In the ''Stranger People's'' country

262 Pages·2005·1.27 MB·English

by  Mary Noailles Murfree

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1 LegaciesofNineteenth-CenturyAmericanWomenWriters
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SeriesEditors:SharonHarris,TexasChristianUniversity
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4 KarenDandurand,IndianaUniversityofPennsylvania
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1 Theintroductionisadaptedfrom“ExploringCon-
2 tact:Regionalismandthe‘Outsider’Standpointin
3 MaryNoaillesMurfree’sAppalachia,”byMarjorie
4 Pryse,whichappearedinLegacy:AJournalofAmeri-
icanWomenWriters17,no.2(2000),bypermission
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oftheUniversityofNebraskaPress.©2001bythe
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UniversityofNebraskaPress.
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8 MaryNoaillesMurfree’slettertoSarahOrneJewett
9 isreprintedbypermissionoftheHoughtonLibrary,
10 HarvardUniversity,Cambridge,Massachusetts,bMs
Am1743(163).
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12 Introduction©2005bytheBoardofRegentsofthe
[-4], (4)
13 UniversityofNebraska.Allrightsreserved.Manufac-
14 turedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica(cid:1)(cid:1)
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designedbyRichardEckersley.PrintedbyThomson-
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
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Craddock,CharlesEgbert,1850–1922.
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Murfree;editedandwithanintroductionbyMarjorie
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Pryse.
[-4], (4)
23 p.cm.–(Legaciesofnineteenth-centuryAmerican
24 womenwriters)
25 Originaled.,publishedin1891,writtenunderMary
26 NoaillesMurfree’spseudonymofCharlesEgbert
27 Craddock.Includesbibliographicreferences.
28 isbn-13:978-0-8032-8313-8(paperback:alk.paper)
isbn-10:0-8032-8313-x(paperback:alkalinepaper)
29
1.AppalachianRegion,Southern–Fiction.
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2.Archaeologists–Fiction.3.Mountainlife–Fic-
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tion.4.Politicians–Fiction.5.Cemeteries–Fic-
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tion.i.Pryse,Marjorie,1948–ii.Title.iii.Series.
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ps2454152005 813'.4–dc22 2005009412
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Editor’s Introduction
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LiteraryArchaeologyand“StrangerPeople”
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9 In the twenty-first century, conflicts remain concerning whose interest
10 shouldprevailwhenancientruinsandburialsitesbecomeknowntothe
11 public as well as to archaeologists and developers. In July 2004,the New
12 YorkTimesreportedtheunveilingof“thepristinelypreservedruinsof an
[-5], (5)
13 ancientcivilizationthatwaslongagolosttothemistsoftimeintheremote
14 cliffsof easternUtah,thenresolutelyprotectedoverthelast50yearsbya
15 stubbornlocalrancherwhokeptmumaboutwhatheknew.”Bykeeping
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16 his knowledge of the ruins a secret,the rancher allowed Range Creek to
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17 escape“boththeravagesoflootersand. . .thespadesofarchaeologists.”1 0.0pt PgVar
18 Earlierinthesameyear,theNewYorkTimesreportedthatdevelopershad
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19 unearthed remains of the ancestors of Native Americans“whose prede- Normal Page
20 cessorshuntedandroamedacrossSouthernCalifornia7,000yearsagoor
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21 more.”The burial grounds“stand in the way of a proposed stream that
22 opponents call a drainage ditch and that the developer more elaborately
[-5], (5)
23 calls a riparian corridor.”Archaeologists have called the site“the largest
24 excavation now going on in the country,” while Native Americans have
25 strenuouslyobjectedtotheexcavation.2Inher1891novelInthe“Stranger
26 People’s” Country,Mary Noailles Murfree,writing under the pseudonym
27 ofCharlesEgbertCraddock,entersthedebatefromtheperspectiveofthe
28 rancher who kept the secret of Range Creek and the Native Americans
29 interested in protecting their ancestors, a perspective represented by the
30 mountainwoman,AdelaideYates,whothreatenstoshootthearchaeologist
31 Shattuckifhetriestodiginthe“LeetlePeople’sburyin’-groun’.”
32 Murfree’s fascination with what she calls in the novel’s opening para-
33 graph “a dim tradition associating [the Leetle People] with the ancient
34 forgotten peoples of this old hemisphere of ours” begins as a kind of
35 literary archaeology, the novelist attempting to explore the relationship
36 betweenhistoryandmythinthecultureoftheTennesseemountainsand
37 thelivesofthemountaineers.Atthesametime,Murfreeiswritingduring
38 anerathatwitnessedtheclosingofthefrontierwiththevictoryoftheU.S.
