Corra Mae Harris

{{short description|American journalist (1869 – 1935)}} {{Infobox writer  |name = Corra Mae Harris |image = Picture of Corra May Harris.jpg |birth_name = Corra Mae White |birth_date = {{birth date|1869|3|17|df=y}} |birth_place = Elbert County, Georgia |death_date = {{death date and age|1935|2|7|1869|3|17|df=y}} |death_place = Atlanta, Georgia |occupation = Novelist, journalist |nationality = American |movement = |notableworks = |spouse = Lundy Howard Harris |influences = |influenced = |signature = }}

'''Corra Mae Harris''' (March 17, 1869 – February 7, 1935) was an American writer and journalist. She was one of the first women war correspondents to go abroad in World War I.

==Biography== Corra Mae White was born in Elbert County, Georgia, March 17, 1869, the daughter of the Confederate veteran Tinsley Rucker White (1843-1930) and Mary Elizabeth Matthews (1846-1890).<ref> {{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Charles Alphonso |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Library_of_Southern_Literature/k0MjdTWqOugC?hl=en |title=Library of Southern Literature |last2=Alderman |first2=Edwin Anderson |date=1923 |publisher=Martin and Hoyt Company |language=en}}</ref> Her grandfather was a State senator (1853–54) named William Bowling White (1811-1858). He owned 46 enslaved women, children and men in the 1830 U.S. census and 33 in 1860. Her father, at age 17, owned five enslaved human beings, who were emancipated by the federal government three years later.

A stone monument marks her birthplace, the ancestral plantation of the White Family, who arrived November 11, 1792, and began growing tobacco in the region south of Ruckersville. The marker, on Highway 72 to the east of Elberton, reads: "Farm Hill: Girlhood Home of Corra Harris."<ref>{{Cite news |date=1930-04-13 |title=Corra Harris from Elbert County |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-atlanta-constitution-corra-harris-fr/29624698/ |access-date=2025-12-17 |work=The Atlanta Constitution |pages=23}}</ref>

Her great-great-grandfather, Thomas White, and his second wife, came from a tobacco plantation along the Rapidan River at White's Ford north of Scuffletown, near the intersection today of Greene and Orange Counties in Piedmont Virginia. He was the son of John White (1696-1787), the emigrant of Leicestershire, England, who was granted 235 acres from King George, in 1738, in Orange County. He later purchased 356 acres, part of the Octonio Grant, signed by the father of future president, James Madison, on the banks of the Rapidan River that included White's Ford.<ref>Mortimer, Mary and Revesz, Frances. White Families: John and Stephen of Virginia and Kentucky: Claypoole, Gum and Allied Families. Privately published, 1992. </ref>

Corra White had a formal education limited to teacher training at nearby female academies, though she never graduated from any of the schools she attended.

In 1887 she married Methodist minister and educator Lundy Howard Harris (1858–1910). They had one child survive to adulthood, a daughter named Faith (1887–1919). For roughly two decades Harris struggled through various personal tragedies, including a troubled marriage; the death of two infant sons; scandal and humiliation surrounding the abandonment, betrayal, and return of her husband in 1898 and his public confessions of adultery; the financial destitution resulting from the loss of his teaching position at Emory College; his suicide in 1910; her daughter's death in 1919; and her sister's death shortly after that. Harris remained a widow until her death 25 years later.

Harris was, for a time, the most widely known woman from the state of Georgia. Her literary reputation during her life and legacy since are connected with ''A Circuit Rider's Wife'' published in 1910. Reputedly autobiographical, the novel is at most a spiritual autobiography, with little else that resembles her actual life.

She wrote more than two dozen books, nineteen of which were published. Two were autobiographies, one a travel journal, and two became feature-length movies, the best known was ''I'd Climb the Highest Mountain'', released in 1951 and inspired by, ''A Circuit Rider's Wife''.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0364564/ "Corra Harris,"] ''IMDb''.</ref> The other was the 1920 film ''Husbands and Wives''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Husbands and Wives |publisher=IMDb}}</ref> She published over 200 articles and short stories, and well over a thousand book reviews.

