Sarah Orne Jewett (1849–1909), novelist and short-story writer, was born and raised in South Berwick, Maine. The daughter of a country doctor, she received a lady’s education but maintained that her real learning came from her father, who fostered her writing talents and let her accompany him on his rounds. At age nineteen, she had her first short story published in the Atlantic Monthly. Her vignettes of the gently perishing glory of the Maine countryside and ports won her a place among the most successful of the local-color writers.
The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) is considered Jewett's finest work, described by Henry James as her "beautiful little quantum of achievement." Despite James's diminutives, the novel remains a classic. Because it is loosely structured, many critics ...[SEE MORE]