The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-04-20

sentiment is credlted TO Mrs. Harriet
Beecher Stowe, who, by the writing of
Uncle Toms Cabin" is said to have
accomplished more in encouraging
anti-slavery sentiment than all the re-
formers of a quarter of a century
preceding had been able to achieve.
Mrs. Stowe was a prolific writer al
though Uncle Toms Cabin" was her
most important work. Like most Of
the other early women writer's, Mrs.
Stowe had to begin her literary career
with works upon cooking and house
keeping. Some of these, published
in cooperation with her sister, Miss
Catherine Beecher, are full of practi-
cal wisdom wen to the modern house
wife.
Lucy Larcom, the poet of the cotton
mills, was one of the women whose
poetry first commanded attention in
this country. Left fatherless when a
young girl, Miss Larcom went bravely
to work in the cotton mill of her home
village and achieved most of her edu-
cation from text books kept before her
while at work at the loom. Her first
book, "Idyls of Work. describes this
life. She wrote many poems and
special articles, some of which, pub
lished anonymously in the Atlantic
Monthly, We're first attributed to
Emerson. She was also the editor of
a children's publication for a number
of years.
|. The Carey sisters, Adelaide Proctor,
Lydia Sigourney and Mrs. Judson
We're among the other early American
poets to receive recognition.
Helen Hunt Jackson also had a high
rank as a poet, but the publication of
her most important prose work, "Ra-
mona tended to throw her poetic
work into the shade. Like Mrs.
Stowe, Mrs. Jackson wrote to create
public sentiment against the ron
which had been committed against a
weaker race, the object of her pity
being the Indians who had been driven
by the white men from their own
lands.
In the present generation, the
women writer's who are contributing
to the wealth of American literature
seem innumerable. 1t is generally
conceded that the credit of preserving
the literary value of the essay as a
form of composition is due to Miss
Agnes Repplier, more than to any
other of the present writer's. In the
growing demand for. fiction, the less
thrilling interest of the essay seems
to be o~vershadowed. Miss Repplier's
style, however, is doing much to pre-
ven the essay from becoming obso-
lete and her happy choice of subjects
gives her work a peculiar value, super
Tor in the minds of many critics to
that of the popular novelists.
There has been no limit to the num-
Der of women novelists during the
past century. One of the earliest to
achieve renoWn was Mrs. r. D. e. N.
SouthwOrth who was most prolific in
her productions. Her old home in
Georgetown long has been a place of
interest to women writer's visiting the
national capital. A movement has
been set on foot several times to
have it preserved to her memory.
Critics have pronounced Mrs. South
Worth's work of small literary value,
adjudged by modern standards, but
her books provided amusement to
thousands of readers at a time when
fiction was less plentiful thar now.
Of a more scholarly type han Mrs.
oulifW VI III ., tiiouSh ASoSiiipAii5 iiSi
somewhat in emotional tendencies, are
the novels of Mrs. Augusta Evans
Wilson, which have received much
popularity. "Beulah,'' AT the Mercy
of Tiberius," est. Elmo and "Vashti,"
are among the best known of her
works, which, although to be found
upon the shelves of most public Ii
braries, are hardly popular reading
now.
In every part of the country there
seems to be a woman writer who
achieved special success in depicting
a single class of people. Mary Will
kins Freeman is the recognized leader
in p%ortraying the New England viii
lage folk, while Margaret Deland's
pictures of life in a small Pennsyl-
vania town, as experienced by DIR.
Lavendar's People," have a following
all their own. Edith Wharton n
Mrs. Harrison know well the charac-
teristics of fashionable society of New
York, and are artists in depicting it
for their readers. Mary Murfree.