The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
VOLUME XV. Colonial and Revolutionary Literature; Early National Literature, Part I.
§ 9. Caruthers
Mention should be made of Dr. William Alexander Caruthers (1800–46), perhaps less for his genial novels, The Cavaliers of Virginia (1835) and The Knights of the Horse-Shoe (1845), than for his widely-known sketch Climbing the Natural Bridge. The lower states best appeared in the pages of their native humorists, who seldom wrote novels. South Carolina produced the writer who, among all the American romancers of the first half century, ranks nearest Cooper for scope and actual achievement.