Rebecca Harding Davis
(24 June 1831 - 29 September 1910)

A Bibliography of Primary and Secondary Sources

Janice Milner Lasseter
Samford University
September 1997

PRIMARY SOURCES

BOOKS:

Margaret Howth: A Story of To-Day. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1862.
Afterword. Jean Fagan Yellin. New York: Feminist, 1990).
Dallas Galbraith. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1868.
Waiting for the Verdict. New York: Sheldon, 1868. Upper Saddle River, NH: Gregg, 1967. Ed. Don
Dingledine. Albany, NY: North Carolina University Press, 1995.
John Andross. New York: Orange Judd, 1874.
Kitty's Choice: A Story of Berrytown. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1874.
A Law Unto Herself. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1878.
Natasqua. New York: Cassell, 1887.
Silhouettes of American Life. New York: Scribner's, 1892. London: Osgood-Mellvaine, 1892. New York: Garrett, 1968.
Kent Hampden. New York: Scribner's, 1892.
Doctor Warwick's Daughters. New York: Harper, 1896.
Frances Waldeaux. New York: Harper, 1897. London: Osgood-Mellvaine, 1897.
Bits of Gossip. New York: Houghton, 1904. Cambridge: Riverside, 1905. London: Constable, 1905.
Life in the Iron Mills and Other Stories. Bio.Interp.Tillie Olsen. New York: Feminist, 1972.
Life in the Iron Mills. Ed.Cecelia Tichi. New York: St. Martin's, 1997.

SELECTED PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS:

FICTION

"Life in the Iron Mills." Atlantic Monthly 7 (1861): 430-451. Rpt. Atlantic Tales: A Collection of Stories from the Atlantic Monthly. Ed. William Ticknor and James T. Fields. Boston: Ticknor, 1866.
"John Lamar." Atlantic Monthly 9 (1862): 411-423.
"David Gaunt." Atlantic Monthly 10 (1862): 257-271, 403-421.
"Blind Tom." Atlantic Monthly 10 (1862): 580-85; rpt. All the Year Round 8 (1862): 126-29.
"Paul Blecker." Atlantic Monthly 11 (1863): 580-598, 677-691.
"The Wife's Story." Atlantic Monthly 14 (1864): 1-19. Olsen, 175-222. Pfaelzer, Reader 112-38.
"Ellen." Atlantic Monthly 16 (1865): 22-34.
"Out of the Sea." Atlantic Monthly 15 (1865): 533-49. Pfaelzer, Reader 139-65.
"The Harmonists." Atlantic Monthly 17 (1866): 529-38. Pfaelzer, Reader 166-80.
"In the Market." Peterson's 53 (1868): 49-57. Pfaelzer, Reader 198-214.
"The Story of Christine." Peterson's 50 (1866): 166-74. Pfaelzer, Reader 181-97.
"The Pearl of Great Price." Lippincott's 2 (1868): 606-617; 3 (1869): 74-83.
"Put Out of the Way." Peterson's 57 (1870): 413-43.
"Two Women." Galaxy 9 (1870): 799-815.
"Earthen Pitchers." Scribner's 7 (1873): 73-81, 199-207; 8 (1874): 275-281, 490-494, 595-600, 714-721. Pfaelzer, Reader 215-86.
"A Faded Leaf of History." Atlantic Monthly 31 (1873): 44-52; Silhouettes of American Life 218-38; Pfaelzer, Reader 362-73.
"Between Man and Woman." Peterson's 65 (1874): 190-98.
"The Doctor's Wife." Scribner's 8 (1874): 108-110; Silhouettes of American Life 67-73.
"The Pepper-Pot Woman." Scribner's 8 (1874): 541-543.
"The Rose of Carolina." Scribner's 8 (1874): 723-726.
"Dolly." Scribner's 9 (1874): 89-92. Pfaelzer, Reader 287-91.
"The Poetess of Clap City." Scribner's 9 (1875): 612-615.
"The Yares of the Black Mountains." Lippincott's 16 (1875): 35-47; Silhouettes of American Life 239-68; Pfaelzer, Reader 292-309.
"Marcia." Harper's 53 (1876): 925-28; Silhouettes of American Life 269-80; Legacy 4 (1987): 6-10. Pfaelzer, Reader 310-16.
"Married People." Harper's 43 (1877): 730-35.
"A Day with Doctor Sarah." Harper's 57 (1878): 611-17; Pfaelzer, Reader 317-28.
"A Strange Story from the Coast." Lippincott's 23 (1879): 677-85.
"Walhalla." Scribner's 29 (1880): 139-45. Silhouettes of American Life 46-66.
"Across the Gulf." Lippincott's 28 (881): 59-71. Silhouettes of American Life 111-44.
"A Silhouette." Harper's 67 (1883): 622-31. Republished as "The End of the Vendetta," Silhouettes of American Life 193-217.
"A Wayside Episode." Lippincott's 31 (February 1883): 179-90. Silhouettes of American Life 145-71.
"Mademoiselle Joan." Atlantic Monthly 58 (September 1886): 328-36. Silhouettes of American Life 172-92.
"Here and There in the South." Harper's New Monthly 75 (July-November 1887): 235-46, 431-43, 593-606, 747-60, 914-25.
"Tirar y Soult." Scribner's Magazine 2 (November 1887): 563-72. Silhouettes of American Life 21-45.
"At the Station." Scribner's Magazine 4 (December 1888): 687-96. Silhouettes of American Life 1-20.
"Anne." Harper's New Monthly 78 (1889): 744-50. Silhouettes of American Life 74-91. Olsen 223-42. Pfaelzer, Reader 329-39.
"An Ignoble Martyr." Harper's New Monthly 80 (March 1890): 604-10. Silhouettes of American Life 92-110.
"In the Gray Cabins of New England." Century 49 (1895): 620-23. Pfaelzer, Reader 409-16.
"An Old-Time Love Story." Century 77 (December 1908): 219-21.
"The Coming of Night." Scribner's Magazine 45 (January 1909): 58-68.

