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Smith, Seba
Smith, Seba (1792–1868),born in Maine, graduated from Bowdoin (1818), founded the daily Portland Courier (1829), and achieved fame when he began to publish in his newspaper (1830) a series of letters from “Major Jack Downing,” a Down East Yankee, whose comic rustic speech and homespun sagacity made him an outstanding character in the development of American humor. Although Smith created the character as a Yankee peddler, he soon had him turn his attention to local politics, and then, as the letters began to be printed in other newspapers and Downing began to capture the popular imagination, he made him into a confidant of Andrew Jackson, so that he might shrewdly satirize Jacksonian Democracy and matters of contemporary politics.
This use of his character and Smith's freedom from party politics made him the inaugurator of the American tradition of commenting on current events with great shrewdness cloaked under a guise of simplicity, and gave to the country a line of homespun political philosophers that has included Hosea Biglow, Mr. Dooley, and Will Rogers. In his own day, Smith found so many imitators, some of whom used Downing's own name, that Downing said he knew himself only by a scar on his left arm. The pirated edition of Letters Written During the President's Tour, “Down East,” by Myself, Major Jack Downing, of Downingville⧫ (1833), which contained letters by Smith as well as by Charles A. Davis and other imitators, caused Smith to print his own letters in The Life and Writings of Major Jack Downing of Downingville (1833), to which, however, he added some letters by “Uncle Josh Downing,” written by J.L. Motley. The numerous imitations of the Downing letters also called forth many cartoons of the character, who was the prototype of Uncle Sam as a symbol of the U.S. Smith continued to write for newspapers and collected his contributions in John Smith's Letters with “Picters” To Match (1839); May‐Day in New York (1845), republished as Jack Downing's Letters (1845); 'Way Down East, or Portraitures of Yankee Life (1854), a collection of local‐color tales; and My Thirty Years Out of the Senate (1859), whose title was a satire of T.H. Benton's Thirty Years' View of the American Government. Smith also edited various magazines and wrote books which ranged from Powhatan (1841), a metrical romance, to New Elements of Geometry (1850). His wife was Elizabeth Oakes Smith. |
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Cite this article
James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Smith, Seba." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Smith, Seba." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-SmithSeba.html James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Smith, Seba." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-SmithSeba.html |
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Seba Smith
Seba Smith 1792–1868, American humorist, b. Buckfield, Maine. He founded the Portland Courier in 1829 and in it began (1830) a series of humorous letters on politics under the pen name Major Jack Downing. His use of comic rustic speech and satirical comments on various political issues made him outstanding in the development of American humor. He eventually settled in New York City, where he wrote for various magazines. His works include Powhatan (1841) and Way Down East (1853). |
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Cite this article
"Seba Smith." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Seba Smith." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Smith-Se.html "Seba Smith." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Smith-Se.html |
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Jack Downing
Jack Downing, pseudonym of Seba Smith.
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Cite this article
James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Jack Downing." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Jack Downing." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-JackDowning.html James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Jack Downing." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-JackDowning.html |
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