A Companion to the American Short Story
Page 88
from the periphery to the center of the short story that most profoundly captures the
contributions of nineteenth - century New England regionalists.
Notes
1
This chapter is part of a larger work in prog-
more recently,
Stacy Alamo
addresses the
ress tentatively titled: “ A Landscape of One ’ s
“ recasting ” of nature in the work of a
Own: Nature - Writing and Women ’ s Auto-
selection of women writers in Undomesticated
biography. ” Portions of this chapter also draw
Ground: Recasting Nature as Feminist Space , but
from my published works as follows:
“
The
does not include some of the more frequently
Sandpiper and I: Landscape and Identity on
overlooked writers such as Celia Thaxter.
Celia Thaxter ’ s Isles of Shoals ” and In a Closet
2
Littenberg argues that “ contemporary eco-
Hidden: The Life and Work of Mary E. Wilkins
feminist analysis helps us to understand more
Freeman . See also Annette Kolodny ’ s discus-
fully the historical conditions that attracted
sion of this theme in the context of earlier
the women regionalists to Transcendentalism
women writers in The Land Before Her: Fantasy
and also to explain how they extended and
and Experience of the American Frontiers, 1630 –
revised its perspective. … Sarah Orne Jewett
1860 and The Lay of the Land: Metaphor as
and Celia Thaxter are able to make that neces-
Experience and History in American Life and
sary juncture between living meaningfully in
Letters
; and Vera Norwood
’
s
Made from this
harmony with nature that lies at the heart of
Earth: American Women and Nature . The work
ecofeminism ” (140).
of Marjorie Pryse and Judith Fetterley on 3
Letter to Feroline W. Fox, March 19, 1874,
regionalism is equally relevant. These
in Thaxter, Letters 54. Her letter clarifi es an
groundbreaking texts are useful in framing
important distinction from Thoreau, shared
the importance of the concept of landscape in
by women writers whose work moved imagi-
the lives and works of women writers. Much
natively beyond the confi nement Thoreau
has been said of nineteenth
-
century male
described: “ it takes Thoreau and Emerson and
nature - writers, but the question of identity
their kind to enjoy a walk for a walk ’ s sake,
and landscape in relation to American women
and the wealth they glean with eyes and ears.
writers of the period is relatively unexplored;
I cannot enjoy the glimpses Nature gives me
406
Leah B. Glasser
half as well when I go deliberately seeking
6
Letter to Feroline W. Fox, March 19, 1874,
them as when they fl ash on me in some pause
in Letters 52.
of work. It is like the pursuit of happiness:
7
Letter to Annie Fields, April 4, 1876.
you don ’ t get it when you go after it, but let
Quoted by Rosamund Thaxter in Sandpiper
it alone and it comes to you. ”
116.
4
Fetterley offers an insightful critique of Thax-
8
She noted that Levi went “ murdering round
ter ’ s “ perception of particularity to the act of
the country in the name of science till my
listening, indicating that learning how to
heart is broken into shreds. They are horribly
listen is as essential to her [Thaxter ’ s] theory
learned but that doesn ’ t compensate for one
of regionalism as learning how to speak, and
little life destroyed in my woman ’ s way of
that receptivity must precede and accompany
viewing it ( Letters 29).
agency ” ; see also Pryse ’ s “ Reading Regional-
9
Houghton Library Thaxter collection. Letter
ism. ” Pryse also emphasizes Thaxter ’ s unique
to Annie Fields, September 7, 1881. From 4
focus on
“
delicacy, listening, respect, the
letters to Annie Fields (1881
–
1885),
ability to move in slowly or not at all in
Am1743.
observing, a willingness to see with another ’ s
10
Houghton Library Thaxter collection, Letter
eyes rather than to look at the ‘ other ’ ” (49);
to John Greenleaf Whittier, April 11, 1889.
see also Fetterley and Pryse, American Women
11
Littenberg quotes from Sandra Zagarrell ’ s
Regionalists 1850 – 1910 , 154 – 6.
“ Country
’s Portrayal of Community and
5
See Childe Hassam ’ s pictures and illumina-
Exclusion of Difference, ” in New Essays on The
tions in Thaxter ’ s An Island Garden ; Hassam ’ s
Country of the Pointed Firs , ed. June Howard
painting of Celia Thaxter in her garden adorns
(New York: Cambridge University Press,
the fi rst page of the text. Thaxter stands
1994 ), 39 – 60.
madonna - like, head bowed, looking at the red
12
Letter to Annie Fields, February 1876, in
fl ower that she gently holds with one hand.
Rosamund Thaxter ’ s Sandpiper 115.
At the same time, Hassam
’
s painting does 13
Letter to Sarah Orne Jewett , December, 10
capture the wild abandon of the rambling,
1889, #50 in
The Infant Sphinx: Collected
tall fl owers in the garden itself and the open
Letters of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman .
gate leading to the sea in the backdrop.
14
This position is supported in Johns, 12.
References and Further Reading
Alamo , Stacy . Undomesticated Ground: Recasting
Penelope . Cambridge, MA : Blackwell , 1993 .
