Sarah Orne Jewett - Hardcover

Silverthorne, Elizabeth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0879514841 ISBN 13: 9780879514846

Publisher: Overlook Books, 1993

Synopsis

Traces the life of the nineteenth-century writer, describes her interest in ecology, feminism, and architectural preservation, and discusses her major works

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Lackluster biography of the turn-of-the-century New England writer whose independent, unmarried women characters and ecological consciousness have stirred some contemporary interest. Silverthorne has written children's books (I, Heracles, 1978, etc.) and a bio of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1988--not reviewed). Jewett (1849-1909), born and raised in small-town Maine, wrote mostly about ordinary people whose ways were being condescended to by the new influx of urban summer visitors. Success came early: a story accepted by The Atlantic before her 20th birthday. Jewett's first book appeared in 1877 from the publishing house that eventually became Houghton Mifflin and that continued to publish her work, including her best-known novel, The Country of the Pointed Firs. For more than 20 years, she divided her time between Maine and the Boston home of Annie Fields, widow of editor/publisher James Fields. ``Whether or not there was a physical dimension will no doubt continue to be a fascinating question for debate,'' writes Silverthorne, who also offers the upbeat but hardly revealing information that Jewett often shared ``ideas and feelings about every subject under the sun'' and that her head was ``filled with new experiences, unforgettably scenery, and most of all the exciting acquaintances she had made.'' As a critical biography, this effort also falls short: ``As usual, different stories in the collection appealed to different reviewers....'' What a treat to discover a woman writer who was both successful and happy. But since Jewett's life seems not to have been complicated by intrinsically compelling drama, Silverthorne's failure to capture her personality and sensibility is a fatal lack. (Photographs) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Jewett (1849-1909) drew heavily on the New Englanders she encountered growing up in South Berwick, Maine, to populate her well-crafted short stories ( The Country of the Pointed Firs, 1896) and character sketches ( Deep haven , 1877), which were suffused by her profound love of 19th-century rural life. Silverthorne ( Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings ) presents a thoroughly researched picture of Jewett's privileged upbringing (her father was a doctor) and her adult life as a well-traveled and cosmopolitan writer who divided her time between Maine and Boston, where she lived with Annie Fields, whose literary salons were attended by such writers as James Russell Lowell, Matthew Arnold and John Greenleaf Whittier. Although Silverthorne acknowledges Fields's and Jewett's deep regard for one another, she feels that there is not enough evidence to establish whether theirs was a sexual relationship. This competent analysis of Jewett's work is marred by occasionally stilted writing. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Overlook Books
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0879514841
• ISBN 13: 9780879514846
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 238