page_title: Christian Reid
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Christian Reid / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: "Miss Churchill: A Study", By Christian Reid
context_page_description: Frances Christine Fisher Tiernan was an American author who wrote over 50 novels, most notably The Land of the Sky.
  In 1870, Tiernan published her first novel, Valerie Aylmer. In the following year, she published in Appletons' Journal a novel entitled Morton House, a story of Southern life. Tiernan considered it to be her best work. In 1887, she married James M. Tiernan, of Maryland, and accompanied him to Mexico where he had mining interests. There, she collected material for her novel, The Land of the Sun, and some Mexican short stories, notably The Pictures of Las Cruces, which appeared in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, and which was translated and published in L'Illustration of Paris. After her husband's death in 1898, Tiernan made her home in New York City, but later returned to Salisbury, North Carolina, living in the same house in which she was born. One of the best of her novels, The Land of the Sky, was set in western North Carolina. Though she never made a claim to being a poet, some of her verses were published.
  In 1909, Tiernan was awarded the Laetare Medal by the University of Notre Dame, in Indiana.
context_section_description: The nom de plume, Christian Reid, which the family did not like, was said to have been taken from Christian, a family name on the mother's side, and Reid on her father's. The first article with this pseudonym was accepted by Appletons' Journal and a check for US$50 sent to "Christian Reid." Being in a dilemma as to how to cash the check, she sought advice from her lawyer. He advised her to make it payable to him to avoid detection. Later, a member of the Appleton's firm wished to see the author as he passed through North Carolina, and could not discover such a person in Salisbury. He questioned the postmaster, who said probably Mr. Reid was related to the Fishers and had perhaps been visiting them, as his mail was sent their. Fisher confided to the postmaster about her pseudonymous name.
  She wrote stories, but it was not until the end of the war, when the family found itself without fortune, that she conceived an idea. "I shall write a novel," was greeted with amused skepticism. The publication of Valerie Aylmer in 1870 was an instant success. While it was faulty and immature; it possessed the charm of interest. Tosay it is of interest for its portrayal of life and conduct in the South, as reflected through the temperament of a sentimental, young lady of distinguished birth.
  The first period of Christian Reid's literary activities comprises the decade from 1869 to 1879. Most notable of the works of this period are the novels, Morton House (1871), A Daughter of Bohemia (1874), and A Question of Honor (1875). The most noteworthy book of Christian Reid's early years as a novelist, judged on the strength of its results, was the slight travel-sketch, entitled The Land of the Sky, which was published in 1876. In this book, read by hundreds of thousands of people, Christian Reid accomplished the most notable commemoration of a section of the US ever published in North Carolina. Southern Railway, after extending a line to Asheville around 1880, used “The Land of the Sky" in advertising.
  A distinct accession of power and increased mastery of style marked the works of Christian Reid's second period of literary activity, beginning after her return from Europe in 1880. Heart of Steel was a work approximating that of the standard English novelists, such as Anthony Trollope, in solidity of workmanship and concentration of purpose. Other works of this period were Armine, Roslyn's Fortune, The Child of Mary, Philip's Restitution, and Miss Churchill.
  When, in 1887, Miss Fisher married Mr. James Marquis Tiernan, of Maryland, and settled in Mexico, where her husband had extensive mining interests, there began the third period in Christian Reid's career as a novelist. Perhaps the story which, of all that she had ever written, contained more of the elements of general popularity and was at the same time most adequately written, was The Picture of Las Cruces. It had the distinction of being translated into French and appearing in L 'Illustration. The book was notable for the beauty of its envisagement of a semi-tropical land, the ideality of its poetic atmosphere, and the art displayed in the comparison and juxtaposition of the fragile romance of Mexico with the hardy realism of America. The Lady of Las Cruces, like most sequels was less a natural consequence of the former story, than a hazardous attempt to crown the story with a "happy" (and popular) ending. Other works of this period are: the travel-romance, The Land of the Sun (1894), one of her most interesting tales;, as well as Carmela, Little Maid of Mexico, A Comedy of Elopement, A Woman of Fortune, Weighed in the Balance, and Carmen's Inheritance. In addition, there were two novels which stood as memorials of Christian Reid's travels in Santo Domingo: The Man of the Family and The Chase of an Heiress. 
  Christian Reid wrote at least two dramas, and quite a number of poems. The war-drama, Under the Southern Cross, was a stirring picture of the South during the American Civil War, and played to enthusiastic houses throughout the South. Its purport was to voice an impassioned presentatio
caption: Miss Churchill
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