Nature as Feminist Space . Ithaca : Cornell Univer-
164 – 83 .
sity Press , 2000 .
— — — . “ Theorizing Regionalism: Celia Thaxter ’ s
Austin , Mary . The Land of Little Rain. 1903. Stories
Among the Isles of Shoals . ” Breaking Boundaries:
from the Country of Lost Borders . Ed. Marjorie
New Perspectives on Women
’
s Regional Writing .
Pryse . New Brunswick, NJ : Rutgers University
Eds. Sherrie A. Inness and Diana Royer . Iowa
Press , 1995 . 1 – 90 .
City : University of Iowa Press , 1997 . 38 – 53 .
Blanchard , Paula . Sarah Orne Jewett: Her World and
Fetterley , Judith , and Marjorie Pryse . Writing Out
Her Work . Reading, MA : Addison - Wesley , 1994 .
of Place: Regionalism, Women, and American Liter-
Cather , Willa . Preface to The Best Stories of Sarah
ary Culture . Urbana
: University of Illinois Press ,
Orne Jewett . Boston : Houghton Miffl in , 1925 .
2003 .
Donovan , Josephine . New England Local Color Fetterley , Judith , and Marjorie Pryse , eds. Ameri-Literature: A Women ’ s Tradition . New York :
can Women Regionalists 1850 – 1910 . New York :
Ungar , 1983 .
Norton , 1992 .
Fetterley , Judith . “ Reading Deephaven as Lesbian Freeman , Mary E. Wilkins . “ Christmas Jenny . ”
Text. ” Sexual Practice/Textual Theory: Lesbian Cul-
A New England Nun and Other Stories . 1891 .
tural Criticism . Eds. Susan J. Wolfe and Julia
160 – 77 .
Landscape as Haven
407
— — — . The Infant Sphinx: Collected Letters of
Norwood , Vera . Made from This Earth: American
Mary E. Wilkins . Ed. Brent L. Kendrick .
Women and Nature . Chapel Hill : University of
Metuchen, NJ : Scarecrow Press , 1985 .
North Carolina Press , 1993 .
Glasser , Leah B. “ ‘ The Sandpiper and I ’ : Landscape
Older , Julia , ed. Celia Thaxter: Selected Writings .
and Identity on Celia Thaxter ’ s Isles of Shoals . ”
Hancock : Appledore Books , 1997 .
American Literary Realism , 36 . 1 (Fall 2003 ):
Pryse , Marjorie . “ Reading Regionalism: The
1 – 21 .
‘ Difference ’ It Makes . ” Regionalism Reconsidered:
— — — . In a Closet Hidden: The Life and Work of
New Approaches to the Field . Ed. David Jordan .
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman . Amherst : University
New York : Garland , 1994 . 47 – 63 .
of Massachusetts Press , 1996 .
Sherman , Sarah . “ The Great Goddess in New
Jewett , Sarah Orne . The Country of the Pointed
England: Mary Wilkins Freeman ’ s ‘ Christmas
Firs and Other Stories . Ed. Mary Ellen Chase .
Jenny. ’ ” Studies in Short Fiction 17 . 2 ( 1980 ):
Intro. Marjorie Pryse. New York : W. W. Norton ,
157 – 64 .
1994 .
Thaxter , Celia . Among the Isles of Shoals . Boston :
— — — . “ Preface ” to Poems of Celia Thaxter . Boston :
Houghton Miffl in , 1873 . Vol. 24 . 177 – 87 .
Houghton Miffl in , 1896 .
(Cited in the text as AIS . First published serially
— — — . “ Preface ” to Celia Thaxter
Stories and
in Atlantic Monthly , 1869 – 70.)
Poems for Children . Boston : Houghton, Miffl in ,
— — — . An Island Garden . Boston : Houghton
1895 . iii. Rpt. in Celia Thaxter: Selected Writings .
Miffl in , 1894 .
Ed. Julia Older. Hancock: Appledore Books, — — — . “ Land - Locked . ” Atlantic Monthly , 1861 .
1997.
Rpt. Poems of Celia Thaxter . Boston : Houghton
— — — . “ A White Heron . ” 1886 . Rpt. in
Miffl in , 1872 . 9 – 10 . (Original ms. in Houghton
Fetterley and Pryse, eds.,
American Women
Library, Thaxter collection. MS pfms, Am278.2.)
Regionalists , 197 – 205 .
— — — . “ The Spray Sprite . ” Stories and Poems for
Johns , Barbara . “ ‘ Love - Cracked: Spinsters as Sub-
Children . Boston : Houghton Miffl in , 1895 . 3 –
versives in ‘ Anna Malann, ’ ‘ Christmas Jenny, ’
13
. Rpt in Older,
Selected Writings , 238 – 48.
and ‘ An Object of Love. ’ ” Colby Library Quar-
(Cited in the text as SS.)
terly 23 . 1 (March 1987 ): 4 – 15 .
— — — . Letters of Celia Thaxter . Eds. Annie Fields
Kilcup , Karen L. , ed. Nineteenth - Century American
and Rose Lamb . Boston : Houghton Miffl in ,
Women Writers: An Anthology . Oxford : Black-
1895 .
well , 1997 .
