The Stillwater Tragedy is a murder mystery novel by Thomas Bailey Aldrich. The novel takes place in a small industrial town in New England whose peace is first shattered by the death of one of its important residents and then quickly followed by a general strike of all the trade unions. This book showcases Mr. Aldrich's ability and charisma as a storyteller. A hard and delicate touch is used to express the tragedy itself, the solving of the mystery surrounding it, and the love that shines through the entire narrative. The popularity of the narrative is assured, as is the stunning grace and precision with which it is told. The novel stands out for its style, realism, comedy, and how it treats its characters in addition to its charming, wholesome love story.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich was an American author, poet, critic, and editor who lived from November 11, 1836, to March 19, 1907. His long tenure as editor of The Atlantic Monthly, during which time he published authors like Charles W. Chesnutt, is noteworthy. The Story of a Bad Boy, a semi-autobiographical novel by him that popularized the "bad boy's book" subgenre in nineteenth-century American literature, and his poetry were other works for which he was renowned. The English language is too sacred a thing to be damaged and vulgarized, he remarked in a letter from 1900, citing modern poet James Whitcomb Riley. He started working in his uncle's New York office when he was 16 years old and soon started contributing regularly to newspapers and periodicals. Early in the 1860s, Aldrich became friends with a number of notable young poets, painters, and intellectuals in the metropolitan bohemia, including Edmund Clarence Stedman, Richard Henry Stoddard, Fitz Hugh Ludlow, Bayard Taylor, and Walt Whitman. Aldrich worked for the Home Journal, which was later edited by Nathaniel Parker Willis, from 1856 until 1859. He was the editor of the New York Illustrated News during the Civil War. Aldrich has two boys after marrying Lilian Woodman of New York in 1865.
