VI. Miscellaneous Writers

§ Summary of the First National Period (1800–1840)

The first half of the nineteenth century was, in general, a period of expansion, of extraordinarily rapid development of our territory, our resources and our institutions. Irving, who returned to America in 1832 after an absence of seventeen years, could hardly recognize his native town, and was filled with amazement at the changes which were transforming the face of the country. These changes are briefly summarized under four heads: (1) The intensive growth in nationality resulting from the success of the new government under the Constitution, from the War of 1812, and from bringing the states nearer together by means of roads, canals and railways. (2) The steadily advancing frontier; the acquisition of the vast Louisiana territory; the large increase of population; the new era of colonization, which made the Great West a part of the new nation. (3) The growth of the democratic spirit over the whole country, and the election of Andrew Jackson, the first man of the common people who ever held the office of President. (4) The industrial development of the East, and the agricultural development of the South and West; the appearance of a great merchant marine; the enormous increase in trade and wealth, resulting from new inventions, from the use of steam, and from uncovering the natural treasures of America that were hidden in her soil and forests, her mines and rivers.

During all these mighty changes the American states were united as they had never been before; yet the feeling of unity was so often disturbed by bitter political strife that a recent historian describes the famous "era of good feeling" as a calm between two storms. Towards the end of the period the unsettled questions of state rights and slavery were dangerously agitated, and the agitation increased in violence after 1840 until it led to civil war.

The literature of the period is especially worthy of study as a reflection of the new national consciousness. In the early part of the nineteenth century the indifference of Europe to our literary products was expressed in the scornful question, "Who reads an American book?" Our own critics were scarcely more appreciative, and many of our writers, in order to secure favorable attention, affected English ways or signed their books by English names. Before the end of this period Cooper's romances were published in thirty foreign cities, and were read throughout the civilized world; Irving was placed by English critics in the front rank of living writers; Bryant, Poe, and many lesser poets and story writers had produced works which the nation was proud to claim as its own. In a word, America had at last developed a national literature, which the Hartford Wits had dreamed of, and which Irving and his contemporaries made a reality that was honored at home and abroad.

There are at least four characteristics to be found in our first national literature: its individuality, its harmony with nature, its intense patriotism, and its emphasis on the moral and religious nature of man. In addition to these general qualities, we noted the beginnings of American literary criticism, of the short story, of the romance of the sea and wilderness, and of a recognized national poetry.

Of the major writers of the period, we studied the lives and analyzed the chief works of Irving, Bryant, Cooper, Poe and Simms. The typical orators were Clay, Calhoun, Everett and Webster. The so-called minor poets, such as Pinkney, Wilde, Pierpont, Brainard, Percival and Mrs. Brooks, or Maria del Occidente as she was called, introduced new and varied verse forms to American literature, but their works are nearly all forgotten. The most noteworthy of these minor bards were a group still known as the Knickerbocker School, of which Willis, Drake and Halleck were probably the most typical.

Among minor writers of fiction, whose works, in general, were characterized by patriotism and by historical interest, we noted especially Catharine Sedgwick, Herman Melville, John Pendleton Kennedy and Richard H. Dana, Jr. Among miscellaneous writers the most noted were the historians Bancroft and Prescott, and the great religious leaders Channing and Bushnell.

§ Selections For Reading

Irving : Sketch Book, edited for class use, in Standard English Classics (Ginn and Company); the same work appears in various other school series (see Texts, in General Bibliography); Alhambra, in Pocket Classics, etc.; selections from Bracebridge Hall, in Riverside Literature Series.

Bryant : Well-chosen selections in Pocket Classics, and in Riverside Literature; in the latter series also parts of Bryant's Iliad.

Cooper : Last of the Mohicans, in Standard English Classics, etc.; The Pilot, in Eclectic English Classics; The Red Rover and The Spy may be had in various inexpensive editions; the five Leatherstocking tales, in Everyman's Library.

Poe : Select Poems and Tales, in Standard English Classics, in Silver Classics, Johnson's English Classics, etc.

Webster : First Bunker Hill Oration in Standard English Classics, Riverside Literature, etc. Noted speeches of Webster, Clay, Calhoun (one volume) in American History in Literature Series (Moffat).

Selections from all poets mentioned in the text in Bronson, American Poems; in Lounsbury, American Poems, etc.; selections from prose writers in Stedman and Hutchinson, Griswold, etc. (See "Selections" in General Bibliography.)

