Henry Clay Lewis (26 June 1825-5 August 1850) is remembered today as the creator of "Madison Tensas, M.D., The Louisiana 'Swamp Doctor,'" one of the most successful characters to emerge from the humor of the Old Southwest. Following the precedent set by Augustus Baldwin Longstreet's Georgia Scenes (1835), Lewis too chronicled the incidents and activities of a frontier region. The swampers who populated Lewis's Louisiana tales were complete with dialect and human flaws. Lewis's work is of additional value because it details the education and practice of a medical doctor.The publication in March 1849 of his book, Odd Leaves from the Life of a Louisiana "Swamp Doctor," established his reputation as one of the most popular Southwestern humorists, though the author's identity was unknown. The early promise so obvious in Odd Leaves was cut short when Lewis was drowned in 1850. In the twenty-five short years of his life, Lewis...