LOCAL COLOR
19th-century Regional Writing in the United States


Selected Regional Texts: 1845-1903


(including landmark texts of other genres...)




1822

Catherine Maria Sedgwick-A New England Tale

1824

Lydia Sigourney-A Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since

1827

Sarah J Hale-Northwood: or, Life North and South

1832

James Hall-Legends of the West

1837

Hawthorne-Twice-Told Tales

1838

Benjamin Drake-Tales and Sketches from the Queen City

1839

Caroline Kirkland-A New Home, Who'll Follow

1840

Poe-Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque



1843

Harriet Beecher Stowe-The May Flower Sketches of Scenes and Characters among the Descendants of the Puritans

1845

Caroline Kirkland-Western Clearings
Sylvester Judd (novelist)- Margaret: A Tale of the Real and the Ideal
Buell: "whose superb genre sketches & authentic use of dialect led Margaret Fuller & James Russell Lowell to acclaim this work as the first truly Yankee novel" (296)

1848

Gaskell-Mary Barton

1851

First installment of UT'sC in Ntl Era June 5-to 25 March 1852 when book pub was announced

1854

Sarah Parton (Fanny Fern)-Fern Leaves

1855

Sarah Parton (Fanny Fern)-Ruth Hall
Stowe-The May Flower, and Miscellaneous Writings(Boston) one of orig 15 dropped, 21 new sketches added
Rose Terry Cooke "The Mormon's Wife" 1st story in print in Putnam's

1857

Atlantic Monthly founded Rose Terry Cooks-in the celebrated first issue of the Atlantic Monthly -"Sally Parson's Duty"

1861

Rebecca Harding Davis "Life in the Iron Mills" (Atl Mo)
Stowe-1st section of Pearl of Orrs Island appears in Independent (Jan-Apr 1861)

1862

Stowe-finished Pearl Independent (Dec 1861-Apr 1862)
Rebecca Harding Davis-Margret Howth
Bayard Taylor "Friend Eli's Daughter"
Ivan Turgenev's Ottsy i detti (trans to English 1867 Fathers and Sons)

1863

Bayard Taylor Hannah Thurston

1865

Mark Twain starts to make a name for himself with his outrageous tall-tale, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County".

John Trowbridge-Coupon Bonds (followed by other stories)

1866

Augusta Evans Wilson St. Elmo

1867

George Washington Harris-Sut Lovingood: Yarns Spun By a 'Nat'ral Born Durn'd Fool.' (Nashville)
Henry Ward Beecher-Norwood, or Village Life in New England (serially printed in NY Ledger)
Twain-Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
Harte-Condensed Novels & Other Papers (NY)
Phelps-"Tenth of January"

1868

Harte "Luck of Roaring Camp" in Overland Mo picked up by Springfield Repub
Charles Norhoff-Cape Cod and All Along the Shore
Howells-"Mrs Johnson" 1st of the Suburban Sketches (Jan 1868)

1869

Stowe-Oldtown Folks (Adams says the rsp was good so she wrote more, pub in Atl Mo & Henry's Christian Union)
Jewett's "Mr Bruce" in Atl Mo (1869);
Twain-Innocents Abroad

1870

Howells-Suburban Sketches (1870);
Harte-Luck of Roaring Camp (Fields, Osgood) September "Heathen Chinee" in Overland Mo

1871

Eggleston-Hoosier Schoolmaster ((Hoosier Schoolmaster is for American what Gaskell's Cranford is to England and Daudet's Lettres de mon Moulin is to the French "a book all compact with that inexplicable something called charm" Vernon Loggins in intro to HSchoolM, x)))
Stowe-Oldtown Fireside Stories (repub as Sam L's ...?)

1872

Stowe-Sam Lawson's Oldtown Fireside Stories (rpt fr Atl Mo & Christian Union)

1873

Eggleston-(?)The Mystery of Metropolisville
Stowe-Palmetto Leaves (collected fr. Hearth & Home & Henry's organ the Christian Union beginning 1869);
Deming's first ss pub "Lost" (Atl Mo)

1874

1875

Sherwood Bonner-first of the Grandmammy sketches;
Maurice Thompson-Hoosier Mosiacs (romance in dialect/realist mode re Indiana)

1876

Twain-The Adventures of Tom Sawyer;
Molly Moore Davis-Wide Awake
Irwin Russell "Christmas Night in the Quarters" (banjo-picking)

1877

Jewett-Deephaven (collected)

1878

Cable-Grandissimes serialized in Scribner's Mo

1879

Cable-Old Creole Days [Madame Delphine, Cafe Des Exiles, Belles Demoiselles Plantation, "Posson Jone'", Jean-ah Poquelin, 'Tite Poulette, 'Sieur George, Madame Delicieuse]

