(1856-)
[Illustration: HAROLD FREDERIC]
Mr. Frederic was born in Utica, New York, August 19th, 1856. He spent
his boyhood in that neighborhood, and was educated in its schools. The
rural Central New York of a half-century ago was a region of rich
farms, of conservative ideas, and of strong indigenous types of
character. These undoubtedly offered unconscious studies to the future
novelist.
Like many of his guild he began writing on a newspaper, rising by
degrees from the position of reporter to that of editor. The drill and
discipline taught him to make the most of time and opportunity, and he
contrived leisure enough to write two or three long stories. Working
at journalism in Utica, Albany, and New York, in 1884 he became chief
foreign correspondent of the New York Times, making his headquarters
in London, where he has since lived.
Mr. Frederic's reputation rests on journalistic correspondence of the
higher class, and on his novels, of which he has published six. His
stories are distinctively American. He has caught up contrasting
elements of local life in the eastern part of the United States, and
grouped them with ingenuity and power. His first important story was
'Seth's Brother's Wife,' originally appearing as a serial in
Scribner's Magazine. Following this came 'The Lawton Girl,' a study
of rustic life; 'In the Valley,' a semi-historical novel, turning on
aspects of colonial times along the Mohawk River; 'The Copperhead,'
a tale of the Civil War; 'Mukena and Other Stories,' graphic character
sketches, displaying humor and insight; 'The Damnation of Theron
Ware,' the most serious and carefully studied of his books; and 'March
Hares,' a sketch of contemporary society.
A student of the life about him, possessing a dramatic sense and
a saving grace of humor, Mr. Frederic in his fiction is often
photographic and minute in detail, while he does not forget the
importance of the mass which the detail is to explain or embellish.
He likes to deal with types of that mixed population peculiar to
the farming valleys of Central New York,--German, Irish, and
American,--bringing out by contrast their marked social and individual
traits. Not a disciple of realism, his books are emphatically "human
documents."
There is always moreover a definite plot, often a dramatic
development. But it is the attrition of character against character
that really interests him. 'Seth's Brother's Wife' and 'The Lawton
Girl' leave a definite ethical intention. In the 'Damnation of Theron
Ware' is depicted the tragedy of a weak and crude character suddenly
put in touch with a higher intellectual and emotional life, which it
is too meagre and too untrained to adopt, and through which it suffers
shipwreck. In 'In the Valley' the gayety and seriousness of homely
life stand out against a savage and martial background.
Mr. Frederic profoundly respects his art, is never careless, and never
unconscientious. Of his constructive instinct a distinguished English
critic has said that it "ignores nothing that is significant; makes
use of nothing that is not significant; and binds every element of
character and every incident together in a consistent, coherent,
dramatic whole."