immortalised the picturesque Creole life of Louisiana in the nineteenth
century. Born in New Orleans of Virginian and New England stock, he
had little school training and early became a clerk. At nineteen he
entered the Confederate Army, serving till the close of the war.
Then he became in succession a civil engineer and an accountant,
contributing meanwhile to the New Orleans _Picayune_. Seven of his
stories were collected and published in 1879 as “Old Creole Days.”
“The Grandissimes” (1880), which remains his best work, is a graphic
and faithful picture of New Orleans life of a century ago, embodying
romance and realism. “Madame Delphine” (1881) is a touching story of a
heroic old quadroon woman. In “Dr. Sevier” (1884), Cable has studied
in romantic vein an exceptional type of character, though not with
marked success. “Bonaventure, a Prose Pastoral of Arcadian Louisiana”
(1888), a better book, is a chapter of ethical history. “Strange True
Stories of Louisiana” appeared in 1889. Less interesting as fiction,
but valuable as a social study, is “John March, Southerner” (1894), a
story of Southern Reconstruction. “The Cavalier” (1901) goes back to
the Civil War, but subordinates interest in the conflict to interest
in character; while “Bylow Hill” (1902) is a tragic story of insane
jealousy, the scene being New England. Since 1885, Mr. Cable has lived
at Northampton, Massachusetts. His later work, like that of many
another, has probably suffered from a natural tendency to subordinate
the artistic to the ethical. But in the province which he has made his
own, the pioneer remains supreme. “Few recent American novelists,”
Professor Richardson justly remarks, “have shown so uniform an average
of attainment in thought and art, or have thrown upon the quaintly real
such new tints of ideal light.”
_Albion Winegar Tourgee._--Albion W. Tourgee (1838-1905), an Ohioan,
studied (1858-61) at the University of Rochester, saw service
in the Union Army, and afterward became an editor and lawyer at
Greensboro, North Carolina. Most of his novels deal with phases of the
Reconstruction Period in the South. The best of these were: “A Fool’s
Errand, by One of the Fools” (1879), doubtless his best known work,
“Bricks Without Straw” (1880), and “The Invisible Empire” (1883). “Figs
and Thistles” (1879) is a realistic story of early Ohio, in which the
career of President Garfield is introduced; “Pactolus Prime” (1890) is
the story of a Washington bootblack who has views on the negro problem.
A man of strong opinions, Judge Tourgee could not write a novel which
did not provoke thought; and he was by no means devoid of the true
story-teller’s cunning.
=The Eighties.=--The decade of 1880-90 beheld the growth of realism to
vigorous maturity. Romances not a few were written, to be sure, such
as the “Ramona” (1884) of Mrs. Helen Fiske Jackson (“H. H.,” 1831-85),
in which a romantic narrative clothes a strong plea for more humane
treatment of the Indians, and the two Italian romances of William
Waldorf Astor (born in 1848), “Valentino” (1885) and “Sforza, a Story
of Milan” (1889). But these can hardly be called representative stories
in a decade which saw the best work of Howells, James, Craddock,
Fawcett, Bunner, Cable, and many others who wrote of the life they had
seen and were content to employ present-day settings.
A few writers may here be grouped together for convenience. To the
decade in question belong the best stories of George Parsons Lathrop
(1851-98), the son-in-law of Hawthorne: “In the Distance” (1882),
“An Echo of Passion” (1882), and “Would You Kill Him?” (1889), which
amounts to a plea against capital punishment; and most of the fiction
of Professor Arlo Bates (born in 1850): “The Pagans” (1884) and its
sequel “The Philistines” (1889), “A Lad’s Love” (1887), though “The
Puritans” dates from 1898. Fine pictures of Italian life have been
drawn by Julia Constance Fletcher (“George Fleming,” born in 1853) in
“Vestigia” (1882) and “Andromeda” (1885), the latter a story of high
ideals and noble self-sacrifice. Illinois life in the unattractive
baldness of pioneer days is portrayed by Major Joseph Kirkland
(1830-94) in “Zury, the Meanest Man in Spring County” (1887) and “The
McVeys, an Episode” (1888), in which Lincoln again figures as in
Eggleston’s “Graysons.”