NONFICTION

"Ellen." Peterson's Magazine, 44 (July 1863): 38-48.
"Men's Rights." Putnam's Magazine 3 (February 1869): 212-24. Pfaelzer, Reader 343-61.
"The Middle-Aged Woman." Scribner's Monthly 19 (July 1875): 612-15. Pfaelzer, Reader 374-79.
"The House on the Beach." Lippincott's Magazine 18 (January 1876): 72-80. Pfaelzer, Reader 386-92.
"Some Testimony in the Case." Atlantic Monthly 56 (November 1885): 602-8. Pfaelzer, Reader 393-401.
"Low Wages for Women." Independent 40 (8 November 1888): 1425.
"Are Women to Blame?" North American Review 148 (May 1889): 622-41. Also by Cooke, Harland, Owen, and Barr.
"Shop and Country Girls." Independent 41 (15 August 1889).
"Women in Literature." Independent 43 (7 May 1891): 6612. Pfaelzer, Reader 402-04.
"The Newly Discovered Woman." Independent 45 (30 November 1893):1601. Pfaelzer, Reader 405-08.
"Some Hobgoblins in Literature." Book Buyer 14 (April 1897): 229-31.
"Two Points of View." Independent 49 (9 September 1897)1161-62. Pfaelzer, Reader 417-21.
"Two Methods with the Negro." Independent 50 (31 March 1898): 401-02. Pfaelzer, Reader 422-25.
"Women and Patriotism." Harper's Bazaar 21 (28 May 1898): 455.
"The Work Before Us." Independent 51 (19 January 1899): 177-79. Pfaelzer, Reader 426-29.
"The Curse of Education." North American Review 168 (May 1899): 609-14. Reprinteded as "Education and Crime." Report
of the Department of Interior–Education, 1899
. Vol. 2. House Document Vol. 31 56th Congress, 1st session, 1899-1900.
"The Mean Face of War." Independent 51 (20 July 1899): 1931-33. Pfaelzer, Reader 430-33.
"On the Jersey Coast." Independent 52 (15 November 1900): 2730-33.
"Under the Old Code." Harper's New Monthly 100 (February 1900): 401-12.
"Lord Kirchener's Methods." Independent 53 (7 February 1901): 326-38. Pfaelzer, Reader 434-38.
"The Disease of Money-Getting." Independent 54 (19 June 1902): 1457-60.
"The Black North." Independent 54 (6 February 1902): 338-40. Pfaelzer, Reader 439-42.
"War as the Woman Sees It." Saturday Evening Post 176 (June 11, 1904): 8-9.
"A Middle-Aged Woman." Independent 57 (1 September 1904): 489-94.
"The Love Story of Charlotte Bronte." Saturday Evening Post 178 (13 January 1906): 14-15.
"Undistinguished Americans." Independent 60 (26 April 1906): 962-64. Pfaelzer, Reader 458-62.
"One Woman's Question." The Independent 63 (July 1907): 132-33.

SECONDARY SOURCES

LETTERS

Richard Harding Davis Collection (#6109). Clifford Waller Barrett Library. Special Collections
Department, University of Virginia Library.

