Sarah Orne Jewett
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Image:Jewett.jpg Sarah Orne Jewett (September 3, 1849 – June 24, 1909) was an American author whose works were set in her native New England. Her most famous works include the 1896 novella The Country of Pointed Firs, and a short story, "The White Heron". Jewett's work is recognizable due to its focus on characters above anything else, as well as its broad sense of humor. Some critics suggest that Jewett's literature is not worth studying because it is not plot driven. Template:Fact
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Life and Career
Jewett grew up and lived in South Berwick, Maine. Jewett was schooled at the Berwick Academy. Her first story was "Jenny Garrow's Lovers," published in 1868. This was followed by a constant stream of stories through the 1870s. First establishing herself as a short story author, Jewett formed a close relationship with writer Annie Fields and her husband, author James T. Fields.
After Annie Fields' husband died in 1881, the two were together for the rest of Jewett's life (Fields died in 1915). The two were friends with many of the main literary figures of their time, including Willa Cather, Mary Ellen Chase, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Alfred Tennyson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mark Twain, Sarah Wyman Whitman and John Greenleaf Whittier.
Over the course of her life, Jewett traveled to Europe four times. On September 3, 1902, she was injured in a carriage accident when the horse pulling the carriage slipped and fell. Jewett suffered a concussion and may have cracked a vertebrae. The accident left her immobile and tragically ended her writing profession.
Personal life speculation
There has always been speculation that Jewett may have been lesbian. [1] Her relationship with Fields is known as a so-called Boston marriage, or a situation where two people of the same gender live together (although not necessarily in a homosexual sense). Though it is likely she was in fact a lesbian, there is no definitive proof of her sexual orientation.
Selected works
- Deephaven, James R. Osgood, 1877
- Play Days, Houghton, Osgood, 1878
- Old Friends and New, Houghton, Osgood, 1879
- Country By-Ways, Houghton-Mifflin, 1881
- A Country Doctor, Houghton-Mifflin, 1884
- The Mate of the Daylight, and Friends Ashore, Houghton-Mifflin, 1884
- A Marsh Island, Houghton-Mifflin, 1884
- A White Heron and Other Stories, Houghton-Mifflin, 1886
- The Story of the Normans, Told Chiefly in Relation to Their Conquest of England, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1887
- The King of Folly Island and Other People, Houghton-Mifflin, 1888
- Tales of New England, Houghton-Mifflin, 1890
- Betty Leicester: A Story for Girls, Houghton-Mifflin, 1890
- Strangers and Wayfarers, Houghton-Mifflin, 1890
- A Native of Winby and Other Tales, Houghton-Mifflin, 1893
- Betty Leicester's English Christmas: A New Chapter of an Old Story, privately printed for the Bryn Mawr School, 1984
- The Life of Nancy, Houghton-Mifflin, 1895
- The Country of the Pointed Firs, Houghton-Mifflin, 1896
- The Queen's Twin and Other Stories, Houghton-Mifflin, 1899
- The Tory Lover, Houghton-Mifflin, 1901
- An Empty Purse: A Christmas Story, privately printed, 1905