About
An author and poet who wrote about the lives of Midwestern farmers, he is especially known for works such as Main-Travelled Roads (1891), Prairie Folks (1892), and Jason Edwards: An Average Man (1892).
Before Fame
After moving around to different homesteads with his family, he settled in Boston, attaining early success with a short story collection entitled Main-Travelled Roads.
Trivia
His novels were all colored by his "veritism" style, in which he consciously described the real social forces influencing his fictional characters.
Family Life
He was born on a farm near West Salem, Wisconsin, and he grew up as the second of four children.
Associated With
In addition to his novels, he wrote a popular serialized biography of Ulysses S. Grant for McClure's Magazine.
