# Sagebrush School

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American literary school of thought

Sagebrush School Cultural origins American Old West Features Hoaxes, wit, audacity, irreverent attitude Subgenres Drama, essays, fiction, history, humor, journalism, memoirs, and poetry Regional scenes Nevada Territory, California

Mark Twain was the most notable of the Sagebrush School writers.

The **Sagebrush School** was the [literary movement](/source/Literary_movement) written primarily by men of [Nevada](/source/Nevada). The [sagebrush](/source/Artemisia_tridentata) shrub is prevalent in the state. It was a broad-based movement as it included various [literary genres](/source/Literary_genre) such as drama, essays, fiction, history, humor, journalism, memoirs, and poetry.[1] The name *Sagebrush School* was coined by [Ella Sterling Mighels](/source/Ella_Sterling_Mighels), who stated:

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.[2]

The roots of the movement were in the [American Old West](/source/American_Old_West). The Sagebrush School was the main contributor to [American literature](/source/American_literature) from Nevada's [mining](/source/Mining) frontier during the period of 1859 to 1914.[3] There were several characteristics of this movement that distinguished it from others, such as literary talent;[4] these authors were known to be intelligent and accomplished writers. The style included hoaxes, wit, audacity, or an irreverent attitude.[3] The inspiration for the movement began with [Joseph T. Goodman](/source/Joseph_T._Goodman) of the [Virginia City](/source/Virginia_City%2C_Nevada), [Nevada Territory](/source/Nevada_Territory)'s *[Territorial Enterprise](/source/Territorial_Enterprise)*. The most notable of the Sagebrush School writers,[5] and a *Territorial Enterprise* journalist, was [Mark Twain](/source/Mark_Twain).[6][1] In 2009, the Sagebrush School was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.[5]

## Writers

- [Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)](/source/Samuel_Clemens)

- [Rollin M. Daggett](/source/Rollin_M._Daggett)

- [Samuel Post Davis](/source/Samuel_Post_Davis)

- [Alfred R. Doten](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alfred_R._Doten&action=edit&redlink=1)

- [Thomas Fitch](/source/Thomas_Fitch_(politician))

- [James W. Gally](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_W._Gally&action=edit&redlink=1)

- [Joseph T. Goodman](/source/Joseph_T._Goodman)

- [Charles Carroll Goodwin](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charles_Carroll_Goodwin&action=edit&redlink=1)

- [Fred H. Hart](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fred_H._Hart&action=edit&redlink=1)

- [Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins](/source/Sarah_Winnemucca)[7][8]

- [Denis E. McCarthy](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Denis_E._McCarthy&action=edit&redlink=1)

- [Arthur McEwen](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arthur_McEwen&action=edit&redlink=1)

- [Henry Rust Mighels](/source/Henry_Rust_Mighels)

- [John Franklin Swift](/source/John_Franklin_Swift)

- [James William Emery Townsend](/source/Lying_Jim_Townsend)

- [Joseph Wasson](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Wasson&action=edit&redlink=1)

- [William Wright (Dan DeQuille)](/source/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

