Sarah Orne Jewett

Sarah Orne Jewett (1849–1909) was an American author from South Berwick, Maine, widely regarded as one of the most significant writers of regional fiction in nineteenth-century American literature. Associated with the literary movement known as local color, or regionalism, she dedicated much of her writing life to capturing the rhythms, landscapes, and people of rural New England with quiet precision and deep affection. Her work earned the admiration of contemporaries including William Dean Howells and later influenced writers such as Willa Cather, who considered Jewett a formative literary mentor.

Jewett’s fiction is distinguished by its close attention to the interior lives of ordinary people — particularly women living in small, often isolated communities. Rather than relying on dramatic plot, she favored atmosphere, character, and the subtle tensions of everyday life. Her most celebrated work, The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896), portrays a summer visitor’s deepening bond with the coastal Maine community of Dunnet Landing, and is considered a landmark of American regional literature. Throughout her career she returned repeatedly to themes of solitude, community, aging, and the quiet dignity found in domestic and rural existence.

Among the stories available here, The Night Before Thanksgiving offers a characteristic glimpse into Jewett’s sensibility. The story centers on Mrs. Robb, an elderly woman living alone in a small gray house beneath tall elm trees, whose solitude on the eve of the holiday becomes the occasion for something unexpectedly warm and human. The story exemplifies Jewett’s gift for finding meaning in modest domestic moments and her compassion for characters — especially older women — who might otherwise be overlooked.

Jewett published prolifically throughout the 1880s and 1890s, contributing stories and sketches to magazines including The Atlantic Monthly. Though her output slowed after a serious carriage accident in 1902, her literary reputation has grown steadily in the decades since her death. Today she is recognized as a foundational voice in American women’s literature and a careful, precise stylist whose work continues to reward close reading.