The Sagebrush School was the

literary movement Literary movements are a way to divide literature into categories of similar philosophical, topical, or aesthetic features, as opposed to divisions by genre or period. Like other categorizations, literary movements provide language for comparing ...

written primarily by men of

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

. The

sagebrush Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus ''Artemisia (plant), Artemisia''. The best-known sagebrush is the shrub ''Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrush is native to the western half of North Amer ...

shrub is prevalent in the state. It was a broad-based movement as it included various

literary genre A literary genre is a category of literature. Genres may be determined by List of narrative techniques, literary technique, Tone (literature), tone, Media (communication), content, or length (especially for fiction). They generally move from mor ...

s such as drama, essays, fiction, history, humor, journalism, memoirs, and poetry. The name ''Sagebrush School'' was coined by Ella Sterling Mighels, who stated:

Sagebrush school? Why not? Nothing in all our Western literature so distinctly savors of the soil as the characteristic books written by the men of Nevada and that interior part of the State where the sagebrush grows.

The roots of the movement were in the

American Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that bega ...

. The Sagebrush School was the main contributor to

American literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the British colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also ...

from Nevada's

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

frontier during the period of 1859 to 1914. There were several characteristics of this movement that distinguished it from others, such as literary talent; these authors were known to be intelligent and accomplished writers. The style included hoaxes, wit, audacity, or an irreverent attitude. The inspiration for the movement began with Joseph T. Goodman of the Virginia City,

Nevada Territory The Territory of Nevada (N.T.) was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until October 31, 1864, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Nevada. Prior to the creation of the Neva ...

's '' Territorial Enterprise''. The most notable of the Sagebrush School writers, and a ''Territorial Enterprise'' journalist, was

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

. In 2009, the Sagebrush School was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.

Writers

* Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) * Rollin M. Daggett * Samuel Post Davis * Alfred R. Doten * Thomas Fitch * James W. Gally * Joseph T. Goodman * Charles Carroll Goodwin * Fred H. Hart * Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins * Denis E. McCarthy * Arthur McEwen * Henry Rust Mighels * John Franklin Swift * James William Emery Townsend * Joseph Wasson * William Wright (Dan DeQuille)

Anthologies

* Basso, Dave, ''Sagebrush Chronicles'' (1971) * Witschi, Nicolas S. (ed.), ''The Sagebrush Anthology: Literature from the Silver Age of the Old West'' (2006)

References

{{Authority control American literary movements Nevada in fiction American frontier History of literature in the United States Nevada culture