Above all things Thomas Nelson Page is a Virginian, by birth, by
family, and in his writings. Born on the old plantation of Oakland
in Hanover County, Virginia, he can boast of two grandfathers who
were governors of the state, one of these, Thomas Nelson, being
a signer of the Declaration of Independence. It is Virginia and
Virginians “before the war” and during the reconstruction period
that he has sought to portray in his books.
Thomas Nelson Page opened his eyes in old Virginia on April 23,
1853. He was a rather precocious boy. Many a beating did he
receive at school for stealing time from his lessons to write
short stories on his slate for the amusement of his companions.
He entered Washington and Lee University when he was only sixteen
years old. He remained there three years, and then after spending a
little time in Kentucky decided to enter the law department of the
University of Virginia in 1873. He finished the work there in about
half the time usually required, and began practising in Richmond,
where he remained until 1893.
Page had always felt the charm of times gone by. He tried to
follow the law faithfully; but more and more strongly came the
call to picture artistically “a civilization which, once having
sweetened the South, has since well nigh perished from the earth.”
He yearned for the old plantation life,--the stately mansions of
his forefathers, the grandeur to which those men and women of other
days attained, and the overgrown fence rows and fields of his own
country home.
Finally he decided to write. “Marse Chan” was published in 1884,
and won the author immediate recognition. People of both the North
and South were enthusiastic about it. The author himself tells how
he came to write this tale:
“Just then a friend showed me a letter which had been written by
a young girl to her sweetheart in a Georgia regiment, telling him
that she had discovered that she loved him, after all, and that if
he would get a furlough and come home she would marry him; that
she had loved him ever since they had gone to school together in
the little schoolhouse in the woods. Then, as if she feared such a
temptation might be too strong for him, she added a postscript in
these words: ‘Don’t come without a furlough; for if you don’t come
honorably I won’t marry you.’ This letter had been taken from the
pocket of a private dead on the battlefield of one of the battles
around Richmond, and, as the date was only a week before the battle
occurred, its pathos struck me very much. I remember I said ‘The
poor fellow got his furlough through a bullet.’ The idea remained
with me, and I went to my office one morning and began to write
‘Marse Chan,’ which was finished in about a week.”
“In Ole Virginia,” a collection of three stories of negro life
and character, was published in 1887. This is perhaps his most
characteristic work. Many stories, essays, and poems followed.
Uncle Billy in Page’s story “Meh Lady” is a distinct creation.
At the wedding of his mistress and the Union captain in the old,
dismantled home, the minister asks, “Who giveth this woman to be
married to this man?” His lady is without a relative, and Uncle
Billy sees that it is up to him. But he doesn’t want to take the
responsibility; so stepping forward he answers solemnly, “Gord.”
Thomas Nelson Page is never sectional in his writing. Everything
that he writes tends to bring about better feeling between the
North and the South.
He is now ambassador to Rome, appointed by President Wilson.
[Illustration: JAMES LANE ALLEN]
James Lane Allen, a romanticist of Kentucky, is the subject of
one of the six intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating “American
Novelists.”