SOURCE: "Between Times: 19th Century Values in the 20th Century," in The Southern Quarterly, Vol. XXIV, No. 3, Spring, 1986, pp. 49-57.

In the following essay, Hoover discusses Cobb's shaping values, which she views as being rooted in the American South of the nineteenth century.

Irvin S. Cobb (1876-1944) had access to more of the media of mass culture in America than perhaps any other man of his day. He wrote two novels and more than 300 popular short stories, as well as speeches, jokes, quips, essays and opinion pieces for magazines; for more than ten years he reported daily human interest "news" for New York newspapers; he wrote screenplays and acted in films; he spoke to a national audience in his own radio program; he saw three of his plays produced on Broadway; he entertained "after dinner" to groups ranging from the elite of the business and professional world to...