39 cavalryoverIndiansatWoundedKneeinDecember1890,thelynchingof
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1 AfricanAmericans,theongoingeffortsofsuffragiststoensureavoiceand
2 vote for women,the exhibition of“others”– in the circus sideshows and
3 dimemuseums,theMidwayexhibitsofthe1893ChicagoWorld’sFair,and
4 “local color”literature written to entertain urban and Eastern readers –
5 andtheacquisitionofthefirstU.S.coloniesintheSpanishAmericanWar.
6 Theeraalsowitnessedthearrivalofcorporateandprofessionalinterestsin
7 themountainsofAppalachiawiththeexpansionof theminingindustry.
8 Although In the“Stranger People’s”Country does not address all of these
9 issues, by focusing on those that would challenge Appalachia well into
10 the twentieth century it does contribute to our larger understanding of
11 nineteenth-centurysocialstructuresandhierarchiesofgender,race,class,
12 andregionthatcontinuetoaffectlifeintheUnitedStatesinourowntime.
[-6], (6)
13 Thenoveljuxtaposestheoutsiderarchaeologistandpoliticianwhocome
14 intotheAppalachianmountaincommunitytoacquireartifactsandvotes
15 with mountaineers who insist on dignity for the burial grounds of the
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16 “leetlestrangerpeople”andontheirownpoliticalandculturalautonomy.
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17 Murfree’snovelconveystheinsightthatourapproachto“others”–whether 0.0pt PgVar
18 fromthepastorthepresent–mustalwaysbeginbyrespectingthepeople
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19 themselves,andthatanyunderstandingwehopetogainfromliteratureor Normal Page
20 archaeologymayshedasmuchlightonourownvaluesasitdoesonthose
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21 ofany“strangerpeople.”
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[-6], (6)
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MaryNoaillesMurfreeinLiteraryandCriticalContext
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25 WhenSarahOrneJewettwrote“Mr.Murfree”in1884tothank“him”for
26 collecting“his”magazinestoriesinIntheTennesseeMountains,Murfree’s
27 firstbook,sheparticularlyacknowledged“TheStarintheValley,”writing,“I
28 donotthinkoneoftenmeetssostrikingasinglefigureinprint,nowadays,as
29 thatpooryounggirl”(Parks96n6).3ImagineJewett’ssurprisethefollowing
30 yearwhen,aftershewastooilltoattendadinnerhostedbyAtlanticMonthly
31 editorThomasBaileyAldrichtointroduceMr.M.N.MurfreeofTennessee,
32 thewriterbehindthepseudonymCharlesEgbertCraddock,hercompanion
33 Annie Fields returned home to report her“extreme”surprise that M. N.
34 Murfreewasawoman.Mary’ssisterFannywrote,“Aftershediscoveredthe
35 deception,Mrs.Fieldsaddressedmysistervaguelyas‘they’”(Parks125).4
36 Mary,Fanny,andtheirfatherhaddecidedtomakeatriptoBostonfrom
37 theirhomeinSt.Louiswhenitbecameclearthatboththenewspapersand
38 “Charles Egbert Craddock’s”readers wanted to know the identity of M.
39 N.Murfree.FannyMurfreewrites,asquotedbyEddWinfieldParks,“After
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1 muchdiscussionwiththeothermembersofthefamilyitwasdecidedthatit
2 wouldbeneitherwisenorcourteoustoallowadisclosureofakindtouching
3 theirownaffairstobemadetothepublishersthroughsomenewspaper–
4 and that a personal interview would be the proper means of explaining”
5 (122),andsotheMurfreestravelledtoBostonandarrivedattheAtlantic
6 offices early in March 1885. Aldrich’s wife gave a dinner introducing M.