_Henry Adams and John Hay._--“Democracy” (1880), an anonymous novel the
authorship of which has hitherto baffled the critics, and which the
present writer can now announce definitely to have been the work of
the historian Henry Adams, is a keen and incisive study of political
society in Washington, vividly portraying the corruption which perhaps
inevitably attends the growth of the people’s power, but concerning
which the author is all too pessimistic. The bribery case which aids
Mrs. Lee in unmasking the real character of Silas P. Ratcliffe finds
a parallel in our contemporary history; and several of the characters
are thought to have been drawn from real life. Happily, whatever may
have been the state of affairs in Washington in 1880, the story would
be very far from a true picture of the Washington of to-day. John Hay
(1838-1905), lawyer, journalist, diplomatist, and statesman, was the
author of a single novel, and his connection with that has been, up
to the appearance of the present volume, only a conjecture. Prudence,
however, obviously, required that “The Bread-Winners” (1883) should
appear anonymously. As a politician, and as acting editor of _The
Tribune_, Mr. Hay did not then wish to avow himself the author of a
“frivolous novel”; besides, in the story he had spoken rather plainly
about strikes and labour troubles. The story itself is well written,
natural, and for the most part true to life. Of the two love scenes,
the proposal of Maud Matchin is more convincing than is Farnham’s to
Alice Belding. The plot is well worked out; our interest in the story
for itself almost never flags.
_Joel Chandler Harris._--Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908) used
to describe himself as a journalist who became a literary man by
accident. Few accidents have been luckier. He was born at Eatonton,
Putnam County, Georgia. At fourteen he began to set type in a country
newspaper office, contributing surreptitiously to its columns, setting
his articles from the case instead of committing them to paper. Then he
studied law and practised for a time at Forsyth, Georgia, at the same
time doing literary work. In 1876, he joined the staff of the Atlanta
_Constitution_, of which he became editor in 1890. To this paper he
contributed the beast stories collected in 1881 under the title of
“Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings,” which have ever since been
immensely popular. Uncle Remus, a shrewd and witty old negro, has
an inexhaustible supply of stories of Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and the
other creatures; these “the little boy” and the rest of us never
tire of hearing. The stories themselves, brought from Africa by the
negroes, are interesting variant forms of the great beast epic, the
classic example of which is “Reynard the Fox.”[18] They celebrate the
victory of craft over strength, of brain over brawn. Two other series
afterward appeared, “Nights with Uncle Remus” (1883) and “Uncle Remus
and His Friends” (1892); and now there is an _Uncle Remus’ Magazine_.
Mr. Harris’ other books have helped to complete an admirably faithful
picture of Middle Georgia rural life before, during, and after the
Civil War. They include “At Teague Poteet’s” (published in 1883 in _The
Century_), “Mingo, and Other Sketches in Black and White” (1884), “Free
Joe” (1887), “Balaam and His Master, and Other Sketches and Stories”
(1891), in which melancholy and pathos predominate, “Aaron in the
Wildwoods” (1897), “Tales of the Home Folks in Peace and War” (1898),
“The Chronicles of Aunt Minervy Ann” (1899), “On the Wing of Occasions”
(1900). With the single exception of “Gabriel Tolliver” (1902), which
was not successful, Mr. Harris’ constant work in journalism prevented
him from undertaking any long novel of plantation life; shorter flights
were better suited to his ability.
_Maurice Thompson._--Maurice Thompson (1844-1901), of Indiana, wrote
several romances. The first three, dealing with Southern life, “A
Tallahassee Girl” (1882), “His Second Campaign” (1883), and “At
Love’s Extremes” (1885), were not very successful. In “A Banker of
Bankersville” (1886) he succeeded better, giving a true and fresh
picture of life in Indiana. The novel by which he is best known is
“Alice of Old Vincennes” (1901), a stirring tale of French Indiana and
the War of Independence. “Sweetheart Manette” (1901) gives an agreeable
sketch of life in a Creole town on the Gulf Coast.
_Francis Marion Crawford._--“The most versatile and various of modern
novelists,” if Mr. Andrew Lang’s opinion is to be accepted, is Mr.
F. Marion Crawford. Not only has he been prolific in a high degree,
having written over thirty novels, but his scenes and characters have
a wide range both in time and in place. He was born at Bagni di Lucca,
Italy, in 1854, the son of Thomas Crawford the sculptor (who was of
Scotch-Irish parentage) and Louisa Ward Crawford, a sister of Mrs.
Julia Ward Howe. Prepared for college at St. Paul’s School, Concord,
New Hampshire, he entered Harvard, but remained there only a short
time. He spent the years 1870-74 mainly at Trinity College, Cambridge,
1874-76 at Karlsruhe and Heidelberg, and 1877-78 at the University of
Rome, where he studied Sanskrit. In 1879 he went to India and for two
years was connected with the Allahabad _Indian Herald_. Returning to
America, he spent two years in New York and Boston, continuing his
Sanskrit and Zend studies under Professor Lanman of Harvard. No other
American novelist save Mr. James has had so cosmopolitan a training.
