Rebecca Harding Davis
Encyclopedia
Rebecca Blaine Harding Davis (June 24, 1831–September 29, 1910; born Rebecca Blaine Harding) was an American author and journalist. She is deemed a pioneer of literary realism
in American literature
. She graduated valedictorian
from Washington Female Seminary
in Pennsylvania
. Her most important literary work is the novella
Life in the Iron Mills
, published in the April 1861 edition of the Atlantic Monthly which quickly made her an established female writer. Throughout her lifetime, Harding Davis sought to effect social change for blacks, women, Native Americans, immigrants, and the working class, by intentionally writing about the plight of these marginalized groups in the 19th century.
, on June 24, 1831, to Richard and Rachel Leet Wilson Harding. Rebecca was the eldest of five children. After an unsuccessful entrepreneurial spell in Big Spring, Alabama, the family finally settled in Wheeling
, West Virginia
, in 1836. At the time, Wheeling was rapidly transforming into a highly productive factory town, the concentration of which was iron and steel mills. The environment of Rebecca's home town profoundly affected the themes, and the vision of her later fiction, most notably Life in the Iron Mills. Despite Wheeling's productivity and its accessible location along the Ohio River, Davis described her childhood as having belonged to a slower, simpler time, writing in her 1904 autobiography Bits of Gossip that, "there were no railways in it, no automobiles or trolleys, no telegraphs, no sky-scraping houses. Not a single man in the country was the possessor of huge accumulations of money".
, sisters Anna and Susan Warner, and Maria Cummins, which initiated her interest in literature.When Davis was fourteen, she was sent to Washington, Pennsylvania to live with her mother's sister, and attend the Washington Female Seminary
. She graduated as class valedictorian
in 1848, at the age of seventeen. Rebecca described the school as "enough math to do accounts, enough astronomy to point out constellations, a little music and drawing, and French, history, literature at discretion". After returning to Wheeling, she joined the staff of the local newspaper, the Intelligencer, submitting reviews, stories, poems, and editorials, and also serving briefly as an editor in 1859.
" in 1861.
Life in the Iron Mills
, published in the Atlantic Monthly in April 1861, is regarded by many critics as a pioneering document marking the transition from Romanticism
to Realism
in American literature. The successful publication of the short story also won her acclaim in the literary circles of her time. At the time it was published, Harding was acknowledged as a "brave new voice" by Louisa May Alcott
and Ralph Waldo Emerson
. They were impressed with the author's goal, which was "to dig into the commonplace, this vulgar American life, and see what is in it". She later met and became acquainted with Emerson whilst staying with Nathaniel Hawthorne
during a trip she had long delayed to meet her publisher James Thomas Fields
. She greatly admired both of these American writers. During this trip around the North, which originated with her publisher's desire to meet her personally, Davis also became close friends with her publisher's wife, Annie Fields. Thus, her literary success dramatically altered and enlarged her social circle.
On her journey back from a meeting with her publisher, Rebecca met L. Clarke Davis in Philadelphia
, Pennsylvania
, whom she had been corresponding with since he had contacted her as an admirer of her work after the publication of Life in the Iron Mills. They became engaged one week after meeting and were married on March 5, 1863. Clarke was four years younger than Davis and not yet financially or professionally established in the world. The following year she gave birth to their first son, Richard Harding Davis
, who was to become a writer and journalist himself. Their second son, Charles Belmont, was born in 1866; their daughter, Nora, in 1872.
At the start of their marriage Davis was the primary income provider for their family, as Clarke worked to establish himself in his law career. She accomplished this through her writing and as an editor for the New York Tribune. However, ten years after their marriage Davis had faded substantially from the literary world. Clarke gave up law and became an editor for the Philadelphia Inquirer as well. As Clarke's success grew, Davis' work became more closely linked to that of a mother and a housewife. In 1892, Davis received a small critical and popular success with Silouettes of American Life but it was her last. She died at age 79, on September 29, 1910.
" published "Life in the Iron Mills
" with Olsen's own biographical interpretation of Rebecca Harding Davis' life in relation to a selection of her published works.
