Augustus Baldwin Longstreet held four college or university presidencies and was a lawyer, a judge, a captain in the Georgia militia, a state assemblyman, a farmer, a teacher, a polemicist, a newspaper owner, and a Methodist minister. Yet today he is best remembered for his Georgia Scenes (1835), a series of short stories that is generally regarded as setting the pattern for the realistic local-color humor of the American South.

Longstreet's father, William, like his son a man of many careers, at various times tried inventing, mechanics, farming, business, real estate, and politics, prospering in most but losing money in others. His tombstone summed up his general attitude to life: "All the days of the afflicted are evil, but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast."

William Longstreet's elder sons followed him into business, but Augustus, born in Augusta, Georgia, on 22 September 1790, showed early signs...