ABSTRACT
Seba Smith (1792-1868) and Elizabeth Oakes Smith (1806-1893) were married in 1823, sharing from that time on a peculiarly balanced family relationship and independent careers. Seba Smith’s Major Jack Downing of Portland, Maine, came to prominence in the Portland Courier in 1830 as a practical backwoodsman criticising Portland so cial life-Portland being a major American seaport at that time-and the Maine legislature. Jack Downing became a popular commentator but Seba Smith’s career remained modest, even after he moved to New York City in 1839; in addition to the various series of Downing let ters, he published a wide variety of material including metrical ro mances, urban humor, a textbook on geometry, and the warmly nos talgic recollections of country kinsmanship shown in “The Pumpkin Freshet” and related stories from ’Way Down East; or, Portraitures o f Yankee Life (Philadelphia, 1854).
