SOURCE: Loyd, Dennis. “Tennessee's Mystery Woman Novelist.” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 29 (1970): 272-77.

In the following essay, Loyd briefly describes Murfree's life and works, urging Tennesseans to rediscover her.

Tennessee's list of literary personalities is a long one, but no name on that list has created quite the stir as that of Mary Noailles Murfree. Miss Murfree, or “Miss Mary” as she was known in her native Murfreesboro, was characterized by her quiet, graceful manners, her love of music, and her witty conversation. But none of her townspeople knew that she was also a writer.

The mystery arose when Miss Murfree submitted a short story to the most famous literary magazine of her day, the Atlantic Monthly. William Dean Howells, then editor of the Atlantic, was interested in the dialect of the story and agreed to accept the work for publication. The May 1878 issue of the Atlantic Monthly carried her...