago. In 1930 he published his autobiography, I Remember. In August 1939, he fell in his apartment and suffered a concussion. For the next several months his health seemed to improve, but in late October it grew worse, and he died on November 2, 1939. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Len Gansett, 1889 A Kentucky Colonel, 1890 A Tennessee Judge, 1893 The Jucklins, 1896 My Young Master, 1896

REFERENCES Baird, Reed A. “Opie Read: An American Traveler.” Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 33, no. 2 (Winter 1974). 410–428. Elfer, Maurice. Opie Read. Detroit: Boyten-Miller, 1940. Morris, Robert L. Opie Read: American Humorist. New York: Helois Books, 1965. Read, Opie. I Remember. New York: R. R. Smith, 1930.

Frederic Remington (1861–1909) Frederic Remington was a sculptor and painter who also did illustrations of the old West for various magazines. Many do not know that he wrote realistic short stories and naturalistic novels about the old West, which were eagerly read. Frederic Remington was born on October 4, 1861, to Clara Sackrider Remington and Seth Pierre Remington, in Canton, New York. Remington’s father, who had founded the first newspaper in Canton, became an officer in the Union Army. When he returned after the Civil War, his son was about six years old. Remington moved with his parents to Ogdensburg, New York, on the St. Lawrence River, in 1874. His father gave up journalism in order to become a customs agent on the river. Remington enjoyed hunting and fishing as well as reading, especially the work of James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving. He attended the Vermont Episcopal Institute in Burlington, Vermont, then in 1876 he entered Highland Military Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts. He attended the Yale School of Fine Arts from 1878 until 1880, the year his father died. Remington met Eva Caten of Gloversville, New York, at a county fair. He started seeing her, but soon journeyed west, where he saw the sites of Custer’s last stand against the Indians and other famous battles. In 1883 Remington purchased a ranch in Kansas on which he raised sheep. The project was not successful, however. He sold the ranch a year later, and invested the proceeds. The investments did not pay off, and before long he was broke. Undeterred, he married Eva Caten in 1884; they made their home in Kansas City, Missouri, where he attempted to find work. Within a few months, Eva returned to Gloversville to live with her parents and Remington went west, where he sketched soldiers and Indians. He then journeyed to New York, where he tried to sell his illustrations to magazine editors. Most editors refused to purchase his pictures. Remington en-

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rolled at the Art Students League, where he improved his skills as an artist. Later, when the Apaches were fighting soldiers in the Southwest, magazine editors desired pictures of Indians, and Remington was able to sell his work. As the skirmishes continued, his work was in even greater demand, and he earned enough to bring Eva to New York City. By 1886, when Geronimo was captured, Remington’s reputation as an illustrator of the West had been established. In 1888 Remington contributed four articles to Century Magazine that concerned horses roaming in the West and the degradation of the Indians in the Southwest. He went to South Dakota in 1890 and wrote about the Sioux uprising that led to the battle at Wounded Knee, where the Seventh Cavalry killed Indian men, women, and children. This event, perhaps more than any other, was upsetting to him. Consequently, he left the United States for two years, journeying to Germany, Russia, and North Africa. In 1892 Remington returned to the United States and continued to write about the West. Later, he wrote about the Pullman strike in Chicago and about the country’s preparations for war with Spain. He covered the Spanish-American War in Cuba as a correspondent and artist. Remington began to write fiction in which he placed fictitious characters in actual locations. For instance, in 1895 “The Affair of the — th of July,” his first short story, was published in Harper’s Weekly. It is based on his experiences during the Pullman strike in Chicago and explores civil unrest. Instead of using a narrative in which characters converse, he employs the epistolary technique. He used this form again in “Joshua Goodenough’s Old Letter” (1897). This story concerns Goodenough’s experiences in battles against the French, the Indians, and the British before the colonies gained their independence. Remington also used other techniques in his short stories. For instance, in the stories collected in Sun Down Leflare (1899), a first-person narrator provides the background information while the stories are actually told by Sun Down Leflare, an Indian guide in the Northwest. The stories depict the maturation of Sun Down Leflare, who has been a scout for a general and a dishonest gambler. Through Leflare’s memories, the reader learns about the women he has loved and about his attitude toward whites, which over the years has turned bitter. He has become disgusted at what whites have done to the Indians and to the land. These stories depict realistic characters and situations. Sun Down Leflare is a complicated character who has ideas and opinions, and some of his opinions obviously reflect Remington’s beliefs. The stories in the collection Men with the Bark On (1900) are based on actual incidents, including the Dull Knife Indian battle. Carter Johnson, the protagonist, is in the cavalry and has orders to pursue Dull Knife, whom he admires, and his band of Indians for miles through the West. Like Sun Down Leflare, Carter Johnson is a complicated character with ideas and opinions. In John Ermine of the Yellowstone (1902), Remington’s first novel, Crow Indians raise John Ermine, a white baby. When he becomes a teenager, they

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give him to Crooked Bear, a deformed white man, who teaches John how to read and write. Then he sends John to General Crook, who pursues the Sioux after the battle at Little Big Horn. John becomes a worthy soldier and earns the respect of the commandant. When the soldiers return to their fort, John meets the commandant’s daughter, Catherine, whom he grows to love. However, Catherine toys with John’s affections. He proposes to her, but she informs him that he is not suitable for her. The commandant scolds him for what he has done, and John leaves the fort but returns soon afterward. Catherine is with her fiance´, an officer, who tells John to leave. John fires his pistol at the young man, wounding him, then flees to Crooked Bear’s cabin, where thoughts of Catherine consume him. He returns to the fort to get Catherine, but a Crow Indian kills him. Remington’s second novel, The Way of an Indian (1906), concerns White Otter, a Cheyenne Indian, who grows to believe that he is invincible. Indeed, in a series of assaults against others in which many are killed or injured, he escapes unharmed. He earns other names as a result of his deeds, including Fire Eater. He marries and has a son. Soldiers attack his village in 1876, but they are driven away. Later, the soldiers attack again, but the Indians are not prepared. Fire Eater’s son is killed along with others. Fire Eater survives, but when he learns that his son has died, he desires to die as well. Unlike his short stories, which reminded readers of short stories by Mark Twain and Bret Harte, Remington’s novels feature protagonists who die or wished they had died. These novels focus on the grim reality of life and resemble examples of naturalism rather than realism. In 1909 Remington moved from New Rochelle, New York, to a new house and studio in Ridgefield, Connecticut. About six months later, on December 26, 1909, he died of appendicitis. He was only forty-eight years old. At the time of his death, his reputation as an artist and sculptor had overshadowed his reputation as a writer. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Sun Down Leflare, 1899 Men with the Bark On, 1900 John Ermine of the Yellowstone, 1902 The Way of an Indian, 1906

REFERENCES Buckland, Roscoe L. Frederic Remington: The Writer. New York: Twayne, 2000. Erisman, Fred. Frederic Remington. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University, 1975. Manley, Atwood. Frederic Remington and the North Country. New York: Dutton, 1988. Nemerov, Alexander. Frederic Remington & Turn-of-the-Century America. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1995.

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Samuels, Peggy. Frederic Remington: A Biography. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1982. Vorpahl, Ben Merchant. Frederic Remington and the West: With the Eye of the Mind. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1978.

Amelie Rives (1863–1945) Amelie Rives wrote several realistic novels when realism was becoming popular in the United States. These novels, which are set primarily in Virginia, feature female protagonists who are based in part on the author. Amelie Rives was born in Richmond, Virginia, on August 23, 1863, to Sarah Catherine Macmurdo Rives and Colonel Alfred Landon Rives, an engineer and a member of General Robert E. Lee’s staff. She grew up at Castle Hill, the estate of her paternal grandparents, outside Charlottesville, Virginia. Her grandfather, William Cabell Rives, who had been involved in politics for years, made sure that his granddaughter was educated. She had a governess as well as a private tutor. In addition, she had access to her grandfather’s library. When her father became the chief superintendent and manager of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, Rives and her mother spent the winters with him in Mobile. She studied music and art as well as foreign languages, especially French, and wrote short stories for her personal amusement. She learned about society and her place in it. Even though Rives was a member of the privileged class, she realized that many people were not. In 1885 William Otis, a friend of the family, visited Castle Hill and came across a manuscript that had been written by Rives. Although hesitant, she allowed him to take the manuscript to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, the editor of the Atlantic Monthly, who accepted the short story, “A Brother to Dragons,” and published it in 1886. A romance set in Elizabethan England, the story is told by a servant named Anthony Butter. Other stories about earlier periods and different places followed. In 1887 Rives met John Armstrong Chanler, who practiced law. He pursued her until she agreed to marry him. The wedding took place in 1888, the year her story “Virginia of Virginia” was published. In this account of a girl who

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falls in love with an Englishman who has bought the plantation where she lives, the characters are well developed and members of two distinct social classes are depicted. Rives’s first novel, The Quick or the Dead? (1888), concerns Barbara Pomfret, whose husband has been dead for several months. Her fond memories of her husband, Valentine are interrupted when Valentine’s cousin, Jock Dering, arrives. Dering has the same physical features as her husband, and Barbara is attracted to him. Dering reciprocates her interest until he realizes that he reminds her of Valentine. Later, he realizes that she still loves her husband, so he leaves. Barbara’s dilemma is that she desires the past as well as the present. The novel is realistic as well as romantic: Rives captures the characters’ dress, their mannerisms, and their speech with authenticity. However, because she allows her protagonist almost to marry after the death of her husband, the novel was severely criticized by members of the clergy. At the time many Americans believed that widows should not have thoughts of romance, let alone of marrying a second time. Because of the furor, the novel sold more than 300,000 copies. In 1889 Rives and Chanler sailed to Europe, where she was warmly received, especially by members of “The Souls,” a group of intellectuals. She also became acquainted with such prominent writers as Oscar Wilde and Thomas Hardy, and studied painting. The Witness of the Sun (1889) is set in Europe and concerns a young novelist, Vladimir Nadrovine, who is bound to his obsessive, dominating mother. He grows to love Ilva Demarini, whose father has been seeing Vladimir’s mother. Vladimir is both shocked and somewhat jealous when he learns this. He and Signor Demarini duel, and Demarini dies as a result. Vladimir, realizing that he has lost both loves in his life, flees. Later, Vladimir and Ilva meet. Her small cousin is with her, and when he falls into some quicksand, Vladimir pushes Ilva aside in an attempt to save the child, then falls into the mire. Ilva, not wishing to see them perish, jumps in, and they all die together. The novel focuses on characterization more than on plot. Critics thought that the novel was a minor effort at best. If they had not overlooked the almost incestuous relationship between Vladimir and his mother, their criticism would likely have been stronger. Rives and Chanler separated briefly in 1889, and again in 1890. When they returned to the United States in 1891, their marriage was all but formally over. The novel According to St. John (1891) was considered a minor effort by most critics. Rives returned to Europe. There, and later in the United States, she continued to study painting. Her husband was living in New York City, practicing law. They communicated occasionally by letter. Barbara Dering (1892), a sequel to The Quick or The Dead?, contains one of Rives’s strongest characters. Barbara has blossomed into a modern woman who enjoys life and makes the most of it. She and Jock Dering marry, and the novel concerns their maturing marital relationship, including problems, such as

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jealousy. Both characters appear to be intelligent and caring, and mostly exhibit rational behavior. Tanis, the Sand-Digger (1893) focuses on Tanis Gribble, a servant girl who longs for true love. In 1894 Rives and Chanler now reconciled, sailed to Europe, where, after a few months, they separated. Rives met Prince Pierre Troubetzkoy, a painter of portraits, at a party hosted by Oscar Wilde, and the two became almost inseparable. She divorced Chanler in 1895 and married Troubetzkoy in early 1896. Rives learned everything she could about her new husband, including his life as a painter of portraits for members of the aristocracy. She also learned about herself. She stopped writing novels for a while. Her next novel, A Damsel Errant, a romance, was not published until 1898. Rives wrote only occasionally thereafter, for her life was filled with traveling and living both in America and overseas. The romance The Golden Rose: The Romance of a Strange Soul (1908) concerns Meraud Cabell and her lover, Stephen Trafford. Other romance novels followed. Hidden House (1912) was her first novel about the supernatural. Rives’s best realistic novel, World’s-End, appeared in 1914. It features Owen Randolph, a wealthy New York bachelor who takes care of his nephew, Richard Bryce, as well as his mother. At World’s-End, Owen’s plantation in Virginia, Richard meets Phoebe Nelson, who is considerably younger than he. Phoebe, a romantic, dreams about Prince Charming taking her away. Richard desires to paint a portrait of her, and she agrees to sit for him. Later, they make love, and Phoebe becomes pregnant. By the time she is aware of her condition, Richard has returned to New York. When she tells him what has happened, he writes that he will pay for her to live at a farm in New England. There she can have the child, and they can continue seeing one another. Phoebe, shocked by Richard’s offer, rejects it. Richard leaves for the Orient. Owen returns to his plantation, where he finds Phoebe attempting suicide. He saves her life, then asks her to marry him. Phoebe, confused, accepts his proposal. They marry, then sail to Europe. Phoebe later gives birth to a baby girl, Susan Diana. Owen realizes that the baby is Richard’s, not his, even though Phoebe has not told him this. She is afraid that if he learns the truth, he will not love her. Richard returns from the Orient and visits World’s-End, where Phoebe is cold toward him. When he returns at Christmas, he brings gifts. Richard confronts Phoebe outside the house. Owen sees them, confronts Richard, then beats him almost to death. Phoebe explains to Owen about her and Richard, and Owen forgives her. When Richard recovers, he leaves. Before the novel ends, Phoebe is pregnant again. The novel’s characters are fully developed and genuine, especially Phoebe and Owen. Numerous reviewers considered the novel to be Rives’s best because of the characterization. Later in 1914 Rives published Shadows of Flames, a novel about Sophy Taliaferro Chesney and the three loves of her life. Before World War I, the Troubetzkoys were in Europe. When World War I

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erupted, they returned to the United States, where they remained for the rest of their lives. Rives wrote several plays that were successfully produced on Broadway. In 1918 Rives published her second novel about the supernatural, The Ghost Garden. She continued writing plays into the 1920s. In 1926 she published the novel The Queerness of Celia, which concerns Celia Gibbs, who learns that her stubbornness has been the primary cause for her not experiencing true love. Firedamp (1930) is about the Old World aristocracy in Europe as well as the New World aristocracy in America. In 1936 Prince Troubetzkoy died of angina pectoris. Rives’s health deteriorated as a result of his death, and she was not able to resume writing until late 1937. Her last work was The Young Elizabeth (1937), a play. Her health deteriorated in the early 1940s, when she was stricken with rheumatic fever. In 1944 Rives entered a nursing home in Charlottesville, Virginia. She died there on June 16, 1945. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Quick or the Dead? 1888 The Witness of the Sun, 1889 Barbara Dering, 1892 World’s-End, 1914 Shadows of Flames, 1914 The Queerness of Celia, 1926 Firedamp, 1930

REFERENCES Fawcett, Edgar. “A Few More Words About Miss Rives.” Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, 43 (September, 1888): 390–394. Taylor, Welford Dunaway. “Amelie Rives: A Virginia Princess.” Virginia Cavalcade, 13, no. 4 (Spring 1963): 11–17. ———. Amelie Rives (Princess Troubetzkoy). New York: Twayne, 1973.

Hubert Selby, Jr. (1928–

)

Hubert Selby, Jr., has written several naturalistic novels about derelicts, prostitutes, drug addicts, thieves, murderers, and gang members. They examine the lowest members of society in graphic detail. Hubert Selby, Jr., was born on July 23, 1928, in Brooklyn, New York, to Adalin Layne Selby and Hubert Selby, an engineer who also managed an apartment building. Selby dropped out of Stuyvesant High School when he was fifteen. He joined the Merchant Marine in 1944. In 1946 Selby was diagnosed with severe tuberculosis while in Germany and was ordered home, where he was hospitalized. Several ribs and part of a lung were surgically removed before he recuperated enough to be released in 1950. Selby returned to Brooklyn, where he worked at a variety of jobs. When he was not working, he walked the streets in search of sympathy and drugs. Because he had little formal education, his friend Gilbert Sorrentino encouraged him to read as much literature as he could, then to try to write fiction. Selby submitted a short story about what he had observed while walking the streets of Brooklyn. “The Queen Is Dead” was published in the Black Mountain Review in 1956. He had short stories accepted by other periodicals before he published his first book, Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964), which contains six loosely connected long stories. The book received considerable publicity. Many critics applauded Selby for his ability to depict the seamier side of Brooklyn and capture the language of individuals on the lowest rung of the social ladder. The book shocked, if not shook, the literary establishment. Few, if any, writers had depicted the miserable and disgusting lives of degenerates as graphically as Selby. Whether he is writing about street gangs, derelicts, transvestites, or prostitutes, his prose is loaded with realistic detail and authentic dialogue. His style of writing makes it seem that he is an observer writing what he sees and hears.

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The first story, “Another Day Another Dollar,” concerns the physical mutilation of a soldier by a group of young hoodlums who enjoy brutally murdering the man and later kid one another about what they have done. “Tralala,” which is about a young prostitute who rolls drunks and later is gang-raped and killed, had appeared in the Provincetown Review. The magazine editor was arrested for publishing obscene material. The case went to court and the editor was found guilty, but the verdict was overturned on appeal. In “The Queen Is Dead,” Georgette, a transvestite, intends to seduce a young hoodlum during an alcohol and drug party. “Strike” depicts the life of Harry Black, a shop steward who plays a minor role in the union to which he belongs and who abuses his wife. Black’s life is similar to the lives of the other characters in the book: he lives by instinct and for himself, not by thought and certainly not for others. Finally, the young hoodlums of “Another Day Another Dollar” (a separate story from the first one in the book) discover Black attempting fellatio on a young boy, so they crucify him by hanging him to a billboard. All the stories in the book depict characters who live in violence and despair. Real love is foreign to them, so they do not know how to express it. The book, considered obscene in England and banned in Italy, sold more than 700,000 copies. In 1967 Selby was arrested for possession of heroin and was jailed. After he was released, he spent several years getting off of drugs and alcohol before he resumed writing. Selby’s first novel, The Room (1971), concerns the mind of an incarcerated prisoner who fantasizes about torturing his captors, especially the police. The unnamed protagonist also has delusions about his own abilities to confront social injustice. It is obvious that he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. Selby does not examine the reasons for the character’s behavior but instead focuses on his fantasies and delusions, which he describes graphically and at length. Nonetheless, critics praised the novel for its realism. The book did not sell as well as Last Exit. In The Demon (1976) the protagonist, Harry White, is obsessed by sex—so much so that his marriage is not healthy. Supposedly a successful businessman, he pursues other people, as well as things, in order to feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. He seeks gratification, no matter where he goes or what he does. Finally, on Palm Sunday, he kills a Catholic cardinal, then himself. Reviewers claimed that the novel’s construction was weak and that its protagonist was not fully developed. In 1979 Selby published Requiem for a Dream, a novel that depicts characters who become addicted to food or to heroin. It is inferior to his previous work. Selby, who has been married three times and has several children, moved to Los Angeles, where he taught a course in creative writing and wrote several scripts for television and film. A second book of short stories, Song of the Silent Snow, was published in 1986. A movie based on Last Exit was released in 1990. Live in Europe 1989 (1995) is a compact disc that allows listeners to hear Selby read some of his work. In his most recent book, The Willow Tree (1998),

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a young African-American boy from the Bronx and his Hispanic girlfriend are attacked by a street gang that has no use for interracial relationships. The girl, who is disfigured, commits suicide; a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp nurtures the boy back to health and attempts to impress on him the value of forgiveness. Selby’s religious beliefs are evident in the book, which is not as realistic as his previous work. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Last Exit to Brooklyn, 1964 The Room, 1971 The Demon, 1976 Requiem for a Dream, 1979

REFERENCES Giles, James Richard. Understanding Hubert Selby, Jr. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998. Shaw, Patrick W. The Modern American Novel of Violence. Troy, N.Y.: Whitston, 2000. Solotaroff, Theodore. The Red Hot Vacuum and Other Pieces on the Writing of the Sixties. New York: Atheneum, 1970. Sorrentino, Gilbert. Something Said: Essays. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1984. Vorda, Allan, ed. Face to Face: Interviews with Contemporary Novelists. Houston, Tex.: Rice University Press, 1993.