Life in the Iron Mills is set in a small village whose center is industrial work, especially that of the iron mills. It is described as a polluted and oppressive village, inhabited by laborers, mostly “masses of men, with dull, besotted faces bent to the ground, sharpened here and there by pain or cunning; skin and muscle and flesh begrimed with smoke and ashes”. The novella’s protagonist is Hugh Wolfe, an iron mill laborer who possesses artistic talent and a spiritual desire for higher forms of pleasure and fulfillment. Despite the hopefulness of Wolfe’s artistic drive, he becomes the story’s tragic hero, as his yearning for a better life leads to his imprisonment and ultimate death.
Though the novella is concerned with larger themes such as industrialization and the working class, Harding Davis’ depiction of Hugh Wolfe, and her command of realism allows the reader to focus on the the individual within the labor class, and the consequences of its realities upon his heart and soul. In Life in the Iron Mills, "Harding reveals what, historically was done to workers and suggests what could be done for them, moral education and social uplift."
. Her literary works mark a transition from romanticism
to literary realism. For instance, "Life on the Iron Mills" utilizes a realistic style comparable to writers in the height of American literary realism, which came two decades after the text was published. Although Realism is the genre most prominently attached to Harding Davis' collective works, Naturalism is also prevalent in her writing style. Naturalism is thematically linked to realism. Where Realists, like Harding Davis, endeavor to depict reality, Naturalists expand on that reality by approaching the scientific and or psychological influences on characters due to their environments. In Life in the Iron Mills, the two genres are blended to create a realistic depiction of the everyday life of iron mill worker Hugh Wolfe, as well as illustrate the effects of that environment on him.
In addition to Realism and Naturalism, Harding Davis also published works employing such literary genres as the Gothic
and Folklore
.
, industrialism, racism, women’s rights, and the struggles of the laboring class.
Another work in which Harding Davis depicts the power of a female figure is “Life in the Iron Mills.” The Korl Woman, sculpted by Hugh Wolfe, represents an all-encompassing sublime image of laboring class womanhood. The intensity with which this figure is received, and the humanistic quality of its structure relay a message intended to reveal the true image of not only laborers, but female beauty as well. The Korl woman serves as a symbol that challenges nineteenth-century standards of femininity. Thus, Harding Davis utilizes the Korl Woman to depict the realistic affects of the iron mills, while simultaneously questioning female societal restrictions as a whole.
Short fiction
Essays
Literary realism
Literary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were." In the spirit of...
in American literature
American literature
American literature is the written or literary work produced in the area of the United States and its preceding colonies. For more specific discussions of poetry and theater, see Poetry of the United States and Theater in the United States. During its early history, America was a series of British...
. She graduated valedictorian
Valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...
from Washington Female Seminary
Washington Female Seminary
The Washington Female Seminary was a Presbyterian seminary for women operating from 1836 to 1948 in Washington, Pennsylvania.The movement to create an institution to teach women began in 1835 and the Seminary opened 1 year later in 1836. The two founders were abolitionist F...
in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. Her most important literary work is the novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
Life in the Iron Mills
Life in the Iron Mills
Life in the Iron Mills; or, the Korl Woman is a short story written by Rebecca Harding Davis in 1861, set in the factory world of the nineteenth century. It is one of the earliest American realist works, and is an important text for those who study labor and women's issues...
, published in the April 1861 edition of the Atlantic Monthly which quickly made her an established female writer. Throughout her lifetime, Harding Davis sought to effect social change for blacks, women, Native Americans, immigrants, and the working class, by intentionally writing about the plight of these marginalized groups in the 19th century.
Early life
Rebecca Blaine Harding was born in Washington, PennsylvaniaWashington, Pennsylvania
Washington is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Pennsylvania, United States, within the Pittsburgh Metro Area in the southwestern part of the state...
, on June 24, 1831, to Richard and Rachel Leet Wilson Harding. Rebecca was the eldest of five children. After an unsuccessful entrepreneurial spell in Big Spring, Alabama, the family finally settled in Wheeling
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
, in 1836. At the time, Wheeling was rapidly transforming into a highly productive factory town, the concentration of which was iron and steel mills. The environment of Rebecca's home town profoundly affected the themes, and the vision of her later fiction, most notably Life in the Iron Mills. Despite Wheeling's productivity and its accessible location along the Ohio River, Davis described her childhood as having belonged to a slower, simpler time, writing in her 1904 autobiography Bits of Gossip that, "there were no railways in it, no automobiles or trolleys, no telegraphs, no sky-scraping houses. Not a single man in the country was the possessor of huge accumulations of money".
