Augustus Baldwin Longstreet's
Georgia Scenes, Characters, Incidents, Etc. in the First Half Century of the Republic(1835) stands as a seminal work of American literature on two counts. Firstly, it has long been recognised as the first major work of Old Southwest Humor, the literary tradition that produced Mark Twain. Secondly, it is a clear forerunner of American literary realism, which rose to prominence after the Civil War.
Longstreet, a native of Augusta, Georgia, was a child of the frontier. In 1811, when his parents sent him north to Yale for his college education, Longstreet regaled his new friends with stories of life back home. More than twenty years later, increasingly aware that the frontier world of his youth was disappearing around him, Longstreet realized the importance of
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Citation: Rachels, David. "Georgia Scenes, Characters, Incidents, Etc. in the First Half Century of the Republic". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 July 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4998, accessed 26 November 2024.]
