| | 1 | Author: | Leach, Anna | Add | | | Title: | Literary Workers of the South  | | | | Published: | 1996 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | UNTIL a comparatively recent date, there were almost no men and
women in the South who made a profession of literature. Before the
war, there was here and there a man who amused himself by writing a
book. William Gilmore Simms, indeed, was a professed literary man; so
was Poe, but he left the South early in his career. The books of John
Pendleton Kennedy, secretary of the navy under Fillmore,
Eliza J. Nicholson.From a photograph by Simon, New
Orleans.
A portrait of Eliza J. Nicholson, from a photograph by Simon
of New Orleans
are still sold; and few Southern sketches surpass those of Judge
Longstreet. There was no end to the verse makers. Still, as a
generality, it is true to say that literature as a serious business of
life was not known. Every man and woman of education was taught to
express himself or herself on paper with force and elegance; but it
was considered as an accomplishment in the woman, and as a necessary
adjunct to his position in life
in the man. The heavy bundles of old letters which belong to every
old Southern family will show that there was enough talent in those
days to have made an American literature, had it been directed into
the proper channels. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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