Education
During the earlier part Davis' childhood, public schools in her hometown were not yet available. Her education was mainly undertaken by her mother, with occasional instruction from tutors (most likely brought in for her brothers). While being home-schooled, Rebecca read such authors as Harriet Beecher StoweHarriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...
, sisters Anna and Susan Warner, and Maria Cummins, which initiated her interest in literature.When Davis was fourteen, she was sent to Washington, Pennsylvania to live with her mother's sister, and attend the Washington Female Seminary
Washington Female Seminary
The Washington Female Seminary was a Presbyterian seminary for women operating from 1836 to 1948 in Washington, Pennsylvania.The movement to create an institution to teach women began in 1835 and the Seminary opened 1 year later in 1836. The two founders were abolitionist F...
. She graduated as class valedictorian
Valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...
in 1848, at the age of seventeen. Rebecca described the school as "enough math to do accounts, enough astronomy to point out constellations, a little music and drawing, and French, history, literature at discretion". After returning to Wheeling, she joined the staff of the local newspaper, the Intelligencer, submitting reviews, stories, poems, and editorials, and also serving briefly as an editor in 1859.
Personal life and family
Upon returning to her industrial hometown, Wheeling, Rebecca Harding Davis socialized very little, staying largely within her own family circle. She continued this isolated way of life for thirteen years until the publication of "Life in the Iron MillsLife in the Iron Mills
Life in the Iron Mills; or, the Korl Woman is a short story written by Rebecca Harding Davis in 1861, set in the factory world of the nineteenth century. It is one of the earliest American realist works, and is an important text for those who study labor and women's issues...
" in 1861.
Life in the Iron Mills
Life in the Iron Mills
Life in the Iron Mills; or, the Korl Woman is a short story written by Rebecca Harding Davis in 1861, set in the factory world of the nineteenth century. It is one of the earliest American realist works, and is an important text for those who study labor and women's issues...
, published in the Atlantic Monthly in April 1861, is regarded by many critics as a pioneering document marking the transition from Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
to Realism
Literary realism
Literary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were." In the spirit of...
in American literature. The successful publication of the short story also won her acclaim in the literary circles of her time. At the time it was published, Harding was acknowledged as a "brave new voice" by Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist. She is best known for the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. Little Women was set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, and published in 1868...
and Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
. They were impressed with the author's goal, which was "to dig into the commonplace, this vulgar American life, and see what is in it". She later met and became acquainted with Emerson whilst staying with Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...
during a trip she had long delayed to meet her publisher James Thomas Fields
James Thomas Fields
James Thomas Fields was an American publisher, editor, and poet.-Early life and family:He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on December 31, 1817 and named James Field; the family later added the "s". His father was a sea captain and died before Fields was three...
. She greatly admired both of these American writers. During this trip around the North, which originated with her publisher's desire to meet her personally, Davis also became close friends with her publisher's wife, Annie Fields. Thus, her literary success dramatically altered and enlarged her social circle.
On her journey back from a meeting with her publisher, Rebecca met L. Clarke Davis in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, whom she had been corresponding with since he had contacted her as an admirer of her work after the publication of Life in the Iron Mills. They became engaged one week after meeting and were married on March 5, 1863. Clarke was four years younger than Davis and not yet financially or professionally established in the world. The following year she gave birth to their first son, Richard Harding Davis
Richard Harding Davis
Richard Harding Davis was a journalist and writer of fiction and drama, known foremost as the first American war correspondent to cover the Spanish-American War, the Second Boer War, and the First World War. His writing greatly assisted the political career of Theodore Roosevelt and he also played...
, who was to become a writer and journalist himself. Their second son, Charles Belmont, was born in 1866; their daughter, Nora, in 1872.