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

Harris, Sharon M. "Rebecca Harding Davis: A Bibliography of Secondary Criticism, 1958-1986." Bulletin of Bibliography 45 (1988): 233-46.
Rose, Jane Atteridge. "A Bibliography of Fiction and Non-Fiction by Rebecca Harding Davis." American Literary Realism 22 (1990): 67-86.

BIOGRAPHIES

Davis, Charles Belmont. The Adventures and Letters of Richard Harding Davis. New York: Scribners, 1917.
Harris, Sharon M. Rebecca Harding Davis and American Realism. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 1991.
Langford, Gerald. "Book I: Rebecca." The Richard Harding Davis Years: A Biography of Mother and Son. New York: Holt, 1961.
Pfaelzer, Jean. Parlor Radical: Rebecca Harding Davis and the Origins of American Social Realism. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 1996.
Rose, Jane Atteridge. Rebecca Harding Davis. New York: Twayne, 1993.

CRITICAL ESSAYS

Austin, James C. "Success and Failure of Rebecca Harding Davis." Midcontinent American Studies Journal 3 (1962): 44-46.
Boudreau, Kristin. "The Woman's Flesh of Me': Rebecca Harding Davis's Response to Self Reliance." American Transcendental Quarterly 6 (1992): 132-40.
Buckley, J. F. "Living in the Iron Mills: A Tempering of Nineteenth-Century America's Orphic Poet." Journal of American Culture 16 (1993): 67-72.
Conron, John. "Assailant Landscapes and the Man of Feeling: Rebecca Harding Davis's Life in the Iron Mills." Journal of American Culture 3 (1976): 94-102.
Curnutt, Kirk. "Direct Addresses, Narrative Authority, and Gender in Rebecca Harding Davis's 'Life in the Iron Mills.'" Style 2 (1994): 146.
Downey, Fairfax. "Portrait of a Pioneer," Colophon 12 (1932): n.p.
Eppard, Philip B. "Rebecca Harding Davis: A Misattribution." Papers of the Bibliographic Society of America 69 (1975): 265-67.
Fetterley, Judith. Intro. and Critical Commentary. Life in the Iron Mills. Provisions: A Reader from 19th-Century American Women. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1985: 306-14.
Gilbert, Sandra and Susan Gubar. Intro."Rebecca Harding Davis." The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women. New York: Norton, 1985: 903-34.
Harris, Sharon M. "Rebecca Harding Davis: A Continuing Misattribution." Legacy 5 (1987): 33-34.
–. "Rebecca Harding Davis: From Romanticism to Realism." American Literary Realism 21 (1989): 4-20.
–. "Redefining the Feminine: Women and Work in Rebecca Harding Davis's 'In the Market.'" Legacy 8 (1992): 118-32.
Hesford, Walter. "Literary Contexts of "Life in the Iron Mills." American Literature 49 (1971): 70-85.
Hood, Richard A. "Framing a 'Life in the Iron Mills.'" Studies in American Fiction 23 (1995): 73.
Lasseter, Janice Milner. "'Boston in the Sixties': Rebecca Harding Davis' View of Boston and Concord during the Civil War." The Concord Saunterer 3 (1995): 65- 72.
–. "Hawthorne's Legacy to Rebecca Harding Davis." Scribbling Women: Engendering and Expanding the Hawthorne Tradition. Ed. John Idol and Melinda Ponder. Amherst: Massachusetts, 1998.
Little, Deandra. "An Alabama Realist: The Influence of the Nineteenth-Century Idea of Womanhood in Rebecca Harding Davis's Margret Howth." Alabama English 7 (1995): 31-37.
Malpezzi, Frances M. "Sisters in Protest: Rebecca Harding Davis and Tillie Olsen." RE: Artes Liberales 12 (1986): 1-9.
Olsen, Tillie. "A Biographical Interpretation." Life in the Iron-Mills and Other Stories. Old Westbury, NY: Feminist, 1985: 69-174.
Perkins, Barbara and George Perkins, ed. "Life in the Iron Mills." Kaleidoscope: Stories of the American Experience. New York: Oxford UP, 1993: 249-63.
Pfaelzer, Jean. "Legacy Profile: Rebecca Harding Davis." Legacy 7 (1990): 39-45.
—."'Marcia' by Rebecca Harding Davis." Legacy 4 (1987): 3-10.
—."Rebecca Harding Davis: Domesticity, Social Order, and the Industrial Novel." International Journal of Women's Studies 4 (1981): 234-244.
—, ed. Rebecca Harding Davis: A Reader. Philadelphia: U of Pittsburgh P, 1995.
—."Subjectivity as Feminist Utopia." Utopian and Science Fiction by Women: Worlds of
Difference
. Ed. Jane L. Donawerth and Carol A. Kolmerten. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1994: 93-106.
—. "The Sentimental Promise and the Utopian Myth: Rebecca Harding Davis's 'The Harmonists' and Louisa May Alcott's 'Transcendental Wild Oats.'" American Transcendental Quarterly 3 (1989): 85-99.
Rose, Jane Atteridge. "The Artist Manque in the Fiction of Rebecca Harding Davis." Writing the Woman Artist: Essays on Poetics, Politics, and Portraiture. Ed. Suzanne W. Jones. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania UP, 1991: 155-74.
—."Images of Self: The Example of Rebecca Harding Davis and Charlotte Perkins Gilman." English Language Notes 29 (1992): 70-78.
—. "Reading 'Life in the Iron Mills' Contextually: A Key to Rebecca Harding Davis's Fiction." Conversations: Contemporary Critical Theory and the Teaching of Literature. Ed. Charles Moran and Elizabeth F. Penfield. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1990:187-199.
Scheiber, Andrew J. "An Unknown Infrastructure: Gender, Production, and Aesthetic Exchange in Rebecca Harding Davis's 'Life in the Iron-Mills.'" Legacy 11 (1992): 101-17.
Shurr, William H. "'Life in the Iron-Mills': A Nineteenth-Century Conversion Narrative." American Transcendental Quarterly 5 (1991): 67-86.
Thompson, Rosemarie Garland. "Benevolent Maternalism and Physically Disabled Figures: Dilemmas of Female Embodiment in Stowe, Davis, and Phelps." American Literature 68 (1996): 556-86.
Yellin, Jean Fagan. "The 'Feminization' of Rebecca Harding Davis." American Literary History 2 (1990): 203-219.
—. Afterword. Margret Howth: A Story of To-Day Rebecca Harding Davis. New York: Feminist, 1990: 271-302.

