Mary Noailles Murfree | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Born | Mary Susan Murfree[1] (1850-01-24)January 24, 1850 nearMurfreesboro, Tennessee, US |
| Died | July 31, 1922(1922-07-31) (aged 72) Murfreesboro, Tennessee, US |
| Pen name | Charles Egbert Craddock |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Period | 1884–1914 |
| Subject | Appalachian life |
| Relatives | Colonel Hardy Murfree (grandfather) |
Mary Noailles Murfree (January 24, 1850 – July 31, 1922) was an American author of novels and short stories who wrote under the pen nameCharles Egbert Craddock.[2] She is considered by many to beAppalachia's first significant female writer and her work a necessity for the study of Appalachian literature, although a number of characters in her work reinforce negative stereotypes about the region. She has been favorably compared toBret Harte andSarah Orne Jewett, creating post-Civil War Americanlocal-color literature.
The town ofMurfreesboro, Tennessee, is named after Murfree's great-grandfatherColonel Hardy Murfree, who fought in theRevolutionary War.
Murfree was born on her family's cotton plantation, Grantland, nearMurfreesboro, Tennessee, a location later celebrated in her novel,Where the Battle was Fought and in the town named after her great-grandfather, ColonelHardy Murfree.[3] Her father was a successful lawyer ofNashville, and her youth was spent in both Murfreesboro and Nashville. From 1867 to 1869 she attended theChegary Institute, a finishing school inPhiladelphia.[4][5] Murfree would spend her summers inBeersheba Springs.[6] For a number of years after theCivil War the Murfree family lived inSt. Louis, returning in 1890 to Murfreesboro, where she lived until her death.
Beinglame from childhood, Murfree turned to reading the novels ofWalter Scott andGeorge Eliot. For fifteen successive summers the family stayed inBeersheba Springs in theCumberland Mountains of Tennessee, giving her the opportunity to study the mountains andmountain people more closely.[7]
By the 1870s she had begun writing stories forAppleton's Journal under the penname of "Charles Egbert Craddock" and by 1878 she was contributing to theAtlantic Monthly. It was not until seven years later, in May 1885, that Murfree divulged that she was Charles Egbert Craddock toThomas Bailey Aldrich, an editor at theAtlantic Monthly.[citation needed]Murfree visited theMontvale Springs resort nearKnoxville, from 1886. Although she became known for the realism of her accounts, in fact she was from a wealthy family and would have had little contact with the local people while staying at the resorts.[8]
_In_the_Tennessee_mountains.jpg)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Works related toWoman of the Century/Mary Noailles Murfree at Wikisource
Media related toMary Noailles Murfree at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
