George Washington Cable

George Washington Cable​ ​​ (American novelist who depicted Creole life in New Orleans)​​
Born	October 12, 1844​​ New Orleans, Louisiana Resident of Northhampton, Massachusetts ​(after 1885)
Died	January 31, 1925 (aged 80) St. Petersburg, Florida​​ Resting place: ​ Bridge Street Cemetery in Northhampton
Spouse	(1) Louise Stewart Bartlett Cable (married 1869-1904, her death)​​ (2) Eva Colgate Stevenson Cable (married 1906-1923, her death) (3) Hanna Louisa Hall Cowing Cable (married 1923-1925, his death) Seven children from first marriage Parents: ​ George, Sr., and Rebecca Boardman Cable ​ Alma mater: ​ No formal education
Religion	Presbyterian

​ George Washington Cable (October 12, 1844 – January 31, 1925) was an American novelist originally from New Orleans, Louisiana.^[1]

Background[edit]

The son of George Cable and the former Rebecca B. Boardman (1813-1890),^[1] Cable left school at the age of fourteen to support his family after the death c. 1858 of the senior Cable. He enlisted in Mississippi for service in the army of the Confederate States of America. After the American Civil War, he became a columnist and reporter for The New Orleans Picayune, later The Times-Picayune. Though a bookkeeper by profession, he gradually decided to concentrate solely on his writings.^[2]

He was thrice married. In 1869, he wed the former Louise Stewart Bartlett (1846-1904), also a New Orleans native, and the couple had seven children. In 1906, at the age of sixty-two, he wed the former Eva Colgate Stevenson (1855-1923), then of Lexington, Kentucky. His third wife was the former Hannah Louisa Hall Cowing (1862-1951). The first two wives left Cable a widower.^[2][3]

Career[edit]

In 1884, Cable joined his neighbor Mark Twain in a national reading tour. In 1885, he settled in Northampton in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, where he remained for most of his life. His literature depicting the New Orleans plantation country was particularly appreciated in the North. There readers generally considered his work as superior regional literature. However many in New Orleans, especially the Creoles, challenged his description of southern attitudes and practices such as race relations in the era after Reconstruction. A Presbyterian, he opposed the consumption of alcoholic beverages, playing cards, and the stage but later authorized the dramatization on stage of his novel, The Cavelier. By 1915, he had regained some of his lost popularity in New Orleans and received an ovation following a speech before the Louisiana Historical Society, the oldest historical organization in the state, founded in 1836.^[2]

Cable's principal works[edit]

• Old Creole Days (1879)
• The Grandissimes (1880)
  
• Madame Delphine (1881)
  
• Dr. Servier (1884)
  
• The Silent South (1885)
  
• Bonaventure (1888)
  
• The Negro Question (1890)
  
• John March, Southerner (1895)
  
• The Cavalier (1901)
  
• Bylow Hill (1902)
  
• Kincaid’s Battery (1908)
  
• Gideon’s Band (1914)
  
• Lovers of Louisiana (1918).

Death[edit]

Cable died at the age of eighty in St. Petersburg, Florida. He is interred along with his first and third wives at the Bridge Street Cemetery in Northhampton, Massachusetts. His second wife, Eva, was the daughter of U.S. Representative Job Evans Stevenson (1832-1922), a Republican who represented Ohio's 2nd district from 1869 to 1873. She is interred alongside her mother, Mary Tevis Stevenson (1831-1900) at Grove Hill Cemetery in Shelbyville, Kentucky, but her father is at Springbank Cemetery in his native Ross County, Ohio.^[4]

References[edit]

​​ ​​​​​​​​​