Caroline Kirkland
(1801-1864)

    A well educated eastern woman, contemporary of Margaret Fuller and Edgar Allan Poe, Caroline Kirkland followed her husband west. He was bitten by the 'land bug,' and invested heavily in a new settlement which would be erected out of the marshes near Detroit. Her autobiographical account of this misadventure was published in New York in 1839 under the pseudonym "Mrs. Mary Clavers, an actual settler." Much to her discomfort, her ironic narrative found its way back to town; needless to say that her "subjects" were not pleased with the images which had been paraded before the world. Kirkland is just one of many local colorists who thought that the metropolis was further away from America's crude frontier towns than it actually was--at least if one were engaging in comic portraiture. I have just begun adding some of the delightful passages from her contested volume, A New Home, Who'll Follow? to the site. Compared to Philander Deming's melancholy tale, "Lost," and Mary Hallock Foote's thrilling but tragic tale, "Maverick," this is a very funny read. Which is not to say that there isn't much about it to reward serious literary and cultural study. If you like her writing, you might also have a look at my selections from Cape Cod Folks.

For biographical material, see the introduction to the Rutger's University Press edition of A New Home, written by Sandra Zagarell, as well as Annette Kolodny's The Land before Her (U NC Press, 1984); William Osborne's Caroline M. Kirkland, (Twyane, 1972); and Nancy Woloch's Women and the American Experience (Knopf, 1984). I must admit I haven't checked; doubtless there are great new studies which include her. Message me if there's a citation I should add or a link I've missed. (Haven't seen her on the web anywhere)

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