of Philadelphia, became a New York journalist and then a writer of
stories. He has been especially successful in depicting the Bohemian
life of the metropolis. His “Color Studies: Four Stories” (1885),
reprinted from _The Century_, narrate the struggles of a painter in New
York; though slight, they are realistic and agreeable. Having made an
exhaustive study of Mexico, he put his knowledge to good use in “The
Aztec Treasure House: a Romance of Contemporaneous Antiquity” (1890),
a successful romantic novel dealing with a legend of buried treasure
and a story of wholesome flavour and sustained interest. He has also
written “Stories of Old New Spain” (1895) and several others.
_Some New England Women._--Here may be grouped several gifted daughters
of the Puritans, some of whom deserve more space than can be given
them. Mrs. Jane Goodwin Austin (1831-94) wrote several readable
historical romances of colonial New England. Among her works are “A
Nameless Nobleman” (1881), “Dr. Le Baron and His Daughters” (1890),
sequel to the first, “Standish of Standish” (1889), and “David Alden’s
Daughter and Other Stories” (1892).
Mrs. Rose Terry Cooke (1827-92), a native of Connecticut, was known
as a poet for many years before she began to write short stories. She
published the following collections: “Happy Dodd” (1879), “Somebody’s
Neighbours” (1881), “Root-Bound” (1885), “The Sphinx’s Children”
(1886), and “Huckleberries Gathered from New England Hills” (1891).
“The Deacon’s Week” (1884) may count as her best story. In all her
stories the humours of New England Yankee character are set forth with
vigour and relish. She wrote a single novel, “Steadfast, the Story of a
Saint and a Sinner” (1889), dealing with early New England church life,
and ranking much above the average novel.
Mrs. Annie Trumbull Slosson, likewise of Connecticut, has shown skill
in dialect stories, of which “Fishin’ Jimmy” (1889), “Seven Dreamers”
(1890), “The Heresy of Mehetabel Clark” (1892), and “Dumb Foxglove, and
Other Stories” (1898) may be mentioned. The grotesque elements of New
England life especially appeal to her.
Mrs. Clara Louise Burnham (born at Newton, Massachusetts, in 1854) has
lived in Chicago since childhood, but is fond of locating her scenes in
New England. She has written many stories, among them “No Gentleman”
(1881), “A Sane Lunatic” (1882), “Dearly Bought” (1884), “Next Door”
(1886), “Young Maids and Old” (1888), “Miss Bagg’s Secretary” (1892),
“Dr. Latimer” (1893), “The Wise Woman” (1895), “A West Point Wooing”
(1899), and “The Right Princess” (1902).
Alice Brown (born in New Hampshire in 1857), after teaching school for
several years, devoted herself to literature, and is now a member of
the staff of _The Youth’s Companion_. She has written “Fools of Nature”
(1887), “Meadow-Grass” (1895), short tales of New England village life,
“The Day of His Youth” (1897), a story of disillusionment, “Tiverton
Tales” (1899), “King’s End” (1901), “Margaret Warrener” (1901), “The
Mannerings” (1903), and “High Noon” (1904). Her stories are skilfully
constructed, and she writes with commendable restraint and dignity.
_Mary E. Wilkins Freeman._--The more sombre and less attractive aspects
of New England village and country life have been presented with great
success in the numerous stories of Mary E. Wilkins (since 1902 Mrs.
Charles M. Freeman). Born at Randolph, Massachusetts, in 1862, she
was educated at Mt. Holyoke Seminary, South Hadley, Mass. Her stories
include “The Adventures of Ann” (1886), “A Humble Romance” (1887),
“A New England Nun, and Other Stories” (1891), “Jane Field” (1892),
her first novel, “Pembroke” (1894), generally considered her greatest
work, and distinguished for beauty of style and truthful and delicate
character-drawing, “Madelon” (1896), “Jerome, a Poor Man” (1897), by
some ranked higher than “Pembroke” in that it has a stronger central
interest, “Silence and Other Stories” (1898), which includes some of
her best work, especially “Evelina’s Garden,” one of her most artistic
tales, “The Love of Parson Lord” (1900), “The Heart’s Highway” (1900),
a historical romance of Virginia in 1682, “The Portion of Labour”
(1901), “Understudies” (1901), “Six Trees” (1903), “The Wind in the
Rose Bush” (1903), “The Givers,” eight stories (1904), and several
magazine stories. Her place is easily in the first rank of those who
have delineated New England life.
