author
Virginius Dabney
1835–1894
A Virginia writer and former Confederate staff officer, he turned to fiction after the Civil War and became known for stories rooted in Southern life. His best-known books include The Story of Don Miff and the Reconstruction-era novel Gold That Did Not Glitter.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Gloucester County, Virginia, on February 15, 1835, he was educated at the University of Virginia and initially studied law. Before the Civil War he had already begun moving toward a literary career, and during the war he served as a staff officer in the Confederate army.
After the war, he devoted himself to writing and became associated with tales and novels about Virginia and the postwar South. Two works that can be firmly identified are The Story of Don Miff: As Told by His Friend John Bouche Whacker: A Symphony of Life and Gold That Did Not Glitter, published in 1889.
He died on June 2, 1894. Later references to the Dabney family note him as the grandfather of the twentieth-century journalist and writer Virginius Dabney, but his own work belongs to an earlier generation of Virginia storytelling.