Sarah Orne Jewett

Sarah Orne Jewett, 1849–1909, American novelist and short-story writer, b. South Berwick, Maine. Her studies of small-town New England life are perceptive, sympathetic, and gently humorous. After contributing to periodicals, she published her first collection of stories and sketches, Deephaven, in 1877. It was followed by such collections as The King of Folly Island ...

Sarah Orne Jewett, 1849–1909, American novelist and short-story writer, b. South Berwick, Maine. Her studies of small-town New England life are perceptive, sympathetic, and gently humorous. After contributing to periodicals, she published her first collection of stories and sketches, Deephaven, in 1877. It was followed by such collections as The King of Folly Island (1888) and her masterpiece, The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896). Her novels include The Marsh Island (1885) and The Tory Lover (1901); her best-known novel, A Country Doctor (1884), relates the conflicts of a woman physician.

Bibliography

See her letters (ed. by R. Cary, 1956, rev. ed. 1967); biographies by S. Sherman (1989) and P. Blanchard (1994); studies by F. O. Matthiesen (1929, repr. 1965), R. Cary (1962), and J. L. Donovan (1980).