_Harold Frederic._--Harold Frederic (1856-98) wrote a number of
realistic stories, chiefly of country life in New York. A native
of Utica, in that State, he began his career as proof-reader; at
twenty-six he was editor of the Albany _Evening Journal_, and in
1884 he took charge of the foreign bureau of the New York _Times_,
with headquarters in London. “Seth’s Brother’s Wife” (1887), first
published serially in _Scribner’s_, minutely describes the prosaic
round of farming life and country journalism and elections. “The Lawton
Girl” (1890) gives us the turmoil of a small manufacturing town. “In
the Valley” (1890) is a Mohawk Dutchman’s story of the Revolutionary
struggle. “The Copperhead, and Other Stories of the North” (1893)
and “Marséna, and Other Stories” (1894) are collections of Civil War
stories, vigorous and daring. His best stories are “The Damnation
of Theron Ware” (1896, published in England as “Illumination”), an
absorbing study of the intellectual career of an earnest but narrow
young Methodist minister and of the struggle of two religious ideals in
his life, and “The Market-Place” (1899), a thoroughgoing study of the
London Stock Exchange. His untimely death cut short a career of notable
achievement and great promise.
_Archibald Clavering Gunter._--Archibald Clavering Gunter (1847-1907),
a native of Liverpool who became a California mining and civil
engineer, chemist, and stock-broker, at forty began to write novels
which violated most of the literary canons, but which in plot and
incident were of absorbing interest. It was his avowed rule to make
something happen in every five hundred words. This explains why a
million copies of his first novel, “Mr. Barnes of New York” (1887),
have been sold. He wrote thirty-nine novels in all, the best of
which, in addition to his first, are “Mr. Potter of Texas” (1888),
“That Frenchman” (1889), “Jack Curzon” (1899), and “A Manufacturer’s
Daughter” (1901). He also became well known as a playwright.
_Octave Thanet._--Octave Thanet is the well known pen name of Alice
French (born at Andover, Massachusetts, in 1850), who has achieved
enviable success in her short stories of life in Iowa and Arkansas,
a field in which she has few rivals. These stories include “Knitters
in the Sun” (1887), “Expiation” (1890), vigorous, truly coloured, and
accurate in details, “Stories of a Western Town” (1893), Iowa sketches,
“The Missionary Sheriff” (1897), and “The Heart of Toil” (1898), full
of the pathos of an unequal struggle with economic forces. Miss French
writes sympathetically, with her eyes on the men and women who furnish
her with characters.
_Margaret Deland._--One of the most popular of living novelists, and
justly so, is Mrs. Margaret Deland. Born Margaretta Campbell, in 1857,
in Manchester, now a part of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, then a village
“of dignified houses, pleasant gardens, and meadows sloping to a
picturesque river,” she was left an orphan at three and was cared for
by an aunt. At sixteen, like Mrs. Foote, she entered a class in drawing
and design in Cooper Institute, New York; she graduated at the head of
her class, and won an appointment as instructor in design in the Girls’
Normal College, a post which she filled till 1880. Then she was married
to Mr. Lorin F. Deland and went to Boston. Eight years later appeared
her first novel, “John Ward, Preacher.” It is the story of the conflict
of rigid Calvinism and modern liberalism, and it has been compared with
Mrs. Ward’s “Robert Elsmere.” Two love-stories, one of which recalls
Mrs. Gaskell’s “Cranford,” relieve the tragic gloom of the narrative.
