George Washington Harris was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on March 20, 1814. In 1819 he moved to Knoxville, Tennessee with his older half-brother, Samuel Bell. Harris worked as an apprentice in Samuel Bell’s metalworking shop. He married Mary Emiline Nance in 1835 and bought land in Blount County, Tennessee. George Washington Harris’ first writing was in the form of political articles for the Knoxville, Argus in the late 1930’s. In 1843 he began writing epistles and he was published, under the pen name “Mr. Free.” The works published were four letters describing rural customs, sports, and hunts. George Washington Harris reached literary achievement through his character named Sut Lovingood who used a folk dialect common to Tennessee. A compilation of adventures specific to Sut Lovingood, which had previously been published separately in various newspapers from the 1850’s to the 1860’s came to be contained within Sut Lovingood’s. Yarns Spun by a “Nat’ral Born Durn’d Fool.” George Washington Harris is one of a number of seminal writers of southern humor and influenced writers such as Mark Twain and William Faulkner. He died in 1869 in Knoxville, Tennessee.