1880

Joel Chandler Harris-Uncle Remus' Songs and Sayings (a volume every 1-2yrs up thru ~1910);
Deming-Adirondack Stories

1881

Oscar Wilde's American Tour (81-2)
Jewett-Country By-Ways (1881);
James-Washington Square (serialized sim Br & Am--Harper's Mo July- Dec '80 pub'ed Br Harper Bros & Am Macmillan w/ 2 other stories)

1882

Life on the Mississippi (first half in the Atl)
Jewett-The Mate of the Daylight and Friends Ashore;
Mary Hallock Foote-The Led-Horse Claim (far-Western mining towns CA & Idaho) (followed by several other collections, incl "The Cup of Trembling and Other Stories" (1895));
James Whitcomb Riley-The Old Swimmin'-Hole and 'Leven More Poems (pub'ed in Cinci & Indianapolis)

1884

Twain- Huck Finn;
Page-"Marse Chan" in Century (collected three yrs later In Ole Virginia);
Craddock-In the Tennessee Mountains;
Deming-Tompkins & Other Folks: Stories of the Hudson and the Adirondacks;
Harris Mingo and Other Sketches in Black and White (1887 Free Joe & Other GA Sketches...)
Jewett-A Country Doctor (1884)

1885

Brander Matthews' essay in Lippincott's "The Philosophy of the Short-story" (October) reissued w/ collected essays Pen and Ink 1888 & again as a separate volume 1891;
Jewett-A Marsh Island (serialized in Atl Mo 1885)

1886

May Jewett- (1886) A White Heron and Other Stories;

1887

Page-In Ole Virginia;
Joel Chandler Harris-Free Joe and Other Georgia Sketches;
Joseph Kirkland-Zury: The Meanest Man in Spring County A Novel of Western Life;
M.W. Freeman-A Humble Romance and other Stories;
McClure pumping Robert Lewis Stevenson
Rowland Robinson Uncle Lisha's Shop;
Esther Carpenter South-County Neighbors (1887);
French (Thanet) Knitters in the Sun

1888

Grace King-Monsieur Mott;
Jewett-The King of Folly Island and Other People
Richard Malcolm Johnston(re-discovered for his Dukesborough Tales) issued Mr. Absalom Billingslea and Other Georgia Folk (followed by a half dozen other volumes after the same pattern right up until his death in 1898))

1889

Edwards-Two Runaways and Other Stories

1890

Jacob Riis-How the Other Half Lives;
Hopkins-Contending Forces
Jewett-Strangers and Wayfarers (1890);
Slosson-Seven Dreamers

1891

Garland-Main Travelled Roads;
Freeman-A New England Nun and Other Stories;
Rose Terry Cook-Huckleberries Gathered from New England Hills;
James Lane Allen-Flute and Violin & Other Kentucky Tales & Romances
Page-Elsket and Other Stories
Alice French (Thanet) Otto the Knight and Other Trans-Mississippi Stories;
Thomas Janvier-Stories of Old New Spain-followed by Santa Fe's Partner 1907... alternated writing re NYC bohemia w/ the Southwest & Mexico prod roughly a volume a year--many of them novels plus ~3 doz uncollected short stories till his death in 1913)
Charles Lummis A New Mexico David and Other stories and Skteches of the Southwest (followed later by The King of the Broncos and Other Stories of New Mexico)
F Hopkinson Smith-artist and engineer born in Baltimore-Col Carter of Cartersville (subsequently wrote many vol's of travel, tales & novels- w/later sequel Colonel Carter's Christmas (1903) "established as a stock figure the mint-julep-drinking Southern gentleman, hospitable, simple-hearted, brimming over w/ eloquence and gallantry, at sea in commerical new York, where he is ready to fight a duel with anyone whom he believes to have offended his honor, but evenutally resued from penury by the discovery of coal on his property" --the kind of character the North could love ("Patriotic" 606)

1892

Harper-Iola Leroy;
Grace King-Tales of Time and Place

1893

Henry Blake Fuller Cliff-Dwellers French (Octave Thanet)-Stories of a Western Town;
King-Balcony Stories [pub'ed serially in Century 1892-3 She & Page had exchanged letters re a story she couldn't get published--he told her "'Now I will tell you what to do; for I did it!. . . It is the easiest thing to do in the world. Get a pretty girl and name her Jeanne, that name always takes! Make her fall in love with a Federal officer and your story will be printed at once! The publishers are right; the public wants love stories. Nothing easier than to write them.'" (qtd "Patriotic"606--no citation)];
Margaret Deland-Mr Tommy Dove & Other Stories;
Jewett-A Native of Winby and Other Tales
Garland-Prairie Folks;
Stuart-A Golden Wedding and Other Tales (a collection a year up to 1905, slowing to every 2-3yrs thru 1915)

