Cable, George Washington (1844-1925), was an American writer known for his books about Creoles, who were Louisiana natives descended from French and Spanish settlers. Cable’s reputation rests primarily on his portrayal of Creole customs and speech and his examination of Southern racial attitudes.
Cable was part of a movement in American literature called local color writing. This movement tried to capture the feeling of a particular region through descriptions of local speech and manners. Like other local color writers, Cable wrote for many magazines. His first book, Old Creole Days (1879), was a collection of magazine stories. The novel The Grandissimes (1880) combines the themes of slavery and prejudice toward people of mixed racial ancestry. His novelette Madame Delphine (1881) also deals with people of mixed racial ancestry. Cable supported civil rights reform in the South in such nonfiction books as The Silent South (1885) and The Negro Question (1890). Cable was born on Oct. 12, 1844, in New Orleans. He died on Jan. 31, 1925.
