Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849–1909, American novelist and short-story writer, b. South Berwick, Maine. Her studies of small-town New England life are perceptive, sympathetic, and gently humorous. After contributing to periodicals, she published her first collection of stories and sketches, Deephaven, in 1877. It was followed by such collections as The King of Folly Island (1888) and her masterpiece, The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896). Her novels include The Marsh Island (1885) and The Tory Lover (1901); her best-known novel, A Country Doctor (1884), relates the conflicts of a woman physician.

Bibliography

See her letters (ed. by R. Cary, 1956, rev. ed. 1967); biographies by S. Sherman (1989) and P. Blanchard (1994); studies by F. O. Matthiesen (1929, repr. 1965), R. Cary (1962), and J. L. Donovan (1980).

Jewett, (Theodora) Sarah Orne

(born Sept. 3, 1849, South Berwick, Maine, U.S.—died June 24, 1909, South Berwick) U.S. writer. Concerned to capture the folkways of a vanishing culture, she wrote realistic sketches of aging Maine natives, whose manners, idioms, and pithiness she recorded with pungency and humour. Outstanding among her 20 volumes are Deephaven (1877), A White Heron (1886), and The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896).

Jewett, (Theodora) Sarah Orne (A. D. Eliot, Alice Eliot, Sarah C. Sweet, pen names) (1849–1909) writer; born in South Berwick, Maine. She graduated from Berwick Academy in 1866. Remaining in her home town, she spent her time writing short stories, poetry, children's books, and novels that drew on her intimate knowledge of provincial life. She is considered a major American writer of regional fiction, and is best known for her novel, The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896).