Upton Sinclair (1878–1968) Upton Sinclair wrote realistic, even naturalistic, novels that focused on man’s exploitation of man or on the wealthy’s exploitation of the poor. He explored the negatives of capitalism as well as the positives of socialism in an effort to educate readers about both, especially the latter. Upton Sinclair was born on September 20, 1878, to Priscilla Harden Sinclair and Upton Beall Sinclair, Sr., in Baltimore, Maryland. His father was a liquor salesman from a genteel family in Virginia, and his mother was from a wealthy family in Maryland. Ironically, his father was an alcoholic. The family moved to New York City in the late 1880s, and Sinclair attended public schools there, completing eight grades in two years. In 1892 he enrolled in the City College of New York, and contributed fillers and short stories for children to several magazines, as well as adventure stories to Street and Smith, a publisher of dime novels. Sinclair graduated from the City College of New York in 1897, then enrolled in graduate school at Columbia University, where he studied politics and poetry. He left Columbia University in 1900 without a degree and moved to Canada, where he wrote the romantic idealistic novel Springtime and Harvest. He married Meta Fuller the same year; and they had a child in 1901, the year his novel was published. Sinclair became a member of the Socialist Party in 1902, then moved his family near Princeton, New Jersey. In 1903 he published The Journal of Arthur Stirling, supposedly the diary of an actual poet who had committed suicide. The book in fact is based partly on Sinclair’s life. Manassas: A Novel of the War (1904) is well researched and presents a political history of the Civil War from the perspective of Alan Montague, the son of a southern gentleman. Montague meets such historical figures as John Brown,

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Frederick Douglass, Jefferson Davis, and Abraham Lincoln, and eventually becomes an advocate for abolition. Also in 1904 Sinclair contributed several articles to Appeal to Reason, a socialist magazine that was edited by Fred D. Warren. Warren, impressed with Manassas, asked him to write a novel about the “wage slaves” of twentiethcentury industry. Sinclair went to Chicago, where he interviewed workers in the meatpacking industry who had attempted a strike several months earlier. He also worked in one of the plants to learn about the process of meatpacking and observe the conditions, which were disgustingly unhealthy. The capitalists who owned these businesses paid little for the animals they slaughtered and paid little to those who did the work. Sinclair returned home, where he wrote The Jungle, a naturalistic novel that seemed more fact than fiction. It was serialized in Appeal to Reason, then published in book form in 1906. Because of its controversial subject matter it became an instant best-seller. The novel realistically presents the story of a Lithuanian family who move to Chicago to find the American dream, only to have that dream turn into a nightmare of exploitation, brutality, and death. Jurgis Rudhus marries, has a son, and is injured; the injury causes him to lose his job. His wife is led into prostitution; Rudhus beats her pimp and is jailed. His wife and son die, and Rudhus returns to work, where he is injured again. He turns to crime in order to live, then works as a scab during a strike. Finally, he attends a lecture about socialism that is sponsored by well-educated socialists. The novel contains abundant graphic description and realistic dialogue. Its depiction of the unsanitary conditions in meatpacking plants and the treatment of immigrants caused readers to become outraged. The federal government conducted an investigation, and Congress ultimately enacted the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act, both of which attempted to improve the grim picture Sinclair had painted. In 1906 Sinclair built Helicon Home Colony, a commune in Englewood, New Jersey. The building was destroyed by fire in early 1907. By this time his marriage had all but formally ended, and he wrote about the institution of marriage, health, and diet, among other topics, in essays and articles which were published in magazines. Sinclair published The Metropolis and The Moneychangers in 1908. The first novel concerns the upper class in New York, which he chastised, and the second, a financial manipulator patterned after J. P. Morgan. Both novels reveal his disgust with wealthy capitalists. In Samuel the Seeker (1910) the protagonist learns about several ideologies before he finally learns about socialism, which he accepts. Sinclair journeyed throughout the country in order to learn about the various economical and political issues that were being discussed. He also suffered from depression, for which he sought medical and psychological help. In 1911 he published the autobiographical novel, Love’s Pilgrimage, in which he describes how his confused attitudes toward sexuality and women caused his

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idealistic marriage to break up. Apparently he had not fulfilled his wife’s sexual needs, because she had affairs before they were divorced in 1912. Sinclair married Mary Craig Kimbrough, a Southerner, in 1913, the year he published Sylvia, a novel about a young woman from Virginia. The sequel, Sylvia’s Marriage (1914), continues the story; Sylvia marries a man from the upper class primarily because of his social status. She learns later that her husband has gonorrhea. In 1914 Sinclair and his wife moved to California, where he learned about coal miners striking in Colorado. He journeyed to Colorado and interviewed the miners, members of their families, and representatives of the union. Then he wrote the novel King Coal (1917). Although Sinclair had attempted to write a muckraking novel like The Jungle, King Coal failed because the protagonist is not a member of the lower class. Hal Warner is a wealthy young man who learns about mining by working in a coal mine. He grows to support the miners and unionization, but he returns to his position in society. Though he continues to argue for the miners, his arguments have lost their power. When the Socialist Party opposed U.S. involvement in World War I, Sinclair resigned from the party, believing that Germany was a threat to world peace. In 1918, when the United States attempted to suppress the revolution in Russia, he became critical of the federal government. He explored these issues in Jimmie Higgins (1919). The protagonist, a member of the Socialist Party, believes that Germany is a threat to world peace, so he enlists in the army. Before the novel ends, however, Higgins is tortured because of his opposition to the United States becoming involved in the Russian Revolution. Sinclair returned to the theme of big business and capitalism in the 1920s. For instance, in 1927 he published a lengthy novel about the petroleum industry. Oil! concerns Bunny Ross, the son of J. Arnold Ross, a man who has grown extremely wealthy from finding oil in southern California. Bunny, who admires his father’s ability to earn money, learns about social justice from Paul Watkins. Later, Bunny realizes that his father, through no fault of his own, is one of the oppressors Watkins has discussed. Before the novel ends, Bunny’s father suffers a heart attack, and Watkins, who has become a Communist, is killed by a mob. The novel’s strengths include the plot and the characters, both of which are well developed. The reader also learns about the culture of southern California. Boston (1928) is about the Sacco-Vanzetti case, in which two Italian immigrants are convicted of a robbery and murder and are eventually executed. Sinclair, who believed that both men were innocent, blamed the social elite of Boston for their fate. In the 1930s, Sinclair engaged in politics, especially in California, where he ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1934. His socialistic ideas about the government helping the unemployed influenced other politicians, including the president of the United States. He also wrote several novels that examine big business and its attempt to remain free of unionization. For instance, in 1937 he published The Flivver King, which is based on Henry Ford’s anti-union employment prac-

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tices. A year later he published Little Steel, which concerns the steel industry and its anti-union labor practices. In the 1940s and early 1950s, Sinclair published eleven novels that depicted the history of Europe and the United States from the early 1900s to the 1950s. These well-researched novels feature the protagonist Lanny Budd. The third novel in the series, Dragon’s Teeth (1942), received the Pulitzer Prize in 1943. Budd, the illegitimate son of an American manufacturer of weapons, works at various jobs, including art dealer and secret agent, and meets many historical figures—including Woodrow Wilson, Albert Einstein, Joseph Stalin, and Adolf Hitler. Sinclair’s output decreased in the 1950s. He published My Lifetime in Letters in 1960. His wife, Mary, died a year later, and Sinclair married Mary “May” Elizabeth Willis in 1962, the year he published The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair. He died in Bound Brook, New Jersey, on November 25, 1968. Sinclair wrote numerous works of fiction and nonfiction over the years, but only a few of his novels have remained popular with readers and critics.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Journal of Arthur Stirling, 1903 The Jungle, 1906 The Metropolis, 1908 The Moneychangers, 1908 Samuel the Seeker, 1910 King Coal, 1917 Jimmie Higgins, 1919 Oil!, 1927 Boston, 1928 The Flivver King, 1937 Little Steel, 1938

REFERENCES Bloodworth, William A. Upton Sinclair. Boston: Twayne, 1977. Dell, Floyd. Upton Sinclair: A Study in Social Protest. New York: Boni, 1930; originally published 1927. Harris, Leon A. Upton Sinclair: American Rebel. New York: Crowell, 1975. Mookerjee, R. N. Art for Social Justice: The Major Novels of Upton Sinclair. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1988. Scott, Ivan. Upton Sinclair: The Forgotten Socialist. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1997.

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Sinclair, Upton. The Autobiography of Upton Sinclair. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1962. Yoder, Jon A. Upton Sinclair. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1984; originally published 1975.

Francis Hopkinson Smith (1838–1915) Francis Hopkinson Smith was a successful mechanical engineer and artist who wrote and illustrated books about his travels abroad. He also published realistic short stories and novels featuring characters based on his friends and members of his family, including himself. Smith was born on October 23, 1838, to Susan Teakle Smith and Francis Smith, in Baltimore, Maryland, where he was educated. His father was an inventor who enjoyed the fine arts. Although he had intended to send his son to Princeton University, he did not have the funds for him to attend any college. Instead, Francis worked in a hardware store, then in an ironworks. Before 1860 Smith moved to New York City, where he worked at several jobs, then learned mechanical engineering. He and James Symington opened an engineering business. His abilities as a mechanical engineer and those as an artist became known in New York over the years, and the engineering business attracted several major clients. In addition to designing and building seawalls around Governor’s Island and Staten Island, he designed and built the Race Rock lighthouse and the foundation for the Statue of Liberty. Smith married Josephine Van Deventer of Astoria, New York, in 1866. They had two children. He often traveled during the summers, searching for new subjects to sketch and paint. This activity encouraged him to start writing and illustrating books about the places he had seen. For instance, in 1886 Smith published Well-Worn Roads of Spain, Holland, and Italy. Traveled by a Painter in Search of the Picturesque, in which he wrote sketches about what he had seen in each country that were accompanied by illustrations. White Umbrella in Mexico, and Other Lands followed three years later. Smith applied his skill in description to fiction. His first novel, Colonel Carter of Cartersville (1891), concerns George Fairfax Carter, a Southerner who is

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optimistic, courteous, and good. Carter is in New York, where he is attempting to raise funds for a railroad that, if built, will put Cartersville on the map. He tells stories about the South to others, and the reader learns about Chad, an old African American who is based on Smith’s father’s servant; Aunt Nancy, who is based on Smith’s gracious mother; and the Major, who is based on Smith himself. Although Carter has a dispute with a broker who has insulted him, he gains the confidence of investors before the novel ends. Even though this is Smith’s first attempt at writing a novel, it contains interesting settings and realistic characters who coin arresting phrases. The dialogue allows the reader to identify a character’s social position as well as the region from which he or she comes. In 1892 Smith published A Day at Laguerre’s and Other Days, a collection of short stories set in New York and abroad. He returned to the novel in 1896, when he published Tom Grogan. Tom Grogan, a contracting stevedore, has died, leaving his wife, Mary, trying to continue his business as if he were alive. Mary realizes that contractors do not wish to deal with a woman, so in order to survive, she confronts representatives from unions and politicians. Finally she wins the right to operate the business under her deceased husband’s name. Two books about his travels, Gondola Days and Venice of To-Day, appeared in 1897. Smith returned to the novel in 1898, publishing Caleb West, Master Diver, which concerns an older husband whose younger wife takes a lover. The Other Fellow (1899) is another collection of short stories. The Fortunes of Oliver Horn (1902) is an autobiographical romantic-idealistic novel whose protagonist, Oliver Horn, an artist, is based on Smith himself. The rambling plot has Horn move from Kennedy Square in Baltimore to New York City, where he attempts to find success. Horn’s parents are based on Smith’s mother and father. Two collections of short stories were published in 1905, At Close Range and The Wood Fire in No. 3. They were followed by The Tides of Barnegat (1906), which is set in the small fishing community of Barnegat, New Jersey. It concerns the lives of two sisters, Lucy and Jane Cobden. Lucy, who loves Barton Holt, the son of a sea captain, bears his son. In order to save Lucy from scandal, Jane takes her out of the country. When they return, Lucy leaves, and Jane, who loves Dr. John Cavendish, sacrifices her relationship in order to raise Archie, Lucy’s boy. Lucy returns, supposedly a wealthy widow, but refuses to take an interest in Archie. Eventually, she learns that Barton is returning to take care of her and Archie. Barton’s boat wrecks during a storm, and Archie attempts to save his father; both drown. Barton’s father, who has lost his son and grandson, confronts Lucy. The novel’s plot and characters are well developed and realistic. The dialogue reveals the characters’ social and professional positions as well as their intentions. The Romance of an Old Fashioned Gentleman (1907) concerns Adam Gregg, an artist, who sacrifices his love for a woman. Peter, a Novel of Which He Is Not the Hero (1908) is about John Breen, a middle-aged bank teller in New York. Breen observes others younger than he and notices how they change.

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Kennedy Square, in which a father exiles his son for defending the girl he loves, was published in 1911. Other books about his travels, including In Thackeray’s London (1913) and In Dickens’ London (1914), were published before Smith’s death in New York City on April 7, 1915. Felix O’Day and Enoch Crane, two novels, were published posthumously in 1915 and 1916, respectively. The latter was completed by Smith’s son, F. Berkeley Smith. Smith’s nonfiction and fiction contains picturesque settings, and the latter present realistic characters, many of them based on actual individuals, including members of Smith’s family, and authentic dialogue. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Colonel Carter of Cartersville, 1891 A Day at Laguerre’s and Other Days, 1892 Tom Grogan, 1896 The Other Fellow, 1899 The Fortunes of Oliver Horn, 1902 At Close Range, 1905 The Wood Fire in No. 3, 1905 The Tides of Barnegat, 1906

REFERENCES Fiske, Horace Spencer. Provincial Types in American Fiction. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1968; originally published 1903. Hornberger, Theodore. “The Effect of Painting on the Fiction of F. Hopkinson Smith (1838–1915).” University of Texas Studies in English, 23 (1943): 162–192. ———. “Painters and Paintings in the Writings of F. Hopkinson Smith.” American Literature, 16 (1944): 1–10. Page, Thomas Nelson. “Francis Hopkinson Smith.” Scribner’s, September 1915, pp. 305– 313. Quinn, Arthur Hobson. American Fiction: An Historical and Critical Survey. New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1936.

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) John Steinbeck wrote naturalistic novels about the lower-class inhabitants of California. Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, to Olive Hamilton Steinbeck and John Ernst Steinbeck, in Salinas, California. His mother was a teacher and his father was the manager of a business and treasurer of Monterey County. John, the third of four children, explored Monterey County when he was not in school. Much of what he observed appeared later in his fiction. Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School in 1919, then followed his two older sisters to Stanford University later the same year. He worked at various jobs, including store clerk and ranch hand, to pay for his education. He attended Stanford intermittently for several years, and contributed two short stories to the university’s magazine, Spectator. He left Stanford in 1925, without earning a degree. Steinbeck worked his way east, finally settling in New York, where he eventually obtained a job at the New York American. The job did not last, however, and he worked his way back west, where he settled near Lake Tahoe. He worked at various jobs and wrote whenever he could. By 1928 he had completed his first novel and had met Carol Henning, who was on vacation from her job in San Francisco. He moved to San Francisco to be near her. In 1929 Steinbeck’s first novel, Cup of Gold, an adventure story based on Henry Morgan, a pirate who seized the city of Panama, was published. A year later he and Carol married, and they moved into his family’s summer home in Pacific Grove, where he continued to write. In Pacific Grove, Steinbeck met Edward Ricketts, a scientist who owned the Pacific Biological Laboratory. Ricketts studied marine invertebrates of the Pacific coast, especially their structural relations. He and Steinbeck became close friends. A collection of loosely related short stories, The Pastures of Heaven, appeared

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in 1932. To a God Unknown, a novel, was published a year later. Although the novel was an improvement over the first, it did not sell. The protagonist, Joseph Wayne, who has moved to California to live off of the land, prospers. He invites his brothers to live with him so that they, too, can experience his prosperity. However, a drought occurs, and Wayne unsuccessfully attempts to produce rain. Finally, he sacrifices himself. As his blood oozes onto the ground, it begins to rain. Tortilla Flat (1935) is set in a fictitious slum of Monterey, California, and features Mexican-American characters, including Danny, who served in World War I. Danny inherits two houses; he lives in one and rents the other to a friend, Pilon. Unfortunately, the rented house burns, and Pilon and two other friends move in with Danny. Danny admits the Pirate, who has a bag of quarters, into his circle. Later, Danny falls to his death, and his friends torch his house. Lost because they have no one to lead them, they go their separate ways. Steinbeck’s idea for the group was taken from his interpretation of Thomas Malory’s Morte d’Arthur, which concerned King Arthur and the Round Table, as an example of a social organism. In Dubious Battle (1936) concerns the farmer-laborer relationship in California, specifically a strike in an apple orchard. The novel features Jim Nolan, a bystander at a demonstration who is beaten by the police. He becomes a member of the Communist Party. Mac, also a member of the Communist Party, attempts to organize a strike among the fruit pickers and teaches Jim how to manipulate these individuals for the cause. The strike is stopped by brutal force, and Jim is killed by a shotgun blast to the head. At his funeral, Mac uses Jim’s murder to persuade others to join the Communist Party. The novel faithfully depicts the workers’ plight, the organizers’ tactics, and the violence that erupted more than once in California in the 1930s. However, the leading characters merely sacrifice the workers for their cause. In actuality, the organizers cared about the workers they represented. Steinbeck opposed the capitalists for their exploitation of labor as well as the Communists, who used the workers for their cause. Of Mice and Men (1937) is a novel about George Milton and his dim-witted friend Lennie Small, who work on a ranch in California. Lennie’s last name is in contrast to his size. George tells Lennie that they will own a small farm someday, and Lennie believes him. Another hand at the ranch, Candy, offers to share the small amount of money that he has saved if George and Lennie will include him. George realizes that with Candy’s help the dream may become a reality. However, Carley, the boss’s son, and his flirtatious wife, present a problem. She is attracted to Lennie’s enormous physique and encourages his attention. Lennie accidentally crushes her to death. Afraid that George will be upset, he hides in the woods. Carley organizes a posse, but George finds Lennie first; in order to prevent him from being lynched, he shoots him in the head. Steinbeck presents two simple souls who depend on one another and desire to have some land of their own, but neither has the ability to turn their fantasy into reality. The novel and the play based on it were successful. Another collection of short stories is The Long Valley (1938). These stories

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concern ordinary people and their foibles. For his next novel, Steinbeck drew on his “The Harvest Gypsies,” a seven-part series about the migrants who had come to California in search of work, which he had written for the San Francisco News in 1936. The novel was published as Their Blood Is Strong in 1938. For this series, he and Tom Collins, the manager of migrant camps in California’s Central Valley, had traveled throughout the valley. He met and interviewed numerous migrants for the series, learning about their plight and, to a certain extent, empathizing with them. After starting a novel titled The Oklahomans, Steinbeck, dissatisfied with its progress, began a satire, which he disliked when it was finished. What would become his greatest work, The Grapes of Wrath (1939), became a best-seller and won the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1940, even though politicians in California, Oklahoma, and Washington, D.C., criticized it. The novel depicts the dispossessed Joad family as they migrate from Oklahoma to California. The three generations of Joads are joined by Connie Rivers, the husband of Rosasharn, and by Jim Casy, a former minister. All crowd the dilapidated truck as it bounces across the states. Several Joads, including Granma Joad and Grampa Joad, die on the way. Those who survive do so because they have learned to cooperate with others. When they arrive in California, they confront numerous problems—from being harassed by police officers to being herded like cattle into camps. Tom and several other Joads strive to obtain self-respect, while others, like Connie Rivers, desert. Eventually they find employment at the Hooper ranch, where they are used to break a strike that has been organized by Jim Casy. Violence erupts and Jim is killed. Tom avenges his death and becomes a fugitive. Constant rain interrupts their work and causes a flood, and they are forced to seek refuge in a railroad car. Rosasharn miscarries. Before the novel ends, she lets a starving stranger nurse at one of her breasts. Steinbeck depicts both the plight of those who left Oklahoma and the naturalistic world in which they attempt to survive. Even though they have endured inhumane treatment, they have not lost their humanity. His literary success could not help his marriage, which had been in trouble for some time. Steinbeck left his wife and went on a scientific expedition with Edward Ricketts in 1940. They collected numerous specimens, which Ricketts later identified and cataloged. Steinbeck wrote a narrative of the expedition and Ricketts wrote a phyletic catalog. Steinbeck’s work, Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research, was published in 1941, the year he and his wife separated. Steinbeck and Gwyndolyn Conger, a professional singer whom he had met in 1940, moved to New York City. He divorced his first wife in 1942 and married Gwyndolyn in 1943, before he went to Europe to cover World War II for the New York Herald Tribune. During the 1940s, Steinbeck continued to write books as well as some screenplays. Bombs Away, a piece of nonfiction about the training of a bomber crew, and The Moon Is Down, a war novel about a small Scandinavian town occupied by German forces, were published in 1942.

