Augusta Evans Wilson: differenze tra le versioni

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Scrisse nove romanzi: ''Inez: a Tale of the Alamo'' ([[1850]]), ''Beulah'' ([[1859]]), ''Macaria'' ([[1863]]), ''St. Elmo'' ([[1866]]), ''Vashti'' ([[1869]]), ''Infelice'' ([[1875]]), ''At the Mercy of Tiberius'' ([[1887]]), ''A Speckled Bird'' ([[1902]]) e ''Devota'' ([[1907]]). Il suo contributo può essere considerato decisivo allo sviluppo letterario e alla cultura della Confederazione, in particolare, e del Sud in generale, come una civiltà, supportando la [[Confederazione degli Stati d'America]] dalla propettiva di una patriota del sud, e con la sua attività letteraria durante la [[Guerra Civile Americana]].

Nacque come Augusta Jane Evans l'8 maggio del 1835 a Wynnton (ora MidTown, Columbus), in Georgia. Come ogni giovane ragarra del diciannovesimo secolo in america, ricevette poca educazione scolastica. ComunqueTuttavia divenne una vorace lettrice fin da piccola. Il suo sfortunato padre, Matthew Evans, perse la ricca proprietà di famiglia di Sherwood Hall per bancarotta negli anni 1840. Si trasferì con la sua famiglia dalla Georgia a San Antonio, nel Texas nel 1845. IL tempo passato qui ispirò ad Augusta il suo primo lavoro. All'età di 15 anni scrisse "Inez: A Tale of the Alamo", una storia d'amore romantica, sentimentale, moralista anti-cattolica. Si narra la storia del viaggio spirituale di un orfano dallo scetticismo religioso alla fede fervente. La giovane Augusta regalò il romanzo al padre nel Natale del 1854. Fu pubblicato in forma anonima nel 1855. Tuttavia la vita in una città di frontiera coma San Antonio si rivelò pericolosa, specialmente con la guerra contro il Messico. I genitori di Augusta si trasferirono in seguito a Mobile in Alabama. Scrisse il suo secondo romanzo all'età di 18 anni e fu intitolato "Beulah". Fu pubblicato nel 1859. "Beulah" cominciò il tema dell'educazione femminile nei suoi romanzi. Il libro ebbe successo e vendette 22.000 copie durante il primo anno di pubblicazione. Questo fu un risultato sconcertante e la portò ad essere la prima autrice professionista dell'Alabama. La sua famiglia usò il ricavato del suo successo letterario per acquistare il Georgia Cottage a Springhill Avenue. Quando molti Stati del sud dichiararono la loro indioendenza e si staccarono dagli Stati Uniti creando la [[Confederazione degli Stati d'America]], Augusta Evans divenne un'accanita patriota del sud. Divenne attiva nella conseguente [[Guerra Civile]] come propagandista. Si fidanzò con un giornalista di New York chiamato James Reed Spalding. Ma ella ruppe il fidanzamento nel 1860 poichè egli supportava Abraham Lincoln. Aiutò come infermiera i soldati confederati a Fort Morgan a Mobile Bay e visitò i soldati a Chickamauga.

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When most of the Southern states declared their independence and seceded from the Union into the Confederate States of America, Augusta Evans became a staunch Southern patriot. She became active in the subsequent Civil War as a propagandist. Augusta was engaged to a New York journalist named James Reed Spalding. But she broke off the engagement in 1860 because he supported Abraham Lincoln. She nursed sick and wounded Confederate soldiers at Fort Morgan on Mobile Bay. Augusta also visited Confederate soldiers at Chickamauga. She also sewed sandbags for the defense of the community, wrote patriotic addresses, and set up a hospital near her residence. The hospital was dubbed Camp Beulah by local admirers in honor of her novel. She also corresponded with general P.G.T. de Beauregard in 1862.

However, life in a frontier border town like San Antonio proved dangerous, especially with the Mexican-American War. Later Augusta’s parents moved her to Mobile, Alabama. Augusta wrote her next novel at age 18 which was called "Beulah". It was published in 1859. "Beulah" began the theme of female education in her novels. It sold well selling over 22,000 copies during its first year of publication. This was a staggering accomplishment. It established her as Alabama's first professional author. Her family used the proceeds from her literary success to purchase Georgia Cottage on Springhill Avenue.

When most of the Southern states declared their independence and seceded from the Union into the Confederate States of America, Augusta Evans became a staunch Southern patriot. She became active in the subsequent Civil War as a propagandist. Augusta was engaged to a New York journalist named James Reed Spalding. But she broke off the engagement in 1860 because he supported Abraham Lincoln. She nursed sick and wounded Confederate soldiers at Fort Morgan on Mobile Bay. Augusta also visited Confederate soldiers at Chickamauga. She also sewed sandbags for the defense of the community, wrote patriotic addresses, and set up a hospital near her residence. The hospital was dubbed Camp Beulah by local admirers in honor of her novel. She also corresponded with general P.G.T. de Beauregard in 1862.

Augusta’s propaganda masterpiece was "Macaria" -- a novel she later claimed was written by candlelight while nursing Confederate wounded. The novel is about Southern women making the ultimate sacrifice for the Confederacy. It was published in Richmond, Virginia, in 1863. This novel promoted national desire for an independent national culture and reflected Southern values as they were at that time. The novel was printed on wrapping paper using wallpaper for covers. It was smuggled into the North to undermine public support for the war among Northerners. It was also circulated among Northern troops to cause rancor in the ranks. It became a popular work among Southerners and Northerners alike. General George Henry Thomas, commander of the Union Army in Tennessee, confiscated copies and had the books burned. Unknown to Augusta "Macaria" was also published in New York. The royalties from its sale were maintained in trust until after the Civil War ended. These profits would embolden her family's desperate finances during Reconstruction. She learned of the royalties after the war when she accompanied her brother Howard Evans to New York to see a medical specialist to treat his paralyzed arm due to a war injury.

She finished her celebrated novel, St. Elmo at the home of her aunt, Mary Howard Jones (wife of Colonel Seaborn Jones), "El Dorado." St. Elmo in which the general setting, if not the specific details, seems to be the Jones' El Dorado. (In 1878, the home was purchased by Captain and Mrs. James J. Slade who changed its name to St. Elmo in honor of the novel which it had inspired.)[1] She published "St. Elmo" in 1866. Within four months it sold a million copies. It featured sexual tension between the protagonist St. Elmo, who was cynical; and the heroine Edna Earl, who was beautiful and devout. So popular was this novel that it inspired the naming of towns, hotels, steamboats, and a cigar brand. It was Augusta Evans' most famous novel. St. Elmo was adapted for both the stage and screen. It ranks as one of the most popular novels of the 19th century. The heroine Edna Earl became the namesake of Eudora Welty's heroine (Edna Earle Ponder) in "the Ponder Heart" published in 1954. The novel also inspired a parody of itself called "St. Twel’mo, or the Cuneiform Cyclopedist of Chattanooga” (1867).