Ashurst is an idealised Manchester. In “Sidney” (1890) the author
studies the question of the value of mortal sexual love; the problems
of faith and doubt also recur. “The Story of a Child” (1892) delineates
an uncontrolled imagination. “Mr. Tommy Dove, and Other Stories”
(1893) is a collection including typical humour and pathos. “Philip
and His Wife” (1894) has to do with an unhappy marriage. Her recent
stories are “The Wisdom of Fools” (1898), “Old Chester Tales” (1899),
“Dr. Lavendar’s People” (1904), and “The Awakening of Helena Richie”
(1906). Big-hearted, shrewd Dr. Lavendar, who figures in her last two
stories, is one of the most lovable characters in American fiction; and
her latest books show a distinctly stronger grasp of life and greater
narrative power.
_Mrs. Mary Hartwell Catherwood._--Mary Hartwell Catherwood (1847-1902)
made a name for herself with some very successful historical romances
of the French and Indian Wars and French Canadian and early Illinois
life. “The Romance of Dollard” (1889), “The Lady of Fort St. John”
(1891), “The White Islander” (1893), and “The Chase of Saint Castin,
and Other Stories” (1894) are spirited narratives of battle and siege,
of intrigue and jealousy, in which bold and noble characters play
their parts well, and which contain vivid descriptions of scenery--in
sunshine and storm. Of the early Middle West she wrote “Old Kaskaskia”
(1893), “The Spirit of an Illinois Town” (1897), “Little Renault”
(1897), “Spanish Peggy” (1899), “The Queen of the Swamp, and Other
Plain Americans” (1899), and “Lazarre” (1901).
_Rowland E. Robinson._--The dialect and manners of Vermont are
reproduced with remarkable fidelity by Rowland E. Robinson (1833-1900)
in “Sam Lovel’s Camps” (1889), “Danvis Folks” (1894), and “Uncle
’Lisha’s Shop” (1897). These stories are among our most valuable
transcripts of the life of Northern New England.
_Francis Hopkinson Smith._--F. Hopkinson Smith (born in Baltimore,
1838) had a varied career before he essayed the novel, at fifty-three.
He began life as a clerk in some iron works; then, becoming an engineer
and contractor, he took to building sea-walls and lighthouses, and
afterwards became well known as an artist. In “Colonel Carter of
Cartersville” (1891) he drew an alluring picture of the old _régime_
in the South. “A Gentleman Vagabond, and Some Others” (1895) are
varied character stories. “Tom Grogan” (1896) and “Caleb West, Master
Diver” (1898) draw upon Mr. Smith’s engineering experiences. He has
also written “The Other Fellow” (1899), “The Fortunes of Oliver Horn”
(1902), “The Under Dog” (1903), “Colonel Carter’s Christmas” (1904),
“At Close Range” (1905), and “The Wood Fire in No. 3” (1905). If some
of his persons are conventional and indistinct, others stand out as
skilfully characterised and permanent figures in his literary gallery.
_James Lane Allen._--James Lane Allen has done for Kentucky what Mr.
Page has done for Old Virginia and Miss Murfree for the Tennessee
mountaineers. A native of Kentucky (born in 1849), he graduated from
Transylvania University, at Lexington, Kentucky, and taught in schools
and colleges for some years. Since 1884, however, he has devoted
himself to literary work. Besides writing much for magazines he has
published “Flute and Violin, and Other Kentucky Tales and Romances”
(1891), “The Blue Grass Region, and Other Sketches” (1892), “John Gray”
(1893), rewritten and enlarged into “The Choir Invisible” (1897), “A
Kentucky Cardinal” (1894) and its sequel “Aftermath” (1895), “Summer in
Arcady” (1896), “The Reign of Law” (1900), published in England as “The
Increasing Purpose,” and “The Mettle of the Pasture” (1903). A tendency
toward didacticism and a lack of spontaneity mar the latest works of
Mr. Allen; he is at his best in his earlier works, in which he revels
in the beauty of the Blue Grass region and writes in the spirit of a
disciple of Thoreau and Audubon. The romanticist in him was gradually
transformed into the objective realist. Yet in all his work there
are elements of strength and poetic beauty. By a curious coincidence
another Kentucky James Lane Allen (born in 1848) a graduate of Bethany
College, in which the first Mr. Allen taught, and now a Chicago lawyer,
has also written numerous magazine sketches and stories.