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In 1944 Steinbeck moved his family from New York City to Monterey, California, and Gwyndolyn gave birth to Thom, their first child. Later, they returned to New York City. Cannery Row (1945), which concerns the lower-class inhabitants of a small waterfront community who are aware of the world and its problems, but who are not in a position to do anything about those problems, satirically criticizes modern America. Steinbeck’s second child, John, was born in 1946, a year before he published The Pearl, a tale about Kino, a diver who finds a beautiful pearl that brings him more trouble than it is worth. He dreams of selling the pearl for enough money to support his wife and child but soon learns that buyers do not wish to pay for it; they wish to kill for it. Kino loses his son and his boat before he and his wife throw the pearl back into the sea. The Wayward Bus (1947) concerns the passengers on a bus being driven by Juan Chicoy. En route to San Juan de la Cruz from Rebel Corners, the bus becomes mired in mud, and the passengers seek shelter. They learn about themselves and others. Unfortunately, the characters are not fully developed; as a result, the reader does not care about them. Steinbeck traveled with photographer Robert Capa to the Soviet Union in 1947. They visited various parts of the country, but the authorities prohibited them from observing any one place for long. Their collaboration, A Russian Journal (1948), was a superficial account of their trip. Edward Ricketts, Steinbeck’s close friend, died when his automobile collided with a train in 1948. The same year Gwyndolyn divorced Steinbeck, and he moved to California for a brief period, then returned to New York City. He met Elaine Anderson Scott, who was separated from her husband, the actor Zachary Scott, in 1949. He and Elaine married soon after her divorce. In 1950 Steinbeck published the minor novel Burning Bright, then wrote the screenplay for the film Viva Zapata!, which was released in 1952. Steinbeck then became active in politics, writing speeches for those who endorsed Adlai Stevenson, the 1952 Democratic presidential candidate. The title of East of Eden (1952) refers to the land where Cain lived after he murdered his brother, Abel. The novel depicts two generations of the Trask family. Adam Trask marries Cathy, who gives birth to two sons, Aaron and Caleb. Cathy shoots her husband, then deserts her family and moves to Salinas, where she becomes a prostitute. She eventually murders the madam of a brothel. Caleb discovers that Cathy, who is now the madam of the brothel, is his mother, and tells his brother, Aaron, his father’s favorite son, about her. Aaron, who had thought that their mother was dead, does not believe Caleb. When he meets Cathy, his memory of her is shattered, and he tries to escape by enlisting in the army. Later he is killed in the war. Adam, their father, is so grief-stricken that he dies soon after, and Caleb is left alone. The lengthy novel was criticized for its lack of structure. Steinbeck believed that it was one of his best. Sweet Thursday, a sequel to Cannery Row (1954), is an attack on the American middle class and its desires for material goods. Also in 1954 the Steinbecks visited Europe, where he wrote articles for the French newspaper Le Figaro. In

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1955 they purchased a cottage in Sag Harbor, Long Island. The Short Reign of Pippin IV, a satire of politics, appeared two years later. Steinbeck’s last novel, The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), is set in the fictional New Baytown, Long Island. It concerns the moral and ethical decay in America. Ethan Allen Hawley, the protagonist, experiences success only to lose it. He attempts to find meaning in an ethically bankrupt world, but grows frustrated and even considers committing suicide. The aspirations he has for his daughter prevent him from taking his life, however. Although Steinbeck attempts to depict Americans’ love for the dollar, his protagonist is not necessarily believable. As a result, the reviews of the novel were mixed. Travels with Charley in Search of America, based on a trip Steinbeck made with his French poodle, was published in 1962, the year he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Although he had driven all over the United States and had observed much, he experienced a sense of loss when he returned home. The last book published before his death in New York City on December 20, 1968, was America and Americans (1966). The book presents both details about America and Steinbeck’s own views. Some of Steinbeck’s fiction, especially his naturalistic fiction, is in print and is read by thousands of readers every year. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Tortilla Flat, 1935 In Dubious Battle, 1936 Of Mice and Men, 1937 The Grapes of Wrath, 1939 Cannery Row, 1945

REFERENCES Benson, Jackson J. The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer: A Biography. New York: Viking Press, 1984. ———. Looking for Steinbeck’s Ghost. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988. French, Warren G. John Steinbeck. New York: Twayne, 1961. ———. John Steinbeck’s Fiction Revisited. New York: Twayne, 1994. Kiernan, Thomas. The Intricate Music: A Biography of John Steinbeck. Boston: Little, Brown, 1979. Lisca, Peter. John Steinbeck, Nature and Myth. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1978. McCarthy, Paul. John Steinbeck. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1980. O’Connor, Richard. John Steinbeck. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970. Parini, Jay. John Steinbeck: A Biography. New York: Henry Holt, 1995.

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896) Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote several realistic novels in the 1800s, including the phenomenal best-seller Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly. Stowe was born on June 14, 1811, to Roxana Foote Beecher and Lyman Beecher, in Litchfield, Connecticut. Her mother had studied art and painted portraits; her father was a Congregational minister. Her mother died in childbirth when Stowe was only five years old. Her father remarried soon afterward. Stowe was educated at the Litchfield Female Academy, where John Brace, an instructor of composition, influenced her, and she wrote essays that were appreciated by the faculty. In 1824 she entered the Hartford Female Seminary, which was run by her older sister, Catharine. She eventually became an instructor at Hartford, teaching composition by employing the methods and techniques she had learned from John Brace. In 1832 Stowe moved with her family to Cincinnati, Ohio, where her father served as president of Lane Theological Seminary. She became an instructor at the Western Female Institute, which was run by her sister Catharine. She continued to write essays, and contributed short stories to the Western Monthly Magazine. In 1836 she married Calvin Ellis Stowe, a professor at Lane Theological Seminary. He encouraged her to continue writing, which she did; their marriage occasionally suffered because of their differences and their lack of money. In 1843 Stowe had a spiritual awakening, even though she had converted to Christianity when she was fourteen years old. The same year she published The Mayflower; or Sketches of Scenes and Characters Among the Descendants of the Pilgrims, a collection of short stories about New England. In 1849 her infant son, Samuel Charles Stowe, died; his death troubled her deeply. A year later her husband was appointed professor at Bowdoin College

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in Brunswick, Maine. The same year Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law. Stowe, who had learned about slavery while living in Cincinnati and who was bothered by the law’s passage, wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly for the antislavery periodical National Era. The weekly published the manuscript in installments, from June 1851 to April 1852. It appeared as a twovolume book in 1852. A year later the novel had sold more than 300,000 copies in the United States. The novel is about a faithful slave who is sold several times, and eventually dies as a result of being beaten. The novel also concerns Eliza and George Harris, who flee their bondage in Kentucky. Eliza and her child escape by crossing the ice on the Ohio River, and George escapes by impersonating a Caucasian. Once they are in Ohio, they make their way to freedom. The novel, a harsh indictment of slavery in the South, is unquestionably realistic because of Stowe’s observations. While living in Cincinnati, she had conversed with former slaves and had witnessed slaves being sold. She also relied on accounts by African Americans who had lived and worked on plantations. In addition to detailing what it was like for slave families who were separated, Stowe presents her moral views on slavery, which are based on puritanical Christianity. The novel was well received by many critics. Readers throughout the world were stirred by her message, and she became an international celebrity. In 1853 Stowe published A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in which she provides evidence, including court cases, that supports the brutal acts depicted in her novel. As a result of the novel’s success, Stowe was invited to the British Isles, where large crowds gathered to meet her and her husband and/or to listen to her speeches about slavery in America. She recounts her experiences in Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands, which was published in 1854, the year Congress passed the controversial Kansas-Nebraska Act, which she had opposed because of its position on slavery. Stowe immediately wrote another antislavery novel. Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856) concerns Dred, the son of Denmark Vesey (who was hanged in South Carolina for leading a slave insurrection). Although the title character desires vengeance, he is without question influenced by the elderly slave woman Milly, who understands the principles of Christianity. The novel, like her previous one, is based on actual incidents. In 1857 her oldest son, Henry Ellis Stowe, died while swimming in the Connecticut River. Stowe focused on her religious beliefs and wrote The Minister’s Wooing (1859). The novel concerns Dr. Samuel Hopkins, a colonial minister, and the Puritanism that was dominant in New England. The novel was serialized in the Atlantic Monthly, which Stowe had helped to found. Three years later she published The Pearl of Orr’s Island, which is set in Maine and features a heroine named Mara. Stowe’s husband retired in 1864, and she became the sole support of the family. She started writing a column about the home for the Atlantic Monthly; it appeared for three years. She also wrote short stories for children, poetry, and brief biographies of famous men.

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In 1869 Stowe published Oldtown Folks, another novel about the religious inhabitants of a small town in New England. A year later the controversial Lady Byron Vindicated: A History of the Byron Controversy, from Its Beginning in 1816 to the Present Time appeared. It concerns Lord Byron’s incestuous relationship with his half sister. Stowe wrote the book primarily because Byron’s mistress, Countess Teresa Guiccioli, had criticized Lady Byron, whom Stowe had grown to know, in My Recollections of Lord Byron (1869). Stowe turned her attention to fiction once more; most of the novels that followed depicted society in America after the Civil War. These novels include My Wife and I; or, Harry Henderson’s History (1871), Pink and White Tyranny: A Society Novel (1871), and We and Our Neighbors; or, the Records of an Unfashionable Street (1875). Poganuc People: Their Loves and Lives (1878) is based on Stowe’s life in Litchfield, Connecticut. Stowe died in Hartford, Connecticut, on July 1, 1896. She wrote numerous short stories and novels about New England, but she is remembered primarily for her novels about slavery. These novels faithfully and realistically depict the injustices and atrocities that occurred in the United States, particularly in the South, in the 1800s. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, 1852 Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp, 1856

REFERENCES Adams, John R. Harriet Beecher Stowe. New York: Twayne, 1963. Crozier, Alice C. The Novels of Harriet Beecher Stowe. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969. Foster, Charles H. The Rungless Ladder: Harriet Beecher Stowe and New England Puritanism. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1954. Gerson, Noel Bertram. Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Biography. New York: Praeger, 1976. Gilberson, Cathrene P. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1968; originally published 1937. Hedrick, Joan D. Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. Johnston, Johana. Runaway to Heaven: The Story of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1963. Wagenknecht, Edward. Harriet Beecher Stowe: The Known and the Unknown. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965. Wilson, Robert Forrest. Crusader in Crinoline: The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1941.

T. S. Stribling (1881–1965) Thomas Sigismund Stribling wrote several realistic novels that expose the prejudices and hypocrisies of whites and depict the plight of blacks in the South. Stribling was born on March 4, 1881, in Clifton, Tennessee, a small community on the Tennessee River, to Amelia Waits Stribling and Christopher Columbus Stribling, a businessman. His mother’s family had supported the South during the Civil War, and his father’s family had supported the North. In fact, his father had served honorably in the Union Army. Stribling attended the Clifton Masonic Academy before he entered Southern Normal College in Huntington, Tennessee. His parents, especially his father, encouraged him to continue his education. Stribling became the editor of the Clifton News, a weekly newspaper, before he entered the normal college in nearby Florence, Alabama, in 1902, where he studied to be a teacher. After his graduation in 1903, he obtained a teaching position at the high school in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. A year later he enrolled at the school of law at the University of Alabama, from which he graduated in 1905. Stribling briefly practiced law in the office of Emmett O’Neal, a former governor of the state, in Florence. In 1907 he accepted a position at the Taylor-Trotwood Magazine, which was published in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition to serving as a clerk whose responsibility was to keep current subscription lists and type correspondence, he wrote short stories for Sunday school publications. These stories were entertaining and were written from a moral perspective. His stories sold, and in 1908 Stribling left the magazine and moved to New Orleans, where he wrote as many as seven short stories a day for Sunday school publications, as well as adventure short stories for other kinds of magazines. He left New Orleans and traveled to South America and Europe. During

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World War I, he worked as a reporter for the Chattanooga News, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He also continued to write short stories. In 1917 Stribling published his first novel, Cruise of the Dry Dock, a melodramatic adventure story about a crew on a dry dock. It was forgotten within a few months. Four years later the more serious realistic novel, Birthright, was serialized in Century Magazine; it was published in book form in 1922. The novel sympathetically depicts the plight of African Americans in the South, and is based on his observations in Clifton. The novel features Peter Siner, a young African American who has graduated from Harvard University and has returned to his hometown in the South to help change the social conditions of African Americans who live there. His efforts fail because of the bigoted whites who live in the community and who believe that African Americans are less human and not civilized. The novel was the first to realistically depict the harsh treatment of African Americans by whites in the South. Some reviewers criticized the novel for its disparaging view of whites, but many critics believed that Stribling’s depiction of bigotry in the South was candidly fresh. Fombombo (1923) is set in Venezuela, which Stribling had visited before and after World War I. An adventure story, the novel concerns Thomas Strawbridge, an American businessman who sells weapons to revolutionaries. Red Sand (1924), another adventure story, concerns Angelito, a peasant who becomes a bullfighter because he wishes to marry an aristocrat. He is killed in a bullring. In 1926 Stribling turned his attention to the South. Teeftallow, which is set in the hills of Tennessee, concerns Abner Teeftallow, an ignorant man who accepts the hill people’s traditional conservative belief system, which is opposed to change and modernization. Stribling’s realistic depiction of the political and social inequities in the South made the book a best-seller. The play Rope, which was based on the novel and which he co-wrote, was not successful. Bright Metal (1928), which also is set in the hills of Tennessee, features some of the characters in Teeftallow. It is about Agatha Pomeroy, an educated woman from New York who moves to Lanesburg, Tennessee, to be with her new husband, John Calhoun Pomeroy, a bigoted man of the hills. Agatha observes the regressive conditions and beliefs around her, and attempts to initiate reforms. However, the hill people resent her efforts, and she is not successful. Several critics compared the novel to Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street, even though the novel’s location is in the South, not the Midwest. East Is East (1928), an adventure story set in Algiers, features Jimmy Million, an American entomologist who travels to Algiers to study the boll weevil. Not thinking, he carelessly violates some of the Algerians’ customs and consequently angers them. In 1929 Stribling published Clues of the Caribbees and Strange Moon. The former is a collection of mystery stories; the latter is an adventure story set in Venezuela that, like Fombombo and Red Sand, depicts an American businessman in another country.

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In 1930 Stribling married Lou Ella Kloss of Clifton, Tennessee, whom he had known for years. He also published Backwater, a novel that focuses on the narrow-minded inhabitants of a small town in Arkansas. Although the novel is similar to the novels set in the Tennessee hills, it was not as impressive as those novels, primarily because it lacks depth in its social analysis. Stribling’s last three novels, a trilogy, examine the lives of several members of the Vaiden family, who live off the land in northern Alabama. The novels cover the years from the Civil War to the early 1930s. Several members of the family—Jimmie, Polycarp, Augustus, and Marcia—are based on Stribling’s relatives, including his grandfather and mother. The first novel, The Forge (1931), concerns the period from the Civil War through Reconstruction. Although Civil War battles are not presented in the order each actually occurred, the depiction of each is realistic. The planter class is shaken to its core, as are the slaves, who have nowhere to go even though they are free. Jimmie Vaiden, the patriarch of the family, cleared the land and built his home when he was young. A blacksmith by trade, he has lived primarily from the land. The Civil War changes his way of life. His son, Miltiades, who has worked as an overseer on the Lacefield plantation, fights in the war, in an effort to preserve the agrarian way of life. After the war, he realizes that the only way to survive is to become a member of the mercantile class, which he does. The Store (1932), the second novel in the trilogy, focuses on the rise of Miltiades Vaiden. Like other whites in Florence, Alabama, as he becomes successful, he forgets his personal and professional ethics. Stribling reveals how the new mercantile class exploited poor blacks and poor whites, and influenced unscrupulous politicians. The Store was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1933. Unfinished Cathedral (1934) is the last novel in the trilogy. It concerns the inhabitants of Florence, Alabama, during the 1920s, when the town’s real estate market experiences a boom because of a newly constructed dam on the Tennessee River. Stribling’s characters lose their sense of decency as a result of their wealth and their material goods. These novels are examples of his best work. Each contains accurately described locations, skillfully drawn characters, and realistically rendered dialects. As a result, the reader sees where the characters lived and worked, as well as their actions and their speech patterns. The Sound Wagon (1935) presents political chicanery in New York and Washington, D.C. In order to write the novel, Stribling interviewed numerous politicians. Also in 1935 Stribling taught creative writing at Columbia University. This experience enabled him to write his last novel, These Bars of Flesh (1938), a humorous satire of university life. During the next two decades, Stribling traveled to foreign countries and wrote short stories, including mysteries, for magazines. In 1959 he moved to Clifton, Tennessee. He died in Florence, Alabama, on July 8, 1965.

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REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Birthright, 1922 Teeftallow, 1926 Bright Metal, 1928 The Forge, 1931 The Store, 1932 Unfinished Cathedral, 1934

REFERENCES Dalke, Anne-French. “ ‘Love Ought to Be like Religion, Brother Milt’: An Examination of The Civil War and Reconstruction Trilogy of T. S. Stribling.” Southern Literary Journal, 14 (Fall 1981): 24–35. Eckley, Wilton E. “T. S. Stribling: Pioneer in the Southern Renaissance.” Iowa English Bulletin Yearbook, 11 (1966): 47–54. ———. T. S. Stribling. New York: Twayne, 1975. Piacentino, Edward J. T. S. Stribling: Pioneer Realist in Modern Southern Literature. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1988. ———. “Through a Lens Darkly: T. S. Stribling’s Representation of the Past in His Alabama Trilogy.” Southern Literary Journal, 23 (Fall 1990): 20–29. Rocks, James E. “T. S. Stribling’s Burden of Southern History: The Vaiden Trilogy.” Southern Humanities Review, 6 (1972): 221–232.

William Styron (1925–

)

William Styron has written naturalistic novels in which he has examined the human propensity for evil through the dissolution of a middle-class family as well as the murder of a manipulative and domineering man. He has depicted the military as a system that operates without reason as well as a slave revolt in the early 1800s. He has analyzed the Holocaust from a uniquely different perspective. Born on June 11, 1925, in Newport News, Virginia, to Pauline Margaret Abraham Styron and William Clark Styron, he was reared just outside of Newport News. His mother later became bedridden, and she died when he was thirteen. His father sent him to Christchurch, an Episcopal preparatory school in Virginia. After Christchurch, he entered Davidson College in North Carolina. During World War II, Styron joined the U.S. Marine Corps and studied to be an officer in the V-12 program at Duke University, where he also enrolled in a creative writing course taught by William Blackburn. He left Duke as an officer and was shipped to the Pacific. The war ended soon afterward, and he was discharged. When he returned to the United States, Styron continued his education at Duke University. He graduated in 1947 and moved to New York City, where he obtained a position reading manuscripts at a publishing company. His playfulness interfered with his work, however, and he was dismissed. Styron then enrolled in a creative writing course at the New School for Social Research. He wrote several short stories, two of which were published in American Vanguard in 1948 and 1950. His first novel, Lie Down in Darkness, was published in 1951, after he had been recalled to active duty during the Korean War. The novel concerns Peyton Loftis and her troubled middle-class family in

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Virginia. Peyton moves to New York, where she adopts an unconventional lifestyle and ultimately commits suicide by leaping to her death. Through flashbacks the reader learns about her alcoholic and flirtatious father, who smothered her with affection and material objects; her dependent, pitiful mother who had grown aware of her husband’s adulteries; her physically and mentally handicapped older sister, who reminded each family member of his or her own weaknesses; and, of course, Peyton, including the differences in attitudes and beliefs that separate her and her parents. Nevertheless, like her father, Peyton has extramarital affairs, primarily to punish her husband, Harry Miller. When Miller leaves her, she becomes so lost and confused that she takes her own life. The novel is a study of fully developed characters whose weaknesses and strengths are presented. Styron traveled to Paris, where in 1952 he helped found the Paris Review. After returning briefly to the United States and studying creative writing at Johns Hopkins University, he went to Rome, where he studied at the American Academy and, in 1953, married Rose Burgunder, whom he had met at Johns Hopkins. They moved to Ravello, Italy, where they spent most of the time until they returned to the United States in 1954. The Styrons lived briefly in New York City before they settled in Roxbury, Connecticut. They had four children. In 1955 Styron published the novella The Long March, which is based in part on his experiences in the U.S. Marine Corps. It focuses on Colonel Templeton, a career officer; Captain Mannix, a reserve officer who dislikes Colonel Templeton and the authoritarian system he represents; and Lieutenant Culver, another reserve officer who observes the frustrated Captain Mannix. The novel, which depicts the senselessness of the military, focuses on a night march that has been ordered by Templeton. To disprove Templeton’s belief that the men will fail, Mannix insists that they finish the march. The men hike for miles and eventually grow to hate Mannix, much as he hates Templeton. Mannix finishes the march, but along the way he disobeys an order, and Templeton assures him that his insubordination will not go unnoticed. Although Mannix finishes the march, he does not win. He is defeated when his dislike for Templeton causes him to disobey an order. The novel depicts man’s inherent need to challenge any obstacle, even if it may mean defeat, and expresses Styron’s negative opinion of the military. Set This House on Fire (1960) is a sprawling novel about Peter Leverett, Cass Kinsolving, and Mason Flagg. Leverett was born in Virginia but practices law in New York. He visits Kinsolving in Charleston, South Carolina. Leverett, who has known Kinsolving, an alcoholic painter, for years, intends to learn about Mason Flagg’s apparent suicide in Sambuco, Italy. Leverett knew Flagg when he lived in New York, and Kinsolving knew Flagg in Italy. In fact, Flagg supported Kinsolving and his family when they were in Italy. However, when Kinsolving grew to love Francesca, a peasant who worked for Flagg, Flagg feared that Kinsolving would leave. Flagg raped Francesca, and she died soon afterward. Kinsolving believed that Flagg was responsible for her death and pushed

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him off a cliff. Luigi, an official and a friend of Kinsolving’s, learned that Kinsolving had murdered Flagg, but did not arrest him. He changed the evidence, and the death became a suicide. Styron’s novel explores several myths, much like a Greek tragedy. The novel was popular, particularly in France, primarily because of the plot twist and the European settings. For his next novel, Styron read numerous books and accounts about slavery and Nat Turner, the slave responsible for an insurrection in the 1830s. Turner and other slaves killed more than fifty whites, including women and children, before they were captured and killed. The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967) was a best-seller, even though several major African-American writers criticized it. The novel depicts Nat Turner’s life. When he is young, his master, Samuel Turner, encourages him to learn to read, write, and do mathematics. Turner reads the Bible and memorizes Scripture. He becomes a competent carpenter. He has a homosexual encounter, but never a heterosexual relationship, which causes him to fantasize about having sexual relations with women, especially white women. Turner is a complex individual. He is a slave because of the color of his skin, yet, because of his education, he is more literate than many whites. His master, who had intended to give Turner his freedom, has to sell his slaves in order to survive. He places Turner with a Baptist minister who treats Turner like any other slave. Then Turner is sold to another master, who exploits him. Turner learns to speak like other slaves, and later quotes Scripture, particularly passages that support revolt. Over time, other slaves grow to trust him. In the uprising Turner leads the slaves from one house to another, and they kill every white person they find. Turner tries to kill, but cannot, and the other slaves doubt his sincerity. When they reach the Whiteheads’ plantation, however, he is taunted into killing Margaret, about whom he has fantasized. When she dies from the wounds he has inflicted, he loses interest in the revolt; his anger has been released. The novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1968. In 1972 Styron’s humorous play In the Clap Shack, which concerns a venereal disease ward in a military hospital, was performed at the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut. It was published a year later. His next novel, Sophie’s Choice (1979), is about a young woman’s haunting memories of her experiences in a World War II Nazi concentration camp. It was a best-seller and became a popular film. The heroine, Sophie Zawistowska, a Catholic from Poland, and her two children, are interned at Auschwitz. Her children are taken from her and put to death, but her life is spared. When she is freed at the end of World War II, she travels to the United States, where she attempts to begin a new life. She rents a room in a boardinghouse in Brooklyn, New York, then meets Nathan Landau, an unstable and sometimes violent Jew, and Stingo, an aspiring writer from the South, who also have rooms there. Sophie and Nathan become lovers, and Stingo can hear them from his room, which is below. Nathan periodically physically abuses Sophie. He also abuses her psychologically by asking her how she had survived Auschwitz when so many had not. To make her feel terribly guilty, he refers to her as a Gentile and

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refers to those killed as Jews. Stingo, the non-Jewish American, cannot relate to what Sophie experienced or understand the reason for Nathan’s assaults, let alone comprehend the Holocaust. After Nathan and Sophie commit suicide, and after Sophie is buried, Stingo goes to Coney Island, where he falls asleep on the beach. Like Styron’s other novels, Sophie’s Choice examines myths and contains symbolism. It received the National Book Award in 1980. This Quiet Dust and Other Writings (1982) is a collection of nonfiction articles which had been published in various magazines. Styron discusses his bouts of depression in Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (1990). A Tidewater Morning: Three Tales from Youth (1993) consists of stories which had been published in Esquire. They are based on different stages in his life, including when his mother died and when he served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. Also in 1993 he received the National Medal of Arts. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Lie Down in Darkness, 1951 Set This House on Fire, 1960

REFERENCES Coale, Samuel. William Styron Revisited. Boston: Twayne, 1991. Friedman, Melvin J. William Styron. Popular Writers Series no. 3. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1974. Mackin, Cooper Richerson. William Styron. Southern Writers Series no. 7. Austin, Tex.: Steck-Vaughn, 1969. Morris, Robert K., and Irving Malin, eds. The Achievement of William Styron. Rev. ed. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1981. Pearce, Richard. William Styron. University of Minnesota Pamphlets on American Writers no. 98. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1971. West, James L. W., III. William Styron, a Life, New York: Random House, 1998.

