Philander Deming
Philander Deming (1829-1915) was an American writer and court stenographer known for his contributions to local-color realism, particularly through his short stories set in the Adirondack mountains of New York. Born in Carlisle, New York, he was the son of a minister and spent his youth immersed in literature, reading works by prominent New England authors. After running a sawmill with his brothers, Deming pursued education, earning a bachelor's degree from the University of Vermont and later graduating from Albany Law School. His career as a court reporter began in the 1860s, where he became known for his pioneering techniques in court stenography, even publishing a handbook on the subject.
Deming's literary career took off with his first story, "Lost," published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1873. His writing focused on the lives of ordinary people, capturing the brutal and unforgiving nature of their environment. His collections, including "Adirondack Stories" and "Tompkins, and Other Folks," reflect this exploration of character and setting. Though he gained recognition from notable literary figures, his later works shifted towards sentimental themes. Despite a decline in productivity in his later years, Deming's early works established him as a significant influence on future writers in the genre. He passed away in Albany, New York, leaving behind a legacy of literary realism that resonates with readers interested in the complexities of human experience against a backdrop of nature.
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Philander Deming
Writer
- Born: February 6, 1829
- Birthplace: Carlisle, New York
- Died: February 9, 1915
- Place of death: Albany, New York
Biography
Philander Deming was born on February 6, 1829, in Carlisle, New York, the area that would become the setting for his greatest short stories, in the foothills of the rugged and isolated Adirondack mountains. The third son of a minister in the Champlain Presbytery, Deming frequently moved throughout the region as his father changed congregations. The young Deming read from his father’s library such New England intellectual luminaries as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James Russell Lowell.
As a young man in Burke, New York, Deming ran a sawmill with his two brothers that they built themselves. He taught school from 1852 to 1854, when he decided to attend college at the University of Vermont. He earned a B.A. from the University of Vermont in 1861, being inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, then receiving the A.M. degree from the university in 1864. In 1872, he graduated from the Albany Law School and was admitted to the bar that same year.
Deming’s first recognition came in connection to the law, particularly as a court reporter and groundbreaking court stenographer. Teaching himself shorthand at a young age, Deming became the legislative reporter for the Albany Evening Journal in 1862, and for The New York Times in 1863-1864. In 1865, he demonstrated the tremendous legal significance of his verbatim recording of court testimony and was made the official stenographer for the Albany District Supreme Court. Remaining this position until his retirement in 1882, Deming published a handbook on his pioneering court reporting technique in 1879, titled The Court Stenographer.
Deming’s life spent observing others with cool detachment, both as a stenographer and a lifelong reclusive bachelor, found fruition in his important short stories set in his native region of the Adirondacks. In 1873, with his first story “Lost” appearing in America’s premiere literary magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Deming began a literary career as an important writer of local-color realism. Gaining the admiration of The Atlantic Monthly’s editor and “dean of American letters,” William Dean Howells, Deming’s short fiction surveyed the ordinary lives of the common people of his region in unadorned, direct prose. His characters, although portrayed with sympathy and respect, can be as brutal and unforgiving as the wilderness that surrounds them. Anticipating literary naturalists like Jack London and Stephen Crane, Deming’s stories often focus on isolated characters confronting a harsh and indifferent wilderness.
Deming’s stories were collected in Adirondack Stories (1880), Tompkins, and Other Folks (1885), and The Story of a Pathfinder (1907). His later stories lost their regional flavor and increasingly became sentimental romantic tales. Deming published almost nothing the last thirty years of his life. He died on February 9, 1915, in a boardinghouse in Albany, New York, and was buried at his home in Burke. His literary reputation largely rests on his early fictional forays into literary realism, becoming a predecessor of such writers as Sarah Orne Jewett, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Kate Chopin, and George Washington Cable.