Deephaven (1877)
The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896)
Old Friends And New (1879)
Country By-ways (1881)
A Country Doctor (1884)
The Mate of the Daylight, and Friends Ashore (1884)
A Marsh Island. (c. 1885)
A White Heron: and Other Stories (c. 1886)
The King of Folly Island, and Other People (1888)
Betty Leicester: a Story for Girls (c. 1889)
Strangers and Wayfarers (1890)
Tales of New England (1892)
The Life of Nancy (1895)
Betty Leicester’s Christmas (1899)
The Queen’s Twin: and Other Stories (1899)
(1849-1909) was born on September 9, 1849 in South Berwick, and attended Berwick Academy for four years, graduating when she was sixteen. She decided to become a writer soon after and to chronicle life in small Maine towns.
She soon was published in the Atlantic Monthly and wrote over 150 stories published in ten volumes during her lifetime. Jewett was known as a leading “local color” writer, one who focuses on the customs and other elements of a particular time and lace.
Sarah Orne Jewett House, South Berwick (2001)
Though she never married and spent most of her time at the family home, she traveled to Boston each year to visit literary friends.
At fifty-one she received an honorary degree from Bowdoin College. Shortly thereafter she was injured in a carriage accident and left partially paralyzed, unable to write. She continued to meet with young women writers, giving them encouragement and advice.
According to the Historic Preservation Commision:
Jewett’s home is considered a fine example of the exceptional craftsmanship and distinguished Georgian architecture of the colonial maritime community that settled along the Piscataqua River in southern Maine. Originally built for John Haggins in 1774, apparently the modest exterior was finished prior to the Revolutionary War and the interior, shortly after the War.*
She died in South Berwick on June 24, 1909.
Additional resources
Keating, Gail C. Sarah Orne Jewett’s Experiences with Mentoring and Communities of Women. c1987. (Thesis (Ed.D.)–Temple University, 1987) [University of Maine, Raymond H. Fogler Library, Special Collections]
*Maine. Historic Preservation Commission. Augusta, Me. Text and photo from National Register of Historic Places: http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/nrhp/text/73000248.PDF, http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/nrhp/photos/73000248.PDF
Sarah Orne Jewett. Boston and New York. Houghton Mifflin Company. c1929.
Nagel, Gwen L. Sarah Orne Jewett: A Reference Guide. Boston. G. K. Hall. c1978.
Silverthorne, Elizabeth. Sarah Orne Jewett: A Writer’s Life. Woodstock, N.Y. Overlook Press. 1993.
Weber, Clara Carter. A Bibliography of the Published Writings of Sarah Orne Jewett. Waterville, Me. Colby College Press. c1949.