This Goodly Land

Rebecca Harding Davis (June 24, 1831–September 29, 1910)

Other Names Used

• Rebecca Blaine Harding: birth name

Alabama Connections

• Florence, Lauderdale County: childhood residence

Selected Works

• Davis, Rebecca Harding. Margret Howth: A Story of Today. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1862. Rpt. as Margret Howth. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Literature House, 1970. Rpt. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 1990.. An online version of Margret Howth is available from Wright American Fiction, 1851-1875.
• Davis, R. H. Waiting for the Verdict. New York: Sheldon, 1868. Rpt. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Gregg Press, 1968. Rpt. Albany: NCUP, 1995. An online version of Waiting for the Verdict is available from Wright American Fiction, 1851-1875.
• Davis, Rebecca Harding. John Andross. New York: Orange Judd Co.,, 1874. An online version of John Andross is available from Wright American Fiction, 1851-1875.
• Davis, Rebecca Harding. Silhouettes of American Life. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1892. Rpt. New York: Garrett Press, 1968. An online version of Silhouettes of American Life is available from Internet Archive’s American Libraries.
• Davis, Rebecca Harding. Bits of Gossip. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1904. An online version of Bits of Gossip is available from Documenting the American South.
• Davis, Rebecca Harding. Life in the Iron-Mills and Other Stories. Ed. Tillie Olsen. Old Westbury, N.Y.: Feminist Press, 1985.
• Davis, Rebecca Harding. A Rebecca Harding Davis Reader: "Life in the Iron-Mills," Selected Fiction & Essays. Ed. Jean Pfaelzer. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995.

Biographical Information

Rebecca Harding Davis was born in Washington, Pa., while her mother was visiting relatives. She and her family lived in Big Spring (now Florence), Ala., until 1837, when they moved to Wheeling, Va. (now W. Va.). Davis received her early education from her mother and read widely as a child. At age fourteen, Davis entered Washington Female Academy. She graduated in 1848 and returned to Wheeling, continuing to read and study on her own. She also began writing and contributing articles and stories to the Wheeling Intelligencer. In April of 1861, her short story “Life in the Iron-Mills” was published in The Atlantic Monthly. That fall, the same magazine began publishing, in serial form, her novel Margret Howth. Around the same time, Davis published a mystery story “Murder of the Glenn Ross” in Peterson’s Magazine. For many years afterward, she published “popular” stories and novels in magazines such as Peterson’s and The Galaxy and “literary” stories and novels in publications like The Atlantic Monthly and Harper’s Magazine.

Davis married in 1863 and moved to Philadelphia, where she soon became ill. She recovered from her illness (probably an episode of depression) late in 1864 and resumed writing. In 1869, Davis became a contributing editor of the New York Daily Tribune. She began writing juvenile fiction the following year, publishing in magazines like The Youth’s Companion and St. Nicholas. In 1889, Davis left the Tribune and became a regular contributor to the New York Independent. In 1892, Silhouettes of American Life, a collection of her short stories, was published. In 1902, Davis began writing personal reminiscences for The Saturday Evening Post. A collection of these, Bits of Gossip, was published in 1904. Late that year, Davis’s husband died. Her eyesight began failing, but her finances required her to continue writing. Her last short story for adults appeared in 1909, and a children’s story was published a few months prior to her death. In 1910, while visiting her oldest son (author Richard Harding Davis) at his home in Mt. Kisco, N.Y., Davis suffered a stroke and died two days later. After cremation, her ashes were interred in Roxborough, Pa., with those of her husband.

Interests and Themes

Rebecca Harding Davis’s “literary” short stories and novels are early examples of realism in American fiction. She also wrote Gothic-style mystery stories, essays, and stories for children. A portion of her book Bits of Gossip describes life in Big Spring (now Florence), Ala.

For More Information

Please check your local library for these materials. If items are not available locally, your librarian can help you borrow them through the InterLibrary Loan program. Your librarian can also help you find other information about this author.

There may be more information available through the databases in the Alabama Virtual Library. If you are an Alabama citizen, AVL can be used at your public library or school library media center. You can also get a username and password from your librarian to use AVL at home.

Reference Books

• Harris, Sharon M. Rebecca Harding Davis and American Realism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.
• Langford, Gerald. Richard Harding Davis: A Biography of a Mother and Son. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961.
• Pfaelzer, Jean. Parlour Radical: Rebecca Harding Davis and the Origins of American Social Realism. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996.
• Rose, Jane Atteridge. Rebecca Harding Davis. New York: Twayne, 1993.

Reference Book Prefaces

• Lasseter, Janice Millner, and Sharon M. Harris. Introduction. Rebecca Harding Davis: Writing Cultural Autobiography by Rebecca Harding Davis. Ed. Janice Millner Lasseter and Sharon M. Harris. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, . 1-19.

Reference Web Sites

• Campbell, Donna M.. "Rebecca Harding Davis (1830-1910)". American Authors. 2007. http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/davis.htm.

Location of Papers

• University of Virginia

Photo courtesy of the Wheeling Hall of Fame and the Ohio County [W.Va.] Public Library.

Last updated on Oct 10, 2009.