The Reconstruction of White Southern Womanhood, 1865–1895 by Jane Turner Censer

Author:Jane Turner Censer [Censer, Jane Turner]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, State & Local, South (AL; AR; FL; GA; KY; LA; MS; NC; SC; TN; VA; WV)
ISBN: 9780807129210
Google: TkvIt_fzwPYC
Publisher: LSU Press
Published: 2003-09-30T02:59:12+00:00

6

BECOMING AN AUTHOR IN THE

POSTWAR SOUTH

Since I can first remember[,] it has been my highest ambition to take an active part in the drama of life[;] not to sit quietly with folded hands witnessing with indifference, the struggles of my fellow men and unmoved to hear the cries of downtrodden genius, but with my soul strengthened and nerved by prayer, to arise, give here a helping hand, there a kindly word, and still more precious gift, a tear to those who need it, teaching them so to live that death shall be robbed of its sting.

In August 1867, sixteen-year-old Sue Hubard, who lived with her family on a plantation in Buckingham County, Virginia, penned these hopes for her future. Her vision might seem a quasi-religious mission that could be fulfilled by benevolent works, but in fact this was only a part—and probably a small one—of what Sue had in mind for herself. She had recently finished the bestselling novel, St. Elmo, written by fellow southerner Augusta Jane Evans, and she could not resist the temptation to share her innermost ambition with “Miss Evans.” More than anything, Sue had a burning desire to be an author. “I have been writing short sketches & pieces of poetry ever since I could grasp a pen,” she confessed, “and altho’ I feel how far short they fall to anything which I desire, yet Hope points upward and onward and shows me the goal which I may attain by study and perseverance and oh what hardships are too great to be encountered and overcome with such an end in view!” Despite the lofty super-structure Sue Hubard erected around her dream, her immediate goal was quite practical: she asked Augusta Evans to suggest a course of study that would prepare her to be an author. More poignantly, Sue also asked the famous author to be her friend and correspondent, evidently envisioning a kind of mentorship that could help guide her career.1

It is far from clear that Sue Hubard ever worked up courage actually to mail this letter to Augusta Evans. The voluminous Hubard papers yield no trace of any response from the well-known author, even though Evans’s biographer indicates that she answered a large correspondence from her admirers. If Evans received this note, she might well have been at somewhat of a loss about how to reply. Certainly Sue Hubard’s vision of literature as inspiration would have jibed well with Evans’s own high-mindedness and religious goals. And given Evans’s sometimes tortured prose, she might not have found Sue Hubard’s prolix and breathless style off-putting. Nonetheless, Augusta Evans believed traditional marriage and domesticity to be the proper lot of most females; it seems doubtful that she would have actively encouraged a young woman considering an alternative lifestyle. Moreover, in Evans’s own books, the kind of heroine who wrote books possessed a self-reliance that needed few props (such as the friendship of a literary lady). Even though Evans aided at least one female literary aspirant, she probably would not have wanted to encourage a young and impressionable girl.

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