Rodman the Keeper, Southern Sketches

Woolson's Reconstruction-era sketches are genuinely impressive — morally serious, psychologically perceptive, and ahead of their time in how they handle sectional tension and women's inner lives. The title story alone, with its Union caretaker developing empathy across the Confederate divide, is remarkable. Readers should know that period racial language is present and will need context, and Woolson's relative obscurity means you're reading a recovered classic rather than a household name.