The Mississippi-born author Katharine Sherwood Bonner McDowell (1849 1883) has long been recognized as one of the pioneers in dialect fiction, but she and her work faded from memory as literary tastes shifted away from this popular nineteenth-century genre. Although her career was cut short by her early death, Bonner left a significant body of published work, most of it buried in periodical archives. This book, which adds significantly to the current resurgence of interest in Bonner, brings back into print much of the author s best writing and will acquaint modern readers with her astute and...