Wilson 1835-1909) is little known now, but was one of the most popular authors of the 19th century, with most of her nine novels becoming best sellers. Sexton (writing, Morehead State U.) selects and annotates letters to her friends, among them well known literary and political figures, that illuminate her life and times. With this volume, the series expands from the 19th to encompass the 20th as well. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Augusta Jane Evans Wilson (1835-1909) was a Southern writer and supporter of the Confederacy during the Civil War. She wrote her first novel Inez, a tale of the Alamo, at the age of 15.
Augusta Jane Evans, or Augusta Evans Wilson (May 8, 1835 - May 9, 1909), was an American author of Southern literature. She was the first woman to earn US$100,000 through her writing.Wilson was a native of Columbus, Georgia, and her first book, Inez, a Tale of the Alamo, was written when she was still young. It was published by Harpers, but met with indifferent success. Her second book, Beulah, was issued in 1859 and became at once popular, still selling well when the American Civil War broke out. Cut off from the world of publishers, and intensely concerned for the cause of secession, she wrote nothing more until several years later when she published her third story, Macaria, dedicated to the soldiers of the Southern Army. This book was burned by some protesters. After the war closed, Wilson travelled to New York with the copy of St. Elmo, which was speedily published and met with great success. Her later works, Vashti; Infelice; and At the Mercy of Tiberius had phenomenal success. In 1868, she married Lorenzo Madison Wilson, of Alabama, and they resided at Spring Hill.Early yearsShe was born Augusta Jane Evans on May 8, 1835, in Columbus, Georgia, the eldest child of the family. The area of her birth was then known as Wynnton (now MidTown). Her mother was Sarah S. Howard and her father was Matthew R. Evans. She was a descendant on her mother's side from the Howards, one of the most cultured families of Georgia. As a young girl in 19th-century America, she received little in the way of a formal education. However, she became a voracious reader at an early age.Her father suffered bankruptcy and lost the family's Sherwood Hall property in the 1840s. He moved his family of ten from Georgia for Alabama, and scarcely ten when they moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1845. When the Mexican-American War had ended, and everything was in a disorganized condition, consequently there were no schools of any prominence. Had her mother not been cultivated and literary, Evans could never have obtained the education which fitted her for the work she later accomplished. During the Mexican war, San Antonio was the rendezvous for the United States troops sent to assist General Zachary Taylor, and the brilliant uniforms of the soldiery, the martial music, and the exciting events that accompany war, combined with the picturesque, enchanting scenery around San Antonio, furnished an excellent theme for Evans' first novel.In 1850, at the age of fifteen, she wrote Inez: A Tale of the Alamo, a sentimental, moralistic, anti-Catholic love story. It told the story of one orphan's spiritual journey from religious skepticism to devout faith. She presented the manuscript to her father as a Christmas gift in 1854. It was published anonymously in 1855.However, life in a frontier border town like San Antonio proved dangerous, especially with the Mexican-American War. By 1849, Evans' parents moved the family to Mobile, Alabama.She wrote her next novel, Beulah, at age 18; it was published in 1859. Beulah began the theme of female education in her novels. It sold well, selling over 22,000 copies during its first year of publication, a staggering accomplishment. It established her as Alabama's first professional author. Her family used the proceeds from her literary success to purchase Georgia Cottage on Springhill Avenue.
First published in 1864, Macaria; or, Altars of Sacrifice was the third novel of Augusta Jane Evans, one of the leading women writers of nineteenth-century domestic fiction. A wartime best seller, with more than twenty thousand copies in circulation in the print-starved Confederacy before the war’s end, the novel was also extremely well received along the Union front, so much so that some northern officials thought it should be banned. Long out of print and largely unavailable until now, Macaria is a compelling narrative about women and war. In Macaria, Evans charts the journey of two southern women toward ultimate self-realization through their service in the war-torn Confederacy. Discarding the theme of romantic fulfillment, Evans skillfully crafts a novel about women compelled by the departure and death of so many southern men to find meaning in their own “single blessedness,” rather than in marriage. Drew Gilpin Faust, in her perceptive introduction to this edition, places the novel in the context of the concerns of Confederate nationalism and the contributions of women during the Civil War. She provides an ideological and historical framework within which to interpret the novel and introduce it to a new generation of readers. Largely overlooked in the current revival of women’s fiction, Augusta Jane Evans is less well known today than she should be. The reissue of this volume will do much to garner Evans a well-deserved place in the existing body of American literature, and especially southern and women’s literature.
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