For Simms's Revolutionary romances, The Partisan, etc., and for Kennedy's Horse-Shoe Robinson the public library must be searched. Selections from Simms, Kennedy and other Southern writers in Manly, Southern Literature; Trent, Southern Writers, etc. Simms's The Yemassee in Johnson's English Classics.

§ Bibliography

Textbooks of history, Montgomery, Muzzey, Channing; of literature, Richardson, Wendell, etc. The best works covering the whole subject of American history and literature are listed in General References at the beginning. The following works apply especially to the First National period.

History . Adams, History of the United States 1801–1817, 9 vols. (Scribner, 1891); Von Holst, Constitutional and Political History 1787–1861, 8 vols. (Chicago, 1892); Schouler, History of the United States under the Constitution 1789–1865, 6 vols. (Dodd); Hitchcock, The Louisiana Purchase (Ginn and Company); Sparks, Expansion of the American People; Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812; Mahan, Sea Power in its Relation to the War of 1812; Gordy, Political Parties in the United States; Katherine Coman, Industrial History of the United States; Low, The American People; Stanwood, History of Presidential Elections.

Biographical : Lives of Calhoun, Webster, Jackson, etc., in American Statesmen series (Houghton); Schouler's Jefferson, in Makers of America; Parton, Life of Jackson, of Jefferson, of Burr; Parton, Famous Americans; Trent, Southern Statesmen of the Old Regime; Hunt, American Merchants; Dolly Madison's Memoirs; Lyman Beecher's Autobiography; Horace Greeley's Recollections.

Supplementary : Expedition of Lewis and Clark, and Harmon's Voyages and Travels in the Interior of North America, in Original Narratives (Scribner); Dwight, Travels in New England and New York (New Haven, 1821); Page, The Old South; Lucy Larcom, A New England Girlhood; Griswold, Court of Washington; Benson, Thirty Years' View; Drake, Making of the West; McMaster, A Century of Social Betterment (in Atlantic, January, 1897); Lowell, Cambridge Thirty Years Ago, in Essays; Bushnell, The Age of Homespun, in Addresses.

Literature . There is no work devoted especially to the literature of this period. Good chapters may be found in Richardson, Trent, Moses, etc. (see General References); also in Stedman, Poets of America; Cairns, Development of American Literature 1815–1833 with Special References to Periodicals (University of Wisconsin, 1898); Loshe, Early American Novel; Link, Pioneers of Southern Literature. For special works on Irving, Poe, etc., see below.

Irving . Texts: Works, Crayon edition, 27 vols. (Putnam); many other editions by various publishers. Inexpensive editions of Sketch Book, etc., in Selections for Reading, above.

Biography and Criticism: Life and Letters, edited by Pierre M. Irving, 4 vols., in Crayon edition of Works; Life, by Warner, in American Men of Letters; by Hill, in American Authors; by Boynton (sketch), in Riverside Biographies, etc. Warner, The Work of Washington Irving, in Harper's Black and White series; Warner, Bryant and Putnam, Studies of Irving; Payne, Leading American Essayists; Brownell, American Prose Masters; Perry, Prose Fiction; Canby, The Short Story; Thackeray, Nil Nisi Bonum, in Roundabout Papers; Curtis, in Literary and Social Addresses; Howells, in My Literary Passions.

Bryant . Texts: Poetical Works, 2 vols., Prose Writings, 2 vols.; Poems, Roslyn edition, Household edition, etc. (Appleton); Translation of Homer, 4 vols., or Student's edition, 2 vols. (Houghton).

Biography and Criticism: Life, by Godwin, 2 vols.; by Bigelow, in American Men of Letters; by Bradley, in English Men of Letters; by Curtis. Wilson, Bryant and his Friends; Bryant's Seventy-fifth Birthday Festival, with poems, addresses, etc., Century Association (New York, 1865); Alden, Studies in Bryant (elementary school text). Essays: Collins, in Poetry and Poets of America; Stedman, in Poets of America; Curtis, in Orations and Addresses; Whipple, in Literature and Life; Burton, in Literary Leaders; Mitchell, in American Lands and Letters; Whitman, in Specimen Days.

Cooper . Texts: Works, Household edition, with Introduction by Susan Cooper, 32 vols. (Houghton); many other editions of works by various publishers.

