SOURCE: "Introduction," in In Ole Virginia by Thomas Nelson Page, edited by M. E. Bradford, J. S. Sanders & Company, 1991, pp. xi-xxi.

In this essay, Wilson reassesses Page's role in American literary history and argues against seeing Page as outdated and a racist defender of the ignoble plantation tradition.

In Ole Virginia is a memorable portrait of the Old South before its destruction and one of the small company of truly enduring achievements in nineteenth century American literature. Its author, Thomas Nelson Page, was the most popular and most representative Southern writer of his time and one of the few Southern writers of any time to achieve the fullest measure of recognition and worldly success in his own lifetime.

Page was born in 1853 at Oakland plantation in Hanover County, Virginia, the same county in which Patrick Henry and Henry Clay had been born. Four obvious influences can be seen...