Rebecca Harding Davis (1831–1910)
Author of Life in the Iron Mills and Other Stories
About the Author
Rebecca Harding Davis shocked readers with the grim realism of her stories, which appeared during a time when sentimental romances were popular. Her first published story, "Life in the Iron Mills," appeared anonymously in the Atlantic Monthly in 1861. The daughter of a prosperous businessman, show more Rebecca Harding grew up in Wheeling (then in Virginia) on the Ohio River. There she observed the industrial ironworkers' misery and struggle for existence and witnessed the harsh treatment of slaves, which she described in her first novel, Margaret Howth: A Story of Today (1862). She warned her son, writer and journalist Richard Harding Davis, against doing "hack work for money." (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Works by Rebecca Harding Davis
A Rebecca Harding Davis reader : "Life in the iron-mills," selected fiction & essays (1995) 12 copies
Rebecca Harding Davis's Stories of the Civil War Era: Selected Writings from the Borderlands (2009) 9 copies
John Andross 2 copies
Associated Works
Four Stories by American Women: Rebecca Harding Davis, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Sarah OrneJewett, Edith Wharton… (1990) — Contributor — 124 copies
Civil War Memories: Nineteen Stories of Battle, Bravery, Love, and Tragedy (2000) — Contributor — 33 copies
America through the short story — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1831-06-24
- Date of death
- 1910-09-29
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Country (for map)
- USA
- Birthplace
- Washington, Pennsylvania, USA
- Place of death
- Mt. Kisco, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- Wheeling, West Virginia, USA
- Education
- Washington Female Seminary
- Occupations
- Author
Journalist
essayist
social reformer
novelist
autobiographer - Relationships
- Harding Davis, Richard (son)
- Short biography
- Rebecca Blaine Harding observed many of the subjects and themes of her writings during her upbringing in Wheeling, West Virginia as it changed into a factory town. She worked for a while as a reporter for the Wheeling Intelligencer and married lawyer and journalist Lemuel Clark Davis in 1863. The couple had three children. In her work as a journalist and author, Rebecca Harding Davis broke new literary ground as an American Realist. She hoped to improve the everyday lives and working conditions of industrial workers, women, African-Americans, Native Americans, and immigrants. She moved in prominent American literary circles that included Nathaniel Hawthorne. She published more than 500 works in her lifetime, including her autobiography "Bits of Gossip" (1904). Rebecca Harding Davis's anonymously published novella "Life in the Iron Mills," which appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in 1861, became the first work published by The Feminist Press in 1972 as part of its series of rediscovered feminist literary classics.
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Statistics
- Works
- 24
- Also by
- 13
- Members
- 546
- Popularity
- #45,669
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 9
- ISBNs
- 102
- Languages
- 1