She was one of the first women war correspondents to go abroad in World War I.<ref>Talmadge, John E. (1964). "Corra Harris Goes to War," ''The Georgia Review'', Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 150-156.</ref> She lived the last two decades of her life at the place she named In the Valley in Bartow County, Georgia. She wrote lovingly of "The Valley" where she lived as early as 1914.<ref>Harris, Corra (1914). [https://archive.org/stream/independen79v80newy#page/n67/mode/2up "The Valley, After New York"], ''The Independent'', Vol. '''79''', No. 3423, pp. 63–65.</ref>

A plaque erected in 1997 by Georgia Department of Natural Resources commemorates her life, located near Pine Log, on Mount Pleasant Road, at her "In the Valley" property, where she lived between 1913 until 1935.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Corra Harris Historical Marker |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=13230 |access-date=2025-12-17 |website=www.hmdb.org |language=en}}</ref>

thumb|left|280px|Mrs. Corra Harris, c. 1910s.

==Legacy== Although she became famous for her fiction, Harris's reputation for reactionary conservatism lasted throughout her life and became part of her contradictory legacy.<ref>Badura, Catherine O. (2000). "Reluctant Suffragist/Unwitting Feminist: The Ambivalent Political Voice of Corra Harris," ''Southeastern Political Review: Women in Southern United States Politics'' '''28''', pp. 397-426.</ref><ref>Badura, Catherine O. (2003). "The 'Seemingly Contradictory' Life and Legacy of Georgia Novelist Corra Harris," ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'', Vol. 87, No. 2, pp. 200-244.</ref> Such a reputation resulted in part from her first nationally published piece in 1899. After the lynching of Thomas Wilkes, alias Sam Hose, near Newnan, Georgia, William Hayes Ward, editor-in-chief at the ''Independent'', published an editorial denouncing the act. Harris wrote, and the ''Independent'' published, "A Southern Woman's View", a reply upholding the peculiar and brutal Southern practice, with the reasoning that lynching was a deterrent, and protected innocent white women from malevolent black men. The anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett (Ida B. Wells) called the reasoning "threadbare."

Editors at the ''Independent'' asked Harris for more, which launched her writing career. One editor called her writing "a degree of masculinity combined with homespun and relatable ease."<ref>Owenby, G. Corra Harris: Inspiration and Peace of Mind in the Valley. Prepared under the direction of Dr. Jennifer Dickey at Kennesaw State University for an Introduction to Public History course. https://georgiahistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Corra-Harris-Gary-Owenby.pdf</ref> Afterward, she wrote several non-fiction essays on southern identity that furthered conventional images of Southerners during the first decade of the century. They also tied her reputation then and after to regional apologia (apologists), an image that belies the complexity of her body of work.

After ''A Circuit Rider's Wife'' was published in 1910, Harris wrote and published prolifically, both fiction and non-fiction, throughout the nineteen-teens. During the 1920s, her most successful works were two autobiographies published in the middle of the decade. By the early 1930s Harris's publishing was limited largely to local areas. The last four years of her life, from 1931 to 1935, she published what critics have called some of her best writing in a tri-weekly "Candlelit Column" in the ''Atlanta Journal''.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Badura|first1=Catherine O.|title=The "Seemingly Contradictory" Life and Legacy of Georgia Novelist Corra Harris|journal=Georgia Historical Quarterly|date=2003|volume=87|issue=2|pages=200–244|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=10756746&site=eds-live&scope=site|accessdate=19 February 2018}}</ref> Some critics have dismissed Harris's fiction as domestic or sentimental, but others find nuanced social and cultural critique in her works, especially of the South's gender and racial mores.