At the start of their marriage Davis was the primary income provider for their family, as Clarke worked to establish himself in his law career. She accomplished this through her writing and as an editor for the New York Tribune. However, ten years after their marriage Davis had faded substantially from the literary world. Clarke gave up law and became an editor for the Philadelphia Inquirer as well. As Clarke's success grew, Davis' work became more closely linked to that of a mother and a housewife. In 1892, Davis received a small critical and popular success with Silouettes of American Life but it was her last. She died at age 79, on September 29, 1910.
Legacy
A prolific writer, Rebecca Harding Davis is credited with over 500 published works. Despite her outpouring of literary works, she was almost entirely forgotten by the time of her death in 1910. However, Davis was rediscovered in the very early 1970s by the feminist writer Tillie Olsen, who found a collection of Davis' works in a junk shop. Olsen quickly recognized the talent and significance of Davis' writings, and personally endeavored to reintroduce Davis' work to the world at large. In 1972, "The Feminist PressThe Feminist Press
The Feminist Press is an independent nonprofit literary publisher that promotes freedom of expression and social justice. It publishes exciting writing by women and men who share an activist spirit and a belief in choice and equality...
" published "Life in the Iron Mills
Life in the Iron Mills
Life in the Iron Mills; or, the Korl Woman is a short story written by Rebecca Harding Davis in 1861, set in the factory world of the nineteenth century. It is one of the earliest American realist works, and is an important text for those who study labor and women's issues...
" with Olsen's own biographical interpretation of Rebecca Harding Davis' life in relation to a selection of her published works.
Life in the Iron Mills
Life in the Iron Mills; or, The Korl Woman is widely considered Rebecca Harding Davis’ most significant work. Published in 1861 in Atlantic Monthly, Life in the Iron Mills was one of the first works to explore industrialization in American literature. The novella saw its publication around the dawn of the American Civil War, and is one of Harding Davis’ earliest published works. It has become an important text not only for its artistic merit, but for its historical implications. Both its form and content were ground breaking at the time of its publication, being a narrative that follows the lives of laborers and the consequences of industrialization, in a traditionally realistic style.Life in the Iron Mills is set in a small village whose center is industrial work, especially that of the iron mills. It is described as a polluted and oppressive village, inhabited by laborers, mostly “masses of men, with dull, besotted faces bent to the ground, sharpened here and there by pain or cunning; skin and muscle and flesh begrimed with smoke and ashes”. The novella’s protagonist is Hugh Wolfe, an iron mill laborer who possesses artistic talent and a spiritual desire for higher forms of pleasure and fulfillment. Despite the hopefulness of Wolfe’s artistic drive, he becomes the story’s tragic hero, as his yearning for a better life leads to his imprisonment and ultimate death.
Though the novella is concerned with larger themes such as industrialization and the working class, Harding Davis’ depiction of Hugh Wolfe, and her command of realism allows the reader to focus on the the individual within the labor class, and the consequences of its realities upon his heart and soul. In Life in the Iron Mills, "Harding reveals what, historically was done to workers and suggests what could be done for them, moral education and social uplift."
Style
Rebecca Harding Davis' literary style is most commonly labeled as realismLiterary realism
Literary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were." In the spirit of...
. Her literary works mark a transition from romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
to literary realism. For instance, "Life on the Iron Mills" utilizes a realistic style comparable to writers in the height of American literary realism, which came two decades after the text was published. Although Realism is the genre most prominently attached to Harding Davis' collective works, Naturalism is also prevalent in her writing style. Naturalism is thematically linked to realism. Where Realists, like Harding Davis, endeavor to depict reality, Naturalists expand on that reality by approaching the scientific and or psychological influences on characters due to their environments. In Life in the Iron Mills, the two genres are blended to create a realistic depiction of the everyday life of iron mill worker Hugh Wolfe, as well as illustrate the effects of that environment on him.
In addition to Realism and Naturalism, Harding Davis also published works employing such literary genres as the Gothic
Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...
and Folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
.
Themes
Recurring themes in Rebecca Harding Davis' works were based primarily on the social and political issues of the nineteenth-century: the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, industrialism, racism, women’s rights, and the struggles of the laboring class.