Biography and Criticism: Life, by Lounsbury, in American Men of Letters; by Clymer (brief), in Beacon Biographies. Brownell, in American Prose Masters; Erskine, in Leading American Novelists; Bryant's Oration on Cooper, in Prose Works; Parkman's essay (North American Review, Vol. LXXIV); Susan Cooper, A Glance Backwards (Atlantic, February, 1887); Matthews, in Gateways to Literature.

Poe . Text: Works, Virginia edition, edited by Harrison, 17 vols., including biography and letters (Crowell, 1902); Works, Knickerbocker edition, edited by Richardson, 10 vols. (Putnam, 1904); Works, edited by Stedman and Woodberry, 10 vols. (Chicago, 1894). Many other editions, all incomplete.

Biography and Criticism: Excellent biographical sketches and critical notes in the above editions of Poe's works. Life and Letters, by Harrison, 2 vols.; the same in Vols. I and XVII of the Virginia edition; Life, by Woodberry, in American Men of Letters; by Trent, in English Men of Letters; by Griswold (1850), by Gill (1877), by Ingram (1886), etc. Sarah H. Whitman, Poe and his Critics; Stedman, Poets of America; Burton, Literary Leaders; Brownell, American Prose Masters; Higginson, Short Studies of American Authors.

Essays: Robertson, in Essays toward a Critical Method; Matthews, The Short Story, in Pen and Ink; Andrew Lang, in Letters to Dead Authors; Gosse, Has America Produced a Poet? in Questions at Issue; Gates, in Studies and Appreciations.

Bibliography: in Stedman and Woodberry edition of Works, Vol. X; in Page, Chief American Poets (selections), pp. 636–638.

Simms . Texts: Novels, 10 vols. (Armstrong); Poems, 2 vols. (Redfield).

Biography and Criticism: Life, by Trent, in American Men of Letters. Brief studies, in Moses, Literature of the South; in Baskerville, Southern Writers; in Link, Pioneers of Southern Literature, etc. See also Tuckerman's John Pendleton Kennedy (New York, 1871).

The Short Story : Smith, The American Short Story (Ginn and Company, 1912); Matthews, Philosophy of the Short Story, and The Short Story: Specimens Illustrating its Development; Dawson, Great English Short-Story Writers, 2 vols.; Canby, The Short Story in English; Evelyn Albright, The Short Story; Higginson, The Local Short Story (in The Independent, March 11, 1892).

The Knickerbocker School : Hueston, The Knickerbocker Gallery (New York, 1855); Poe, The Literati; Wilson, Bryant and his Friends; Stoddard, Recollections Personal and Literary.

Willis : Works, 13 vols. (Scribner, 1849–1859); Works, 1 vol. (Redfield, 1846); Life, by Beers, in American Men of Letters.

Halleck : Poetical Writings (Appleton, 1869); Life and Letters, by Wilson.

Webster : Works, 6 vols. (Boston, 1851); Great Speeches and Orations, edited by Whipple (Boston, 1879). Life, by Curtis, 2 vols.; by Lodge, in American Statesmen; by Van Tyne, in American Crisis Biographies.

Historical Fiction . Older Romances : Brown, Arthur Mervyn; Judd, Margaret; Kennedy, Swallow Barn; Paulding, Westward Ho!

Later Romances : Mrs. Stowe, Minister's Wooing; Hale, Man Without a Country; Cooke, Leather Stocking and Silk; Eggleston, Roxy, Hoosier Schoolmaster; Winthrop, John Brent.

Books for Young People . Brigham, From Trail to Railway (Ginn and Company); Bruce, Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road; Paxson, The Last American Frontier; McMurray, Pioneers of the Mississippi Valley, Pioneers of the Rocky Mountains (Macmillan); Florence Bass, Stories of Pioneer Life (Heath).

§ Suggestive Questions

(For the general aim of these questions, see explanation on page 83. Specific questions on Irving, Cooper, etc., should be based on works of these authors that have been read by the students.)

1. Why is the half century following 1775 often called the Age of Revolution? What important literary movement accompanied the political revolution? Can you see any relation of cause and effect between the two movements?

2. What was the political significance of Jackson's election? Explain the statement that the aristocratic type of president went out of favor in 1829.

3. What are the prominent characteristics of our first national literature? Illustrate each by some well-known writers. What is meant by romanticism, and in what way is it illustrated in the works of Irving, Cooper and Bryant?