1894

Chopin-Bayou Folk;
Harris-Mingo and Other Sketches in Black and White;
Garland-Crumbling Idols;
Henry Cuyler Bunner-Vignettes of Manhattan;
Catherwood-The Chase of Saint Castin & Other Stories of the French in the New World;
Frederick-Marsena and Other Stories of the Wartime (?);
Page-The Burial of the Guns;
Gertrude Atherton-Before the Gringo Came (Spanish CA)

1895

Alice Dunbar-Nelson-Violets and Other Tales (followed by Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories 1899);
Stephen Crane-Red Badge of Courage(a best seller loosely in the historical fict cat);
Alice Brown- Meadow Grass;
Beecher-Norwood collected as a book
Rowland Robinson (VT) Danvis Folk;
Murfree Phantoms of the Footbridge & Mystery of Witch-Face Mountain (followed by historical novels & short stories in the early years of 1900 --and a return to l.c. every few years up until 1912--with diminishing returns & increasing difficulty finding both a publisher & compelling subject matter--her research trip re. Mississippi river stories --Bushwhackers (1899) & Frontiersman (1904)--check Parks notes on this)
Owen Wister-Red Men and White (1895) [Lin McLean 1898, The Jimmyjohn Boss and Other Stories 1900]

1896

Jewett-The Country of the Pointed Firs;
William Allen White-The Real Issue (KA);
Abraham Cahan A Tale of the New York Ghetto (1896) [collected as "'The Imported Bridegroom" and Other Stories 1898]

1897

Chopin-A Night in Acadie;
Mary Catherwood-The Spirit of an Illinois Town
John Fox-"Hell fer Sartain" and Other Stories (Kentucky);
Alfred Henry Lewis-Wolfville (followed by 2 more vols both 1902);
Ella Higginson-From the Land of the Snow-pearls: Tales from Puget Sound (WA)

1898

Alice Brown-Tiverton Tales;
Deland-Old Chester Tales;
Slosson-Dumb Foxglove and Other Stories;
Edward Wescott David Harum: A Story of American Life (1898) [see Hart--picked up steam & had sold 3/4 million by 1904]

1899

Chesnutt-Conjure Woman; Chesnutt-Wife of His Youth;
Alice Dunbar-Nelson-Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories;
Catherwood- Queen of the Swamp and Other Plain Americans, Mackinac & Lake Stories;
Booth Tarkington Gentleman from Indiana a bestseller--romantic local color that defended the reputation of Indiana;
Jewett-The Queen's Twin and Other Stories;
Harry S Edwards-His Defense and Other Stories;
Chester Fernald-Chinatown Stories;
Frank Norris-McTeague

1900

Virgina Frazer Boyle-Devil Tales (collected fr. Harper's) [headnotes to W-O others p767 contrib to Harper's Wkly, Atl, Delineator, Century, Good Housekeeping & Congregationalist best are uncollected Century pieces re Black Silas]
Booker T Washington-Up From Slavery;
Frank Baum-The Wonderful Wizard of Oz;
Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) pub's 3 autob in Atl & plus 1 in Harper's 1902

1901

Norris-The Octopus: A Story of California;
Virginia Boyle's characteristic story-"The Triumph of Shed" in Century;
Zitkala Sa "The Trial Path" Harper's October & "The Soft-hearted Sioux" (1901)--collected as American Indian Stories 1921 (she lived until 1938)

1902

Leopard's Spots: A Romance of the White Man's Burden 1902;
Wister-The Virginian (#1 bestseller)

1903

DuBois-Souls of Black Folk;
Deland-Dr. Lavendar's People ;
Helen R. Martin The Betrothal of Elypholaye (the Mennonites & Amish of S-Eastern PA wrote 30 volumes before her death in '36...roughly 1/yr)
Mary Austin-Land of Little Rain collection of essay-like sketches in Atl Mo & Century (followed by Lost Borders 1909)

1904
1905

Dixon-The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan

1912

Sui sin Far-works pub'ed in Land of Sunshine & Hampton mag collected-Mrs. Spring Fragrance




Who's Who | Context | Local Color Quarrels | Links | Home


"Nineteenth-century Regional Writing in the United States" is the work of Dottie Webb. For suggestions, complaints, cattle-rustling schemes or gossiping over the fence in neighborly fashion, send your e-correspondence to dot@traverse.com




This document was last modified 3/13/98.