Industrialism
Having lived in the steel town of Wheeling, West Virginia, Harding Davis had first-hand experience with the controversies and hardships associated with industrialism. She utilizes the theme of industrialism in Life in the Iron Mills by calling attention to the dark and dismal setting of the iron mills. She not only provides vivid imagery of the dismal landscape, but imagery of the struggling working class as well. By exploring the effects of the iron mills on its inhabitants, Harding Davis is able to depict her own concerns and frustrations associated with the marginalization of the working class. Harding Davis’ depiction of the daily routines of the laboring class is a common theme throughout her writing, and most importantly serves the purpose of unveiling the maltreatment of such individuals. Her goal in relating the physical and mental starvation that plagues the inhabitants of these mills is to urge her audience to form spiritual solutions to these issues rather than social solutions.Female social roles
The exploration of female social roles in nineteenth-century society is a common theme in Harding Davis’ works. Harding Davis’ female characters can be viewed as early proto-feminist symbols because they exemplify the issues surrounding the commodification of women, and the patriarchal society that places restrictions on female identity. These issues can be seen in the heroine of Harding Davis’ novel Margret Howth. Though Howth works in the mills, her issues flow from her relations with her male counterparts. At novel's end she marries Stephen Holmes, which can both symbolize her acceptance of her Christian destiny despite her father’s protestations, and her acceptance of the role of wife and mother. Through this character Harding Davis is representing the power that patriarchal society has over the nineteenth-century female, while also presenting a strong female character who recognizes her moral independence. Harding Davis goes further in her exploration of the true female identity by addressing the role domesticity plays in the lives of her characters. Domesticity, which once defined the roles of nineteenth-century women, is altered by Harding Davis' placement of women in the iron mills. By describing the harsh conditions under which these women labored, Harding Davis is capitalizing on the idea that women are capable of integrating work life into their home life.Another work in which Harding Davis depicts the power of a female figure is “Life in the Iron Mills.” The Korl Woman, sculpted by Hugh Wolfe, represents an all-encompassing sublime image of laboring class womanhood. The intensity with which this figure is received, and the humanistic quality of its structure relay a message intended to reveal the true image of not only laborers, but female beauty as well. The Korl woman serves as a symbol that challenges nineteenth-century standards of femininity. Thus, Harding Davis utilizes the Korl Woman to depict the realistic affects of the iron mills, while simultaneously questioning female societal restrictions as a whole.
Works
Books- Margret Howth (1861)
- Waiting for the Verdict (1867)
- Kitty's Choice or Berrytown and Other Stories (1873)
- John Andross (1874)
- A Law unto Herself (1878)
- Natasqua (1886)
- Kent Hampden (1892)
- Silhouettes of American Life (1892)
- Doctor Warrick's Daughters (1896)
- Frances Waldeaux (1897)
- Bits of Gossip (1904)
Short fiction
- Life in the Iron MillsLife in the Iron MillsLife in the Iron Mills; or, the Korl Woman is a short story written by Rebecca Harding Davis in 1861, set in the factory world of the nineteenth century. It is one of the earliest American realist works, and is an important text for those who study labor and women's issues...
, Atlantic Monthly (1861) - David Gaunt (1862)
- John Lamar (1862)
- Paul Blecker (1863)
- Ellen (1865)
- The Harmonists (1866)
- In the Market (1868)
- A Pearl of Great Price (1868)
- Put out of the Way (1870)
- General William Wirt Colby, Wood's Household Magazine (1873)
- Earthen Pitchers (1873–1874)
- Marcia (1876)
- A Day with Doctor Sarah (1878)
Essays
- Men's Rights (1869)
- Some Testimony in the Case (1885)
- Here and There in the South (1887)
- Women in Literature (1891)
- In the Gray Cabins of New England (1895)
- The Disease of Money-Getting (1902)
External links
- Rebecca Harding Davis - biographical and bibliographical overview, links to works online
- Rebecca Harding Davis - short biography
- Wheeling Hall of Fame: Rebecca Harding Davis
- Slaveries "In the Borders": Rebecca Harding Davis's "Life in the Iron Mills" in Its Southern Context, by Dawn Henwood
Online texts
- Works by Rebecca Harding Davis at Archive.org
- Full text of Life in the Iron-Mills from Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
- Full text of The Balacchi Brothers