Booth Tarkington (1869–1946) Booth Tarkington wrote nine novellas and more than twenty novels, but only a few were examples of realism. Newton Booth Tarkington was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on July 29, 1869, to Elizabeth Booth Tarkington and John Stevenson Tarkington. His mother was a homemaker, and his father practiced law and later served as a judge. They called Tarkington by his middle name, even though he had been named for his uncle Newton Booth, the governor of California. Tarkington attended school in Indianapolis, then transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy, a preparatory school in New Hampshire. He attended Purdue University for a year (1890–1891), then enrolled at Princeton University, where he remained until 1893. Although he did not graduate, he gained experience as a writer and illustrator by contributing to several student publications, several of which he also edited. Tarkington returned home, where he continued to write without success. In 1899, his novel The Gentleman from Indiana was serialized in McClure’s, a popular magazine, then published in book form. The novel was popular, even though critics considered it an unrealistic romance. Monsieur Beaucaire, a costume romance set in Bath, England, in the 1700s, was serialized in McClure’s in 1899, then published in book form a year later. In 1902 Tarkington published The Two Vanrevels, another romance set in Indiana, and married Laurel Louisa Fletcher. He ran as a Republican for the Indiana legislature the same year and was elected. However, his health forced him to resign from office in 1903. The Tarkingtons then traveled to Europe, where they journeyed from Rome to Paris before they returned to the United States. Tarkington published In the Arena, a collection of short stories influenced by

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his experiences as a politician, and The Conquest of Canaan, another novel set in Indiana, in 1905. The latter was a best-seller. The Tarkingtons returned to Europe, where he and Harry Leon Wilson wrote the play The Man from Home (1907). Tarkington’s wife gave birth to a daughter while they were in Rome. Eventually they settled in Paris, where they lived for several years. Tarkington returned periodically to the United States, primarily to manage the productions of his plays. He wrote at least two additional novels during this time. Although his work was popular, he started to drink alcohol, which interfered with his writing and his marriage. When his daughter died, he grieved constantly and drank heavily. In 1911 he and his wife divorced, and Tarkington determined to stop drinking and focus on his writing. After returning to Indianapolis, he met Susanah Robinson, whom he married in 1912. In The Flirt (1913), which is set in Indianapolis, Tarkington explores the lives of the characters and their environment. In his previous novels, he had focused almost exclusively on a complicated plot. In 1914 he published Penrod, a collection of short stories about Penrod Schofield, a young and innocent boy who has numerous adventures. The stories, influenced by Mark Twain’s novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, were affectionately received by readers primarily because of their realism. Tarkington authentically depicts what a young boy from the heartland of America experiences and feels during his maturation. In 1915 Tarkington wrote the first novel of a trilogy. The Turmoil focuses on James Sheridan and his son, Bibbs. James, who exemplifies the nouveau riche of the early 1900s who made a fortune as a result of the industrial revolution, wants his son, who is not necessarily attracted to amassing wealth and material goods, to succeed him. For the most part, the novel is realistic because it authentically depicts a specific class of people in their environment. However, the novel’s ending—in which Bibbs changes from one who rejects capitalism to one who both accepts the philosophy and becomes a successful capitalist—is unquestionably contrived. Some critics believed that the novel was the best Tarkington had written up to that point in his career. In 1916 more stories about Penrod appeared under the title Penrod and Sam, as did the novel Seventeen, which concerns William “Willie” Baxter, an awkward teenager. The novel humorously depicts Willie and his longing for the insufferable Miss Pratt. The second novel of the trilogy, The Magnificent Ambersons (1918), was well received by critics and readers alike, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1919. The novel concerns Major Amberson, who has amassed a fortune through ambition and hard work, and his grandson, George, who has not been taught the values he needs to succeed. George, self-centered and uncaring, is not fit to walk in his grandfather’s shoes, and the reader assumes that he will be punished for his deeds. This is not the case, however. George marries a wealthy woman and proceeds to return the family to its former position in society by obtaining a position in a factory.

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Alice Adams (1921) is about middle-class Alice Adams and her mother, who desires that her daughter marry Arthur Russell, a well-respected, wealthy man. Although Alice follows her mother’s advice and attempts to win Russell’s heart, her middle-class values and manners cause her to fail, and she is resigned to working as a stenographer. The novel is one of Tarkington’s most realistic, for it depicts the values and manners of the middle-class with honesty. The novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1922. The third novel of the trilogy, The Midlander (1924), concerns Dan Oliphant, a builder who fantasizes about building modern cities but dies before any of his fantasies materialize. Tarkington and his wife were now spending the summers in Kennebunkport, Maine, in which he eventually set some of his fiction. In the late 1920s he experienced blindness as a result of cataracts and a detached retina; fortunately, several operations improved his sight so that he could continue to write. Mirthful Haven (1930), a novel set in Kennebunkport, focuses on the attitudinal differences between those who live in Kennebunkport during the summers and a native of the community. It is a harsh indictment of those who visit the community during the summers. Tarkington continued to write short stories and novels for adults. For instance, a collection of short stories, Mary’s Neck, was published in 1932, and the novel The Heritage of Hatcher Ide, in 1941. Tarkington also wrote short stories for children. Some of these stories were collected and published as Little Orvie (1934). Tarkington’s work brought him critical acclaim and fortune. However, since his death in Indianapolis on May 19, 1946, much of his work has been forgotten. He is remembered primarily for his realistic slice-of-life short stories about Penrod Schofield and for Alice Adams and the realistic novels that form the trilogy. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Turmoil, 1915 The Magnificent Ambersons, 1918 Alice Adams, 1921 The Midlander, 1924

REFERENCES Fennimore, Keith J. Booth Tarkington. New York: Twayne, 1974. Woodress, James. Booth Tarkington: Gentleman from Indiana. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1955.

Albion W. Tourgee (1838–1905) Albion Tourgee wrote novels that painted a realistic picture of Reconstruction in the South after the Civil War. Tourgee was born on May 2, 1838, to Louisa Winegar Tourgee and Valentine Tourgee, in Williamsfield, Ohio. When he was about six, his mother died, and his father moved the family to a farm outside of Kingsville, Ohio, in the Western Reserve. There, Tourgee was influenced by Republican antislavery sentiment. After graduating from Kingsville Academy, he entered the University of Rochester in 1859. His studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the Civil War. Tourgee enlisted in the Union Army and fought at the Battle of Bull Run, where he received a spinal injury that caused paralysis. Although he recovered enough to earn a commission as an officer, the injury bothered him for the rest of his life. In late 1862 he was slightly wounded near Perryville, Kentucky, and in early 1863 he was captured by Confederates and imprisoned. Later in 1863 Tourgee married Emma Kilbourne, in Columbus, Ohio; they later had a child. Still in the Union Army, he served in several engagements in Tennessee. His spinal injury and failure to be promoted caused him to resign in late 1863. Tourgee returned to Ohio and studied law. The University of Rochester had conferred a bachelor’s degree on him in 1862 primarily because of his service in the Union Army. In 1864 he was admitted to the Ohio bar, but clients were scarce, so he worked at a newspaper in order to provide for his family. Partly on the advice of a doctor who believed that a warmer climate would improve his health, and partly on the belief that he could earn more in the South, Tourgee moved his family to Greensboro, North Carolina. His Republican ideas about Reconstruction clashed with views of prominent whites in the South. Undeterred, he attended the convention of the Southern Loyalists, who had opposed

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the Confederacy. In 1866 he founded the Greensboro Union Register, a newspaper in which he examined Reconstruction in the South. The newspaper ceased publication in 1867, when he joined the Republicans in North Carolina. In 1868 Tourgee was a delegate to the state constitutional convention, where he advocated civil, political, and judicial reform, much of which was eventually written into the state’s constitution. When the convention was over, he helped prepare a new Code of Civil Procedure for North Carolina. The same year he was elected superior court judge. Tourgee insisted that blacks be included on jury lists, an action that, along with others, caused prominent whites who opposed Reconstruction to criticize him in public and in the press. Some of these whites either participated in or financed the Ku Klux Klan, an organization that opposed Reconstruction in the South, and intimidated and terrorized African Americans and their Republican allies from the North, including Tourgee and his family. He received threats constantly while he served as a judge. When his investigation of violence committed by members of the Ku Klux Klan led to the indictments of more than sixty members in 1871, the conservatives in the state legislature passed laws that prevented their prosecution. In 1874 Tourgee failed to be reelected as a judge, and his law practice was not prosperous. The same year he published Toinette: A Novel under the pseudonym Henry Churton. The sentimental novel, which is about a plantation owner who grows to love one of his slaves, failed to sell. Tourgee was elected to the state constitutional convention in 1875. Three years later he ran as a Republican candidate for Congress, but was defeated. In 1879 he moved to the North, where he was living when his second novel, Figs and Thistles: A Western Story, was published. The novel concerns Markham Churr, who is born and reared in Ohio. Churr attends college, then becomes a lawyer. He becomes a prote´ge´ of an older, sophisticated man, Boaz Woodley, who helps him attain the rank of brigadier general in the Union Army. Churr, heeding the advice of Woodley, succeeds in politics as well. However, he later realizes that he has lost his self-respect as a result of being controlled by Woodley. When Woodley asks him to support a bill that will help to increase the value of a particular investment, Markham realizes a conflict of interest and consequently votes against it. Tourgee’s third novel, A Fool’s Errand: By One of the Fools, followed later in 1879. Unlike his sentimental romances, it was praised by critics and sold more than 200,000 copies. The novel concerns Comfort Servosse, a Northerner who moves with his wife and child to the South to improve his health. Although Comfort is optimistic about the move, his wife, Metta, is not. Living outside Warrington, North Carolina, he attempts to practice law. When he and his wife entertain six women who have moved from the North to teach African Americans, they are ridiculed in the local weekly newspaper. (Southerners resented Northerners moving to the South to teach African Americans. After all, the South was not a foreign land; it did not need “missionaries” from the North.) Comfort becomes dedicated to helping the downtrodden because of his religious

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convictions. He sells land to them and builds houses for them, which causes more ridicule and even hatred. And when he speaks about equality for all, he is warned. Comfort refuses to accept that many Southerners do not wish to change, and continues to express his views; the threats increase. He becomes the leader of the Union League, which is responsible for organizing the African Americans and opposing the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan’s members frequently intimidate and even murder African Americans who befriend Comfort or other Northerners. (Actually, the popularity of the Ku Klux Klan increased as a result of the Union League’s unscrupulous activities.) Comfort learns about the Klan’s racist deeds from an African American whose family has been physically assaulted. He realizes that the government is ineffective and encourages retaliation. When members of the Klan murder two political leaders (incidents that are based on fact), Comfort realizes that the Klan is militarily stronger and unquestionably ruthless. He writes a letter in which he recounts the Klan’s activities and sends it to a friend, who has it published in a northern publication. When Southerners read it, they hold a meeting at which Comfort defends his claims. Comfort’s accusations and actions cause his daughter to be pursued by the Klan. Later, a member of the Klan provides the names of members of the organization. Other members confess their deeds, and the Klan crumbles. Comfort dies of yellow fever and is mourned by those who knew him, especially the Southerners he had helped. The novel is largely autobiographical; as a result, it does not objectively depict the clashes between the Union League and the Ku Klux Klan. However, the reader learns about Tourgee’s experiences in the South as well as his views on Reconstruction and Southerners. Bricks Without Straw (1880), another novel about Reconstruction in the South, sold extremely well. This novel concerns an African American named Nimbus, from his birth to the time he and his family are so terrorized by the Ku Klux Klan that they leave the South. Nimbus, uneducated but intelligent, knows that not only is he free, but also that he can earn a living from tobacco. He becomes so prosperous that whites resent him. Mollie Ainslie, a Northerner who has moved to the South to teach African Americans, helps ease tensions between the whites and the African Americans. When she comes to the aid of Nimbus and his family, however, she is advised to return to the North. Nimbus proclaims his freedom and opposes the Ku Klux Klan. When the Klan physically assaults his closest friend, he realizes that he must leave the South before his family is harmed. Tourgee depicts the effects that the violence committed against Nimbus and his friend have on some whites in the South. Hesden Le Moyne, for instance, changes. Indeed, he defends African Americans and later takes up their cause. Like A Fool’s Errand, the novel examines Reconstruction and the problems that came with it. Both novels reveal a troubling period in America’s history. In 1881 Tourgee moved his family into a large house in Mayville, New York.

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He continued to write novels, and helped form Our Continent Publishing Company, which published Our Continent, a weekly magazine that first appeared in October 1882. The magazine, which he edited, featured articles, short stories, and poetry. Later, Tourgee serialized novels, including his own, in an effort to increase circulation. However, the magazine ceased publication in 1884, and he tried to recoup his investment by writing and lecturing. He wrote a series of letters for the Chicago Inter Ocean and produced several columns from the mid1880s to the late 1880s for the same publication. He continued to espouse equal rights for all in his writing. In 1890 Tourgee helped to establish the Citizens Equal Rights League. A year later he founded the National Citizens Rights Association, hoping to attract African Americans in the South to the cause. In 1895 Tourgee agreed to edit Basis: A Journal of Good Citizenship. As editor, he made certain that the publication supported the National Citizens Rights Association, and published his own columns, articles, short stories, and poetry. The magazine ceased publication in 1896. A year later President William McKinley appointed him U.S. consul in Bordeaux, France. He held this post until his death in Bordeaux on May 21, 1905. Most of Tourgee’s novels have been forgotten. However, any reader desiring to learn about Reconstruction in the South should read A Fool’s Errand and Bricks Without Straw, which are based on his experiences and observations. Without question, these novels accurately depict the attitudes of African Americans and whites, as well as the clashes between members of the Union League and the Ku Klux Klan. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS A Fool’s Errand: By One of the Fools, 1879 Bricks Without Straw, 1880

REFERENCES Dibble, Roy F. Albion W. Tourgee. New York: Lemcke & Buechner, 1921. Gross, Theodore L. Albion W. Tourgee. New York: Twayne, 1963. Olsen, Otto H. Carpetbagger’s Crusade: The Life of Albion Winegar Tourgee. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1965.

Susan Warner (1819–1885) Susan Bogert Warner wrote more than thirty local color or realistic novels that have been largely forgotten. Her younger sister, Anna, also wrote fiction. It has been largely ignored because it was inferior to Susan’s. Warner was born on July 11, 1819, to Anna Marsh Bartlett Warner and Henry Whiting Warner, in New York City. Her mother was a homemaker, and her father practiced law and invested in real estate. In 1822 the family moved to a small farm near Brooklyn, New York. Six years later her mother died, and her father’s sister, Frances, helped to rear Warner and her sister. In the early 1830s, the family moved again to a townhouse in Manhattan. Her father’s success in practicing law and investing in real estate enabled the family to live on fashionable St. Mark’s Place by 1835. Three years later, however, as a result of the Panic of 1837, her father experienced enormous losses. He sold the house on St. Mark’s Place and moved the family to a drafty house on a farm on Constitution Island. In order to help the family, Warner published The Wide, Wide World, under the pseudonym Elizabeth Wethrell, in 1850. This novel, which became a bestseller, is considered one of her best. It was one of the first novels published to accurately depict the duties of women. The heroine is Ellen Montgomery, an adolescent girl who has grown up in fashionable New York City. Her father, a lawyer, has lost a major lawsuit and, consequently, part of his wealth. Her mother suffers from poor health. To improve her mother’s health, her parents go abroad. Ellen is sent to live with her Aunt Fortune, who does not enjoy Ellen’s company. When Aunt Fortune becomes ill, Ellen impresses her by managing her affairs. Bram Van Brunt, a farmer, John Humphreys, and John’s sister, Alice, befriend Ellen. Ellen also becomes a friend of members of the Marshman

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family, who are relatives of the Humphreys. Warner informs the reader about the social differences between the highly cultured Marshman family and Ellen’s aunt and her friends. Before Alice Humphreys dies, she asks Ellen to take care of her brother and father. Although Ellen does so, her parents, both of whom later die abroad, request that she live with the Lindsays—her relatives on her mother’s side—in Scotland. Ellen sails to Scotland, where she remains at the end of the novel. However, the reader assumes that she will return to the United States, especially to see John Humphreys, whom she has grown to love. The purpose of the novel is to teach Christian concepts and moral values. As a result, the characters are deeply religious, and their beliefs, especially Ellen’s, are made stronger by the novel’s end. Other characters, such as Ellen’s Aunt Fortune, balance the deeply religious characters, and all the characters are realistically depicted—from customs and manners to speech patterns. In 1852 Warner published Queechy, a didactic novel about an adolescent orphan girl, Fleda Ringgan. Set on a farm near fictitious Queechy, New York, and in New York City, the novel begins with Fleda living with her grandfather on a farm. He later dies, causing Fleda to be sent to live with Mr. and Mrs. Rolf Rossitur, her aunt and uncle, in France. When her uncle loses part of his wealth, he moves the family to New York City. His finances worsen, and he moves the family to the Ringgan farm near Queechy, where Fleda teaches them how to farm. Dr. Gregory, who owns the farm on which Fleda and the Rossiturs live, and Guy Carleton become friends with Fleda and the Rossiturs. The Rossiturs’ financial situation worsens, and Fleda, with Guy Carleton’s help, saves them. Before the novel ends, Fleda and Guy marry and move to England. The novel concerns the manners, customs, and values of New Englanders. The heroine has perfect manners, but not wealth. Her respectful demeanor is a reflection of her strong religious convictions. Her uncle, who has experienced wealth as well as financial ruin, is not necessarily religious. Refusing to learn from his mistakes, he tends to blame others for his predicament. Overall, the novel captures the manners and customs of the people of New England with great authenticity, and the descriptions of characters and their environment are accurate. The novel sold extremely well, but it was not as popular as The Wide, Wide World. Warner’s third novel, The Hills of the Shatemuc (1856), was based on her father’s life up to his early manhood. The novel was not as popular with readers as her previous two novels, primarily because the plot lacked interest. Warner continued to write didactic novels that feature heroines who are morally righteous but not necessarily preachy, but they were not as popular as her first two. Most, however, capture the customs and manners of New Englanders. These novels include Melbourne House (1864), Daisy (1869), Daisy in the Field (1869), and Daisy Plains (1885). She died in Highland Falls, New York, on March 17, 1885.

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REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Wide, Wide World, 1850 Queechy, 1852

REFERENCES Baker, Mabel. The Warner Family and the Warner Books. West Point, N.Y.: Constitution Island Association, 1971. Foster, Edward Halsey. Susan and Anna Warner. Boston: Twayne, 1978. Overmyer, Grace. “Hudson River Bluestockings—The Warner Sisters of Constitution Island.” New York History, 40 (April 1959): 137–158. Warner, Anna. Susan Warner (“Elizabeth Wetherell”). New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1909.

Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989) Robert Penn Warren wrote realistic novels set in the South that depict various characters with different backgrounds. Occasionally the protagonists remind the reader of major characters in Greek tragedies such as those by Sophocles. Warren is most remembered for the novel All the King’s Men, which captured the essence of American politics in the late 1940s. Warren was born on April 24, 1905, to Ruth Penn Warren and Robert Franklin Warren, in Guthrie, Kentucky. An excellent student, he graduated from high school when he was fifteen years of age. When he was about to enter Annapolis, a cinder thrown by his brother, Thomas, blinded him in one eye. Warren enrolled at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where John Crowe Ransom’s lectures on English led him to abandon the sciences for writing, especially poetry. Before he graduated in 1925, he submitted several poems to the magazine The Fugitive, which was published by Allen Tate and Donald Davidson. In 1927 Warren received a master’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley. In 1928 he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, where he earned a B.Litt. degree in 1930. In John Brown: The Making of a Martyr (1929) Warren exposes John Brown as a murderer. The biography is not objective. In 1930 Warren became a faculty member at Southwestern College in Memphis, Tennessee, and married Emma Brescia, whom he had met at Berkeley. A year later he accepted a faculty position at Vanderbilt. When he was not teaching, he contributed essays, poems, and short stories to various publications, including collections that were edited by others. In 1934 he began to teach at Louisiana State University, where he and Cleanth Brooks founded the Southern Review a year later. His first collection of poetry, Thirty-six Poems, was published in 1935.

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Although he and Brooks collaborated on several textbooks that were adopted by faculty at other colleges and universities, Warren never abandoned creative writing. His first novel Night Rider (1939) is based on the Kentucky Tobacco War of 1904–1905. The novel explores the friction between the small tobacco farmers and the large tobacco companies. The farmers form an association primarily to force the companies to pay more per pound. The companies resist. Attorney Perse Munn, who represents the association, helps found the Brotherhood, a band of terrorists that destroys tobacco crops of farmers who resist joining the association. Then the terrorists destroy warehouses. Perse Munn kills Bunk Trevelyan, a reluctant terrorist, then is hunted by officers of the law and killed. The novel reveals how a cause for social justice can lead to a bloody battleground. Warren accepted a faculty position at the University of Minnesota in 1942. A year later he published At Heaven’s Gate, which was inspired by Dante’s Inferno. The novel examines Bogan Murdock and his corrupt financial empire. Murdock, a pillar of the community as well as of the local university, mentors Jerry Calhoun, an All-American football player at the university. Later, Murdock helps Calhoun become a salesman. Murdock’s daughter, Sue, becomes engaged to Calhoun. Later she breaks their engagement, and becomes the lover of Slim Sarrett, a boxer, writer, and graduate student at the university. Sue leaves Sarrett for Jason Sweetwater, a union official. When she becomes pregnant with Sweetwater’s child, she has an abortion. Later, Sarrett strangles her. Murdock’s empire collapses, and Calhoun is made a scapegoat. The novel, not one of Warren’s best, reveals how greed, power, lust, and deceit ruin individuals. In 1944 Warren was appointed to the chair in poetry at the Library of Congress. When he had served his term, he returned to the University of Minnesota. His most famous novel, All the King’s Men (1946), a roman a` clef, was inspired by Huey Long, a popular but controversial political figure in Louisiana. The novel’s major characters include Willie Stark, who began his career as a country lawyer primarily to help the “little” guy, and Jack Burden, a journalist who helps Stark become the governor of a state in the South. Although Stark attempts to serve the people of the state by building highways, hospitals, and schools, he becomes entangled in graft and corruption. Stark’s son, Tom, is seriously injured while playing football and dies. Stark’s wife, Lucy, leaves him. Stark has an affair with Anne Stanton, whose brother, Dr. Adam Stanton, is the director of a hospital. When Stanton learns about his sister’s affair with Stark, he assassinates Stark before his bodyguards can react. Jack Burden, who has worked for Stark, does not realize the ramifications of his actions until later. The novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1947 and was made into a popular film two years later. Warren published The Circus in the Attic, a collection of short stories, in 1947. It was followed by World Enough and Time: A Romantic Novel, set in Kentucky in the early 1800s, in 1950. The novel is based on an actual event. Jeremiah Beaumont is a young lawyer who is about to marry Rachel Jordan.

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However, Rachel has been seduced and impregnated by Beaumont’s mentor and father figure, Colonel Cassius Fort. Rachel makes Beaumont swear that he will kill Fort for what he has done to her. Beaumont attempts to challenge Fort to a duel, but Fort refuses. Beaumont is manipulated into murdering Fort by a handbill that purports to clear Fort by stating that the stillborn fetus from Rachel had been black, not white. The handbill’s claim is an insult to Rachel, and Beaumont grows furious. He kills Fort, then is tried for murder and sentenced to death. He and Rachel escape, but he is killed by a bounty hunter. The novel received mixed reviews. Warren and his wife divorced, and he accepted a faculty position at Yale University, where he taught playwriting and literature. He married Eleanor Clark, a writer, with whom he had a daughter and a son, in 1952. In 1955 he published Band of Angels, another historical romance based on an actual incident. The novel concerns Amantha Starr, who upon her father’s death learns that she is part black and a slave. Subsequently a slave trader takes her to New Orleans, where she is sold. Though the novel was not well received by critics, it was made into a film in 1957. The Cave (1959) is based on incidents that occurred near Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, in the 1920s. Although the novel is about Jasper Harrick, who is trapped in a cave, the reader sees Harrick only through flashbacks that other characters experience. Isaac Sumpter, the self-appointed mouthpiece for Harrick, exploits Harrick’s predicament for his own gain. He even prevents Harrick’s rescue in order to weave a myth that propels Harrick—and of course himself— into the national spotlight. Warren’s novel is very similar to Ace in the Hole, a film that had been released in 1951. Reviews of the novel were mixed. Wilderness: A Tale of the Civil War (1961) features Adam Rosenzweig, an idealistic Jew who attempts to enlist in the Union Army even though his left foot is deformed. He learns both about himself and about his late father, who had pledged obedience to the Law of Moses shortly before his death. Critics were not impressed with this novel. Also in 1961 Warren returned to the faculty of Yale University, which he had left in 1956. He remained at Yale until 1973. In Flood: A Romance of Our Time (1964) protagonist Brad Tolliver attempts to stop his father from destroying books that had belonged to Dr. Amos Fiddler. Later, Tolliver becomes a successful writer of short stories and screenplays. He and film director Yasha Jones go to Fiddlersburg to make a movie. Dr. Fiddler’s son, Calvin, who has served time in prison, confronts Tolliver. They struggle, a weapon fires, and Tolliver suffers a neck wound. Though he is not a doctor, Calvin performs an emergency tracheotomy and saves his life. The novel examines the relationships between fathers and sons, a topic that Warren had analyzed in previous novels. Critics were not kind in their reviews. Meet Me in the Green Glen (1971), set in Tennessee, concerns Angelo Passetto, who has an affair with Sunderland Spottwood’s wife, Cassie. Years before, Spottwood had suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed except for a twitch on the side of his face. Spottwood is murdered, and Passetto is arrested, tried, and

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sentenced to death. However, Cassie is the actual murderer. She killed her husband with Passetto’s knife after Passetto rejected her. Some critics claimed that Warren had written another romance about the South; others, that the novel was better than the previous two or three he had published. A Place to Come To (1977) is Warren’s last, somewhat autobiographical, novel. It features Jediah Tewksbury from Dugton, Alabama, a widely known scholar of literature who is haunted by his father’s strange death. His father had been standing on his wagon one evening, his hand on his penis, when he lost his balance and fell. Startled by the commotion, the mule pulled the wagon, which crushed his father to death. Tewksbury weaves a story about his father’s death, which he tells at parties. The story becomes legend. Although he achieves success and fame, Tewksbury gradually realizes that one must not dissociate oneself from one’s past or one’s heritage, for only by acknowledging it does one find peace. Warren died in Stratton, Vermont, on September 15, 1989. His novels, except for All the King’s Men, have been overshadowed by his numerous collections of poetry, especially those published during the last three decades of his life. However, his novels, primarily because of the symbolism, and to a certain extent the autobiographical incidents in them, should be reconsidered by critics and readers alike. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Night Rider, 1939 At Heaven’s Gate, 1943 All the King’s Men, 1946 The Cave, 1959 A Place to Come To, 1977

REFERENCES Blotner, Joseph Leo. Robert Penn Warren: A Biography. New York: Random House, 1977. Bohner, Charles H. Robert Penn Warren. New York: Twayne, 1964; rev. ed., 1981. Casper, Leonard. Robert Penn Warren: The Dark and Bloody Ground. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1960. Hendricks, Randy. Lonelier Than God: Robert Penn Warren and the Southern Exile. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000. Ruppersburg, Hugh M. Robert Penn Warren and the American Imagination. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1990. West, Paul. Robert Penn Warren. University of Minnesota Pamphlets on American Writers, no. 44. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1964.

Henry Kitchell Webster (1875–1932) Henry Kitchell Webster wrote several realistic novels, including three with his friend Samuel Merwin, which examined the lives of those who built great capitalistic enterprises such as railroads. Henry K. Webster was born on September 7, 1875, to Emma Josephine Webster and Towner Keeney Webster, in Evanston, Illinois. He received his bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College in 1897. Then he accepted a faculty position at Union College, in Schenectady, New York, where he taught rhetoric for a year. In 1898 he resigned his position in order to return to Chicago to write operas and a novel with his good friend, Samuel Merwin. Their first novel, The Short Line War (1899), concerns the struggle for the ownership of a railroad. Jim Weeks, a serious-minded businessman, battles politicians and others over a railroad. The authors also present another side of Weeks’s character, especially when he grows to love a woman who eventually leaves him. The novel realistically depicts the questionable practices in which some businessmen and politicians at the turn of the century were engaged. Readers are introduced to characters who resemble capitalists such as Jay Gould. The Banker and the Bear: The Story of a Corner in Lard (1900) focuses on two financial institutions: the bank and the commodity exchange. Webster penetrates both, presenting their transactions as well as describing the methods used by bankers and speculators. What occurs between the heads of these institutions is similar to what occurs between heads of opposing armies during war: each looks at the other as the enemy. Neither institution uses violence to attain goals; rather, each uses embezzlement, theft, bribery, and even espionage, which are considered acceptable and “part of the game.” He does not necessarily criticize either institution, but he certainly implies that both have problems. In 1901 Webster and Merwin published the realistic novel Calumet K, which

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also is about business at the turn of the century. The novel was serialized in the Saturday Evening Post before it was published in book form. It was very popular with readers primarily because the authors depict how businesses and their owners operated. The novel concerns a young engineer who is brought to Chicago to oversee the construction of a large grain elevator, “Calumet K.” The project has dragged along, however, because the person responsible has not paid attention to the correspondence in the office nor to a railroad that cannot supply cars to haul lumber to the project. Bannon, the engineer, resolves these problems and also confronts a group of financiers in Chicago, as well as others who desire to thwart his efforts. The elevator is completed on time. Bannon also marries the woman he has grown to love. The novel depicts the machinations of those who attempt to stop Bannon from succeeding. Also in 1901, Webster married Mary Ward Orth, with whom he had three children. Two years later “The Copper King” appeared in the Saturday Evening Post; it was published in book form as Roger Drake, Captain of Industry the same year. He published The Duke of Cameron Avenue and Traitor and Loyalist in 1904. Webster teamed with Samuel Merwin again in 1907, when they published Comrade John, a novel that features Herman Stein, a leader of a new religion. His followers live in Beechcroft, a community in the Catskill Mountains. Stein has hired John Chance, a freethinking architect, to design and build a great temple. When it is finished, Stein announces its completion in print, and hordes of people arrive to join the cult. As a result, Chance is hired to build other buildings, and Beechcroft grows. Reviews of the novel were mixed. The Whispering Man (1908) is Webster’s first mystery. Other novels followed, including romances and another mystery. These novels capture the Midwest in vivid and authentic descriptions; the plots are filled with believable characters and exciting situations. In 1912 Webster’s only play, June Madness, was produced in New York City. He continued to write novels: The Ghost Girl (1913), The Butterfly (1914), The Real Adventure (1916), The American Family (1918), Mary Wollaston (1920), Real Life (1921), Joseph Greer and His Daughter (1922), The Innocents (1924), The Corbin Necklace (1926), Philopena (1927) and The Beginners (1927). Who Is the Next?, his second mystery, was published in 1931. Webster died in Evanston, Illinois, at the age of fifty-seven, in 1932. He had undergone an operation for cancer several months earlier. In addition to his realistic novels, most of which have been forgotten, he contributed numerous short stories to pulp magazines under pseudonyms.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Short Line War, 1899 (with Samuel Merwin) Calumet K, 1901 (with Samuel Merwin) Comrade John, 1907 (with Samuel Merwin)

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REFERENCES “Briefs on New Books: Railroading Up-to-Date.” The Dial, 27, no. 314 (July 16, 1899): 52–53. “Henry K. Webster, Noted Writer, Dead.” New York Times, December 10, 1932, p. 15. Merwin, Samuel. “Hitting Bottom: Autobiography.” Collier’s, December 13, 1924, pp. 20–21, 51. “Novel Notes: The Short Line War.” The Bookman (July 1899); 475. “A Romance of Spirited Facts.” New York Times, November 16, 1901, p. 844. Webster, Henry Kitchell. The Banker and the Bear: The Story of a Corner in Lard. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Gregg Press, 1968; originally published 1900. ———. Who Is the Next? New York: Garland, 1976; originally published 1931.

Edith Wharton (1862–1937) Edith Wharton wrote realistic novels about the lower-class inhabitants of New England as well as the upper-class inhabitants of New York City, in the early 1900s. Her novels were typically novels of manners, depicting the characters’ culture, customs, dress, and speech. Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones in New York City on January 24, 1862, to Lucretia Rhinelander Jones and George Frederic Jones. Her wealthy parents, who were members of fashionable New York society, often sailed to Europe. Consequently, Wharton experienced Europe and its varied cultures when she was very young. Besides New York and Europe, she lived at her parents’ home in Newport, Rhode Island, during the summers. She had two brothers, but they were much older and not inclined to bother with her. Her parents, too, were distant. Her mother was interested in Paris fashions and dinner parties; being demonstrative toward her children was not part of her nature. Such behavior by parents toward their children was acceptable and common in upper-class families. When she was twenty years old, Wharton courted Harry Stevens. Later, she saw Walter Van Rensselaer Berry, a law student. She and Berry did not marry, but he remained a close friend until his death in 1927. In 1885 she married Edward Wharton, an older man, in Boston. They resided in Massachusetts, but Edith lived abroad several months a year. In 1891 Wharton’s short fiction was published in magazines. Three years later an editor at Scribner’s suggested that she publish a collection of her short stories. This suggestion, together with the pressures of her marriage, caused her to have an emotional breakdown. Wharton’s husband, too, had several breakdowns, primarily as a result of the marriage. Eventually he was diagnosed as a manicdepressive.

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Wharton’s first collection of short stories, The Greater Inclination, was published in 1899. A second collection, Crucial Instances, appeared in 1901. The Valley of Decision (1902), a lengthy historical romance set in Italy, has as its protagonist Odo, Duke of Pianura, who attempts to liberalize late-eighteenthcentury Italy. The House of Mirth (1905) depicts the aristocratic society of New York City. The novel concerns Lily Bart, an impoverished member of New York society who rejects marriage to several millionaires who court her. Her attempts to remain a member of the upper class eventually fail. Lily meets Lawrence Selden, a poor young attorney who grows to love her, but she becomes involved with several questionable characters, including Gus Trevor. She also has unfortunate experiences. Although she eventually realizes that she loves Selden, Lily commits suicide in a run-down boardinghouse. Selden, who intends to propose marriage to her, finds her body. The novel was well received by critics and readers alike, and Wharton’s reputation was firmly established. In 1907 Wharton moved to France, where she continued to write fiction. Ethan Frome, a brief novel, was published in 1911. It concerns a lonely New England farmer who marries Zeena, a hypochondriac. Mattie Silver, Zeena’s cousin, arrives to care for Zeena, and grows to love Ethan. Mattie and Ethan attempt suicide while riding a sled. Instead of dying, however, they are disabled and, to a certain extent, become prisoners cared for by Zeena. In 1912 Wharton and her husband finally divorced, primarily because of her husband’s mental health, and she sailed to Europe, where she and several friends visited Italy and Germany. A year later she published The Custom of the Country, which focuses on Undine Spragg, a beautiful predator who marries several times. Layer by layer, Wharton dissects members of the upper class, revealing their foibles and excesses. During World War I, Wharton was in Paris, where she wrote about trench warfare and the needs of the field hospitals. She also worked for charities that helped the unemployed and refugees. Toward the end of the war she returned to writing fiction. Summer (1917) concerns Charity Royall, a poor girl in New England who is seduced by an attractive architect who has arrived in town to study the houses. Charity becomes pregnant, and when the architect learns about her predicament, he abandons her. Her foster father, Mr. Royall, rescues her by marrying her. Several critics praised the novel’s authenticity. The Age of Innocence (1920), which was awarded the 1921 Pulitzer Prize, depicts society in New York City during the late 1800s. Newland Archer, a young attorney, intends to marry May Welland. However, he meets May’s cousin, Ellen Olenska, who is from Europe, and grows to love her. He desires to marry her, but she refuses; after all, he is supposed to marry May. Archer and May marry, but his love for Ellen does not die. Years later, after May has died and Ellen has returned to Europe, Archer visits Paris. He learns that Ellen is living in the city and contemplates visiting her, but memories of his marriage to May causes him to dismiss the idea.

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Old New York (1912) is a collection of novellas. In 1934 Wharton published her autobiography, A Backward Glance. She continued to write fiction, but her last few novels were not as good as her previous work. She died on August 11, 1937, near Paris. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The House of Mirth, 1905 Ethan Frome, 1911 The Custom of the Country, 1913 The Age of Innocence, 1920

REFERENCES Auchincloss, Louis. Edith Wharton: A Woman in Her Time. New York: Viking Press, 1971. Benstock, Shari. No Gifts from Chance: A Biography of Edith Wharton. New York: Scribner’s; Maxwell Macmillian International, 1994. Coolidge, Olivia E. Edith Wharton, 1862–1937. New York: Scribner’s, 1964. Griffith, Grace Kellogg. The Two Lives of Edith Wharton. New York: Appleton-Century, 1965. Lewis, R. W. B. Edith Wharton: A Biography. New York: Harper & Row, 1975. Lovett, Robert Morss. Edith Wharton. New York: Robert M. McBride, 1925. Lubbock, Percy. Portrait of Edith Wharton. New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1947. Lyde, Marilyn Jones. Edith Wharton. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1959. Nevius, Blake. Edith Wharton: A Study of Her Fiction. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1953.

Brand Whitlock (1869–1934) Brand Whitlock, a lawyer and politician, wrote several realistic novels in which he explored grassroots politics as well as the transition of the United States, especially the Midwest, from an agrarian to an industrial society. He also examined the differences between generations. Brand Whitlock was born on March 4, 1869, to Mollie Lavinia Brand Whitlock and Elias D. Whitlock, in Urbana, Ohio. His father was a Methodist minister, and Whitlock was reared in numerous Methodist parsonages around Ohio. His father encouraged him to read novels by English writers, and he did so regularly. Whitlock was educated at home, then at a public school in Toledo, Ohio. His parents, especially his father, wanted him to attend Ohio Wesleyan to prepare for the ministry, but instead he obtained a position as a reporter at the Toledo Blade, where he remained from 1887 until 1890. He then moved to Chicago, where he became a reporter for the Chicago Herald. In Chicago, Whitlock became involved in politics and literary activities. In addition to meeting writers, he joined the Whitechapel Club and started writing fiction. In 1892 he was sent to Springfield, Illinois, to cover politics, and met John Peter Altgeld, a reform politician. He also met Susan Brainerd, whom he soon married. His wife died several months after their marriage. Whitlock put his energy into helping Altgeld campaign for the governorship of Illinois. Altgeld won, and asked Whitlock to serve as his secretary, but he rejected the offer. Instead, he became the chief clerk for the secretary of state, a job that left him time to write fiction and study law. He submitted short stories based on his professional experiences but magazines rejected them. Undeterred, he continued to write. In 1894 Whitlock was admitted to the bar in Illinois. A year later he married

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Ella Brainerd, his late wife’s sister. They had two children, both of whom died in infancy. In 1897 Altgeld lost the governorship, and Whitlock and his wife moved to Toledo, where he practiced law and wrote. The editor of Ainslee’s Magazine accepted his short story “The Pardon of Thomas Whalen” in 1898. The story was based on Altgeld’s pardon of several anarchists involved in the Haymarket Riot, an act that had brought the governor much criticism and defeat in his bid for reelection. Whitlock published his first novel in 1902. The Thirteenth District, a realistic novel, concerns Jerome Garwood, a young lawyer from Grand Prairie, Illinois, who desires to become a politician. Whitlock presents Garwood’s political career as well as his relationship with Emily Harkness, his fiance´e (and later his wife). Jim Rankin, Grand Prairie’s political boss, understands human nature; he undermines the democratic process by selling out to those who have money. Garwood uses Emily and Rankin for his own purposes, and he sacrifices his principles in order to get elected to the House of Representatives. When he goes to Washington, D.C., he leaves unpaid debts as well as a pregnant wife who has to care for her father. He is reelected because he has made unethical deals, but his colleagues in Congress have no respect for him and he becomes ineffective. When he is defeated for reelection, he intends to start over, with his wife by his side. Whether he has learned anything from his defeat is debatable. Garwood and the other characters are well developed. It is apparent that some are based on people Whitlock had known in Springfield. In 1904 Her Infinite Variety and The Happy Average, which had been written prior to the publication of The Thirteenth District, appeared. The former is a comedy of manners about an amendment that will permit women’s suffrage in Illinois. Morley Vernon, a young state senator from Chicago, attempts to get the bill passed primarily to impress the woman he loves. However, a socialite who believes that politics degrades women argues against the bill. Vernon is absent when the bill is finally debated and defeated. The novel depicts both women as human beings and the power they wield over men. The latter novel concerns the relationship between Glenn Marley, the son of a Methodist minister, and Lavinia Blair, the daughter of Judge Blair, in Macochee, Ohio, a small town based on Urbana. Marley and Blair are attracted to one another at the beginning of the novel. Marley is a recent graduate of Ohio Wesleyan who decides to study law with Wade Powell, the town’s unsuccessful lawyer, because of the kinds of cases that Powell accepts. Blair’s parents are not impressed with Marley, but they cannot dissuade her. Powell and Judge Blair inform Marley that practicing law in Macochee would not be practical because it is too small to support another lawyer. Marley goes to Chicago, where he searches for a position with a law firm. When he cannot find one, he becomes a freight handler for a railroad. Dissatisfied, he finds another job, and finally works as a newspaper reporter. Soon he realizes that he does not wish to be a journalist. He returns to Macochee, where he marries Lavinia, then they return to Chicago. Whitlock reentered politics in 1904, when he was elected mayor of Toledo.