4. How do you account for the fact that early in this period our writers were timidly copying English manners and ways, and a little later were independent and confident? What writers, and what works, first brought foreign recognition?

5. Our first national writers laid emphasis on beauty for its own sake; can you explain why beauty was neglected by earlier writers, and why it was emphasized by Irving and his contemporaries? Apply the same question to the romantic treatment of nature.

6. Boston, Philadelphia, Charleston and New York have at different times been "literary centers"; how do you account for the fact that Washington, unlike the capitals of other countries, has never won literary recognition? What effect did the opening of the Great West have upon our literature? (Illustrate by works of Irving and Cooper.) What is meant by the romance of the West? Why did the West at first produce no literature? Compare the West in this respect with the early colonies.

7. Irving . (a ) Name three notable achievements of Irving. What new types did he add to our literature? Why is he called "the father of American letters," and why "the American Addison"?

(b ) Explain Thackeray's statement that Irving was the first ambassador from the New World of letters to the Old. Did the title have any connection with the fact that Irving was our minister to Spain? What American literary men may be called Irving's successors in this respect?

(c ) Give a brief sketch of Irving's life, noting especially his youth, his home, his different kinds of work, his honors, and the personal elements that are reflected in his writings. In this sketch explain, if you can, why Irving and Scott were attracted to each other.

(d ) Classify Irving's chief works according to type (essays, stories, etc.); according to theme (English, Spanish, American); according to periods (early, middle, later). What qualities of style are shown in all these works? Is there any significance in the name Jonathan Oldstyle, with which Irving signed some of his productions?

(e ) Describe the general character of the Sketch Book , Alhambra  and any other works of Irving that you have read. What two classes or types of literature are illustrated in each of these works? Why is the Alhambra  called "the beautiful Spanish Sketch Book"? What is meant by the Knickerbocker History? Illustrate from passages in Irving, Franklin, etc. the difference between humor and wit. Compare Irving's earlier and later humor with the humor of Mark Twain.

(f ) Give in your own words Irving's message, and tell what influence he has exerted on American life and literature.

8. Bryant . (a ) Explain these three titles given to Bryant: the high priest of nature; the American Wordsworth; the Puritan poet. Which of these titles seems to you best in view of Bryant's work?

(b ) Give a brief sketch of Bryant's life, noting especially his youth, his experience with law and journalism, the high position which he won, and the effect of each on his poetry. In this sketch account for his commanding position, and for the fact that his earliest verse was his best.

(c ) Give the chief classes or divisions of his poetry, and account for each on personal grounds, and by the literary tastes of his age. How does his view of nature compare with that of earlier (Anglo-Saxon) and of later English poets, Tennyson for example? What points of resemblance and of difference do you find in Bryant and Wordsworth? How do his poems on death compare with those of Poe?

(d ) What is the meaning of "Thanatopsis," and what is the general character of the poem? Why did Bryant add introductory and closing lines to the original poem? Note any lines in the poem which reflect Bryant's interest in the Greek classics, and other lines which suggest the influence of Wordsworth. What other poems of Bryant on the subject of death have you read, and how do they compare with "Thanatopsis"?

(e ) Read "To a Waterfowl" (we suggest that you learn by heart the stanzas that appeal to you) and reproduce in your own words the different pictures which it calls up. Why should the last stanza be called Bryant's signature? Comment on Hartley Coleridge's criticism that this is the best short poem in the English language.

(f ) Read the "Forest Hymn," and using the poem as a basis illustrate Bryant's style, his view of nature, his strength, and his limitations as a poet. It is said that "Thanatopsis" might have been written anywhere but the "Forest Hymn" could come only from America; criticize the statement. Read "The Poet," and determine whether the poem is merely a flight of fancy, or whether it is consistent with Bryant's theory and practice of verse.

(g ) In what respect is Bryant "the New England poet"? How does he justify Emerson's criticism that he is the poet of America?

9. Cooper . (a ) Why was Cooper called the American Scott? What resemblances and differences do you find in the two writers? In what ways did Cooper display marked originality?

(b ) Name four elements of Cooper's power as a writer. Explain the interest aroused by his work in America and in Europe. How do you account for the fact that he was, and is, more widely known than any other American author?

(c ) Give a brief sketch of Cooper's life, noting especially: personal elements or incidents that are reflected in his romances; the occasion and the result of his first literary venture; his success as a novelist; his journey abroad and its consequences.

