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Classic Southern Literature
1676 to 1923
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George Washington Cable
George Washington Cable (October 12, 1844—January 31, 1925) claimed Creole New Orleans as his literary territory with his collection of stories, Old Creole Days (1879) and his novel, Grandissimes (1880). His stories are considered the first important work of Southern local-color literature, and his novel was so successful that Cable was able to become a full-time writer. George Washington Cable employed a realism new to Southern fiction—so real that it provoked ire among some Creoles and Cable felt obliged to move North where he continued writing and began giving public lectures—one series along with Mark Twain. Although Cable was the son of a slaveholder and fought in the Confederate Cavalry, he considered slavery as a moral wrong. He published two collections of social essays, The Silent South (1885) and The Negro Question (1888).