Perhaps even more important, Jewett's perfect details about wildflowers and seaside wharfs, farm women knitting by the fireside, and sailors going upriver to meet the moonlight convey a realism that has seldom been surpassed and stamp her writing with her signature style. Though not as well known as the writers she influenced, Sarah Orne Jewett nevertheless remains one of the most important American novelists of the late 19th century. A contemporary and friend of Willa Cather, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Julia Ward Howe, Sarah Orne Jewett is widely recognized as a pathfinder in American literary history, courageously pursuing a road less traveled that led the way for other women to follow.