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Reelected four times, he opposed the monopoly of the Toledo Railways and Light Company, refused to enforce laws that restricted the sale of beer, and attempted to humanize the police force. The Toledo Police Department became a model for other cities to copy. His popularity as a reformer spread, and he was asked to speak throughout the country. Whitlock also wrote articles about the various aspects of managing a city. Two of these articles—“Thou Shalt Not Kill” and “On the Enforcement of Law in Cities”—were reprinted as pamphlets. They concern his opposition to capital punishment and his belief that love can eliminate crime, respectively. Whitlock had his critics, however, including the Toledo Blade and ministers who thought that his compassion was weakness. He persisted in his efforts to manage the city democratically. He selected individuals, regardless of political affiliation, on the basis of their ability to do the job according to his Jeffersonian ideas. The Turn of the Balance (1907), Whitlock’s most ambitious novel, is based on his observations of the slums, courts, and jails of Toledo and of the Ohio State Penitentiary. A study in contrasts, the novel concerns the wealthy Wards— from the businessman father to the wastrel son, Dick—as well as the workingclass Koerners—from the railroad-crossing guard father to the recently discharged veteran son, Archie. While the Wards maintain their social position and amass wealth, the Koerners are destroyed. Whitlock reveals how social classes differ in their views and beliefs. The Wards exploit others and cover up their son’s criminal behavior, while the Koerners experience tragedy when the father loses a foot in a work-related accident. Archie becomes a petty criminal and eventually kills a detective who believes that Archie has murdered an old woman. Archie is put on trial for murder, and is convicted and executed. His father sues the railroad that had refused to compensate him for his accident and initially wins a small amount. The railroad appeals, however, and wins. Mr. Koerner, who has lost hope, kills his family and himself. The novel condemns the brutality and inhumanity of the justice system. Critics and readers praised the novel for its honesty. Whitlock published a brief biography of Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln centennial in 1909. The Gold Brick (1910) is a collection of short stories based on his political experiences. The Fall Guy (1912) is a second collection of short stories that concern subjects besides politics. In 1914 Whitlock published his autobiography Forty Years of It, which focuses on his grandfather, Brand, as well as his friends, including Altgeld and “Golden Rule” Jones, former mayor of Toledo. He was appointed American minister to Belgium in January 1914. When World War I started, he helped organize nonresistance and relief projects. In 1919, Whitlock published Belgium: A Personal Record, which depicts the injustices of war. He describes the system that encourages dehumanization as “technology without human conscience.” The book ends on a positive note by

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focusing on faith in people rather than in governments. When the book was published, Whitlock’s duties as the American minister to Belgium were all but over. He resigned in 1922, at the request of President Warren G. Harding, and made his residence in Europe, where he focused on writing fiction. J. Hardin & Son (1923) is one of Whitlock’s best novels. It depicts the changes that occur in Macochee, Ohio, as the town transforms from an agrarian community to an industrial one, and the differences between J. Hardin, a manufacturer of buggies, and his son, Paul, who is supposed to follow in his father’s footsteps. Their differences are a result of their generations’ different philosophies. J. Hardin has lived through the Civil War and Reconstruction, and is strongly influenced by Puritanism. His son experiences a new freedom as he matures into a young man, but along the way he has experiences that his father cannot accept. Paul marries and invests in Ohio’s oil boom. Eventually he becomes wealthy, but wealth alone is not enough to satisfy him. His father’s buggy business gradually fails as larger firms’ products saturate the market. J. Hardin becomes engaged in the cause of Prohibition in order to forget what has happened to his business. Paul leaves his childless marriage and seeks refuge with another woman. Before the novel ends, however, he returns to his wife and to earning more money. The novel depicts both men as individuals who attempt to live the American dream. However, they do not understand the changes that are occurring, nor how they are being affected by these changes. Uprooted (1926) is about an American adrift in a world he does not understand. It was followed by Transplanted (1927), which concerns American expatriates living in Europe; Big Matt (1928), about politics in the American Midwest; and La Fayette (1929), a dramatic biography about the young French nobleman who rode with George Washington during the Revolutionary War. In 1931 Whitlock published The Little Green Shutter, a novel that concerns Prohibition and politics in the American Midwest, and Narcissus: A Belgian Legend of Van Dyck, a historical novel based on one of Van Dyck’s paintings. Whitlock’s last novel, The Stranger on the Island (1933), is a romantic tragedy set on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan during the time the island was a theocratic monarchy under James J. Strong, a Mormon. Whitlock died in Cannes, France, on May 24, 1934, after a yearlong illness. He is remembered more for his career as a political reformer than for his career as a writer. Nevertheless, he explored with great authenticity both politics and the impact of liberalism on society in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

REPRESENTATIVE WORKS The Thirteenth District, 1902 The Turn of the Balance, 1907 J. Hardin & Son, 1923

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REFERENCES Anderson, David D. Brand Whitlock. New York: Twayne, 1968. Tager, Jack. The Intellectual as Urban Reformer. Cleveland: Case Western Reserve University Press, 1968. Whitlock, Brand. Forty Years of It. New York: D. Appleton, 1914. ———. The Letters and Journal of Brand Whitlock. Chosen and edited by Allan Nevins. New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1936.

Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840–1894) Constance Fenimore Woolson wrote numerous short stories and several novels in which she accurately records the dialects and expressions of characters in several parts of the country, and faithfully describes the landscapes of these regions. Woolson, the sixth child of Hannah Cooper Pomeroy Woolson and Charles Jarvis Woolson, was born on March 5, 1840, in Claremont, New Hampshire. When she was an infant, scarlet fever claimed three of her older sisters. Her parents moved the family to Cleveland, Ohio, where her father established a firm manufacturing and selling stoves. Woolson attended Miss Hayden’s School for girls, then the Cleveland Female Seminary. She traveled with her father to Wisconsin and Ohio during the summers. In the summer of 1855, she visited Mackinac Island and grew to love the scenery, as is evident in the first short stories she wrote. When Woolson was eighteen, she graduated first in her class from Madame Chegaray’s New York School. During the Civil War she fell in love with a young Union Army officer, Colonel Zeph Spaulding. Woolson participated in the war effort by managing a post office. When the war ended, so did her romantic interest in Spaulding. In 1869 Woolson’s father died while she was on a pleasure trip to Mackinac Island. Her not being at home when he died upset her immensely, for she had been very close to him. In 1870 she left Cleveland for New York City, where she contributed articles to magazines. A year later her mother’s health required Woolson to become her companion. They lived in the North during the summers and in the South during the winters. The Old Stone House (1872) was published under the pseudonym Anne March. The book, written for children, is based on her life. In 1873 Woolson

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and her mother spent the winter in St. Augustine, Florida, where she met the poet Edmund Clarence Stedman, who was there for his health. Stedman became her mentor. The Woolsons returned to St. Augustine during the next few winters. Woolson contributed sketches describing Mackinac Island and the Ohio valley, as well as short stories about the South, to various periodicals. These pieces, ultimately collected in four volumes, are examples of local color writing because they present the customs, manners, and dialects of the characters with authenticity. In 1879 her mother died, and Woolson grieved for several months. Later, with her aunt and niece, she sailed to Europe, where she visited London, Paris, the French Riviera, and several cities in Italy. She decided to stay in Florence for several months, and wrote articles about what she experienced and observed for publications in the United States. Then she and her relatives traveled to Venice, Milan, and Switzerland. This journey became a ritual every year. Woolson’s travels influenced her short stories and novels. Anne, her first novel, was serialized in Harper’s from 1880 to 1882 and published in book form in 1882; it is set in Cleveland, Mackinac Island, and New York. The heroine, Anne Douglas, experiences the loss of her mother and her father when she is young. Her maternal aunt agrees to support her while she attends a school for girls in Manhattan. Before she leaves Mackinac Island, however, her childhood sweetheart, Rast Pronando, asks her to marry him, and she agrees to do so when she is older. In New York, Anne meets Ward Heathcote and Gregory Dexter. Although her aunt encourages her to love Dexter, she falls for Heathcote. Her aunt learns of this and stops supporting her. Anne obtains a teaching position in Ohio, but before she reaches the school, Heathcote stops her and proposes. Anne remembers what she had told Pronando and rejects Heathcote’s offer, even though she loves him. When the Civil War starts, Anne volunteers as a nurse in the mountains of West Virginia, where she finds Heathcote, now an officer, ill. She tells him that her fiance´ has married another; Heathcote tells her that his fiance´e has married, too. Then he tells the truth—that he is married—and Anne leaves him. She moves to New York, where she sees Dexter and later glimpses Heathcote and his wife, Helen Lorrington, whom Anne had known years before. When she sees Heathcote’s name on a list of casualties, she consoles Helen. Helen learns that Heathcote is alive, but that he has been wounded, and goes to him. On their way home, she is murdered, and Heathcote becomes the leading suspect. He is arrested, and Anne’s testimony during the trial leads to a hung jury. Anne and a friend eventually learn who the murderer is, and Heathcote is released. Anne travels to Mackinac Island, and Heathcote returns to the Union Army. After the war, they marry on the island. The novel was popular among readers because its descriptions of regions and characters, especially their manners and speech, were realistic. In 1883 Woolson lived in London and Warwickshire, England, and published For the Major, which critics enjoyed. The novel, set in the Appalachian Moun-

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tains, concerns a community’s most prominent family, which is headed by Major Scarborough Carroll. Carroll’s mental health is deteriorating, but this fact is not revealed to members of the community, who see him only on special occasions. His youthful and attractive second wife, Madam Carroll, makes sure that her husband’s illness is not discussed outside the home. Louis Dupont, a stranger, arrives in town and captures the hearts of its citizens, especially Sara Carroll, Major Carroll’s daughter. Then he leaves for a few days. When he returns, he is seriously ill. Although the women of the community take care of him, he dies. Frederick Owen, a minister, learns that Dupont was Madam Carroll’s son from a previous marriage to a man who had fled pursuers and had taken his son with him. His pursuers and his wife thought he and the boy had drowned in a river. Years later, his wife believed that she was free to marry when Major Carroll proposed, and did not have any reason to reveal her past. Now, because her son is deceased and her husband’s mental health is declining, she has no reason to hide the lines in her face or her actual age. Though Woolson captures the setting and the characters with remarkable skill, the novel did not sell many copies. In 1886 Woolson left England and returned to Italy, where she leased a villa in Florence. The same year she published East Angels, a novel set in a small community in Florida. Evert Winthrop, a wealthy businessman from New York, brings his aunt, Mrs. Rutherford, to Florida, where he meets the Thornes and purchases their plantation, East Angels, in order to help ease their genteel poverty. Before Mrs. Thorne dies, Winthrop and Margaret Harold, the estranged wife of Lansing Harold, agree to watch over Garda, Mrs. Thorne’s beautiful daughter. Although Winthrop proposes to Garda, she falls in love with Lucian Spenser, an engineer. Winthrop then realizes that he loves Margaret Harold, but she returns to her husband. Spenser dies, and Garda marries a man who barely speaks English. The novel was popular among readers. Jupiter Lights (1889) concerns Eve Bruce, who shoots and wounds Ferdie Morrison, who, intoxicated, is attempting to murder his wife, Cicely, and stepchild, Jack. Thinking Morrison is dead, Eve, Cicely, and Jack flee to Paul Tennant’s house in Port aux Pins on Lake Superior, where Tennant, Morrison’s half brother, allows them to stay. Eventually, Cicely learns that Morrison has died. Eve grows to love Tennant, but she does not express her feelings because she believes that she has killed his half brother. Finally, she tells him the truth. Although Tennant was fond of Morrison, he is attracted to Eve. Later he proposes to her, but she rejects his offer and leaves. Tennant follows her. In Charleston, South Carolina, he learns that Morrison actually died as a result of drunken sprees, not the wound. He follows Eve to Italy, where he finally persuades her to marry him. Woolson depicts the psychological characteristics of dipsomania accurately and with skill. Though the novel’s settings frequently change, each is carefully described. Also in 1889 Woolson sailed to the Greek islands, Crete, and Egypt. When she left Egypt in 1890, she went to England, where she started writing her last

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novel. She remained in England until 1893. After recuperating from influenza, she journeyed to Venice. Her last novel, Horace Chase, was serialized in Harper’s just before she contracted influenza for the second time. Suffering from a high temperature, she either fell or jumped from her bedroom window in Venice on January 24, 1894. Horace Chase appeared in book form shortly after her death. The novel is set in Asheville, North Carolina, where Horace Chase, a millionaire from the North, meets and marries Ruth Franklin, the youngest daughter of the Franklin family. The poor Franklin family benefits from the marriage, but the age difference between Ruth and Chase does not help the marriage. In St. Augustine, Florida, Ruth meets and grows to love Walter Willoughby, a young man from New York who becomes a junior partner in Chase’s business. When Chase is away on business and Willoughby comes to Asheville, she goes to his lodge in the mountains. There, she learns that he has guests, including Marion Barclay, to whom he is engaged. She leaves without being seen and is caught in a storm. Dolly, her older sister, finds her and takes her to a house to rest. Chase, who has returned to Asheville, finds them. Ruth confesses her interest in Willoughby. Chase, although hurt, accepts her. The novel’s depiction of a marital relationship is realistic even though Chase’s character is not fully developed. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Anne, 1882 For the Major, 1883 East Angels, 1886 Jupiter Lights, 1889 Horace Chase, 1894

REFERENCES Dean, Sharon L. Constance Fenimore Woolson: Homeward Bound. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995. Kern, John Dwight. Constance Fenimore Woolson: Literary Pioneer. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1934. Moore, Rayburn S. Constance Fenimore Woolson. New York: Twayne, 1963. Torsney, Cheryl B. Constance Fenimore Woolson: The Grief of Artistry. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1989.

Richard Wright (1908–1960) Richard Wright wrote a powerful naturalistic novel that examines the plight of the African American after World War II. Native Son opened the eyes of whites to the terrible social conditions in which African Americans existed. Wright was born on September 4, 1908, on a plantation at Roxie, outside Natchez, Mississippi. His mother, Ella Wilson Wright, was a teacher, and his father, Nathan Wright, was a sharecropper. Nathan moved his family to Memphis, Tennessee, several years later and deserted his wife and his two sons, Richard and Leon, soon afterward. Wright’s mother worked at menial jobs, but her income was not enough to support the family. Wright and his younger brother cared for themselves and often went hungry. When their mother became ill in 1914, Wright and Leon were sent to a Methodist orphanage. Two years later the boys were sent to Elaine, Arkansas, where they lived with their mother’s sister, Maggie, and her husband, Silas Hoskins. Whites, desiring his property, murdered Silas, and the family fled to West Helena, Arkansas, where they lived until Wright’s mother suffered a stroke in 1919. Wright went to live with his aunt and uncle in Greenwood, Mississippi, so he could be near his mother. However, his aunt and uncle restricted his activities, so he moved to Jackson, Mississippi, where he stayed with his grandmother until late 1925. Wright attended school intermittently in Memphis, Tennessee, and in Jackson, Mississippi, where he was an excellent student. He resisted the beliefs and practices of his religious relatives. In fact, he became hostile toward religion, believing that churches had failed to eliminate the problems that African Americans faced. In late 1925, Wright returned to Memphis, where he stayed for two years, reading such magazines as Harper’s and Atlantic Monthly. He moved to Chicago in 1927 and remained there for ten years. He obtained a position at a post office,

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but was let go in 1931 because of the Great Depression. Wright went on relief, and in 1932 started attending the John Reed Club, which supported communism. A year later he joined the Communist Party and began to write revolutionary poetry for such magazines as New Masses. In addition, he wrote a novel first entitled “Cesspool.” It was published as Lawd Today in 1963, three years after his death. Wright contributed the short story “Big Boy Leaves Home” to New Caravan, which accepted it for publication in 1936. He joined the National Negro Congress and later chaired the South Side Writers’ Group, which provided criticism as well as encouragement for his writing. In 1937 Wright left Chicago and moved to New York City, where he became an editor at the Daily Worker. He wrote numerous articles for the Daily Worker and helped found New Challenge, a quarterly that featured writing by African Americans. In addition, he contributed articles to New Masses, and joined the New York Writers’ Project. In 1938 “Fire and Cloud,” a short story, was awarded first prize by the editors of Story magazine. The same year Wright published Uncle Tom’s Children: Four Novellas, stories about African Americans and their fight for freedom in a white-dominated society. Although the theme is powerful, the characters are stereotypes. Nonetheless, the reviews were mostly favorable. Wright became a member of the editorial board of New Masses and a prominent member of the Communist Party. In 1939 he met and married Dhimah Rose Meadman, a white woman; but they divorced a year later. Native Son (1940) is a naturalistic novel that concerns Bigger Thomas, a fearful young African American from the rat-infested slums of Chicago’s South Side, who is hired as a chauffeur by the Daltons, a well-intentioned white family. Bigger’s fears increase substantially when he helps Mary, the Daltons’ daughter, to her bedroom after she has spent an evening drinking in town with her boyfriend. Mary’s blind mother enters the room, and Bigger, afraid of being caught in a white woman’s bedroom, places a pillow over Mary’s face to keep her quiet. Mary suffocates; Bigger decapitates her and puts her body in the furnace, then goes home. He attempts to blame Mary’s boyfriend through a ransom note, but his guilt surfaces when he confesses to his girlfriend. They flee, and Bigger murders his girlfriend because she knows he killed Mary. Bigger tries to escape from the police, but he is captured and tried. His lawyer, Boris A. Max, attempts to place part of the blame on society, but the jury does not accept his argument, and Bigger is executed. The novel is filled with imagery and religious symbolism that reveal Bigger’s thoughts and actions. Critics praised the novel’s authenticity. The novel sold several hundred thousand copies within several weeks. In 1941 a dramatic version of Native Son opened on Broadway. Later that year Twelve Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States was published. It is a sociological analysis of the history of African Americans from their bondage in the South to their migration to the North. Also in 1941 he married Ellen Poplar; their daughter, Julia, was born a year later.

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Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth (1945), which focuses on the problems Wright faced during his early life, is similar to a movie documentary. Wright also toured the United States, giving numerous lectures, in 1945. In 1946 Wright traveled to Paris, where he met and became friends with writers and other intellectuals. George Padmore introduced him to militant leaders of the Third World. Wright and his family returned to the United States in 1947, but their stay was brief. They returned to France, and Wright journeyed to Milan the following year. Later, he lectured in Rome. When he returned to Paris, he gave interviews and discussed writers who interested him. He also wrote articles for periodicals. Rachel, his second daughter, was born in 1949. During the next few years Wright worked on The Outsider, which was published in 1953. The existentialist novel concerns an African American, Cross Damon, who thinks about the twentieth century and questions it. Damon is actually Wright, and the novel concerns his experiences in the United States and Europe. Damon believes that freedom is power, and as a result he murders four individuals. Only when he is cornered before he is killed does he realize that laws humanize mankind. American critics cited numerous flaws in the novel, while European critics praised it. Savage Holiday (1954) features white characters, including Erskine Fowler, a successful insurance executive who experiences sexual desire for his beautiful mother. Fowler feels guilty for the accidental death of Mrs. Blake’s son, Tony, so he proposes marriage to her. Later, fantasizing about stabbing a doll that actually represents his mother, he stabs Mrs. Blake to death. When he is apprehended, he does not explain why he stabbed Mrs. Blake, because his motives are linked to a fantasy. Black Power: A Record of Reactions in a Land of Pathos (1954) concerns Wright’s journey through the Gold Coast (Ghana). He discusses the country’s problems, but his solutions for them are overly simplistic. In 1955 Wright attended the Bandung Conference in Indonesia. He published The Color Curtain: A Report on the Bandung Conference in 1956, and later that year he toured Scandinavia. A collection of essays about blacks’ progress from bondage to freedom, White Man, Listen!, appeared in 1957. The Long Dream (1958) is a novel about differences between a father, Tyree Tucker, and his son, Fishbelly, as well as about differences between whites and blacks. The major theme of the novel is oppression of blacks by whites. Many reviewers found the writing inferior to his earlier work. Wright contracted amoebic dysentery in 1959. He published Eight Men, a collection of short fiction, in 1960. On November 28, 1960, he died in Paris of a heart attack. Wright’s novels after Native Son were not well received. Native Son, though, because of its subject matter and execution, continues to be read.

