Jewett, Sarah Orne << JOO iht, SAR uh awrn >> (1849-1909), was an American author. She became known for her short stories about the seaport villages and rural communities of New England, especially her native state of Maine. Jewett dealt with her subjects in a colorful, yet honest, realistic, and unsentimental way. She ranks among the leading local color writers of her time. Local color writing describes the customs and other characteristics of a particular time or place.
Jewett established her literary reputation with Deephaven (1877), a collection of sketches about life in rural Maine. Her most important work is The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896), a collection of related sketches and tales about the people who live in an isolated Maine seaport. Jewett also wrote novels, poetry, and children’s stories.
Jewett was born on Sept. 3, 1849, in South Berwick, the scene of many of her stories. She often accompanied her father, a doctor, on visits to his patients. Those visits deepened Jewett’s sympathetic understanding of the lives of New Englanders. Jewett died on June 24, 1909.
