An Original Belle

Edward Payson Roe (1838 - 1888) was a Presbyterian minister living in New York after the Civil War. In 1874 he moved to Cornwall-on-the-Hudson where he wrote fiction and studied horticulture. After the Civil War he lectured on the war and wrote periodicals. His novels had a strong moral purpose and their being written by a clergyman helped to break down the Puritanical prejudice against fiction. His best-known works were "Barriers Burned Away" and "The Earth Trembled." An Original Belle is the story of a young girl who at first seems ordinary, but circumstances lead her to be true to her own nature. Roe talks of the summer of 1863 with the Civil War in the South and the New York Draft Riots playing a backdrop for his story.