REFERENCES

Beer, Thomas. The Mauve Decade: American Life at the End of the Nineteenth Century. New York: Knopf, 1926.
Cohn, Jan. "The Negro Character in Northern Magazine Fiction of the 1860's." New England Quarterly 43 (1970): 572-92.
Culley, Margaret M. "Vain Dreams: The Dream Convention in Some Nineteenth-Century American Women's Fiction." Frontiers 1 (1976): 94-102.
Duus, Louise. "Neither Saint nor Sinner: Women in Late Nineteenth-Century Fiction." American Literary Realism 7 (1974): 276-78.
Goodman, Charlotte. "Portraits of the Artiste Manque by Three Women Novelists." Frontiers 5 (57-59).
Haight, Gordon S. "Realism Defined: William Dean Howells." Literary History of the United States. Ed. Robert E. Spiller. 2 volumes, 3rd edition New York: Macmillan, 1946.
Harris, Sharon M. Intro. Redefining the Political Novel: American Women Writers, 1797- 1901. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995: ix.
Mitchell, Lee Clark. "Naturalism and Languages of Determinism." Literary History of the United States. Ed. Emory Elliott. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988: 537.
Pattee, Fred Lewis. The Development of the American Short Story: An Historical Survey. New York: Harper, 1923:169-73.
Pearson, Carol. The Female Hero in American and British Literature. New York: Bowker, 1981: 43.
Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart. "Stories That Stay." Century 81 (1910): 118-24.
Sense and Sensibility Collective. An Annotated Bibliography of Women Writers. 2nd edition. Cambridge, MA: The Collective, 1973: 49.
Quinn, Arthur Hobson. American Fiction: An Historical and Critical Survey. New York: Appleton-Century, 1936: 180-92.
Sundquist, Eric J. "Realism and Regionalism." Literary History of the United States. Ed. Emory Elliott. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988: 510.

UNPUBLISHED DISSERTATIONS

Grayburn,William Frazer. "The Major Fiction of Rebecca Harding Davis." Ph.D. dissertation.
Pennsylvania State University, 1965.
Rose, Jane Atteridge. "The Fiction of Rebecca Harding Davis: A Palimpsest of Domestic
Ideology Beneath a Surface of Realism." Ph.D. dissertation. University of Georgia, 1988.
Shaeffer, Helen Woodward. "Rebecca Harding Davis: Pioneer Realist." Ph.D. dissertation.
University of Pennsylvania, 1947.

 

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