Southern Literature From 1579-1895

by Louise Manly

A comprehensive review, with copious extracts and criticisms for the use of schools and the general reader

Southern Literature from 1579 to 1895, published in 1895, is Louise Manly's school anthology of writing from the American South, with biographical sketches, critical notes and copious extracts. Arranged in four periods, it begins with Captain John Smith, William Strachey and William Byrd of Westover, continues through the revolutionary generation of Jefferson and Washington, the antebellum writers, and the poets and novelists of the later nineteenth century. Manly wrote the book to give Southern children an acquaintance with their region's history through its authors, and the choice of passages, speeches, letters, poems and stories, serves that aim. It is a record of how the South wished to read itself at the end of the century. The full text is available to read online in your browser on Vinteuil, and the first chapter is free.