Relating a story of a Persian jewel merchant’s adventure in India to
his uncle, Samuel Ward, he was advised to make a novel of it; the
result was the fascinating “Mr. Isaacs” (1882). Soon afterward Mr.
Crawford returned to Italy, where, near Sorrento, he has since lived.
Mr. Crawford has a gift of rapid composition, sometimes completing
a novel in less than a month; but his work as a whole is markedly
free from slovenliness or signs of undue haste. His stories can be
only briefly described: “Dr. Claudius” (1883), a highly romantic
old-fashioned love-story of a learned Heidelberg Ph.D.; “To Leeward”
(1883), a clever story of a wife’s infidelity and of Roman society; “A
Roman Singer” (1884), the story of an Italian peasant boy who became
a great tenor and married a German countess; “An American Politician”
(1885), which deals, in the style of Henry James, and with indifferent
success, with the corruption in American politics; “Zoroaster” (1885),
a strong romance written also in French, and brilliantly treating of
the court of King Darius and the prophet Daniel; “A Tale of a Lonely
Parish” (1886), a quiet and charming story of English rural life;
“Paul Patoff” (1887), “a tale and nothing else,” the scene of which
is laid in modern Constantinople; “Marzio’s Crucifix” (1887, written
also in French), which is exceptional among his works in that it
portrays Italian lower- and middle-class life, and which is considered
by many his best work; “Saracinesca” (1887), “Sant’ Ilario” (1889),
“Don Orsino” (1892), and “Corleone” (1898), four novels forming a
sequence and presenting on a broad canvas a remarkable picture of Roman
society in the last third of the nineteenth century; “Greifenstein”
(1889), a tragedy of the Black Forest, “a true story,” containing
accurate descriptions of German student life; “A Cigarette-Maker’s
Romance” (1890), a perfectly constructed romantic and absorbing story
of Russian and Polish people living in Munich; “Khaled, a Romance of
Arabia” (1891), of which a genie is the hero; “The Witch of Prague”
(1891), which deals with hypnotism, a theme difficult to handle in
fiction; “The Three Fates” (1892), a realistic story of New York
society life and the best of Mr. Crawford’s American studies; “Marion
Darche” (1893), another story of New York and of the devotion of a
forger’s wife; “The Children of the King” (1893), a melodramatic
story of Calabrian peasant life; “Pietro Ghisleri” (1893), in which
both romantic and realistic elements are found and which pictures
the gay society of Rome; “Katharine Lauderdale” and its sequel “The
Ralstons” (1894), chronicles of a New York family; “Casa Braccio”
(1895), a melodrama of passion; “Taquisara” (1896), an unpleasant story
of the last representative of a great Saracen family and a princess
of Acireale; “Via Crucis” (1899), a historical romance of the Second
Crusade; “In the Palace of the King” (1900), a tale of passion, the
hero of which is Don John of Austria, and the scene of which is the
court of Philip II. of Spain; “Marietta, a Maid of Venice” (1901),
a fifteenth-century story; “The Heart of Rome” (1903), the _motif_
of which is modern Rome’s treatment of its artistic heritage; “Fair
Margaret” (1905), published in London as “Soprano, a Portrait,”
recounting the fascinating career of Margaret Donne, who becomes a
successful opera singer; “Whosoever Shall Offend” (1905), an effective
story of crime; and “A Lady of Rome” (1906), a study of character
moulded by strong religious belief.
Of this remarkable series, the most noteworthy, though probably not the
most popular, are those dealing with Italian life. Mr. Crawford has
been markedly successful in his portraiture of Italian middle-class
life, and only a little less so in writing of the aristocracy. He
excels in representing agreeable, well-bred men and women; under his
touch they are natural, human, lifelike. He is fertile in invention and
lavish of characters and plot-incident, using in quite a subordinate
connection materials which other novelists would reserve for the
main plots of future novels. In general, his plots are skilfully
constructed; occasionally, as in “Taquisara” (which is almost two
separate stories), he fails to weld his material insolubly together. He
has a remarkably bold and vigorous imagination, and does not hesitate
to introduce daring conceptions and incidents; a romantic cast of mind
is necessary if one would fully enjoy him. A Roman Catholic himself, he
has had the amplest opportunity for studying the Catholic temperament
and point of view, which he interprets admirably; it is natural that
he should be weakest in portraying the characters of unbelievers or
heretics. He is always dispassionate, calm, never losing himself in
any storm of passion. His fiction as a whole is remarkably even,
and it cannot be affirmed that his latest work shows deterioration.
