Mary Noailles Murfree

Mary Noailles Murfree
"A Woman of the Century"
"A Woman of the Century"
BornMary Susan Murfree[1]
(1850-01-24)January 24, 1850
near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, US
DiedJuly 31, 1922(1922-07-31) (aged 72)
Murfreesboro, Tennessee, US
Pen nameCharles Egbert Craddock
OccupationWriter
Period1884–1914
SubjectAppalachian life
RelativesColonel Hardy Murfree (grandfather)

Mary Noailles Murfree (January 24, 1850 – July 31, 1922) was an American author of novels and short stories who wrote under the pen name Charles Egbert Craddock.[2] She is considered by many to be Appalachia's first significant female writer and her work a necessity for the study of Appalachian literature, although a number of characters in her work reinforce negative stereotypes about the region. She has been favorably compared to Bret Harte and Sarah Orne Jewett, creating post-Civil War American local-color literature.

The town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is named after Murfree's great-grandfather Colonel Hardy Murfree, who fought in the Revolutionary War.

  1. ^ Nashville 1933, Tennessee Records: Bible Records and Marriage Bonds, p. 22
  2. ^ "Murfree, Mary Noailles". Who's Who. Vol. 59. 1907. p. 1276.