(d ) Classify his romances in three divisions, and name the important works in each. Which of these works seems to you the strongest, the best written, the truest to nature? Illustrate from one work the character of a romance, and the difference between a romance and a novel.

(e ) The Spy  was our first notable historical romance, and America's first contribution to international fiction; give the theme of the story; explain its hold on American and foreign readers. What qualities of strength and what limitations are suggested by the book? What is meant by Cooper's moralizing and what is its effect on the reader?

(f ) Aside from its intrinsic value, why is The Pilot  remarkable? Who are its typical heroes? What two qualities of Cooper give power and interest to all his sea stories?

(g ) Name the five books of the Leatherstocking drama in their natural order. In what respect is The Pioneers  better than the others? What is the chief interest of The Last of the Mohicans ? What are the essential differences between the latter story and a dime novel of Indian adventure? How far does Natty Bumppo seem to you a true type of the American woodsman, and Chingachgook of the Indian? What are the strong and what are the weak elements in the portrayal of these characters?

(h ) How do you account for the fact that Cooper's ladies and gentlemen are invariably weak and tiresome, while his common men are generally strong and interesting? What general literary tendencies and fashions are suggested by his feminine characters? Compare him in this respect with Brown or Scott. From the works you have read, make a list of Cooper's characters that you remember vividly. Which of these characters will probably appeal to readers in the future?

10. Poe . (a ) In what respect is Poe different from all other prominent American writers? What notable contributions did he make to American literature? How do you account for the fact that he has been so long a subject of controversy?

(b ) Give a brief sketch of Poe's life, noting especially his early years, his school life, his wanderings. Note the personal qualities that are reflected in his work; and explain, if you can, why his experience as a soldier, as a West Point cadet, as a journalist, etc., are never reflected in his writings.

(c ) Group his works in three main divisions, and illustrate each. It is said that whatever his subject, Poe always wrote about himself; criticize the statement.

(d ) Divide his prose tales into three or four classes, and illustrate each. Is Poe the inventor or only the first notable manipulator of the short story? What is meant by the statement that Poe aimed chiefly at "effect"? What is meant by "Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque"? What is the general character of Poe's stories?

(e ) Which one of Poe's personages deserves to be called a character, and how does he reappear in later literature? In what story does Poe use the double personality as a motive? What later writers make use of the same motive? Describe Poe's characters in general. How do you account for the fact that there is very little conversation or dialogue and no natural landscape in his stories?

(f ) What service did Poe render to literary criticism? Criticize (if you have read) his theory of poetry and of composition. How many of the authors whom he praised highly in The Literati  are now remembered?

(g ) How do Poe's poems illustrate his own idea of poetry in general? What is the chief quality of his poems? In what especially are they lacking? Illustrate Poe's use of the refrain, and name any other American poems in which refrains are used in the same manner.

(h ) Can you explain on personal or literary grounds the contrast between Poe's definite, positive style or method and his vague, shadowy material? Poe's works are, comparatively, little read, yet he is given a very high rank by foreign critics; explain the discrepancy.

11. Miscellaneous . (a ) What common characteristics have the fiction writers of this period? Name any of their works that are still read. If you have read any of the books of Melville, Dana, Judd, etc., describe their general qualities.

(b ) Give an outline of Simms's work for American literature. What are his chief romances? How do they compare with those of Cooper?

(c ) What are the chief works of Kennedy? Which of them suggests Cooper and Simms, and which is influenced by Irving? Describe Kennedy's relation to Poe and to Thackeray.

(d ) What service was rendered by the minor poets of this period? In contrast with the Colonial and Revolutionary period, Richardson calls this period "the dawn of imagination"; explain the title.

(e ) What is meant by the Knickerbocker school? Who were its writers (exclusive of Irving, Cooper, Bryant) and for what were they noted? Do you know of any of their works that are still read? Explain the joyous, buoyant spirit of Knickerbocker writings, and show how they were characteristic of the country.

(f ) Who were the chief orators of this period? In what respect do they differ from Revolutionary orators? What were the questions at issue in most of their debates? What service did Everett render to American culture? Compare a speech of Calhoun with a speech of Webster, having in mind the personality of the speakers, their different points of view, their methods of appeal.

(Note: For questions on Webster's First Bunker Hill Address, Washington's Farewell Address, etc., the student is referred to Trent's English Classics  (Ginn and Company), a little book devoted to the works required for college-entrance English.)