_Hamlin Garland._--The grim, dull life of the hard-worked farmer in the
Middle West has been effectively recorded by Hamlin Garland. A native
of La Crosse, Wisconsin (born in 1860), Mr. Garland saw at close range
the life he was to describe, in Iowa, Illinois, and Dakota. His first
book was a collection of six realistic stories, “Main-Travelled Roads”
(1891), which gave him a reputation, and he has continued to write
in similar vein, publishing “Prairie Folks” (1892), “A Little Norsk,
or Ol’ Pap’s Flaxen” (1892), “A Spoil of Office” (1892), “Rose of
Dutcher’s Coolly” (1895), his best novel, “The Eagle’s Heart” (1900),
“Her Mountain Lover” (1901), and “Money Magic” (1907). Mr. Garland has
for the most part wisely obeyed his own dictum, to write only of what
one knows; and his later work shows a notable increase in vigour and
grasp of the story-teller’s art.
_Henry Blake Fuller._--Henry B. Fuller (born in Chicago, 1857) was
intended for a mercantile career, but preferred literature. “The
Chevalier of Pensieri-Vani” (1890), first published anonymously, was
praised by Lowell and Norton. In 1892 appeared “The Chatelaine of La
Trinité.” In “The Cliff-Dwellers” (1893), he turned from the romantic
to a sure realism in a story of Chicago life. “With the Procession”
followed in 1895, being in similar vein. These stories show skill in
individualisation, intense earnestness, facility, and ability to make
an old theme interesting. “His picture,” says Mr. Whibley, “is never
overcharged; his draughtsmanship is always sincere.”
_Stephen Crane and Frank Norris._--Stephen Crane (1870-1900), born in
Newark, New Jersey, and educated at Lafayette College and Syracuse
University, first entered journalism and won some distinction as a
war correspondent of the New York _Journal_. His first story, dealing
with slum life, was “Maggie, a Girl of the Streets” (1891), which, as
Mr. Howells thinks, remains his best work. “The Red Badge of Courage”
(1895), a thoroughly realistic study of the mind of a soldier in
action at the battle of Chancellorsville, was altogether a remarkable
achievement; it took the public by storm and brought the author a
wide reputation, which was not sustained by his later work. He also
wrote “George’s Mother” (1896), another slum story, “The Little
Regiment” (1896), “Active Service” (1899), “The Monster, and Other
Stories” (1899); and two collections of stories, “Wounds in the Rain”
and “Whilomville Stories” (1900), tales of child life, which were
published posthumously. His impressionism, though at times too little
restrained, was often effective, and his highly coloured stories have
found many admiring readers.
In the death of Frank Norris (1870-1902), another promising career was
cut short. Norris managed to see a good deal of life. Born in Chicago,
he studied art in Paris (1887-89) and literature at the University
of California and Harvard. Like Crane he became a journalist. At the
time of the Jameson Raid in South Africa he was the South African
correspondent for a San Francisco paper and in 1898 did similar work
in Cuba. He began publishing fiction as early as 1891 (“Yberville”),
but it was not till 1899 that he became well known for “McTeague.” His
later stories were thoroughly realistic. With “The Octopus” (1901) he
began a trilogy which should form “an epic of the wheat.” In the first
novel is described the growth of the wheat and the oppressive railroad
monopoly encountered in its transportation. “The Pit” (1903) deals with
the battles of the wheat speculators. “The Wolf,” unfinished, was to
have dealt with the struggle for bread in a European famine-stricken
community. “The story of the wheat was for him,” as Mr. Howells puts
it, “the allegory of the industrial and financial America which is the
real America.” The largeness of the scope of his undertaking and the
robust courage and confidence with which he attacked it deserve our
admiration. What he accomplished shows that he would have been equal to
his task.
