Theodora Sarah Orne Jewett (September 3, 1849 – June 24, 1909) was an American novelist, short story writer and poet, best known for her local color works set along or near the southern coast of Maine.

[6] In later life, Jewett often visited Boston, where she was acquainted with many of the most influential literary figures of her day; but she always returned to South Berwick, small seaports near which were the inspiration for the towns of "Deephaven" and "Dunnet Landing" in her stories.

For example, her friendship with Harvard law professor Theophilus Parsons stimulated an interest in the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg, an eighteenth-century Swedish scientist and theologian, who believed that the Divine "was present in innumerable, joined forms — a concept underlying Jewett's belief in individual responsibility.

[11] Her literary importance arises from her careful, if subdued, vignettes of country life that reflect a contemporary interest in local color rather than in plot.

[12] Jewett possessed a keen descriptive gift that William Dean Howells called "an uncommon feeling for talk — I hear your people."

[13] A Country Doctor (1884), a novel reflecting her father and her early ambitions for a medical career, and A White Heron (1886), a collection of short stories that are among her finest work.

Willa Cather described Jewett as a significant influence on her development as a writer,[15] and "feminist critics have since championed her writing for its rich account of women's lives and voices.

[19] Jewett also wrote about romantic attachments between women in her novel Deephaven (1877), which described her relationship with Annie Adams Fields, and in her short story "Martha's Lady" (1897).

[27] The 2019 film The Lighthouse based the down-east accent of character Ephraim Winslow (played by Robert Pattinson) on Jewett's phonetic transcription of period speech in southern Maine.