Henry Clay Lewis

Henry Clay Lewis was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 26, 1825, but moved to Cincinnati at an early age. The death of his mother forced him to drift from one brother's home to another, until he ended up in Yazoo City, Mississippi (then called Manchester), working on a boat. In Yazoo, he was taken in as a doctor's apprentice. He went to medical school in Kentucky and returned to Yazoo City to open a practice, which failed from lack of business. He then moved his practice to a swampy, remote area of Louisiana, Madison Parish, where he was inspired to start writing humorous sketches in the Southwestern humorist style, which were published in William T. Porter's flourishing sporting journal, The Spirit of the Times.

Lewis' sketches appeared as a collection in book form in 1850, published under the pseudonym "Madison Tensas." Lewis' sketches are a prime example of the Southern grotesque. The main character, the "swamp doctor," is an old man, but the stories are often assumed to be based on Lewis' own adventures as a young swamp doctor. Lewis' depictions of African Americans are unique for his time. He presents his black characters with as much pain and grotesqueness as his white characters, steering away from the time's usual stereotypes.

Lewis drowned August 5, 1850, while crossing a swamp on a medical journey. The recent republication of Lewis' book has brought him to the forefront of current studies of nineteenth century Southwestern Humor.