_Mrs. Ruth McEnery Stuart._--Mrs. Stuart has written highly amusing
stories of negro life in the South. Born in the parish of Avoyelles,
Louisiana, she was married in 1879 to Alfred O. Stuart, a cotton
planter. Since 1885 she has lived in New York. Her stories include “The
Golden Wedding, and Other Tales” (1893), “Carlotta’s Intended” (1894),
“The Story of Babette” (1894), “Moriah’s Mourning” (1898), “Sonny”
(1896), “Holly and Pizen” (1899), “The Woman’s Exchange” (1899), and
“River’s Children” (1905). Writing in a natural and witty style, she
has brought out with great skill the humour and pathos of the old
plantation. She is a favourite contributor to the magazines.
_Paul Leicester Ford._--Paul Leicester Ford (1865-1902), whose most
serious and permanently valuable work was done in the field of
American history, was the author of some notable works of fiction.
“The Honourable Peter Sterling and What People Thought of Him” (1894)
introduces an ideally noble statesman whose integrity triumphs over
the sordid corruption of politics. Some points in the book are said
to have been suggested by the career of President Cleveland. “Janice
Meredith” (1899) is a sentimental romance of the Revolutionary War, in
which a fascinating love-story is projected on an accurate historical
background. Of less importance, but still most readable, are “The Great
K. & A. Train Robbery” (1897) and “The Story of an Untold Love” (1897).
_Edward Noyes Westcott._--Edward N. Westcott (1847-98), a banker of
Syracuse, New York, was the author of a single book, which he was
unable to get published in his lifetime, but which gave him posthumous
fame. The hero of “David Harum” (1898) is a shrewd Central New York
Yankee, a son of the soil who with characteristic energy rose to be a
banker and successful man of affairs, and who retained all his amusing
traits, including a weakness for trading horses--“an optimist who has
wrung from the harsh conditions of life all that it can yield.” The
other characters are rather wooden, but the delineation of David Harum
is strong, vital, and hence lasting. The plot is weak, but the story is
true to the phases of life it depicts.
_The Younger Generation._--Space forbids more than a mention of some
of the other living writers. Owen Wister (born in Philadelphia, 1860)
has become well known through “The Dragon of Wantley: His Tail” (1892)
and “The Virginian” (1902), in which latter we have an exciting story
of a Wyoming cowboy. The much-travelled Richard Harding Davis (also a
Philadelphian, born in 1864) has written racy and characteristically
humorous stories of New York club and street life in “Gallegher, and
Other Stories” (1891), “Van Bibber, and Others” (1892), and “Episodes
in Van Bibber’s Life” (1899). Of his other stories the best known are
“The Princess Aline” (1895), “Soldiers of Fortune” (1897), in which a
South American revolution figures prominently, “In the Fog” (1901), a
clever London tale, “Ranson’s Folly” (1902), and “The Bar Sinister”
(1904). Robert W. Chambers (born in Brooklyn, 1865) is well known both
as an artist and a romancer, a weaver of strange and exciting plots.