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Crow2003_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Crow2003_1-1) Crow, Charles L. (16 July 2003). [*A companion to the regional literatures of America*](https://books.google.com/books?id=55pmnVRCMWcC&pg=PA334). John Wiley & Sons. pp. 334–. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-631-22631-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-631-22631-4). Retrieved 26 February 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Mighels, Ella Sterling (1893). [*The Story of the Files: A Review of California Writers and Literature*](https://archive.org/details/storyfilesarevi01mighgoog). World's Fair Commission of California. p. [102](https://archive.org/details/storyfilesarevi01mighgoog/page/n110). Retrieved 17 September 2018.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Berkove2011_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Berkove2011_3-1) Berkove, Lawrence (May 20, 2011). ["Sagebrush School"](https://web.archive.org/web/20120324095815/http://www.onlinenevada.org/sagebrush_school). Online Nevada Encyclopedia. Archived from [the original](http://onlinenevada.org/Sagebrush_School) on 24 March 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Western1997_4-0)** Western Literature Association (U.S.) (1997). [*Updating the literary West*](https://books.google.com/books?id=s2jHc_wmU3sC&pg=PA112). TCU Press. pp. 112–. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-87565-175-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-87565-175-0). Retrieved 26 February 2012.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-unr.edu2009_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-unr.edu2009_5-1) ["The Sagebrush School Nevada Writers Hall of Fame 2009"](https://web.archive.org/web/20150220050152/http://guides.library.unr.edu/nvwriters-hall-of-fame/sagebrush-2009). [University of Nevada, Reno](/source/University_of_Nevada%2C_Reno). October 28, 2009. Archived from [the original](http://guides.library.unr.edu/nvwriters-hall-of-fame/sagebrush-2009) on 20 February 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Mighels1893_6-0)** Mighels, Ella Sterling (1893). [*The story of the files: a review of California writers and literature*](https://archive.org/details/storyfilesarevi01mighgoog) (Public domain ed.). Cooperative printing co. pp. [102](https://archive.org/details/storyfilesarevi01mighgoog/page/n110)–. Retrieved 26 February 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-BERKOVE_7-0)** Berkove, Lawrence I., ed. (2006). [*The Sagebrush Anthology: Literature from the Silver Age of the Old West*](https://archive.org/details/sagebrushantholo00unse/page/328). Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri. pp. [328-335](https://archive.org/details/sagebrushantholo00unse/page/328). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [082621651X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/082621651X).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Witschi, Nicolas S., ed. (2008). "Reviewed Work: The Sagebrush Anthology: Literature from the Silver Age of the Old West by Lawrence I. Berkove". *American Literary Realism*. **41** (1): 87–89. [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [1540-3084](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/1540-3084). 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?

- [Literature portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Literature)

v t e Mark Twain Bibliography Novels The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Prince and the Pauper Adventures of Huckleberry Finn A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court The American Claimant Tom Sawyer Abroad Pudd'nhead Wilson Tom Sawyer, Detective Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc A Double Barrelled Detective Story A Horse's Tale The Mysterious Stranger Hellfire Hotchkiss Short stories "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" "Cannibalism in the Cars" "A Literary Nightmare" "A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage" "The Great Revolution in Pitcairn" 1601 "The Stolen White Elephant" "Luck" "The Million Pound Bank Note" "A Double Barrelled Detective Story" "Those Extraordinary Twins" "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" "A Dog's Tale" "Extracts from Adam's Diary" "The War Prayer" "Eve's Diary" "Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" "My Platonic Sweetheart" "Advice for Good Little Girls" Collections Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance Sketches New and Old Mark Twain's Library of Humor Merry Tales The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories Plays Is He Dead? Essays "The Awful German Language" "On the Decay of the Art of Lying" "Advice to Youth" How to Tell a Story and Other Essays "Concerning the Jews" "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" "Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany" "What Is Man?" "The United States of Lyncherdom" "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" Letters from the Earth Nonfiction Territorial Enterprise letters Letters from Hawaii The Innocents Abroad Roughing It Old Times on the Mississippi A Tramp Abroad Life on the Mississippi Following the Equator Is Shakespeare Dead? Autobiography of Mark Twain (Chapters from My Autobiography) King Leopold's Soliloquy The Private History of a Campaign That Failed Christian Science Speeches "Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism" "Votes for Women" Places and events Family cabin Birthplace State Historic Site State Park Boyhood home and museum Mark Twain Cave Mark Twain in Nevada Territorial Enterprise Sagebrush School Quarry Farm Mark Twain House Stormfield Twain–Ament indemnities controversy Popular culture Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Mark Twain Readers Award Mark Twain Tonight! The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944) The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985) Mark Twain (2001 documentary) Twain and Shaw Do Lunch (2011 play) Mark Twain: The Musical Family Olivia Langdon Clemens (wife) Susy Clemens (daughter) Clara Clemens (daughter) Jean Clemens (daughter) John M. Clemens (father) Jane Lampton Clemens (mother) Orion Clemens (brother) Related Jap Herron Center For Mark Twain Studies Mark Twain (book) Mark Twain National Forest Mark Twain Tree National Tom Sawyer Days

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