Harris died in Atlanta, February 7, 1935.<ref>"Mrs. Corra Harris, Writer, Dead at 65," ''The New York Times'', February 10, 1935.</ref>

==Works== * (1904). ''The Jessica Letters'', in collaboration with Paul Elmer More. * (1910). ''A Circuit Rider's Wife''. * (1910). ''Eve's Second Husband''. * (1912). ''The Recording Angel''. * (1913). ''In Search of a Husband''. * (1915). ''The Co-Citizens''. * (1915). ''Justice''. * (1916). ''A Circuit Rider's Widow''. * (1918). ''Making Her His Wife''. * (1919). ''From Sunup to Sundown''. * (1919). ''In Search of a Husband''. * (1920). ''Happily Married''. * (1921). ''My Son''. * (1922). ''The Eyes of Love''. * (1923). ''A Daughter of Adam''. * (1923). ''The House of Helen''. * (1924). ''My Book and My Heart''. * (1925). ''As a Woman Thinks''. * (1926). ''Flapper Anne''. * (1927). ''The Happy Pilgrimage''.

===Selected articles=== * (1914). [https://archive.org/stream/independent77newy#page/96/mode/2up "New York as Seen from a Georgia Valley: In the Valley,"] ''The Independent'' '''77''', pp. 97–99. * (1914). [https://archive.org/stream/independent77newy#page/128/mode/2up "The Abomination of Cities,"] ''The Independent'' '''77''', pp. 129–131. * (1914). [https://archive.org/stream/independent77newy#page/164/mode/2up "Men and Women: And the 'Woman Question',"] ''The Independent'' '''77''', pp. 164–165. * (1914). [https://archive.org/stream/independent77newy#page/234/mode/2up "Marriage: New Profession or Old Miracle?,"] ''The Independent'' '''77''', pp. 234–235. * (1914). [https://archive.org/stream/independent77newy#page/306/mode/2up "The Streets of the City,"] ''The Independent'' '''77''', pp. 306–308. * (1914). [https://archive.org/stream/independent77newy#page/374/mode/2up "How New York Amuses Itself,"] ''The Independent'' '''77''', pp. 374–376. * (1914). [https://archive.org/stream/independent77newy#page/440/mode/2up "The Literary Spectrum of New York,"] ''The Independent'' '''77''', pp. 441–443. * (1914). [https://archive.org/stream/independent78newy#page/28/mode/2up "If You Must Come to New York,"] ''The Independent'' '''78''', pp. 29–32. * (1914). [https://archive.org/stream/independen79v80newy#page/n67/mode/2up "The Valley: After New York,"] ''The Independent'' '''79''', pp. 63–65. * (1915). [https://archive.org/stream/independen81v82newy#page/190/mode/2up "From the Peace Zone in the Valley,"] ''The Independent'' '''81''', pp. 190–192. * (1915). [https://archive.org/stream/independen81v82newy#page/506/mode/2up "War and Bride in June,"] ''The Independent'' '''81''', p. 506. * (1916). [https://archive.org/stream/independen85v86newy#page/n129/mode/2up "Why We Should Read Books,"] ''The Independent'' '''85''', pp. 117–118. * (1916). [https://archive.org/stream/independen85v86newy#page/n395/mode/2up "What Men Know About Women,"] ''The Independent'' '''85''', p. 379. * (1916). [https://archive.org/stream/independen85v86newy#page/376/mode/2up "June Brides,"] ''The Independent'' '''85''', p. 377. * (1916). [https://archive.org/stream/independen85v86newy#page/484/mode/2up "The Woman of Yesterday,"] ''The Independent'' '''85''', pp. 484. * (1916). [https://archive.org/stream/independen87v88newy#page/n137/mode/2up "In the Valley,"] ''The Independent'' '''87''', pp. 123–124. * (1916). [https://archive.org/stream/independen87v88newy#page/n169/mode/2up "Politics and Prayers in the Valley,"] ''The Independent'' '''87''', pp. 135–136. * (1917). [https://archive.org/stream/independen91v92newy#page/470/mode/2up "War Time in the Valley,"] ''The Independent'' '''91''', p. 471. * (1919). [https://archive.org/stream/independen97v98newy#page/338/mode/2up "Was Eve a Feminist?,"] ''The Independent'' '''97''', p. 338.

===Short stories=== * (1912). [https://archive.org/stream/independent73newy#page/n735/mode/2up "Jeff,"] ''The Independent'' '''73''', pp. 714–724. * (1913). [https://archive.org/stream/harpersnew127various#page/342/mode/2up "On the Instalment Plan,"] ''Harper's Monthly Magazine'', Vol. CXXVII, pp. 342–353. * (1915). [https://archive.org/stream/harpersnew130various#page/54/mode/2up "The Other People,"] ''Harper's Monthly Magazine'', Vol. CXXVII, pp. 54–57.

