Mary (Hunter) Austin Biography

Dictionary of Literary Biography on Mary (Hunter) Austin

At her death in 1934, Mary Hunter Austin was a well-known and accomplished figure in American letters, with contributions to feminism, modernism, regionalism, and Native American studies to her credit. Her oeuvre includes more than thirty book-length works, many short stories, several plays, poetry, literary theory, cultural studies, and more than two hundred published periodical pieces. Despite her prolific output, Austin's books were frequently unavailable to the general public during her lifetime, and her reputation was secured largely by her publications in literary magazines and by the popular public lectures she gave. Following her death, Austin's writing all but disappeared from public view. Although her writing has literary links to nature writers Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and John Muir, for years Austin was pejoratively labeled a minor female regionalist writer. This dismissive categorization had the result of excluding Austin from the canon of American literature. Subsequently, Austin has undergone a critical renaissance, and her writing proves itself timely in its continued ability to fascinate, captivate, and challenge her readers.

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