The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-11-24
SOME RECENT SOUTHERN NOV.
ELISTS.

One of the most remarkable features
of the recent development of literature
| in the South is the part that women
have played therein. Perhaps, no
where in the world has there been
such a proportion of women as COM
pared with men. There have always
been cultured women in the South. but
that is a very different thing from wo-
men who give their lives to the pro-
duction of literature. Several OF them
have made large amounts of money as
we'll as some fame throughout the
English speaking world. To mention
only those who have written since the
WAR, there are Margaret j. Preston,
Miss Mary n. Murfree (Charles Egbert
Craddock) Grace King, Mrs. Burton
Harrison, Mrs. Frances Hodgson Bur-
nett. Miss Mary Johnston. Miss Ellen
Glasgow and Mrs. Alice Hogan Rice.
The work of nearly all of these
writer's and especially the novelist is
to be distinguished from the wax
fiowery, amateurship fiction of Mr..
Southworth, who delighted the readers
of previous generation. The new
school of writer's have written Oh the
life about them with something or the
accuracy of realism and yet with the
touch of the romanticist and the new
atmosphere of the South. Some or
them have a sense of humor as Keen
as that of joel Chandler Harris. Whlie
If cannot be said that any one OF them
has produced a book that Will i've,
if is yet true that they have given
A great amount of pleasure TO thelr
generation, and have paved the way
for those who will yet write enduring
literature. The writings of four OF
them are distinct and representative
enough to call for special attentl'n.
Miss Murphee, descendant of one OF
the signers of the Constitution at
Halifax has by reason or deilcate
health spent much time in the Noun
tains of North Carolina and Tennessee
she became interested in the rugged
mountaineers and revealed tEem TO
the world. Her descriptions o. the
mountain scenery-at times, pernaPs'
out of proportion-are remarkably
graphic and poetic, while ner dellfiea-
ton of the comic and tragic features
of the lives of the people show ILL
sight into human character and some
times dramatic power The oest Oh
all her works is her first. In the rem
nessee Mountains which when nrst
published in the Atlantic monthly
created something of SENSATION
among the readers of that classic mag
azine. She still lives in Murfreesboro'
| Tenn. and still writes. although 1T
must be confessed she has overwork.d
her vein.
| Miss Johnston is also of delicate
iconstitutiop. Descended from line
of noble Virginia ancestors, she be-
came interested in some of the Cid
documents of her family-letters' di-
aries and unpublished incidents; and
so formed the desire to write about
the colonial times in Virginia--the
very earliest. The Prisoners oil Hope,
| and To Have and TO Hold are thrllilng
at times ensational-stories OF the
early jamestown days. 1t is interest
ling to think of a frail woman writln5
these stories of the widest adventure
Ia fact that reminds one of Robert
Louise Stevenson who in the grip OF
consumption wrote stories like Treas
ure Island.
Miss Glasgow is a Virginian too.
Her Voice of the People, The Battle
Ground. and more recently the DEW
erance. entitle her to rank among the
most promising writers of fiction In
America. Besides being able to tell
a story well, she is very wise in her
interpretations of life and in her Judg-
ments. No writer. not even THOMAS
Nelson Page, has drawn the old South
with greater vividness and charm. but
she is not blind to it's faults; there
is not too much of the glamour of the
! past; she believes in the new South.
The theme running through her books
| is the growing sense OF Democracy IN
the South-the voice of the people be-
coming more and more necessary,
and the deliverance from the spirit oil
caste more imperative. II she can
continue to improve she ought TO write
a great novel some day. She is no"
only about thirty.
II is scarcely necessary to speak OF
the creator of Mrs. Wigs of the Cab
bage Patch. at a time when the MS
torical world was having full sway
she gave to the American public
fresh bit of contemporary life-llfe
almost submerged in d great city. Inc
character of Mrs Wigs like those or
David Harum and Eben Holden was
right from the heart of nature-in
them all is a humanity that makes
| the whole world kin.
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