Thaxter , Rosamund . Sandpiper: The Life and Letters
Kolodny , Annette . The Land Before Her: Fantasy
of Celia Thaxter . Portsmouth : Peter E. Randall ,
and Experience of the American Frontiers, 1630
–
1963 . Rpt 1999.
1860
.
Chapel Hill
:
University of North Thoreau ,
Henry
David .
“ Walking . ”
Atlantic
Carolina Press , 1984 .
Monthly , 1862
. Rpt. in
Great Short Works of
— — — . The Lay of the Land: Metaphor as Experience
Henry David Thoreau , 331 – 68 . Ed. Wendell
and History in American Life and Letters . Chapel
Glick . New York : Harper , 1982 .
Hill
:
University of North Carolina Press
, Tichi , Celia . “ Women Writers and the New
1975 .
Woman . ” Columbia Literary History of the United
Littenberg , Marcia B. “ From Transcendentalism
States . Ed. Emory Elliott . New York : Columbia
to Ecofeminism: Celia Thaxter and Sarah
University Press , 1988 . 589 – 606 .
Orne Jewett
’ s Island Views Revisited . ” Jewett
Zagarrell , Sandra . “ Country ’ s Portrayal of Commu-
and Her Contemporaries: Reshaping the Canon .
nity and Exclusion of Difference . ” New Essays on
Eds. Karen Kilcup and Thomas S. Edwards .
The Country of the Pointed Firs . Ed. June Howard .
Gainesville : University of Florida Press , 1999 .
New York : Cambridge University Press , 1994 .
137 – 52 .
39 – 60 .
26
The American Ghost Story
Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock
In the nineteenth century, the ghost story achieved enormous popularity on both
sides of the Atlantic and the supernatural tale became thoroughly intertwined
with mainstream American short fi ction of the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. According to Kerr, Crowley, and Crow, between 1820 and 1920
–
what they dub the “ great age of the American ghost story ” (1) – most major and
innumerable minor authors tried their hands at supernatural fi ction, and Bendixen
adds that the writing of ghost stories was
“
a respectable literary enterprise
”
(Introduction 8) throughout the nineteenth century. American writers could
enhance their reputations by producing well - wrought ghost stories and the fi nest
magazines were happy to publish them. While few ghost stories were heralded as
artistic achievements, their production could be extremely remunerative for success-
ful authors.
In this chapter, I will fi rst offer a brief overview of the development of super-
natural fi ction in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with an emphasis on
the ghost story and will consider both general and genre - specifi c explanations for
its popularity. I will then attend to works by several of the primary practitioners
of the American ghost story, focusing on Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe,
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ambrose Bierce, Henry James, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman,
Edith Wharton, and Ellen Glasgow. In the course of this discussion, I will propose
&nb
sp; that male and female authors often put their ghosts to work, so to speak, doing
different jobs: for the men, the ghost foregrounds “ the apparitional nature of exis-
tence ” (Thompson, “ Apparition ” 92) and raises questions about what human beings
know and what in fact can be known at all. In contrast, for women, the ghost often
foregrounds what we may call the terror of the known – that is, the demands made
of and restrictions placed upon women by fathers, husbands, children, and cultural
expectations. What this suggests is that part of the appeal of ghost stories is that
ghosts can be made to serve as very pliable metaphors expressing a range of cultural
anxieties and desires.
The Ghost Story
409
The Rise of the American Ghost Story
The development of supernatural fi ction in the United States was the result of a variety
of factors, some of which were common to short fi ction in general. The business of
publishing as a whole underwent dramatic changes starting in the 1820s. American
publishing had been hindered up to this time by a lack of capital, high production
costs, underdeveloped transport and distribution systems, and the lack of an estab-
lished, predictable market (Kelley 7). However, in the late 1820s and 1830s, cheaper
postal routes and the developing network of railroads, combined with technological
improvements in papermaking, binding, presses, typesetting, and typecasting, made
it possible for publishers to produce and distribute large quantities of books and
periodicals cheaply. At the same time, the audience for literature increased dramati-
cally. Starting in 1790 with the US population approaching 4 million people, the
population doubled every 25 years into the twentieth century, and an emphasis on
literacy resulted by 1840 in the largest reading population ever produced (10 – 11).
The combination of an increasingly large and literate population and technological
advances in publishing resulted in explosive growth within the publishing industry,
which expanded tenfold between 1820 and 1850 (Coultrap - McQuin 30). Periodical
publication also experienced enormous growth. By 1840, approximately 1,500 peri-
odicals were in existence (Smith and Price 5). The emergence of the penny press in
the 1830s, as well as the publication of weeklies, led to the appearance of newspapers
(sometimes called story papers) composed entirely of fi ction, or that mixed fi ction and
news. By the 1870s, the number of cheap weekly magazines had swelled to over 4,000,
with a combined circulation of 10.5 million – an absolutely staggering fi gure when
one notes that the US population in 1870 was 30 million (5 – 6).