For the skill with which he has utilised vast stores of learning,
for the effective though restrained use of a virile and picturesque
imagination, for “astonishing literary tact” and breadth of view, Mr.
Crawford has not his equal among living American writers, and his place
is among the writers who only just miss the first rank.
_Frederic Jesup Stimson._--Frederic J. Stimson, a native of Dedham,
Massachusetts (born in 1855), has led a busy life as lawyer, legal
writer, Harvard professor, and novelist. His earlier novels were
published over the pen name of “J. S. of Dale.” He has written, among
others, “Guerndale” (1882), “The Crime of Henry Vane” (1884), the plot
of which is unconvincing, “First Harvests” (1888), “Mrs. Knollys and
Other Stories” (1894), “Pirate Gold” (1896), “King Noanett” (1896),
carefully worked out, an exciting story of mystery and adventure,
“Jethro Bacon of Sandwich” (1902), and “In Cure of Her Soul” (1906).
Mr. Stimson has not taken high rank as a novelist, but his stories are
generally interesting and the later ones may be commended to those who
are fond of good romances. “The Weaker Sex” (_The Atlantic_, April,
1901) is a powerful short story.
_Henry Cuyler Bunner._--Henry C. Bunner (1855-96), for many years the
editor of _Puck_, wrote many short stories and some good novels. He
was a native of Oswego, New York, and received his literary training
in the school of journalism, being connected first with _The Sun_
and then with _The Arcadian_, a literary weekly. “A Woman of Honor”
(1883) gave some promise in plot and incident. “Love in Old Cloathes”
(_The Century_, September, 1883) brought him a reputation as a clever
story-teller. His next novel, “The Midge,” an ingenious story of the
New York French quarter, appeared in 1886; it was followed by “The
Story of a New York House” (1887), the somewhat melancholy history of
a house, typifying the family which occupies it. “Natural Selection”
appeared serially in _Scribner’s_ (1888). “Zadoc Pine, and Other
Stories” (1891) are tales the skilful construction of which shows how
carefully Bunner studied Boccaccio; while in “Short Sixes” (1891), his
most popular stories, he avowed his discipleship to Maupassant. He was
more successful in his short stories than in his novels.
_Arthur Sherburne Hardy._--Arthur S. Hardy (born in 1847 at Andover,
Mass.), in 1902-6 United States Minister Plenipotentiary at Madrid,
has had a varied career. Graduating at West Point in 1869, he served
for a year in the Third United States Artillery, then became in
succession professor of civil engineering, first at Iowa College,
later at Dartmouth, professor of mathematics at Dartmouth, editor of
_The Cosmopolitan_, and United States Minister to Persia, to Greece,
Roumania, and Servia, and to Switzerland. Well known for several
mathematical publications, he is the author of three novels, two of
which are distinguished for happy description, graceful diction, and
profound reflection rather than for individuality of plot or able
development of character. “But Yet a Woman” (1883) is a story, somewhat
deficient in local colour, of the coming of love to a French maiden
destined for the convent. “The Wind of Destiny” (1886) is a story of
a weak woman and two men which, though it lacks dramatic interest,
offers some compensation in “the peculiarly noble air which pervades
it, the extreme beauty of many of its passages, the revelation of
life flashed occasionally as from a diamond of light, and perhaps
more than all for the very subtle charm which hangs over the whole
movement of the story.”[19] “Passe Rose” (1889) is a charming poetical
romance of Provence in the stirring times of Charles the Great, and is
decidedly Mr. Hardy’s most successful novel. His latest story is “His
Daughter First” (1903). With rare sympathy, which he makes no attempt
to conceal, he has interpreted several diverse types, and his men and
women are alive.
