Page:Southern Life in Southern Literature.djvu/504

486 Mississippi, " Beauchampe " for Kentucky. Next would come that remarkable novel prophetic of the startling events to come in the Civil War period, Nathaniel Beverly Tucker s "The Partisan Leader." Caroline Lee Hentz s "The Planter s Northern Bride," a reply to Mrs. Stowe s "Uncle Tom s Cabin," would bring the chain of events down almost to the opening of the Civil War. John Esten Cooke s "Surrey of Eagle s Nest," "Mohun," and " Hilt to Hilt " would be found accounts by an eyewitness of the notable campaigns of the Civil War in Virginia. Other Romancers and Story Writers. Not represented in this book are the following writers: Virginia: John Beauchamp Jones (1810-1866); North Caro lina: Calvin H. Wiley (1819-1887); Georgia: Francis Robert Goulding (1810- 1881); Kentucky: Catherine Anne Warfield (1816-1877); Louisiana: Sarah Anne Dorsey (1829-1879).

HUMORISTS

Between 1835 and 1855 there sprang up in the South a group of humorists whose work is of interest on several accounts. In the first place, it was a distinctive contribution to American literature. The people of the antebellum South were a happy people who cared more for laughter than for tears. It was characteristic of the Southerner, and still is, even in the present day, that in whatever assemblage he might be there was the matching of jokes and anecdotes. In the second place, this humorous writing was an attempt to produce literature for its own sake. As has been shown, much of the earlier writing was writing done for a purpose, such as orations, political essays, journals, biographies, and the like. Almost the first effort in the South to produce literature for its own sake was in the field of humorous writing. A third reason why this humorous Writing should command attention lies in the fact that it was popular with the Southern people before the war. Whatever opinion may be held about its intrinsic literary worth, there is no gainsaying the fact that it was the joy and delight of the Southern people, and in it they thought they found a faithful delineation of certain phases of their life. A final reason for giving attention to the work of these writers is that they are the forerunners of the realistic writers of the new South who have so successfully depicted in short stories and novels the scenes and characters of various sections of the South. The salient features of this Southern humorous literature were the natural outgrowth of the conditions amidst which it was produced. It was a humor of locality. Those who produced it perceived that in the South there were strongly marked types. This was true of the Southern gentleman, with his marked accent and mannerisms, and it