Theodora Orne Jewett (1849 - 1909)

Born 3 Sep 1849 in South Berwick, York, Maine, USA

Ancestors

Died 24 Jun 1909 at age 59 in South Berwick, York, Maine, USA

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Biography

She was educated under private tutors and in the Berwick Academy. Shebegan to write when quite young and has published the followingbooks: "Deephaven" in 1877, "Play Days" in 1877, "Old Friends and New" in 1880, "Country Byways" in 1881, "The Mate of the Daylight" in 1883, "A Country Doctor" in 1884, "A Marsh Island" in 1885, "A White Heron and Other Stories" in 1886, "Betsey Leicester" and "The Story of the Normans" in 1887, "Tales of New England" in 1888, "The King of Folly Island and Other People" in 1889, and "Strangers and Wayfarers" in 1890. Several of these stories have been republished inFrance and England. Her stories are distinguished for their vivid coloring and their close and accurate delineation of various phases of New England life. Of her it has been said by the Nation: "Her instinctive refinement, her graceful workmanship, place her second only to Miss Thackeray." Miss Jewett has more distinctly a style than any other American woman.

A writer for the Boston Journal says of her: "I consider Miss Jewett the most interesting woman In Boston to-day. I do not think we have any other quite her equal.

"No more interesting thing can happen to an ordinary mortal than to be allowed to see her in an Informal way, at the house of her most intimate friend, Mrs. James T. Fields, on Charles Street, to talk with her before the glowing grate fire. In the quaint reception- room, filled with rare curios, so that it even smells foreign ; or mayhap, if the fates are very propitious, to be invited to lunch in the fine old dining-room overlooking the Charles River, and waited on graciously by Miss Jewett and Mrs. Fields themselves. If an ordinary mortal wants anything more interesting than this to happen her, let her be set down as a discontented, exacting prig.

"Miss Jewett is a woman of most charming personality. She has a bright, piquant face, that lights up beautifully as she talks, and a low, pleasant voice that gives one a sense like quiet at night and listening to the rustling of aspen leaves, soothing and restful. Her black hair shows just the faintest tinge of gray, but the color in her cheek and the sparkle of her eye tell the tale of youth still.

"Miss Jewett's working hours are in the afternoon, and when she has anything In hand she writes from about one until five. She writes, on an average, between three and four thousand words a day, although she has sometimes gone as high as seven, eight, and even nine thousand words a day. She usually thinks out her stories quite carefully beforehand, so that when she comes to write them she can do so easily and without much re-writing, although, of course, some of her stories she works at quite laboriously.

"There are stories that you write," she says, "and stories that write you. And I find that the ones that 'write you' do not need much working over the second time.

"She loves her country life with a true devotion that only a genuine nature worshiper can appreciate. I never feel prouder or more of the sense of owning and being owned, than when some old resident near Berwick meets me and says, 'You're one of the Doctor's girls, ain't ye?' 'It makes me feel as though that were really my place in the world.

"Miss Jewett was born in a fine old colonial residence that was built in 1740. It is situated in the village of Berwick, Maine, not far from Portsmouth, and this mansion is still her home. Her father, 'The Country Doctor,' died some years since, and her mother within the last few months. One sister and she still continue to occupy the old homestead during most of each year. A married sister lives close by. Miss Jewett has always lived an outdoor life. She rides, drives, and rows a great deal. When her father was living she went about with him a great deal, and that was the way in which, without realizing what the experience was worth to her, she got her marvelous insight into the life of country people of a quarter of a century ago. Before Miss Jewett's day no writer could exactly depict the phases of country life which she treats without making a burlesque of the attempt. It has taken Miss Jewett to show the world that the country dialect and country habits hide some of the noblest hearts and kindest words in the world.

" 'When I was, perhaps, fifteen,' says she, 'the first "city boarders" began to make their appearance near Berwick ; and the way they misconstrued the country people and made game of their peculiarities fired me with indignation. I determined to teach the world that country people were not the awkward, ignorant set those persons seemed to think. I wanted the world to know their grand, simple lives; and so far as I had a mission, when I first began to write, I think that was it. But now, when every village has its city visitors In the summer and the relations between the city and country are so much closer than they used to be, there is no need of my mission.'

"Her first story for the Atlantic was accepted before she was twenty. She had no literary friends 'at court,' and it was her own inimitable work which won her the success which has been so marked. She was always a delicate child and could not endure confinement of a schoolroom. Her education was, for the most part, got at home under the wise direction of her father. Miss Jewett says she misses a certain logical directness that comes only with training at good schools; but she would not have missed the outdoor life and association with her father for anything. Probably her own success as a writer was foreshadowed in her father's advice, constantly repeated, 'Don't try to write about people and things; tell them just as they are'— a thing she has certainly done."

On September 3, 1902, she was injured in a carriage accident that all but ended her writing career. She was paralyzed by a stroke in March 1909, and she died on June 24 after suffering another. The Georgian home of the Jewett family, built in 1774 overlooking Central Square at South Berwick, is now a National Historic Landmark and Historic New England museum called the Sarah Orne Jewett House

Sources

• Wikipedia: Sarah_Orne_Jewett
• Wikidata: Item Q444995
• Brown, John Howard, Lamb's Biographical Dictionary of the United States, Volume IV, James H. Lamb Company, Boston, Massachusetts, 1901, Pg. 389.
• JJewett, Frederic Clarke, History and Genealogy of the Jewetts of America, Volume II, The Grafton Press, New York, 1908. Pgs. 647-50
• Find A Grave: Memorial #13784442, Portland Street Cemetery, South Berwick, York County, Maine, USA