7 N. Murfree to Boston writers and cultural figures the following evening,
8 then continued to host the two sisters throughout the spring after their
9 father had returned to St. Louis. Parks writes,“There were many people
10 toentertainthem.CeliaThaxterandSarahOrneJewett‘soughttoreclaim
11 this almost lost member of their sex’” (127), suggesting that these New
12 Englandregionalistwriterssawaffinitiesbetweentheirownworkandthe
[-7], (7)
13 storiescollectedinIntheTennesseeMountains,andtheMurfreesisters’stay
14 included a trip to Thaxter’s Isles of Shoals. They must also have visited
15 Jewett and Annie Fields at Thunderbolt Hill, the summer cottage Fields
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16 hadsharedwithherhusband,formerAtlanticeditorandpublisherJames
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17 T. Fields, until his death. In an unpublished letter dated March 4, 1886, 0.2pt PgVar
18 MurfreewrotetoJewett:
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Ihavebeenpostponingmyreplytoyourletterhopingtofindawhole
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you and I shall never have a regular heart-opener of a talk and so I
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snatchafewmomentstodaymerelytosaythatIintendtowriteagain [-7], (7)
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andatlength.Don’tyourememberthatoneafternoonwhichwehad
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fixed upon for a long chat, it rained and rained and you could not
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come. And at other times there were always so many people about
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thatourconfidencescouldonlynudgeeachother’selbows,asitwere,
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inanoccasionalaside.. . .SisterandIweresosorrynottoseeMrs.
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FieldsandyoubeforeweleftforSt.Louis,butitispleasantthatour
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latestthoughtsofyouareassociatedwiththatgreatbrightblueocean,
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seenfromThunderboltHillandthosedelightfulseabreezes.5
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32 Whatconfidencesthosemighthavebeenwecanonlysurmise,butJewett
33 andMurfreecertainlywouldhaverecognizedthatbothwerewritinginthe
34 literarymodeofregionalism,thatbothhadachievedtheirfirstsignificant
35 publicationinthepagesoftheAtlanticMonthly,thattheywereroughlythe
36 sameage,thatbothhadreceivedencouragementtowritefromtheirfathers
37 –andthatbothhadchosentoremainunmarriedandtomaketheirhomes
38 with another woman,in Jewett’s case Annie Fields,and in Murfree’s her
39 sisterFanny.UnlikeJewett,however,Murfreehadchosentowriteundera
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1 malepseudonym.AccordingtoherbrotherWilliam,asquotedinParks,the
2 familyhadagreedthatsheshouldusesomeman’sname“aswellforacloak
3 incaseoffailureastosecuretheadvantagethatamanhasinliteratureovera
4 woman.Heobtainsaquickerreadingbythepublishers,isbetterreceivedby
5 thepublicinthebeginning,andaltogetherhasaneasiertimeofit.Accident
6 ledtothechoiceofaname,whichwasmuchdiscussedbythefamilybefore
7 beingfinallydetermineduponbyherintheformused”(93).UnlikeJewett
8 as well, who wrote short fiction throughout her career, Murfree moved
9 quicklyfromwritingshortstoriesaboutTennesseemountaineerstonovels
10 thatretainedtheirmountainsettings.Inthe“StrangerPeople’s”Countryis
11 oneofthesenovels,theoneParksdescribesasthemost“artistic”and“the
12 best-executednovelshewasevertowrite,withasustained,well-rounded
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13 plot”(184,185).
