THOMAS NELSON PAGE, 1853-
Thomas Nelson Page was born on Oakland Plantation in Hanover County,
Virginia, in 1853. He graduated at Washington and Lee University in 1872,
and took a degree in law at the University of Virginia in 1874. He
practiced law in Richmond, wrote stories and essays upon the old South, and
later moved to Washington to live.
[Illustration: THOMAS NELSON PAGE]
His best stories are the short ones, like _Marse Chan_ and _Meh Lady_, in
which life on the Virginia plantations during the war is presented. Page is
a natural story-teller. He wastes no time in analyzing, describing, and
explaining, but sets his simple plots into immediate motion and makes us
acquainted with his characters through their actions and speech. The regal
mistresses of the plantations, the lordly but kind-hearted masters, the
loving, simple-minded slaves, and handsome young men and maidens are far
from complex personalities. They have a primitive simplicity and
ingenuousness which belong to a bygone civilization. The strongest appeal
in the stories is made by the negroes, whose faith in their masters is
unquestioning, and sometimes pathetic.
Some old negro who had been a former slave usually tells the story, and
paints his "marster," his "missus," and his "white folks," as the finest in
the region.
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