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REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Native Son, 1940 The Outsider, 1953 Savage Holiday, 1954 The Long Dream, 1958

REFERENCES Bakish, David. Richard Wright. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1973. Brignano, Russell C. Richard Wright: An Introduction to the Man and His Works. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1970. Fabre, Michel. The World of Richard Wright. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1985. Felgar, Robert. Richard Wright. Boston: Twayne, 1980. Gayle, Addison. Richard Wright: Ordeal of a Native Son. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1980. Kinnamon, Kenneth. The Emergence of Richard Wright: A Study in Literature and Society. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1972. Margolies, Edward. The Art of Richard Wright. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1969. Walker, Margaret. Richard Wright, Daemonic Genius: A Portrait of the Man, a Critical Look at His Work. New York: Amistad, 1993. Webb, Constance. Richard Wright: A Biography. New York: Putnam, 1968.

Anzia Yezierska (1885?–1970) Anzia Yezierska wrote realistically about the Jews who immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s, depicting their struggles, primarily from a woman’s perspective, to become members of American society, and describing their efforts to obtain employment. Anzia Yezierska was born to Pearl and Bernard Yezierska in Plinsk, Russia, purportedly in 1885. With her parents, she immigrated to New York City, when she was fifteen years old. She worked at menial jobs in order to help her parents, and learned to read and write English when she was not working. Yezierska received a scholarship to Columbia University, where she majored in domestic science. She became a teacher, but she soon realized that teaching was not for her. Yezierska married in 1910, but the marriage was annulled because she and her husband were not compatible. Later she married Arnold Levitas, a teacher who had written several textbooks. She gave birth to a daughter, Louise, but subsequently realized that being a wife and mother required an enormous amount of time and patience; she eventually left her daughter and her husband. In 1915 Yezierska began a career as a writer when her short story “Free Vacation House” was published in Forum. It concerns a Jewish mother and her children who live on the Lower East Side of New York and receive a vacation as charity, but are reminded of their position in society by their benefactors. Yezierska met John Dewey in 1917 and enrolled in a seminar that he taught at Columbia University. They became romantically involved, and later he served as the prototype for the male character who appears in her fiction. Usually he is an Anglo-Saxon mentor and occasional lover of a young Jewish immigrant. The romance ended in 1918, when Dewey went abroad. Yezierska received considerable recognition as a result of Edward J.

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O’Brien’s including her short story “The Fat of the Land” in the collection Best Short Stories of 1919, and even more in 1920, when she published Hungry Hearts, a collection of short stories about Jewish immigrants. Samuel Goldwyn purchased the film rights to the collection, and Yezierska was invited to Hollywood. She intended to remain in California, but she realized that she could not write there, so she returned to New York City, where she wrote her first novel, Salome of the Tenements (1923). The novel concerns Sonya Vrunsky, a poor but passionate young Jewish immigrant who manipulates others. While working as a reporter for the Ghetto News, Vrunsky grows to love John Manning, a wealthy American philanthropist. Although Manning devotes his life to social causes, Vrunsky rejects his lifestyle and marries an immigrant. Also in 1923 Yezierska published Children of Loneliness, another collection of short stories about Jewish immigrants who are helped by charity workers. Bread Givers (1925), unquestionably her most fully developed realistic novel about tenement life, is autobiographical and concerns the Smolinsky family, who have immigrated from Poland to New York City. Reb Smolinsky, the patriarch, has a wife and four daughters. While he reads his religious books and drinks tea with his male friends, his wife and daughters work at menial jobs in order to put food on the table. Smolinsky schemes to marry his three oldest girls to suitors he believes will help the family financially. Sara watches as her older sisters’ wishes crumble, and as a result desires to escape from her father’s domination by renting a room elsewhere and obtaining an education that will enable her to succeed. She becomes a teacher and is engaged to a brilliant colleague in the school. Her father puts the ways of the Old World aside in order to find employment to feed himself and his wife. Yezierska accurately depicts life in the tenements and presents the contrast between the Old World and the New. She captures the aspirations of the younger generation whose parents had immigrated to the United States. Critics praised the novel for its realism and candor. Arrogant Beggar (1926) is another novel about a young Jewish girl of the tenements. Through the charity of others she eventually finds her niche in the scheme of life. Critics found the novel’s plot trite and the characterizations weak. During the Great Depression, Yezierska worked for the Works Progress Administration’s Writers’ Project, cataloging trees in Central Park. In 1932 she published All I Could Never Be, another novel about a young Jewish girl who lives in the tenements. Although her writing had improved, critics felt that the plot had grown tired and stale. After the Great Depression, Yezierska joined the Federal Arts Project, a branch of the Works Progress Administration. Unable to find a publisher for her book-length fiction, she settled for writing book reviews and short stories. In 1950 Yezierska published an autobiographical novel, Red Ribbon on a White Horse, in which she recounted her earlier life and experiences. She continued to write book reviews for the New York Times and short stories about senior citizens and immigrants, including those from Puerto Rico.

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Yezierska died in New York City on November 21, 1970. In 1979 Alice Kessler-Harris edited The Open Cage: An Anzia Yezierska Collection, which features some of Yezierska’s short stories. REPRESENTATIVE WORKS Salome of the Tenements, 1923 Bread Givers, 1925 Arrogant Beggar, 1926 All I Could Never Be, 1932

REFERENCES Henriksen, Louise Levitas. Anzia Yezierska: A Writer’s Life. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1988. Schoen, Carol. Anzia Yezierska. Boston: Twayne, 1982. Yezierska, Anzia. The Open Cage: An Anzia Yezierska Collection. Edited by Alice Kessler-Harris. New York: Persea Books, 1979.

Selected Bibliography Ahnebrink, Lars. The Beginnings of Naturalism in American Fiction: 1891–1903. New York: Russell & Russell, 1961. Anesko, Michael. “Friction with the Market”: Henry James and the Profession of Authorship. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Becker, George J. Realism in Modern Literature. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1980. ———, ed. Documents of Modern Literary Realism. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1963. Beer, Thomas. The Mauve Decade: American Life at the End of the Nineteenth Century. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926. Bell, Michael Davitt. The Problems of American Realism: Studies in the Cultural History of a Literary Idea. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. Benardete, Jane, ed. American Realism. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1972. Bercovitch, Sacvan, ed. Reconstructing American Literary History. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986. Bercovitch, Sacvan, and Myra Jehlen, eds. Ideology and Classic American Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Berger, Morroe. Real and Imagined Worlds: The Novel and Social Science. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977. Berthoff, Warner. The Ferment of Realism: American Literature, 1884–1919. New York: The Free Press, 1965. Bradbury, Malcolm. The Modern American Novel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984. Brooks, Van Wyck. The Confident Years, 1885–1915. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1952. Cady, Edwin H. The Gentleman in America: A Literary Study in American Culture. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1947. ———. The Light of Common Day: Realism in American Fiction. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971.

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Selected Bibliography

Campbell, Donna M. Resisting Regionalism: Gender and Naturalism in American Fiction, 1885–1915. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997. Carter, Everett. Howells and the Age of Realism. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1954. Carter, Paul A. The Spiritual Crisis of the Gilded Age. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1971. Clark, Harry Hayden, ed. Transitions in American Literary History. New York: Octagon Books, 1967. Conder, John J. Naturalism in American Fiction: The Classic Phase. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1984. Covine, Alexander. The Rise of the American Novel. New York: American Book Company, 1948. Craig, Hardin, ed. A History of English Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1950. Cuddon, J. A. A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. 3rd ed. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1993. Cunliffe, Marcus, ed. American Literature to 1900. New York: Peter Bedrick Books, 1987. Daiches, David. A Critical History of English Literature. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. New York: Ronald Press, 1970. Dike, Donald A. “Notes on Local Color and Its Relation to Realism.” College English, 14, no. 1 (October 1952): 81–88. Donovan, Josephine. New England Local Color Literature: A Women’s Tradition. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1983. Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983. Elliott, Emory, ed. Columbia Literary History of the United States. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988. ———. ed. The Columbia History of the American Novel. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991. Ermarth, Elizabeth. Realism and Consensus in the English Novel. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983. Falk, Robert. The Victorian Mode in American Fiction: 1865–1885. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1965. Fetterley, Judith, and Marjorie Pryse. American Women Regionalists 1850–1910. New York: W. W. Norton, 1992. Fisher, Philip. Hard Facts: Setting and Form in the American Novel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. Frye, Northrop, Sheridan Baker, and George Perkins. The Harper Handbook to Literature. New York: Harper & Row, 1985. Geismar, Maxwell. Henry James and the Jacobites. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1963. Giles, James R. The Naturalistic Inner-City Novel in America: Encounters with the Fat Man. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995. Habegger, Alfred. Gender, Fantasy, and Realism in American Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982. Hackett, Alice P. Seventy Years of Best Sellers: 1895–1965. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1967. Hamilton, Kristie. America’s Sketchbook: The Cultural Life of a Nineteenth-Century Literary Genre. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1998.

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Hamsun, Knut. The Cultural Life of Modern America. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969. Harris, Wendell V. Dictionary of Concepts in Literary Criticism and Theory. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1992. Hart, James D. The Popular Book: A History of American Literary Taste. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963. Hays, Samuel P. The Response to Industrialism, 1885–1914. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957. Heiserman, Arthur. The Novel Before the Novel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977. Hemmings, F. W. J. “The Realist Novel: The European Context.” In Encyclopedia of Literature and Criticism. Edited by Martin Coyle, Peter Garside, Malcolm Kelsall, and John Peck. Detroit: Gale Research, 1991. Hoffman, Frederick. The Modern Novel in America. New York: Henry Regnery, 1951. Hofstadter, Richard. The Age of Reform: From Bryan to F.D.R. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959. Holman, C. Hugh. A Handbook to Literature. 4th ed. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Educational Publishing, 1984. Holman, C. Hugh, and William Harmon. A Handbook to Literature. 5th ed. New York: Macmillan, 1986. Howard, June. Form and History in American Literary Naturalism. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985. Howells, William Dean. Criticism and Other Essays. 1891. Reprinted. New York: New York University Press, 1959. Hubbell, Jay B. Who Are the Major American Writers? Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1972. Jones, Howard Mumford. The Theory of American Literature. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1965. Kaplan, Amy. The Social Construction of American Realism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988. Keller, Morton. Affairs of State: Public Life in Late Nineteenth Century America. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1977. Kirkland, Edward Chase. Dream and Thought in the Business Community, 1860–1900. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1956. Kolb, Harold H., Jr. The Illusion of Life: American Realism as a Literary Form. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1969. Lasch, Christopher. The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. New York: W. W. Norton, 1978. Lawlor, Mary. Recalling the Wild: Naturalism and the Closing of the American West. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2000. Lears, T. J. Jackson. No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture, 1880–1920. New York: Pantheon, 1981. Long, Clarence D. Wages and Earnings in the United States: 1860–1890. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1960. Lukacs, Georg. Essays on Realism. Trans. D. Fernbach. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1980. Original German edition, 1971. Martin, Jay. Harvests of Change: American Literature, 1865–1914. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1967.

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Marx, Leo. The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1964. McKay, Janet H. Narration and Discourse in American Realistic Fiction. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982. Morgan, H. Wayne. American Writers in Rebellion: From Mark Twain to Dreiser. New York: Hill and Wang, 1965. ———. Victorian Culture in America, 1865–1914. Itasca, Ill.: F. E. Peacock, 1973. ———, ed. The Gilded Age: A Reappraisal. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1963. Nochlin, Linda. Realism. New York: Penguin Books, 1972. Norris, Frank. The Responsibilities of the Novelist. New York: Doubleday, Page, 1903. Nye, Russel. The Unembarrassed Muse: The Popular Arts in America. New York: Dial Press, 1970. Parrington, Vernon Louis. The Beginnings of Critical Realism in America 1860–1920 (Completed to 1900 Only). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987. Pattee, Fred Lewis. A History of American Literature Since 1870. 1915. Reprinted New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1968. Petter, Henri. The Early American Novel. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1971. Pizer, Donald. Realism and Naturalism in Nineteenth-Century American Literature. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1966. ———. Twentieth-Century American Literary Naturalism: An Interpretation. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1982. ———, ed. The Cambridge Companion to American Realism and Naturalism: Howells to London. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. ———. Documents of American Realism and Naturalism. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1998. Porter, Glenn. The Rise of Big Business, 1860–1910. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1973. Powers, Lyall. Henry James and the Naturalist Movement. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1971. Quirk, Tom, and Gary Scharnhorst, eds. American Realism and the Canon. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1994. Rathbun, John W., and Harry H. Clark. American Literary Criticism, 1860–1905. Boston: Twayne, 1979. Richards, Robert Fulton, ed. Concise Dictionary of American Literature. New York: Philosophical Library, 1955. Rideout, Walter B. The Radical Novel in the United States, 1900–1954. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1956. Ross, Deborah. The Excellence of Falsehood: Romance, Realism, and Women’s Contribution to the Novel. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1991. Ruland, Richard. The Rediscovery of American Literature: Premises of Critical Taste, 1900–1940. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967. ———. A Storied Land: Theories of American Literature from Whitman to Wilson. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1976. ———, ed. The Native Muse: Theories of American Literature. Vol. 1. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1972. Sears, Lorenzo. American Literature in the Colonial and National Periods. Boston: Little, Brown, 1902.

Selected Bibliography

415

Simpson, Claude M., ed. The Local Colorists: American Short Stories, 1857–1900. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960. Simpson, Lewis P. The Man of Letters in New England and the South. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1973. Smith, Henry Nash. Democracy and the Novel: Popular Resistance to Classic American Writers. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978. Smith, Herbert F. The Popular American Novel, 1865–1920. Boston: Twayne, 1980. Spiller, Robert E., et al. Literary History of the United States. 4th ed. New York: Macmillan, 1974. Stepto, Robert B. From Behind the Veil: A Study of Afro-American Narrative. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1979. Stern, J. P. On Realism. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973. Stoehr, Taylor. Words and Deeds: Essays on the Realistic Imagination. New York: AMS Press, 1986. Sundquist, Eric, ed. American Realism: New Essays. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982. Taylor, Gordon. The Passages of Thought: Psychological Representation in the American Novel, 1870–1900. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969. Trilling, Lionel. The Liberal Imagination: Essays on Literature and Society. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1968. Van Doren, Carl. Contemporary American Novelists 1900–1920. New York: Macmillan, 1922. Walcutt, Charles Child. American Literary Naturalism: A Divided Stream. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1956. Warren, Kenneth W. Black and White Strangers: Race and American Literary Realism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. Wellek, Rene. Concepts of Criticism. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1963. Williams, Ioan. The Realist Novel in England: A Study in Development. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1975. ———. The Idea of the Novel in Europe, 1600–1800. New York: New York University Press, 1979. Wilson, Edmund. Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1962. Ziff, Larzer. The American 1890s: Life and Times of a Lost Generation. New York: Viking Press, 1966. ———. Literary Democracy: The Declaration of Cultural Independence in America. New York: Viking Press, 1981.

Index Adams, Abigail Brown, 3 Adams, Charles Francis, 3 Adams, Henry Brooks, 3–6, 189 Adams, John, 3 Adams, John Quincy, 3 Adler, Felix, 178 Alden, Hortense, 132 Aldrich, Charles, 9 Aldrich, Elias Taft, 7 Aldrich, Sarah Abba Bailey, 7 Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 7–9, 290, 343 Algren, Nelson, 10–12, 79 Allen, Helen Foster, 13 Allen, James Lane, 13–16 Allen, Richard, 13 Altgeld, John Peter, 394, 395, 396 Ames, Oakes, xii Anderson, Henry Watkins, 167 Anderson, Sherwood, 17–19, 91, 135 Arnow, Denny Abel, 21 Arnow, Harold, 21, 22, 23 Arnow, Harriette Simpson, 20–23 Arnow, Marcella Jane, 21 Arnow, Thomas Louis, 21 Attaway, Florence P., 24 Attaway, William, 24–25 Attaway, William A., 24 Auchincloss, Joseph, 26

Auchincloss, Louis, 26–29 Auchincloss, Priscilla, 26 Austen, Jane, 213 Austin, Mary, 30–32 Austin, Ruth, 30 Austin, Stafford Wallace, 30 Bartlett, Louisa Stewart, 57 Bartlett, Ruth Fitch, 47 Beardsley, Aubrey, 179, 180 Beauvoir, Simone de, 11 Beecher, Catharine, 363 Beecher, Henry Ward (Reverend), 162 Beecher, Lyman (Reverend), 162, 363 Beecher, Roxanna Foote, 363 Belknap, William (Secretary of War), xii Bellamy, Charles, 33 Bellamy, Edward, 33–34 Bellamy, Frederick, 33 Bellamy, Maria Louisa, 33 Bellamy, Packer, 33 Bellamy, Rufus King, 33 Bellow, Abraham, 36 Bellow, Adam, 37 Bellow, Daniel, 37 Bellow, Gregory, 37 Bellow, Liza, 36 Bellow, Saul, xx, 36–39, 229

418

Index

Benham, Ada, 336 Benham, P. D., 336, 337 Bentley, Beverly, 262 Berdan, Elizabeth, 88 Bernard, Claude, 278 Berry, Walter Van Rensselaer, 391 Beveridge, Albert J., 320, 321 Bierce, Ambrose, 40–42, 186 Bigelow, John, 188 Black, Jeannette, 296 Blackburn, William, 370 Bonnin, Gertrude Simmons, 43–45 Bonnin, Raymond O., 44 Bonnin, Raymond Talesfase, 44, 45 Bontemps, Arna, 79 Booth, Newton, 374 Bourke-White, Margaret, 63 Bowles, Samuel, 204 Boyd, Alice, 46 Boyd, Elizabeth Grace, 46 Boyd, Thomas, 46–47 Boyd, Thomas Alexander, 46 Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjorth, 48–50 Brace, John, 363 Brainerd, Ella, 395 Brainerd, Susan, 394 Breese, Leslyn, 158 Breese, William L., 158 Brenane, Sarah, 191 Brescia, Emma, 384 Brewer, William H., 233 Brooks, Cleanth, 384, 385 Brown, Alice, 51–53 Brown, Elizabeth Lucas Robinson, 51 Brown, Grace, 110 Brown, Levi, 51 Bruce, Anne Seddon, 311 Bryan, Katharine B., 304 Burghardt, Mary Sylvina, 112 Burgunder, Rose, 371 Burnett, Frances Hodgson, 54–56 Burnett, Lionel, 54, 55 Burnett, Swan, 54, 55 Burnett, Vivian, 55 Burnside, Ambrose (General), 244 Butler, Dorothy, 131, 132

Cable, George W., 57 Cable, George Washington, 57–58, 192, 236, 238 Cable, Rebecca Boardman, 57 Cadwalader, Mary, 279 Cahan, Abraham, xx, 59–61 Cahan, Anna, 60 Cahan, Sarah Goldarbeiter, 59 Cahan, Schachne, 59 Caldwell, Caroline Preston Bell, 62 Caldwell, Erskine, xx, 62–64 Caldwell, Ira S., 62 Callis, Henry Arthur, 293 Campbell, Helen, 163 Campbell, Lady Jeanne, 262 Capa, Robert, 361 Capone, Al, xiv Carter, Jimmy (President), 284 Caten, Eva, 339, 340 Cather, Charles, 65 Cather, Willa, 65–67 Chambers, Henry Kellett, 273 Chaney, William Henry, 257 Chanler, John Armstrong, 343, 344, 345 Channing, Grace, 163 Chapin, Elizabeth, 203 Chesnutt, Andrew, 68 Chesnutt, Charles Waddell, 68–69 Chesnutt, Maria Sampson, 68 Chopin, Kate, 70–71 Chopin, Oscar, 70 Church, Norris, 263 Churchill, Edward Spaulding, 72 Churchill, Emma Bell, 72 Churchill, Winston, 72–73 Clapp, Henry, 7 Clark, Eleanor, 386 Clemens, Samuel L., 74–77, 186 Coleman, Sara Lindsey, 333 Conger, Gwyndolyn, 360, 361 Conroy, Eliza Jane, 78 Conroy, Jack, 11, 78–80 Conroy, Thomas Edward, 78 Cooke, Rollin H., 82 Cooke, Rose Terry, 81–82 Cooper, James Fenimore, xxi Copenhaver, Eleanor, 18

Index Cowing, Hanna, 58 Coxey, Jacob, 258 Cozzens, Henry W., 83 Cozzens, James Gould, 83–84 Cozzens, Mary Bertha Wood, 83 Crane, James P., 331 Crane, Jonathan Townley (Reverend), 85 Crane, Mary Peck, 85 Crane, Stephen, xx, 85–87 Crawford, F. Marion, 88–89 Crawford, Jane Allen, 149, 150, 151 Crawford, Louisa Cutler Ward, 88 Crawford, Thomas, 88 Croker, Richard, 252 Currey, Margery, 99 Dahlberg, Edward, 90–92 Dahlberg, Elizabeth, 90, 91 Dana, Charles A., 320 Davidson, Donald, 384 Davis, George, 268 Davis, Lemuel Clarke, 93, 95 Davis, Nora, 93 Davis, Rebecca Harding, xv, 93–94, 95 Davis, Richard Harding, 94, 95–96 Day, Florence Ballard, 307 De Forest, John Hancock, 97 De Forest, John William, xv, 97–98 Dell, Anthony, 100 Dell, Christopher, 100 Dell, Floyd, 99–101 De Mott, William, 145 Deventer, Josephine Van, 355 Dewey, John, xiii, 407 Dickens, Charles, x Donnelly, Catharine Gavin, 102 Donnelly, Ignatius, 102–104 Donnelly, Philip Carroll, 102 Dos Passos, John, xx, 105–106, 247 Dos Passos, John Randolph, 105 Douglass, Frederick, 117 Dreiser, Emma, 109 Dreiser, John Paul, 108 Dreiser, Sarah Maria Schanab, 108 Dreiser, Theodore, xix, xx, 17, 18, 108– 111, 338 Dresser, Paul, 109

419

Drew, Daniel, xii Du Bois, Alfred, 112 Du Bois, W.E.B., 112–116, 207, 208 Dunbar, Joshua, 117 Dunbar, Matilda Glass Burton Murphy, 117 Dunbar, Paul Laurence, 117–120, 292, 293 Dunbar, Samuel, 47 Eastman, Crystal, 100 Eastman, Max, 99, 100 Eaton, Edith Maud (Sui Sin Far), 121– 123 Eaton, Edward, 121 Eggleston, Edward, 124–126, 212 Eggleston, George, 124 Eggleston, Joseph Cary, 124 Eggleston, Mary Jane Craig, 124 Ellison, Herbert, 127 Ellison, Ida, 127 Ellison, Lewis, 127 Ellison, Ralph, 127–130 Elwyn, Mary Middleton, 278 Emory, Harriet Peabody, 200 Estes, Athol, 331, 332 Evarts, William, 4 Ewing, Alice, 250 Faithful, Starr, 304 Falkner, John Wesley Thompson, 134 Falkner, Maud Butler, 134 Falkner, Murry Cuthbert, 134 Fancher, Edwin, 262 Farrell, James Frances, 131 Farrell, James T., xix, xx, 131–133 Farrell, Mary Daly, 131 Fass, Fanya, 91 Faulkner, William, xx, 18, 134–138 Ficklen, John, 239 Field, Florence Lathrop, 312 Fielding, Mildred, 108 Fields, Annie, 220 Fields, James T., 220 Fisher, Samuel W., 235 Fisk, James, xii Fitzgerald, Edward, 139

420

Index

Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 139–141 Fitzgerald, Frances Scott (Scottie), 140 Fitzgerald, Mollie (Mary) McQuillan, 139 Fleshiem, Edna Earl, 275 Fletcher, Laurel Louisa, 374 Fletcher, Virginia Moffett, 63 Ford, Emily Ellsworth, 142 Ford, Ford Madox, 172 Ford, Gordon Lester, 142 Ford, Malcolm, 144 Ford, Paul Leicester, 142–144 Ford, Worthington, 142 Fortune, T. Thomas, 208 Foy, Mabel Schamp, 247 Frank, Clara, 209 Franklin, Estelle Oldham, 135 Frederic, Frances Ramsdell, 145 Frederic, Harold, 145–146 Frederic, Henry, 145 Freedman, Janis, 38 Freeman, Charles (Dr.), 148 Freeman, Mary Wilkins, 147–148 French, Alice (Octave Thanet), 149–151 French, Frances Morton, 149 French, George Henry, 149 French, Robert, 150 Friedman, Henrietta Kahn, 152 Friedman, Isaac K., 152–153 Friedman, Jacob, 152 Frost, Charles, 7 Fuller, George Wood, 154 Fuller, Henry B., 154–155 Fuller, Mary Josephine Sanford, 154 Fuller, Meta, 350 Gage, Berta Marie, 100 Gale, Charles Franklin, 156 Gale, Eliza Beers, 156 Gale, Zona, 156–159 Galt, Amy Gordon, 175 Gardiner, James, 233 Garland, Hamlin, 160–161 Garland, Isabelle McClintock, 160 Garland, Richard H., 160 Gellhorn, Martha, 198 Gillette, Chester, 110 Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 162–165 Gilman, Houghton, 163

Glasgow, Ellen, 166–169 Glassman, Susan, 37 Gold, Michael, 170–171 Goldsborough, Fitzhugh, 322 Goldwyn, Samuel, 408 Gomer, Nina, 113 Gordon, Caroline, 172–174 Goshkin, Anita, 36 Gottdank, Saul, 90 Gould, Jay, xii Graham, Sheilah, 141 Graham, Shirley, 115 Grant, Charlotte Bordman Rice, 175 Grant, Patrick, 175 Grant, Robert, 175–177 Grant, Ulysses (President), xii Griswold, Anna, 185 Hagglund, Ben, 78, 79 Hall, James (Dr.), 331 Hall, Lee, 331 Hall, Mabel Harlakenden, 72 Hall, Richard, 331 Handy, Harry, 223 Handy, Lowney, 223 Hanson, Marian, 104 Hard, William, 325 Harding, Rachel Wilson, 93 Harding, Richard, 93 Harding, Warren G. (President), 397 Harland, Henry (Sidney Luska), 178–180 Harland, Irene Jones, 178 Harland, Thomas, 178 Harris, Joel Chandler, 181–184 Harris, Julian, 183 Harris, Mary, 181 Hart, John, 242 Harte, Bret, 185–187 Harte, Elizabeth Ostrander, 185 Harte, Henry, 185 Hawthorne, Hildegarde, 308 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 8 Hay, Charles (Dr.), 188 Hay, Helen, 188 Hay, John, xvi, 4, 5, 188–190, 226, 227 Hay, Milton, 188 Hearn, Charles Bush, 191 Hearn, Lafcadio, 191–193

Index Hearst, William Randolph, 41, 251 Hegger, Grace, 253, 255 Heinemann, Dorothy, 194 Heinemann, John, 194 Heinemann, Larry, 194–196 Hemingway, Clarence (Dr.), 197 Hemingway, Ernest, 197–199 Hemingway, Grace Hall, 197 Henning, Carol, 358 Henry, Arthur, 108, 109 Herrick, Harriet Peabody Emory, 200 Herrick, Robert, 200–202 Herrick, William Augustus, 200 Hodges, John King, 276 Hodgson, Edwin, 54 Hodgson, Eliza, 54 Holland, Anna Gilbert, 203 Holland, Harrison, 203 Holland, J. G., xv, 203–205, 236 Holmes, Oliver Wendell (Jr.), xiii, 8 Hooker, Adelaide, 265 Hooper, Marian, 4, 5 Hopkins, L. A., 109 Hopkins, Northrup, 206 Hopkins, Pauline Elizabeth, 206–208 Hopkins, Sarah Allen, 206 Hoskins, Maggie, 403 Hoskins, Silas, 403 Howe, E. W., 209–210 Howe, Elizabeth Irwin, 209 Howe, Henry, 209 Howe, James, 209 Howell, Rlene La Fleur, 91 Howells, Mary Dean, 211 Howells, William Cooper, 211 Howells, William Dean, xv, xvi, xix, xxi, 9, 26, 28, 48, 60, 89, 118, 211–214, 216 Hughes, Langston, 127 Hunter, George, 30 Hunter, Susanna Savilla, 30 Ickes, Harold (Secretary of the Interior), 201 James, Henry, xv, 15, 26, 28, 180, 215– 219 James, Henry (Sr.), 215

421

James, Mary Robertson Walsh, 215 James, William, 215, 218 Jewett, Caroline Frances Perry, 220 Jewett, Sarah Orne, 220–222 Jewett, Theodore Herman (Dr.), 220 Johnson, Andrew (President), 233 Johnson, June, 63 Johnson, Mary Ann, 316 Jones, Ada Blessing, 223 Jones, Betty Ann, 12 Jones, George Frederic, 391 Jones, James, xx, 223–225 Jones, Lucretia Rhinelander, 391 Jones, Ramon, 223 Keen, Elizabeth, 49 Keen, William W., 278 Keenan, Henry F., 226–228 Kelly, Andrew, 335 Kelly, Elizabeth, 78 Kennedy, Mary Elizabeth McDonald, 229 Kennedy, William, 229–232 Kennedy, William Joseph, 229 Kidder, Grace, 144 Kilbourne, Emma, 377 Kimbrough, Mary Craig, 352, 353 King, Clarence, 4, 5, 233–234 King, Edward, 235 King, Edward Smith, 57, 235–237 King, Florence Little, 233 King, Grace, 238–240 King, James River, 233 King, Lorinda Smith, 235 King, Sarah Ann Miller, 238 King, William Woolson, 238 Kirkland, Caroline, 241–243, 244 Kirkland, Joseph, 241, 244–245 Kirkland, William, 241, 242, 244 Kittredge, Clara Charmian, 259 Kloss, Lou Ella, 368 Koizumi, Setsuko, 192 Kontowicz, Amanda, 11 La Farge, John, 5 Lane, Cornelia, 17 Lane, John, 179, 180 Langdon, Olivia, 75 Lannigan, Helen, 62

422

Index

La Rose, Esther, 181 Lawlor, Julia, 92 Lawrence, Adele, 27 Lee, Robert E. (General), 343 Levin, Goldie Batiste, 246 Levin, Joseph, 246 Levin, Meyer, 246–249 Levis, Edith, 66 Levitas, Arnold, 407 Levitas, Louise, 407 Lewis, Alfred Henry, 250–252 Lewis, Edwin J. (Dr.), 253 Lewis, Emma Kermott, 253 Lewis, Harriet Tracy, 250 Lewis, Isaac J., 250 Lewis, Max, 91 Lewis, Sinclair, 253–256, 367 Lincoln, Abraham, 188, 211 Locke, Alain, 127 Lodge, George Cabot, 5 Lodge, Henry Cabot, 5 London, Jack, xx, 31, 253, 257–260 London, John, 257 Long, Huey, 385 Lowell, James Russell, 3, 8 Lyon, Kate, 145, 146 Maddern, Elizabeth, 258, 259 Madison, Lucy, 105 Maertz, Sara, 153 Mailer, Fanny Schneider, 261 Mailer, Isaac Barnett, 261 Mailer, Norman, xx, 261–264 Malory, Thomas, 359 Marquand, John P., 265–267 Marquand, John P. (Jr.), 265 Marquand, Margaret, 265 Marquand, Philip, 265 McCaffrey, Katherine, 102 McClellan, George (General), 244 McConnell, Fanny, 128 McCoy, Bessie, 96 McCullers, Carson, 268–271 McCullers, James Reeves (Jr.), 268 McDowell, Irvin (General), 233 McKinley, William (President), 189, 380 Mead, Elinor, 211 Meadman, Dhinah Rose, 404

Mena, Maria Cristina (Maria Cristina Chambers), 272–274 Mencken, H. L., 78 Merriam, Aline Herminie, 178, 180 Merwin, Ellen Bannister, 275 Merwin, Orlando H., 275 Merwin, Samuel, 275–277, 388, 389 Mitchell, John Kearsley, 278 Mitchell, Sarah Matilda, 278 Mitchell, S. Weir (Dr.), 162, 278–281 Mitchell, Tennessee, 17, 18 Moore, Alice Ruth, 118 Moore, Frederick R., 208 Moore, Joseph, 292 Moore, Patricia Wright, 292 Moore, Winifred Sheehan, 91 Moorehouse, G. R., 278 Morales, Adele, 262 Morris, Willie, 225 Morrison, Harold, 283 Morrison, Toni, 282–285 Mosolino, Gloria, 223 Motley, Archibald (Sr.), 286 Motley, Florence, 286 Motley, Mary, 286 Motley, Willard, 286–288 Mott, Lydia, 241 Murfree, Fanny Priscilla Dickinson, 289 Murfree, Mary N. (Charles Egbert Craddock), 289–291 Murfree, William Law, 289 Murphy, R. Weeks, 117 Nast, Thomas, xvi naturalism, ix–xi, xiv, xvii–xx, xxi, xxii– xxiii Nelson, Alice Moore Dunbar, 292–294 Nelson, Robert J., 293 Nelson, William Rockhill, 251 Nicolay, John, 188, 189 Nininger, John, 102 Norris, Benjamin Franklin (Sr.), 295 Norris, (Benjamin) Frank(lin) (Jr.), xx, 295–297 Norris, Gertrude Doggett, 295 Oates, Carolina Bush, 298 Oates, Frederic James, 298

Index Oates, Joyce Carol, 298–302 O’Connell, John (Jr.), 230 O’Flaherty, Eliza Faris, 70 O’Flaherty, Thomas, 70 O’Hara, John, xx, 303–306 O’Hara, Katharine Delaney, 303 O’Hara, Patrick Henry, 303 O’Neal, Emmett, 366 Orth, Mary Ward, 389 Oskison, Bert, 309 Oskison, John, 307 Oskison, John Milton, 307–310 Oskison, Rachel Critendon, 307 Oskison, Richard, 309 Otis, William, 343

Padmore, George, 405 Page, Elizabeth Burwell Nelson, 311 Page, John (Major), 311 Page, Thomas Nelson, 311–312 Palfrey, John G., 4 Paradise, Frank (Reverend), 167 Payne, Caroline Faris, 313 Payne, Will, 313–315 Payne, William Augustus, 313 Perkins, Frederick Beecher, 162 Perkins, Mary Westcott, 162 Perry, Susan, 68 Petit, Helen R., 303 Pfeiffer, Pauline, 198 Phelps, Austin, 316 Phelps (Ward), Elizabeth Stuart, 316–319 Phelps, Elizabeth Wooster Stuart, 316 Phillips, David Graham, 320–323 Phillips, David Graham (Sr.), 320 Phillips, Margaret Lee, 320 Piatt, John J., 211 Pond, James B. (Major), 118 Poole, Abram, 324 Poole, Ernest, 324–330 Poole, Mary Howe, 324 Poplar, Ellen, 404 Porter, Algernon Sydney, 331 Porter, Horace (General), 244 Porter, Margaret, 331 Porter, Mary Jane Virginia Swain, 331 Porter, Shirley, 331

423

Porter, William Sydney (O. Henry), 331– 334 Prall, Elizabeth, 18 Pulitzer, Joseph, 332 Ransom, John Crowe, 384 Read, Elizabeth Wallace, 335 Read, Guilford, 335 Read, Opie Pope, 335–338 realism, ix–xi, xiv–xviii, xix, xx–xxi, xxiii–xxv regionalism, xvii–xviii Remington, Clara Sackrider, 339 Remington, Frederic, 339–342 Remington, Seth Pierre, 339 Richardson, Hadley, 197, 198 Ricketts, Edward, 358, 360, 361 Riis, Jacob, 324 Rives, Alfred Landon (Colonel), 343 Rives, Amelie, 343–346 Rives, Sarah Catherine Macmurdo, 343 Rives, William Cabell, 343 Robin, Charles Philippe, 278 Robinson, Susanah, 375 Rockefeller, John D., xii Roosevelt, Franklin D. (President), xiv Roosevelt, Theodore (President), 189, 320 Sanderson, Emma, 34 Saxton, Alexander, 286 Sayre, Zelda, 139, 140 Schenck, Robert C., xii Schenk, William P., 286 Schultz, John, 195 Scott, Elaine Anderson, 361 Scribner, Charles, 204 Sedgwich, Christina, 265 Segara, Ana Daisy Dana, 229 Selby, Adalin Layne, 347 Selby, Hubert, 347 Selby, Hubert (Jr.), 347–349 Seward, William (Secretary of State), 188 Silverman, Beatrice, 261 Simmons, Ellen, 43 Simpson, Elias Thomas, 20, 21 Simpson, Mollie Denny, 20 Sinclair, Priscella Harden, 350 Sinclair, Upton, 350–354

424

Index

Sinclair, Upton Beall (Sr.), 350 Small, Sam, 182 Smith, Edith, 195 Smith, F. Berkeley, 357 Smith, Francis, 355 Smith, Francis Hopkinson, 355–357 Smith, Katherine, 106 Smith, Lamar, 268 Smith, Margaret Woodward, 46 Smith, Marguerite Waters, 268 Smith, Raymond Joseph, 298 Smith, Roswell, 204 Smith, Susan Teakle, 355 Snyder, Lizzie, 124 Sorrentino, Gilbert, 347 Spaulding, Zeph (Colonel), 399 Stanley, Henry M., 235 Stansbury, Elizabeth Alexander, 241 Stansbury, Samuel, 241 Stedman, Edmund Clarence, 7, 400 Steinbeck, John, xx, 358–362 Steinbeck, John (Jr.), 361 Steinbeck, John Ernst, 358 Steinbeck, Olive Hamilton, 358 Steinbeck, Thom, 361 Stetson, Charles Walter, 162 Stetson, Katharine Beecher, 162 Stevens, Carol, 263 Stevens, Harry, 391 Stevenson, Eva, 58 Stieglitz, Alfred, 91 Stoddard, R. H., 7 Stone, Clara, 189 Stowe, Calvin Ellis, 363 Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 363–365 Stowe, Henry Ellis, 364 Stowe, Samuel Charles, 363 Stribling, Amelia Waits, 366 Stribling, Christopher Columbus, 366 Stribling, T. S., 366–369 Styron, Pauline Margaret Abraham, 370 Styron, William, xx, 370–373 Styron, William Clark, 370 Symington, James, 355 Szwarc, Tereska, 247 Tarkington, Booth, 374–376 Tarkington, Elizabeth Booth, 374

Tarkington, John Stevenson, 374 Tate, Allen, 172, 384 Tate, Nancy, 172 Taylor, Bayard, 7 Taylor, Cora, 86 Temple, Minny, 216 Terry, Anne Hurlbut, 81 Terry, Henry Wadsworth, 81 Tessima, Rosa, 191 Thatcher, Charles A., 118 Thompson, Dorothy, 255 Thompson, Samuel Hopkins, 316 Tobey, Henry A., 118 Todd, Ada, 234 Torrence, Ridgely, 156 Tourgee, Albion W., 377–380 Tourgee, Louisa Winegar, 377 Tourgee, Valentine, 377 Townesend, Stephen, 55 Trefusius, Grace, 121 Troubetzkoy, Pierre (Prince), 345, 346 Tschacbasov, Aleandra, 37 Tulsca, Alexandra Ionesco, 38 Veblen, Thorstein, xiii Wallace, Walter W., 207 Ward, Herbert Dickinson, 318 Warner, Anna, 381 Warner, Anna Marsh Bartlett, 381 Warner, Charles Dudley, 75 Warner, Henry, 336 Warner, Henry Whiting, 381 Warner, Susan, 381–383 Warren, Fred D., 351 Warren, Robert Franklin, 384 Warren, Robert Penn, 172, 384–387 Warren, Ruth Penn, 384 Warren, Thomas, 384 Washington, Booker T., 113, 114, 207, 208 Watkin, Henry, 191 Webb, Charles H., 186 Webster, Emma Josephine, 388 Webster, Henry Kitchell, 275, 276, 388– 390 Webster, Noah, 142 Webster, Towner Keeney, 388

Index Wellman, Flora, 257 Welsh, Mary, 198 Wharton, Edith, 28, 254, 391–393 Wharton, Edward, 391 Whitlock, Brand, 394–398 Whitlock, Elias D., 394 Whitlock, Mollie Lavinia Brand, 394 Whitman, Walt, 7 Whitney, Josiah Dwight, 233 Whitney, Katherine, 313 Whittier, John Greenleaf, 8 Wilde, Oscar, 345 Wilkins, Eleanor Lothrop, 147 Wilkins, Warren, 147 Wilkinson, Theodosia, 244 Williams, Andrew, 185 Williams, Grace, 145 Williams, Tennessee, 270 Willis, Mary Elizabeth, 353 Willis, N. P., 7 Wilson, Harry Leon, 375 Winter, William, 7

425

Winterbotham, Margaret, 325 Wofford, George, 282 Wofford, Ramah Willis, 282 Wolf, Daniel, 262 Woodhull, Victoria Claflin, xii Woodman, Lilian, 8 Woolson, Charles Jarvis, 399 Woolson, Constance Fenimore, 399–402 Woolson, Hannah Cooper Pomeroy, 399 Wright, Ella Wilson, 403 Wright, Julia, 404 Wright, Leon, 403 Wright, Nathan, 403 Wright, Rachel, 405 Wright, Richard, 127, 403–406 Wylie, Belle M., 304 Yezierska, Anzia, 407–409 Yezierska, Bernard, 407 Yezierska, Pearl, 407 Zola, Emile, xviii

About the Author E. C. APPLEGATE is a Professor in the School of Journalism, College of Mass Communication, at Middle Tennessee State University. His articles and reviews have been published in several academic journals, including Journalism Studies, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, American Journalism, and Journalism History. His previous books include Personalities and Products: A Historical Perspective on Advertising in America (Greenwood, 1998), Literary Journalism: A Biographical Dictionary of Writers and Editors (Greenwood, 1996), Print and Broadcast Journalism: A Critical Examination (Praeger, 1996), and The Ad Men and Women: A Biographical Dictionary of Advertising (Greenwood, 1994).