Author. He was an American author, who wrote mainly about the South with at least 14 novels along with collections of short stories from late 1870s to 1918. His first publication was "Sieur George," a short story, which appeared in the October of 1873 issue of "Scribner's Monthly." This followed with "Bells Demoiselle Plantation" in the April of 1874 issue. In 1879, a collection of stories was published as "Old Creole Days." His 1879 saga, "The Grandissimes: A Story of Creole Life," was first published as a series of stories in "Scriber's Monthly" before being published as a novel in 1880. This historical romance dealt with race and class relations in New Orleans immediately after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Painting a picture in words, the novel was in print his entire life and in the 21st century, available on Kindle. His essays on civil rights, such as "The Silent South" in 1885 and "The Negro Question" in 1890 made him be recognized as an author. Besides "Grandissimes," he received praise for his early fiction about New Orleans, especially "Old Creole Days in 1879" and "Madame Delphine" in 1881. His writings led the reader to often judge the South as well as understand circumstances of wrongdoings. For this reason, he could be labeled a social reformer. As a historical novel during the American Civil War, "The Cavalier" was published in 1901. His last novel, "Lovers of Louisiana," was published in 1918, just seven years before his death. It is considered that his earlier books were his best. Born into a wealthy family, his mother was from Indiana and his father from Pennsylvania, yet own slaves. His family were part of the New Orleans society and not French Catholic as most of the residents of New Orleans, but members of the Presbyterian Church. Throughout his lifetime, he was very active in the church. Not of Creole heritage, his family had moved to New Orleans shortly after the Louisiana Purchase, with his father becoming a wholesale merchant. He was educated in private schools until his father's death in 1859. At that point, he went to work as the family's wealth was gone. He taught himself French. After serving in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War and being wounded, he had a two-year-bout with malaria and started writing during this bedridden time. By 1870, he was writing a regular newspaper column in "The New Orleans Picayune." In September of 1883, his prison reform efforts led to an invitation to deliver an address to the National Conference of Charities denouncing the convict labor system or the Southern Chain Gang, which had become popular after the Civil War. He relocated to Massachusetts in the summer of 1884 as an established author. His reasons for moving North were stated as better access to publishers, fellow authors and lecture audiences; better treatment for his wife's health conditions, and plus the fact, that he had become unwelcome in New Orleans with his stance on racial equality. In November of 1884, he and Mark Twain toured 85 cities where they gave readings from their writings. His private letters, which were written during the tour to his wife, were published in 1960 in "Mark Twain and George W. Cable: The Record of a Literary Friendship" by his biographer Arlin Turner of Duke University. During an interview for the "Chicago Tribune," he was asked to define a Creole. He replied, "a Creole was a person born in the West Indies, Louisiana, or the Floridas to European parents of Latin extraction". Yet, others define the word as a white aristocrat, with a heritage in New Orleans before 1803. Instead of a race, it was a specific ethnicity and culture. Besides lecturing, he taught an adult Sunday School class, which had more than a hundred members. He opened two reading rooms for the poorer communities with daily newspapers and over 400 books. He arranged for Smith College students to teach basic educational classes to the community. In 1896, these classes as the Home Culture Clubs were incorporated as an educational and benevolent institution and he served as the president of the Board of Directors until 1920. In 1903, Andrew Carnegie donated $50,000 to his cause for a building and gave donations regularly. In 1905 a young lawyer named Calvin Coolidge joined the board, serving as secretary for 15 years. In 1909, the Home Culture Clubs became the People's Institute of Northampton. In 1914, Cable published the book, "The Amateur Garden," which encouraged many to enter the hobby of gardening. His first wife Louise Bartlett died in 1904; in 1906 he married Eva Stenson; and after his second wife's death, he married a third time, to Hanna Hall, the widow of Mr. Cowing in 1923. With his first wife, the couple had five daughters and a son. Most of his letters and manuscripts are in the collections of New Orleans' Tulane University.