num_pages: 398
description: "In a word, we are our past. We do not cling to it, it clings to us."—Grace King, %b%iMemories of a Southern Woman of Letters%r"Among southern writers of her time she was one of the few who achieved excellence in both history and fiction; in her work the one strongly reinforces the other."—Robert Bush, editor of %b%iGrace King of New Orleans%rOriginally published in the year of her death, this book brings us the portrait of a woman who lived through war and its aftermath. Unusual for the time, she assumed the role of an independent woman and sole breadwinner. For almost fifty years, she reigned over a literary salon that included local writers M. E. M. Davis, Dorothy Dix, and Pearl Rivers. She was a close friend of national figures Thomas Nelson Page, Charles Dudley White, and Mark Twain, with whom she kept up a lively correspondence. Pursuing an intellectual career, King was a leader of cultural development in New Orleans. Few, if any, matched her keenness of perception of the life and culture of the Crescent City during her lifetime. She was a voice of progress and wrote about race, class, and women. Known for her strong opinions about the post-Civil War South and its traditions, she was the champion of the people, vehemently defending the heritage, idiosyncrasies, and customs well established in New Orleans at the time. Some may have quipped that she was a living oxymoron in her day, but her widely documented life and work speak of Southern life.
language: English
title: Memories of a Southern Woman of Letters
titlecomplete: Memories of a Southern Woman of Letters (American Biography Series)
ratings_count: 6
places: New Orleans, Louisiana
publisher: Reprint Services Corp