SOURCE: Lemay, J. A. Leo. “The Origins of the Humor of the Old South.” In The Humor of the Old South, edited by M. Thomas Inge and Edward J. Piacentino, pp. 13-21. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2001.

In the following essay, Lemay traces the origins of Southwestern humor fiction and focuses on the role of William Henry Timrod in the development of the genre.

The best humor of the Old South is sui generis, inexplicable, a product of the individual genius of the creator. Yet the writings clearly are part of local tradition, and a host of contemporaries throughout the South in the 1840s and 1850s influenced one another. Writers like George Washington Harris grew up admiring the best writings appearing in the newspapers and periodicals. Such writings challenged aspiring authors who tried to excel and to exceed in the characteristic subjects and techniques of their predecessors...