author
William Alexander Caruthers
1802–1846
A Virginia physician who wrote lively, early historical romances, he helped shape the Southern novel before dying young in 1846. His fiction often looks back to colonial Virginia with a mix of adventure, nostalgia, and dramatic storytelling.
3 Audiobooks
The Cavaliers of Virginia, vol. 1 of 2 or, The Recluse of Jamestown; An historical romance of the Old Dominion
by William Alexander Caruthers
The Cavaliers of Virginia, vol. 2 of 2 or, The Recluse of Jamestown; An historical romance of the Old Dominion
by William Alexander Caruthers
The Kentuckian in New-York; or, The Adventures of Three Southerns. Volume 1 (of 2)
by William Alexander Caruthers
About the author
Born in Lexington, Virginia, on December 23, 1802, William Alexander Caruthers studied at Washington College and then earned a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1823. He worked as a physician, married Louisa Catherine Gibson of Georgia, and later lived in Savannah.
Alongside his medical career, he became known as one of the earliest important novelists from Virginia. His three best-known books are The Kentuckian in New-York (1834), The Cavaliers of Virginia (1834–1835), and The Knights of the Horse-Shoe (1845). Reference works describe him as an early force in the romantic Virginia novel, especially for stories that turned colonial and early American history into fast-moving fiction.
Caruthers died in 1846, reportedly of tuberculosis, at just forty-three. His work is still remembered for its place in early Southern literature and for the way it helped popularize a romantic image of Virginia's past.