Mary Noailles Murfree (January 24, 1850 – July 31, 1922) was an American author of novels and short stories who wrote under the pen name Charles Egbert Craddock. She is considered by many to be Appalachia's first significant female writer and her work a necessity for the study of Appalachian literature, although a number of characters in her work reinforce negative stereotypes about the region. She has been favorably compared to

Bret Harte Bret Harte (; born Francis Brett Hart; August 25, 1836 – May 5, 1902) was an American short story writer and poet best remembered for short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a caree ...

and

Sarah Orne Jewett Theodora Sarah Orne Jewett (September 3, 1849 – June 24, 1909) was an American novelist, short story writer and poet, best known for her local color works set along or near the southern coast of Maine. Jewett is recognized as an important ...

, creating post-Civil War American local-color literature. The town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is named after Murfree's great-grandfather Colonel Hardy Murfree, who fought in the Revolutionary War.

Biography

Murfree was born on her family's cotton plantation, Grantland, near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, a location later celebrated in her novel, ''Where the Battle was Fought'' and in the town named after her great-grandfather, Colonel Hardy Murfree. Her father was a successful lawyer of Nashville, and her youth was spent in both Murfreesboro and Nashville. From 1867 to 1869 she attended the Chegary Institute, a finishing school in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. Murfree would spend her summers in Beersheba Springs. For a number of years after the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

the Murfree family lived in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, returning in 1890 to Murfreesboro, where she lived until her death. Being

lame Lame or LAME may refer to: Music * "Lame" (song) by Unwritten Law * ''Lame'' (album) by Iame People * Ibrahim Lame (born 1953), Nigerian educator and politician * Jennifer Lame (), American film editor * Quintín Lame (1880–1967), Colombian ...

from childhood, Murfree turned to reading the novels of

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...

and

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

. For fifteen successive summers the family stayed in Beersheba Springs in the

Cumberland Mountains The Cumberland Mountains are a mountain range in the southeastern section of the Appalachian Mountains. They are located in western Virginia, southwestern West Virginia, the eastern edges of Kentucky, and eastern middle Tennessee, including the ...

of Tennessee, giving her the opportunity to study the mountains and

mountain people Hill people, also referred to as mountain people, is a general term for people who live in the hills and mountains. This includes all rugged land above and all land (including plateaus) above elevation. The climate is generally harsh, with s ...

more closely. By the 1870s she had begun writing stories for ''Appleton's Journal'' under the penname of "Charles Egbert Craddock" and by 1878 she was contributing to the '' Atlantic Monthly''. It was not until seven years later, in May 1885, that Murfree divulged that she was Charles Egbert Craddock to

Thomas Bailey Aldrich Thomas Bailey Aldrich (; November 11, 1836 – March 19, 1907) was an American writer, poet, critic, and editor. He is notable for his long editorship of ''The Atlantic Monthly'', during which he published writers including Charles W. Chesnutt. ...

, an editor at the ''Atlantic Monthly''. Murfree visited the Montvale Springs resort near

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...

, from 1886. Although she became known for the realism of her accounts, in fact she was from a wealthy family and would have had little contact with the local people while staying at the resorts. She is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Murfreesboro.

Works

Fiction

CRADDOCK(1884) In the Tennessee mountains

* ''In the Tennessee Mountains'' (1884) (eight stories on the life and character of the Tennessee mountaineer)(e-book at Documenting the American South) * ''Where the Battle Was Fought'' (1884) * ''Down the Ravine'' (1885) * ''The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains'' (1885)(e-book at Documenting the American South) * ''In the Clouds'' (1886) * ''The Despot of Broomsedge Cove'' (1888) * ''The Story of Keedon Bluffs'' (1887) * ''Abner Holden's Bound Boy'' (1890) * ''In the "Stranger People's" Country'' (1891) * ''His Vanished Star'' (1894) * ''The Juggler'' (1897) * ''The Story of Old Fort Loudon'' (1898) * ''The Champion'' (1902) * ''A Spectre of Power'' (1903) * ''The Frontiersmen'' (1904) (e-book at

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...

) * ''The Storm Centre'' (1905) * ''The Amulet'' (1906) * ''The Windfall'' (1907) * ''The Fair Mississippian'' (1908) * ''The Ordeal: A Mountain Romance of Tennessee'' (1912) * ''The Story of Duciehurst: A Tale of the Mississippi'' (1914)

Short fiction

* ''The Phantoms of the Footbridge and Other Stories'' (1895) * ''The Mystery of Witch-Face Mountain and Other Stories'' (1895) * ''The Young Mountaineers'' (1897) * ''The Bushwhackers and Other Stories'' (1899) * ''Civil War Stories'' (contributor, 1900) * ''The Raid of the Guerilla and Other Stories'' (1912)

References

External links

* * * *
''The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains''
free ebook in PDF, PDB and LIT formats

* ttps://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library Emory University
Mary Noailles Murfree papers, 1877-1928
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murfree, Mary Noaille 1850 births 1922 deaths 19th-century American novelists 20th-century American novelists American women novelists American women short story writers Appalachian writers People from Murfreesboro, Tennessee Novelists from Tennessee 20th-century American women writers 19th-century American women writers 19th-century American short story writers 20th-century American short story writers Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century