Sarah Orne Jewett's Contemporaries and Influences

 
Predecessors

Sarah Orne Jewett grew up on the New England coast of Maine and set her novels there. Among the earlier American authors who influenced Jewett's writing were fellow New Englanders Nathaniel Hawthorne and Harriet Beecher Stowe. She also undoubtedly felt the effects of other widely known writers and movements of her time such as the works of Emerson and Thoreau, and she read many European authors including Austen and Eliot.

 Contemporaries

Many influential and important figures were writing between the Civil War and World War I. Some shared with Jewett the label of "local color writers;" others wrote about similar subject matter or explored similar themes. Placing Jewett's work in her larger literary community helps draw out what common issues may have influenced writers of the era and how Jewett fits into the perception of late nineteenth century American fiction.

 

Important Authors of American Fiction:  1865-1914*

Mark Twain	1835-1910
W. D. Howells	1837-1920
Ambrose Bierce	1842-1914?
Henry James	1843-1916
Sarah Orne Jewett	1849-1909
Kate Chopin	1851-1904
Mary Wilkins Freeman	1852-1930
Charlotte  Perkins Gilman	1860-1935
Edith Wharton	1862-1937
Stephen Crane	1871-1900
Theodore Dreiser	1871-1900
Jack London	1876-1916

* selection of authors based on authors included in the Norton Anthology of American Literature. 

Followers

Of any writer who claims to have felt Jewett's influence, Willa Cather is certainly the best known. She included an essay in Not Under Forty, in 1936, championing Jewett's writings and style. Critics have also seen connections to later writers such as Faulkner, Sherwood Anderson, Toni Morrison, and Sandra Cisneros.
 
 

   Tools for Studying Influences  

• At the teaching pages, you'll find a number of sample syllabi, possible course themes and readings and other  suggested ideas for teaching