14 Atthesametime,Parksnotesthatexceptfortheoccasionalreprinting
15 of a single story in anthologies,“the novelist is forgotten”(173). After a
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16 brief period of recognition in her lifetime,Murfree’s work has remained
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18 edition of In the Tennessee Mountains in 1970 and her occasional inclu-
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19 sioninanthologiesof“localcolor”andregionalistwriting.6Neitherhave Normal Page
20 critics sustained interest in her work. Only two critical biographies have
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21 appeared;thefirst,writtenbyParksin1941,hasitselfbeenoutofprintfor
22 manyyears,leavingthesecond,writtenbyRichardCaryin1967andmore
[-8], (8)
23 widelyavailableinlibraries,tocarryalonetheburdenofkeepingMurfree’s
24 workalive.Anannotatedbibliographyof Murfreecriticismpublishedby
25 ReeseM.Carletonin1974revealsthatwithafewexceptionsinadditionto
26 theParksandCarybiographies–notably,NathaliaWright’scriticalintro-
27 duction to the University of Tennessee Press’s reprint of In theTennessee
28 Mountains–theattentiongivenMurfreebyliteraryhistoriansandcritics
29 hasbeennegligible,andwhatattentionshehasreceivedhasminimizedher
30 contribution.7
31 For example,by the time Fred Lewis Pattee published the first literary
32 historytotakeAmericanliteratureseriouslyasafieldofstudyin1915,seven
33 years before Murfree’s death,Murfree’s flaws as a writer had already ob-
34 scuredhervalue.PatteewritesthatMurfree“workedbymeansofbrilliant
35 sketches;sherelieduponherpicturingpowertocarrythestory,andasa
36 result the effect is scattered”(History 312–13), and that“the short stories
37 withwhichshewonherfirstfamemuststandasherhighestachievement”
38 (History 316). Later, in a historical survey of the American short story,
39 Patteewouldreaffirmhisassessmentthatherearlieststorieswereheronly
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1 goodworkandwouldwritethat“evenhadshebeenmoreperfectinher
2 technique, from the very nature of her material, she was headed toward
3 ultimate failure” (Development 275). Among the scant critical attention
4 Murfreehasreceived,thereexistsnotasingleanalysisof Inthe“Stranger
5 People’s”Countrypriorto2000,exceptfortheobservationsParksandCary
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makeintheirbiographies.8
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AsreadingInthe“StrangerPeople’s”Countryreveals,however,whenwe
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doreconsiderMurfree,wediscoverthatappreciatingMurfree’scontribu-
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tiontoAmericanliteraturemayemergemorefromcomparingherworkto
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thatofhercontemporariesthanfromacceptingthejudgmentsofliterary
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historians.Forexample,shemeritsreadinginthecontextofMarkTwain’s
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dialectfiction,forwhileMarkTwainmayexceedhercapabilitiesinterms [-9], (9)
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of plot and character, she concentrates more on presenting a study of a
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regionanditspeople. Inthe“StrangerPeople’s”Countrywillalsoremind
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16 some readers of Sarah Orne Jewett,particularly inDeephaven (1878) and
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21 ofhercharacters,and,asIwilldiscussinmoredetaillaterinthisintroduc-
22 tion,hernarratorcallsattentiontoliteraryvoiceasitselfaformofdialect.
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23 BillBrowncomparesMurfree’snovelbothtoTheCountryofthePointedFirs
24 andtoWillaCather’sTheProfessor’sHouse(121,127,131).PuttingMurfreein
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contextwithCather–whobasesher1925novelontheearliestdiscoveriesat
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MesaVerdeandaddressessomeofthesameconflictsconcerningtheroleof
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archaeologyasMurfreedoesinInthe“StrangerPeople’s”Country–allows
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readerstocontrasttherelationshipregionalismandmodernismostensibly
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claimtothepast,whilelocatingintheirthematicconcernsmorecommon
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groundthancriticsgenerallygrant.9OneofthebestwaystolocateMurfree
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inliterarycontextistoreadherinthecompanyofHarrietBeecherStowe,
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AliceCary,RoseTerryCooke,CeliaThaxter,MaryWilkinsFreeman,Grace
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King, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Sui Sin Far, Zitkala-Sˇa, Kate Chopin, Mary
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35 Austin, Charles Chesnutt, and other regionalist writers, as well as Jewett
36 andCather.10Of particularinterestmaybethewayMurfree’sportraitof
37 AdelaideYates,astrongwomanwhoverballydefiesherhusband,resembles
38 otherindependentwomeninfictionssuchasFreeman’s Pembroke(1894)
39 orhershortstoriessuchas“TheRevoltof‘Mother.’”
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