==See also== *Corra White Harris House, Study, and Chapel, her home "In the Valley", which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places

==References== {{Reflist}} * Oglesby, Catherine (2007). "Corra Harris," in Ruppersburg, Hugh & Inscoe, John C. (Eds), ''The New Georgia Encyclopedia Companion To Georgia Literature''. Athens: University of Georgia Press, pp. 201–203. Online version: {{cite web|url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/corra-harris-1869-1935 |title=Corra Harris (1869-1935) |author=Catherine Oglesby |date=July 8, 2002 |publisher=New Georgia Encyclopedia}}. * Oglesby, Catherine (2008). ''Corra Harris and the Divided Mind of the New South''. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. * Talmadge, John E. (1968). ''Corra Harris: Lady of Purpose''. Athens: University of Georgia Press.

==Further reading== * Blackstock, Walter (1955). "Corra Harris: An Analytical Study of Her Novels," ''Florida State University Studies'' '''19''', pp. 39–92. * Coffing, Karen (1995). "Corra Harris and the Saturday Evening Post: Southern Domesticity Conveyed to a National Audience, 1900-1930," ''Georgia Historical Quarterly'' '''79''', pp. 367–93. * Edwards, C. H. (1963). "The Early Literary Criticism of Corra Harris," ''The Georgia Review'', Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 449–455. * Mathews, Donald (2009). "Corra Harris: The Storyteller as Folk Preacher," in ''Georgia Women: Their Lives and Times'', Vol. 1, ed. Ann Short Chirhart and Betty Wood. Athens: University of Georgia Press. * Mixon, Wayne (1988). [https://web.archive.org/web/20140306071005/http://testaae.greenwood.com/doc_print.aspx?fileID=MDX&chapterID=MDX-1828&path=books%2Fgreenwood "Traditionalist and Iconoclast: Corra Harris and Southern Writing 1900-1920,"] in ''Developing Dixie: Modernization in a Traditional Society'', ed. Winfred B. Moore Jr., ''et al''. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. * Overton, Grant M. (1922). [https://archive.org/stream/womennovels00overrich#page/152/mode/2up "Corra Harris,"] in ''The Women who Make our Novels''. New York: Moffat, Yard & Company. * Reeves, Ruby (1937). ''Corra Harris: Her Life and Works'' (master's thesis, University of Georgia). * Simms, Jr., L. Moody (1979). “Corra Harris on the Decline of Southern Writing,” ''Southern Studies'' '''18''', pp. 247–50 * Tate, William (1951). "A Neighbor's Recollections of Corra Harris," ''The Georgia Review'', Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 22–33. * Williams, E. Virginia (1930). ''Religion and the Church as Motifs in American Fiction'' (master's thesis, Vanderbilt University).

== External links == {{Commons category}} * {{Gutenberg author |id=25937 | name=Corra Harris}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Corra May Harris}} * [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/corra-harris-1869-1935 Corra Harris (1869-1935)] * [http://lib.rollins.edu/olin/oldsite/archives/golden/Harris.htm Corra May Harris (1869-1935): "Professor of Evil"] * [https://www.georgiawomen.org/corra-mae-white-harris Harris, Corra Mae White] * [http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/03/kennesaw-state-orders-museum-remove-are-racist-past-woman-whose-land-was-given Censoring Art and History] * [http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/historical_markers/county/bartow/corra-harris Corra Harris] historical marker * [http://archivesspace.kennesaw.edu/repositories/4/resources/221 In the Valley Collection (Corra Harris Historic Homestead, Bartow County, Georgia)], 1902–2004, from the [https://archives.kennesaw.edu/ Kennesaw State University Archives]. * [http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/8zdbt Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Corra Mae}} Category:20th-century American novelists Category:1869 births Category:1935 deaths Category:Novelists from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:American women journalists Category:20th-century American women novelists Category:Journalists from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:People from Elbert County, Georgia Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers