Caroline Kirkland (12 January 1801-6 April 1864), a mid-nineteenth-century New York literary woman of quite comprehensive abilities and ambitions, is known today primarily for three early works that i...
Read more
Eight years after Caroline Kirkland had first received critical acclaim for her novel A New Home--Who'll Follow? Or, Glimpses of Western Life (1839), she was asked to serve as editor of the newly foun...
Read more
The appearance of A New Home--Who'll Follow" in 1839 caused, in the words of Edgar Allan Poe, "an undoubted sensation." Written by an actual western settler, this collection of wilderness sketches by ...
Read more
Caroline M. Kirkland, most famous for her novel A New Home--Who'll Follow? or, Glimpses of Western Life (1839), edited the Union Magazine of Literature and Art, founded and taught in several girls' ...
Read more
In the following essay, McCloskey examines Kirkland's depiction of western settlers in A New Home. Paying special attention to her realistic style and use of satire, McCloskey notes the manner ...
Read more
In the following essay, Gebhard discusses Kirkland's use of humor and the manner in which it “relates both to the author's own life and to the book's ‘realism'...
Read more
In the following essay, McCloskey examines Kirkland's depiction of the Michigan land rush of the mid 1830s in A New Home.
Mrs. Caroline Matilda Stansbury Kirkland1 in her book of sketches, A...
Read more
In the following essay, Osborne provides a general assessment of Kirkland's work. Praising her for the realism of A New Home, Osborne argues that her later work is a “disappointment ...
Read more
In the following essay, Golemba explores in Kirkland's work what he defines as “the clash of wills” between men and women on the Western frontier.
The particular bead I wish to...
Read more
In the following essay, Bray presents a detailed analysis of the structure of A New Home, arguing that if the work is to be worthy of the importance “occasionally attributed to it, then the rea...
Read more
In the following essay, Roberts discusses Kirkland's letters and the value they add to understanding her as an author and an individual.
During the heyday of the sentimental scribblers Carol...
Read more
In the following essay, Kolodny argues that even though Kirkland's success was in large part due to the element of realism in her depiction of the West, her most immediate impact on literature ...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Leverenz explores the manner in which Kirkland utilized class conflict to generate humor in A New Home. Leverenz argues that “Kirkland's voice and wit depend on...
Read more
In the following essay, Larson discusses Kirkland's subversion of the romantic myth of western settlement and her exploration of the significant role women played in establishing homes in the w...
Read more
Caroline M. Kirkland
Critical Essay by John C. McCloskey
