Peter Rugg
Encyclopedia
Peter Rugg is a New England
literary character who figures in several American short stories and poems. Rugg is a stubborn and angry man, born about 1730. He rides out into a thunderstorm in the year of the Boston Massacre
(1770), and is cursed to drive his carriage till the end of time. Travelers claim to have sighted him along one road or another, driving a carriage with a child at his side, and declaring that he will reach Boston by nightfall.
Rugg is often assumed to be a folk character out of New England legends. Actually he was simply made up in 1824 by attorney and writer William Austin
(1788-1841). Austin, writing under the pseudonym Jonathan Dunwell, wrote the tale, "Peter Rugg: The Missing Man," in an epistolary style that suggested reportage. Initially the Rugg story appeared in The New England Magazine, a Boston Masonic periodical. When reprinted by The New England Galaxy almost immediately afterwards, many readers took it to be a nonfiction account of what we would today call a Fortean
phenomenon. When readers wrote into the Galaxy asking for further news and references about the Rugg legend, Austin/Dunwell obliged with two further tales, in which Rugg is reported as having been sighted in New York, Virginia and elsewhere.
's 1863 story, "The Man Without a Country
", about a young American officer who curses the United States in 1807 and is sentenced to spend his life wandering the seas with no news reports from home, clearly derives from William Austin's story.
Two women poets of New England wrote long verse based on on the Rugg story. Louise Imogen Guiney
, in ”Peter Rugg, the Bostonian,“ published in Scribner’s Magazine (December 1891), gave a new version of the story in which the wandering Rugg was accompanied by his "little son" rather than the ten-year-old daughter, Jenny, who was the child in the original tale. Amy Lowell
published her prose-poem ballad ”Before the Storm: the Legend of Peter Rugg“ in The North American Review (September 1917). In Lowell's piece, Rugg drives through Boston but does not recognize it after many years. Both poets recalled the Rugg story as a ghost tale from their childhood, and evidently were unaware of Austin's tales.
According to Alexander Woollcott
, Rudyard Kipling
and his English publisher A.S. Frere-Reeves were largely responsible for rediscovering Austin and publicizing the origins of the Peter Rugg tale.
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
literary character who figures in several American short stories and poems. Rugg is a stubborn and angry man, born about 1730. He rides out into a thunderstorm in the year of the Boston Massacre
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre, called the Boston Riot by the British, was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers killed five civilian men. British troops had been stationed in Boston, capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, since 1768 in order to protect and support...
(1770), and is cursed to drive his carriage till the end of time. Travelers claim to have sighted him along one road or another, driving a carriage with a child at his side, and declaring that he will reach Boston by nightfall.
Rugg is often assumed to be a folk character out of New England legends. Actually he was simply made up in 1824 by attorney and writer William Austin
William Austin (author)
William Austin was an American author and lawyer, most notable as the creator of the Peter Rugg stories published in the New England Galaxy in 1824–1827...
(1788-1841). Austin, writing under the pseudonym Jonathan Dunwell, wrote the tale, "Peter Rugg: The Missing Man," in an epistolary style that suggested reportage. Initially the Rugg story appeared in The New England Magazine, a Boston Masonic periodical. When reprinted by The New England Galaxy almost immediately afterwards, many readers took it to be a nonfiction account of what we would today call a Fortean
Fortean
Fortean refers to:*Charles Fort's ideas and philosophy and the people and things inspired by it*Fortean Society, formed by New York's literati led by Theodore Dreiser, Booth Tarkington, Ben Hecht...
phenomenon. When readers wrote into the Galaxy asking for further news and references about the Rugg legend, Austin/Dunwell obliged with two further tales, in which Rugg is reported as having been sighted in New York, Virginia and elsewhere.
Derivations
The story is said to have had a profound effect on the young Nathaniel Hawthorne when he was a student at Bowdoin. Peter Rugg is mentioned in Hawthorne's story, "The Virtuoso's Collection," in Mosses from an Old Manse (1842). Herman Melville's title character in "Bartleby the Scrivener" seems to allude to Rugg's wandering. Edward Everett HaleEdward Everett Hale
Edward Everett Hale was an American author, historian and Unitarian clergyman. He was a child prodigy who exhibited extraordinary literary skills and at age thirteen was enrolled at Harvard University where he graduated second in his class...
's 1863 story, "The Man Without a Country
The Man Without a Country
"The Man Without a Country" is a short story by American writer Edward Everett Hale, first published anonymously in The Atlantic in December 1863. It is the story of American Army lieutenant Philip Nolan, who renounces his country during a trial for treason and is consequently sentenced to spend...
", about a young American officer who curses the United States in 1807 and is sentenced to spend his life wandering the seas with no news reports from home, clearly derives from William Austin's story.
Two women poets of New England wrote long verse based on on the Rugg story. Louise Imogen Guiney
Louise Imogen Guiney
Louise Imogen Guiney was an American poet, essayist and editor born in Roxbury, Massachusetts.-Biography:...
, in ”Peter Rugg, the Bostonian,“ published in Scribner’s Magazine (December 1891), gave a new version of the story in which the wandering Rugg was accompanied by his "little son" rather than the ten-year-old daughter, Jenny, who was the child in the original tale. Amy Lowell
Amy Lowell
Amy Lawrence Lowell was an American poet of the imagist school from Brookline, Massachusetts who posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926.- Personal life:...
published her prose-poem ballad ”Before the Storm: the Legend of Peter Rugg“ in The North American Review (September 1917). In Lowell's piece, Rugg drives through Boston but does not recognize it after many years. Both poets recalled the Rugg story as a ghost tale from their childhood, and evidently were unaware of Austin's tales.
According to Alexander Woollcott
Alexander Woollcott
Alexander Humphreys Woollcott was an American critic and commentator for The New Yorker magazine and a member of the Algonquin Round Table....
, Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
and his English publisher A.S. Frere-Reeves were largely responsible for rediscovering Austin and publicizing the origins of the Peter Rugg tale.