''Aunt Jane of Kentucky'' is a collection of nine

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

written by American author Eliza "Lida" Calvert Obenchain. Obenchain wrote the book under the pen name

Eliza Calvert Hall Eliza Caroline "Lida" Obenchain (née Calvert), (February 11, 1856 – December 20, 1935) was an American author, women's rights advocate, and suffragist from Bowling Green, Kentucky. Lida Obenchain, writing under the pen name Eliza Calvert Hall ...

, a pseudonym that she frequently used when writing her fictional works. Set in rural western Kentucky in the late nineteenth century, the book recounts an elderly quilt-maker Aunt Jane's memories of life in the rural south as told to an unnamed younger woman visitor. The collection under the title ''Aunt Jane of Kentucky'' was first published together in 1907. The book appeared in at least thirty-three editions and reached approximately one million readers.Available free as an e-book for download a
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The most famous reader was perhaps United States President

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

who suggested reading the book to listeners during a 1908 speech: "I cordially recommend the first chapter of ''Aunt Jane of Kentucky'' as a tract in all families where the menfolk tend to selfish or thoughtless or overbearing disregard to the rights of their womenfolk." Beulah Strong, an artist trained in Paris and teaching at Potter College in Bowling Green, Kentucky, used the description of Aunt Jane at the beginning of the story, "Sally Ann's Experience," as her model for the book's frontispiece. Strong created fourteen more pen and ink illustrations to open nine of the stories and to serve as tail-pieces at the end of five stories.

Stories

*I. ''

Sally Ann's Experience ''Sally Ann's Experience'' is an 1898 short story written by American author Eliza "Lida" Calvert Obenchain under the pen name Eliza Calvert Hall. Aunt Jane "Aunt Jane", an elderly spinster, was a recurring character in Lida Obenchain's short stori ...

'' *II. The New Organ *III. Aunt Jane's Album *IV. "Sweet Day of Rest" *V. Milly Baker's Boy *VI. The Baptizing at Kittle Creek *VII. How Sam Amos Rode in the Tournament *VIII. Mary Andrews' Dinner Party *IX. The Gardens of Memory

Publication history and reception

The first story in the book ''Sally Ann's Experience'' was originally published in ''

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

'' magazine in 1898. The popularity of the story resulted in it being reprinted in ''Cosmopolitan'' multiple times, and printed in various other popular newspapers and magazines around the world. After its inclusion in ''Aunt Jane of Kentucky'' (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1907) the demand for the story remained high, so

Little, Brown, and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...

republished it in 1910. In an Introduction to the 1910 republication of the story, Obenchain describes it as "a plain tale of plain people told in the plain dialect of a plain old woman.". In 1995 Aunt Jane of Kentucky was reprinted by the University Press of Kentucky as a paperback with a new foreword by Bonnie Jean Cox, University of Kentucky Libraries. Another collection of Aunt Jane stories was published in 1909 as ''The Land of Long Ago''.

References

{{reflist American short story collections 1907 short story collections