Sagebrush School

{{Infobox literary genre | name = Sagebrush School | stylistic_origins = | cultural_origins = [[American Old West]] | distinctive_features = Hoaxes, wit, audacity, irreverent attitude | popularity = | derivatives = | subgenrelist = | subgenres = Drama, essays, fiction, history, humor, journalism, memoirs, and poetry | fusiongenres = | regional_scenes = [[Nevada Territory]], [[California]] | local_scenes = | other_topics = }}

[[File:Mark Twain by Abdullah Frères, 1867.jpg|thumb|right|190px|Mark Twain was the most notable of the Sagebrush School writers.]] The '''Sagebrush School''' was the [[literary movement]] written primarily by men of [[Nevada]]. The [[Artemisia tridentata|sagebrush]] shrub is prevalent in the state. It was a broad-based movement as it included various [[literary genre]]s such as drama, essays, fiction, history, humor, journalism, memoirs, and poetry.<ref name="Crow2003" /> The name ''Sagebrush School'' was coined by [[Ella Sterling Mighels]], who stated:

<blockquote>Sagebrush school? Why not? Nothing in all our Western literature so distinctly savors of the soil as the characteristic books written by the men of Nevada and that interior part of the State where the sagebrush grows.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mighels|first=Ella Sterling |title=The Story of the Files: A Review of California Writers and Literature|url=https://archive.org/details/storyfilesarevi01mighgoog|accessdate=17 September 2018|date=1893|publisher=World's Fair Commission of California|page=[https://archive.org/details/storyfilesarevi01mighgoog/page/n110 102]}}</ref></blockquote>

The roots of the movement were in the [[American Old West]]. The Sagebrush School was the main contributor to [[American literature]] from Nevada's [[mining]] frontier during the period of 1859 to 1914.<ref name="Berkove2011">{{cite web|url=http://onlinenevada.org/Sagebrush_School|title=Sagebrush School|last=Berkove|first=Lawrence|publisher=Online Nevada Encyclopedia|date=May 20, 2011|accessdate=26 February 2012|archive-date=24 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324095815/http://www.onlinenevada.org/sagebrush_school|url-status=dead}}</ref> There were several characteristics of this movement that distinguished it from others, such as literary talent;<ref name="Western1997">{{cite book|author=Western Literature Association (U.S.)|title=Updating the literary West|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s2jHc_wmU3sC&pg=PA112|accessdate=26 February 2012|year=1997|publisher=TCU Press|isbn=978-0-87565-175-0|pages=112–}}</ref> these authors were known to be intelligent and accomplished writers. The style included hoaxes, wit, audacity, or an irreverent attitude.<ref name="Berkove2011" /> The inspiration for the movement began with [[Joseph T. Goodman]] of the [[Virginia City, Nevada|Virginia City]], [[Nevada Territory]]'s ''[[Territorial Enterprise]]''. The most notable of the Sagebrush School writers,<ref name="unr.edu2009">{{cite web|url=http://guides.library.unr.edu/nvwriters-hall-of-fame/sagebrush-2009|title=The Sagebrush School Nevada Writers Hall of Fame 2009|date=October 28, 2009|publisher=[[University of Nevada, Reno]]|accessdate=26 February 2012|archive-date=20 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150220050152/http://guides.library.unr.edu/nvwriters-hall-of-fame/sagebrush-2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> and a ''Territorial Enterprise'' journalist, was [[Mark Twain]].<ref name="Mighels1893">{{cite book|last=Mighels|first=Ella Sterling|title=The story of the files: a review of California writers and literature|url=https://archive.org/details/storyfilesarevi01mighgoog|accessdate=26 February 2012|edition=Public domain|year=1893|publisher=Cooperative printing co.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/storyfilesarevi01mighgoog/page/n110 102]–}}</ref><ref name="Crow2003">{{cite book|last=Crow|first=Charles L.|title=A companion to the regional literatures of America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=55pmnVRCMWcC&pg=PA334|accessdate=26 February 2012|date=16 July 2003|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-631-22631-4|pages=334–}}</ref> In 2009, the Sagebrush School was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.<ref name="unr.edu2009" />

==Writers== * [[Samuel Clemens|Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)]] * [[Rollin M. Daggett]] * [[Samuel Post Davis]] * [[Alfred R. Doten]] * [[Thomas Fitch (politician)|Thomas Fitch]] * [[James W. Gally]] * [[Joseph T. Goodman]] * [[Charles Carroll Goodwin]] * [[Fred H. Hart]] * [[Sarah Winnemucca | Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins]]<ref name="BERKOVE">{{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Berkove |editor-first=Lawrence I. |title=The Sagebrush Anthology: Literature from the Silver Age of the Old West |year=2006 |publisher=University of Missouri |location=Columbia, Missouri |isbn=082621651X |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sagebrushantholo00unse/page/328 328-335] |url=https://archive.org/details/sagebrushantholo00unse/page/328 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |editor-last=Witschi |editor-first=Nicolas S. |date=2008 |title=Reviewed Work: The Sagebrush Anthology: Literature from the Silver Age of the Old West by Lawrence I. Berkove |journal=American Literary Realism |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=87–89 |quote=The inclusion in the "Nonfiction" section of Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins' "The Pah-Utes," published in the Californian in the Californian in 1882 and the anthology's only woman-authored piece, raises a question too important to ignore: are there other women writers from this place and period whose works have thus far been overlooked or are still awaiting discovery? |issn=1540-3084 }}</ref> * [[Denis E. McCarthy]] * [[Arthur McEwen]] * [[Henry Rust Mighels]] * [[John Franklin Swift]] * [[Lying Jim Townsend|James William Emery Townsend]] * [[Joseph Wasson]] * [[Dan DeQuille|William Wright (Dan DeQuille)]]

==Anthologies== * Basso, Dave, ''Sagebrush Chronicles'' (1971) * Witschi, Nicolas S. (ed.), ''The Sagebrush Anthology: Literature from the Silver Age of the Old West'' (2006)

==References== {{Reflist}}

[[Category:Sagebrush School| ]] [[Category:American literary movements]] [[Category:Nevada in fiction]] [[Category:American frontier]] [[Category:History of literature in the United States]] [[Category:Culture of Nevada]]