_Mary Hallock Foote._--Born at Milton-on-the-Hudson, New York, in
1847, Mary Hallock early showed artistic talent and at sixteen began
to study design in Cooper Institute, New York City. She was married in
1876 to Arthur D. Foote, a California mining engineer, and travelled
extensively in the Southwest. Her varied experiences have been utilised
with marked literary skill in a series of stories, the first of which
was “The Led Horse Claim” (1883), in which the story of Romeo and
Juliet was repeated in a California mining camp, though with a happy
ending. “The Chosen Valley” (1892) is a study in contrasts, recounting
an episode in the reclaiming by irrigation of the waste lands of the
West. In 1894 appeared “Cœur d’Alene,” a love-story with a background
in the labour troubles. She has also written “John Bowdoin’s Testimony”
(1886), “The Last Assembly Ball” (1889), “In Exile” (1894), and “The
Cup of Trembling” (1895). Her latest stories, “The Desert and the Sown”
(1902), a study of ideal self-sacrifice, and “A Touch of Sun, and Other
Stories” (1903), are hardly up to the level of her earlier work, which,
in its vivid representation of wild Western life, entitles her to a
place with Bret Harte.
_Wolcott Balestier._--The promise of the too short life of Charles
Wolcott Balestier (1861-91) deserves record. He was born at Rochester,
New York, studied at Cornell University and the University of
Virginia, and became first the editor of _Tid-Bits_ and then the junior
partner of Heinemann & Balestier, publishers of _The English Library_,
an attempt to popularise British and American books on the Continent.
His interest in literature was intense, and that he would have produced
stories worth remembering, doubtless in the vein of Mr. Howells, whom
he greatly admired, is evidenced by his few published works: “A Patent
Philtre” (1884), “A Fair Device” (1884), “A Victorious Defeat” (1886),
“A Common Story” (1891), “The Average Woman” (1892), three stories,
with a memorial note by Henry James, and “Benefits Forgot” (1891),
first published serially in _The Century_. With Mr. Kipling, his
brother-in-law, he collaborated in “The Naulahka” (1892).
_Robert Grant._--Born in Boston (1852), Robert Grant graduated from
Harvard in 1873 and became Ph.D. in 1876 and LL.B. in 1879. He has
followed law and letters side by side. In 1893 he was appointed Judge
of the Probate Court and the Court of Insolvency for Suffolk County,
Massachusetts. He has written, among other things, “The Confessions
of a Frivolous Girl” (1880), “An Average Man” (1884), “The Knave
of Hearts” (1886), “The Reflections of a Married Man” (1892), “The
Opinions of a Philosopher” (1893), “The Bachelor’s Christmas, and Other
Stories” (1895), and “Unleavened Bread” (1900), his best known and most
powerful story. Mr. Grant is a trenchant satirist of the foibles of
certain aspirants to social prominence. Selma, in “Unleavened Bread,”
is a veritable incarnation of ignoble social ambition.
_Henry Harland._--Henry Harland (1861-1905) was born in St.
Petersburg, Russia, and was educated at the College of the City of
New York, Harvard, Paris, and Rome. In 1886 he removed to London,
where he became well known as the editor of _The Yellow Book_. His
earlier stories, including “As It Was Written” (1885), a musician’s
story, “Mrs. Peixada” (1886), “The Land of Love” (1887), “My Uncle
Florimond” (1888), and others, were published as by “Sidney Luska”;
they circulated widely but were later condemned by Harland himself
as trashy. He later wrote “Mea Culpa” (1893), “Comedies and Errors”
(1898), “The Cardinal’s Snuff-Box” (1900), which scored a decided
success, and “My Lady Paramount” (1902). His brilliance and geniality
are reflected in his works, but his vein was not an extensive one.
_Thomas Nelson Page._--One of the leading novelists of the South
to-day is Thomas Nelson Page. Born in 1853 at Oakland, Virginia, he
studied (1869-72) at Washington and Lee University and (1873-74) at
the University of Virginia. After practising law for some years, he
turned, like many other lawyers, to literature. “Marse Chan” (_The
Century_, April, 1884) met with great favour, and was followed by other
short stories, which were collected in 1887 under the title “In Ole
Virginia.” The life in Virginia before and during the war was further
presented in “Two Little Confederates” (1888), “On New Found River”
(1891), “Elsket, and Other Stories” (1891), “The Burial of the Guns,
and Other Stories” (1894), “Red Rock, a Chronicle of Reconstruction”
(1898), “The Old Gentleman of the Black Stock” (1900), and “Gordon
Keith” (1903). Mr. Page has a strong affection for the Old South, and
vividly and powerfully delineates the life of the aristocracy and
the negroes. While sympathetic, his descriptions of the system of
slavery are free from bitterness and are entitled to consideration as
truthful and convincing. Probably he has never surpassed his earlier
short stories, which exhibit most distinctively the charm of his
style; but “Red Rock,” at least, has demonstrated his ability to write
successfully also on a larger scale.