Among his best books are “The Red Republic” (1894), “A King and a Few
Dukes” (1894), “The Haunts of Men” (1898), stories of American or
Canadian life, “The Cambric Mask” (1899), “A Gay Conspiracy” (1900),
which shows the influence of Anthony Hope’s “Prisoner of Zenda,”
“Cardigan” (1901), and “Iole” (1905). Newton Booth Tarkington (born
in 1869 in Indianapolis, a graduate of Princeton) won fame in 1899
with “The Gentleman from Indiana” and has followed this with “Monsieur
Beaucaire” (1900), a romance laid in Bath in the eighteenth century,
“The Two Vanrevels” (1902), “Cherry” (1903), “In the Arena” (1905),
“The Conquest of Canaan” (1905), and “The Beautiful Lady” (1905). His
later work shows a gain in power. Winston Churchill (born in 1871), a
graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and now a resident of New
Hampshire, published “The Celebrity” in 1898. “Richard Carvel” (1899)
made him famous; it is a Revolutionary story of Maryland and London.
He has since written “The Crisis” (1901), a substantial story of the
Civil War, “Mr. Keegan’s Elopement” (1903), “The Crossing” (1904),
and “Coniston” (1906), a New England story of love and politics.
The mountaineer life of Kentucky furnishes John Fox, Jr., with the
materials for his well told stories, “A Cumberland Vendetta, and Other
Stories” (1896), “The Kentuckians” (1897), “The Little Shepherd of
Kingdom Come” (1903), and “A Knight of the Cumberland” (1906).
Mrs. Gertrude Franklin Atherton (born in San Francisco, 1857) has
made a wide reputation with her stories of early California life;
some critics declare, however, that they do not accurately represent
the California of old days. The first of them was “The Doomswoman”
(1892). Other novels are “A Whirl Asunder” (1895), “Patience Sparhawk
and Her Times” (1897), “The Californians” (1898), “American Wives and
English Husbands” (1898), and “The Conqueror” (1902), which is based
on the life of Alexander Hamilton. Mrs. Kate Douglas Wiggin (born in
Philadelphia in 1857 and married to Samuel B. Wiggin in 1880) has
written charming juvenile stories, “The Birds’ Christmas Carol” (1888),
“The Story of Patsy” (1889), and “Timothy’s Quest” (1890), besides
some stories of travel, such as “A Cathedral Courtship” (1893) and
“Penelope’s Progress” (1898). Her husband died in 1889, and in 1895 she
was married to George C. Riggs.
Irving Bacheller (born in 1859), a New York journalist, attracted
attention by his stories, “The Master of Silence” (1890) and “The
Still House of O’Darrow” (1894). His “Eben Holden” (1900), a novel of
northern New York, was very successful. He has since written “Darrel of
the Blessed Isles” (1903) and “Vergilius” (1904). Robert Herrick (born
in 1868), a Harvard graduate and now a Chicago University professor,
has written searching studies of American society in “The Gospel of
Freedom” (1898), “The Web of Life” (1900), “The Real World” (1901),
and “The Common Lot” (1904). He is something of a pessimist, but not
unwholesome.
Edith Wharton (born in New York in 1862) began her literary career
with short stories of the metropolitan society with which she had been
familiar from birth: “The Greater Inclination” (1899), eight stories,
“A Gift from the Grave” (1900), and “Crucial Instances” (1901). In
“The Valley of Decision” (1902), “Sanctuary” (1903), and “The House
of Mirth” (1905), she deals with scenes and characters of deep human
interest but not easily managed; and she acquits herself with credit.
Lily Bart is distinctly individualised and is worthy to be compared
with Becky Sharp and Gwendolen Harleth.
Upton Sinclair (born in Baltimore, 1878), after writing a number of
novels, produced in “Manassas” (1904) a thrilling romantic novel of
the years just preceding the Civil War. “The Jungle” (1906), though
much better known, is artistically far inferior to it. The creed of
socialism is professed by both Mr. Sinclair and Jack London (born in
San Francisco in 1876). London left the University of California to go
to the Klondike, afterward went to Japan, and has since tramped through
America and Canada for sociological study. In his best works, “The Son
of the Wolf” (1900), “The Call of the Wild” (1903), and “The Sea Wolf”
(1904), he has chosen to depict the tragedies of the animal world and
the elemental passions in man.
Three Virginia women novelists have won distinction in recent years.