In 1882, William Simpson Pearson, writing under the pseudonym Brinsley Matthews, published "Well-Nigh Reconstructed," a thinly disguised autobiographical novel excoriating the enormous societal changes that had beset the former Confederacy during Reconstruction. Pearson s work was especially notable in that the author was a onetime Radical Republican and supporter of Ulysses S. Grant s bid for the presidency. A product of Pearson s perception that northern Reconstruction policies had devastated his native North Carolina, the book set in motion a genre of politically motivated novels...
In 1882, William Simpson Pearson, writing under the pseudonym Brinsley Matthews, published "Well-Nigh Reconstructed," a thinly disguised autobio...
