Edited with Introduction and Notes by Robert Bush

Grace King (1851–1932) wrote with keen perception and realism of the life and culture of New Orleans between 1865 and 1920. She contributed a substantial amount of writing to American letters—her work totaling some thirteen volumes. Although not as celebrated as her famous contemporaries Mark Twain, George W. Cable, and Joel Chandler Harris, she was highly praised by such eminent critics as William Dean Howells. In pursuing an intellectual career, she broke with the Old South tradition and is representative of the combination of Anglo-Saxon and Creole French cultures. Her work is especially interesting for the way in which her view of the southern temper and cultural contribution supplemented that of other writers of the period.