Paulding, James Kirke

Paulding, James Kirke (1778–1860),
American satirist and writer of realistic stories, published his only fantasy, A Christmas Gift from Fairyland, anonymously in 1839, seemingly the first fairy stories in a New World landscape. It contains four tales inside a frame story about a Kentucky trapper who finds in his trap ‘the queerest little vermint women I ever did see’. The stories the fairies leave reflect Paulding's views about the value of imagination, and the God‐given freedom of the New World. ‘The Nameless Old Woman’, set in New Amsterdam, introduces such American elements as witches and St Nicholas.

Gillian Avery