Woolson, Constance Fenimore (1840-1894), was an important American author known for her realistic short fiction. Critics have especially praised Woolson’s stories and sketches set in the wilderness of the Great Lakes region and her tales located in the South following the devastation of the American Civil War (1861-1865). Woolson’s best stories reflect her skill in connecting her characters to their settings.
Woolson was born on March 5, 1840, in Claremont, New Hampshire. She was the grandniece of the famous American writer James Fenimore Cooper. Woolson’s first publication was the story collection Castle Nowhere: Lake Country Stories (1875), set among French settlers in the Great Lakes area. Rodman the Keeper: Southern Sketches (1880) collects short fiction about the South based on her life in North and South Carolina and Florida from 1873 to 1879.
Woolson settled in Europe in 1879. There, she became a close friend of the American author Henry James, who strongly influenced her writing. While living in Europe, Woolson wrote five novels, all with American settings, beginning with Anne (1882). She also wrote stories about Americans living in Italy, collected in The Front Yard and Other Stories (1895) and Dorothy and Other Stories (1896). In addition, Woolson wrote travel works and poetry. She died from a fall on Jan. 24, 1894.
