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American Literature

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Bartholow V. Crawford received his B.A. degree from Cornell College, Iowa and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. He has taught at the University of Minnesota and at Rice Institute. In 1921 he joined the faculty of the University of Iowa, where he is now Processor of English. He is the author of Henry David Thoreau: Representative Selections.

          Alexander C. Kern received his B.A. degree from Yale University and his M.A. and Ph.D degrees from the University of Wisconsin. He has taught at the University of Wisconsin, Allegheny Col­lege, the University of Maryland, and the Uni­versity of Iowa, where he is now Associate Professor of English.

         Morriss H. Needleman has many years of teach­ing experience and has received his B.A. degree and M.S. degree in Education. He is the co­author of another Outline in the College Outline Series: An Outline-History of English Literature.

PUBLISHER’S FOREWORD

            The outline-history of American Literature covers the field, we believe, with an eclectic adequacy not attempted by any other manual. All three authors read in manuscript the work of each of their colleagues, weighed the criticisms made, and finally rewrote any part or parts that needed freshness of point of view, better balance, and richer interpretation.

           As the result of several such years of intensive collaboration, the authors have achieved their common purpose of helping the student appreciate better the ideas and the ideals of American literature.

            In the opinion of the editor, Bartholow V. Crawford, Alexander c. Kern, and Morriss H. Needleman have succeeded in:

1. Placing emphasis upon those authors most frequently an­thologized, because it will be those about whom the student will seek specific aid. In addition, a large body of significant minor authors who too frequently have been neglected is also treated, on the belief that a knowledge of less well-known writings may be necessary to bring into focus the whole complex literary picture.
2. Devising a book that lends itself to immediate use for further study. Such editorial aids as cross-references and footnotes have been utilized at strategic points so as to reduce to a minimum the necessity of directing students to other books. It is not difficult, when advisable, to disregard the footnotes; yet the footnotes them­selves, while stimulating the student’s interest in specific literary problems, are a concise, up-to-date bibliography ready to serve as a point of departure for supplementary readings and explorations.
3. Presenting material that in each case grows out of both the nature of the subject and the needs of the student. To avoid nar­rowness of subject matter, the authors present a large body of de­sirable omnibus material.
4. Bringing the treatment of the subject abreast of modern research and criticism. This has involved considerable effort and expense, since additions have had to be made several times while the work was in page proof. But both the editor and the authors have felt that every effort must be made to issue a work dis­tinguished by significant immediacy, quick serviceability, and sound scholarship.
5. Designing an outline-history of American Literature in a fashion permitting adjustment to the needs of all students, both those who purpose to go no further than the first course and those who plan to go beyond. Those who wish some minimal signposts may give heed to the works marked by an obelisk (t); those who wish to enrich the minimal requirements may make the reference notes the basis of additional work; and, finally, those who plan to do graduate work may follow up for themselves the various problems raised throughout the outline.
6. Relating the literature to life, vitalizing ideas and ideals, and integrating broad intellectual and philosophical connections. The textbook itself should avoid undue stress on material apparently intended to yield entertainment suitable for adolescents rather than to provoke thinking on an adult level. Indiscriminate mastery of the material in the outline-history, American Literature, is not the desideratum. The student is not to work for the memorization of biographical facts, dates of literary works, or even critical judgments, except in a naturally subordinate degree. If a choice is offered, the student, as did the three authors, should favor intellectually stimu­lating ideas rather than factual matter barren of ideas. Not only is literature related to life: literature is life itself.

             Moreover, while designed primarily for the college undergradu­ate and the majoring or even the graduate student, it is felt that the outline-history of American Literature is useful as well for all who do not have access to adequately equipped libraries or who may find it convenient to have in succinct form a representative discussion of American literature.

           The publisher will be glad to receive the reader’s criticisms and suggestions for revisions to be incorporated in future editions of the text.

The Editor

PREFACE

            Objectives sought by the authors of the outline-history of American Literature have been several. They have endeavored to provide for the undergraduate a compact and clearly outlined manual which will put at his disposal accurate information with which he may fill out lecture notes and prepare for tests. For the more advanced student they have tried to make clear through chronological arrangement and outline treatment the trend and sweep of development, and juxtaposition of authors and works in a variety of literary fields and against a background of historical events. Through critical judgments, time-tested rather than per­sonal, they have suggested the estimate of less familiar works, while, at the same time, where considered judgment is at variance, summarizing critical judgments pro and con. To the teacher and the professional scholar they have made available extensive current bibliographies.

          In the preparation of the outline-history of American Literature there has, of course, been free consultation among the authors. Responsibility for Chapters I-IV (except for the article on Herman Melville, which was contributed by M. H. Needleman), has, how­ever, fallen to Alexander C. Kern; for Chapters V-VIII, to Bartholow V. Crawford; and for Chapters IX-XIV (except for the article on Henry James, which was contributed by B. V. Craw­ford), to Morriss H. Needleman, who has also undertaken extensive editorial tasks.

B. V. C

A. C. K.

M. H. N.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editor’s Foreword

Preface

Key to Symbols and Abbreviations

THE COLONIAL PERIOD (1607-1763)

Chapter

I        Renaissance and Puritan Influences

Historical Background

General View of the Literature

Southern Writers: Captain John Smith; John and Ann Cotton

The Puritans

Description, Annals, and History of New England: William Bradford;

Thomas Morton; John Winthrop; Mary Row­landson

Seventeenth Century Theologians: Thomas Shepard; Roger

Williams; John Davenport

The Mather Dynasty: Richard Mather; Increase Mather;

Cotton Mather

Miscellaneous Prose: Thomas Brattle; Robert Calef;

Na­thaniel Ward; Samuel Sewall

Puritan Poetry: Ann Bradstreet; Michael Wigglesworth;

Edward Taylor

Supplementary List of Authors

II       The Rise of Rationalism and Democracy

Historical Background

General View of the Literature

Religious Writing in New England: John Wise; Jonathan

Edwards; Charles Chauncey

History and Annals in New England: Sarah Kemble Knight

The Southern Colonies: Alexander Spotswood;

William Byrd of Westover

The Middle Colonies: Thomas Godfrey

Journalism in the Colonies

Supplementary List of Authors

THE REVOLUNTIONARY PERIOD (1763-1810)

III      The Struggle for Independence: Deism, National Issues,

          and the Beginnings of Belles Lettres

Historical Background

General View of the Literature

Washington; John Adams; John Marshall

Prose of the Enlightenment: John Woolman; William Bartram;

Alexandre Wilson; Meriwether Lewis; Hector St., John de Crèvecoeur;

Benjamin Franklin; James Otis; Patrick Henry; John Dickinson;

Samuel Adams; Francis Hopkinson; Thomas Paine; William Smith;

Thomas Jefferson; Alexander Hamilton; James Madison;

George Washington; John Adams; John Marshall

Poetry: Nathaniel Evans; Philip Freneau; John Trumbull;

Timothy Dwight; Joel Barlow

Drama: Royall Tyler

The Novel: William Hill Brown; Charles Brockden Brown;

Hugh Henry Brackenridge

Miscellaneous Prose: Noah Webster; Joseph Dennie

Supplementary List of Authors

THE ROMANTIC PERIOD (1810-1865)

IV      Early Sentiment and Romance

Historical Background

General View of the Literature

Hayne

Novelists: James Fenimore Cooper; Herman Melville; Richard Henry Dana, Jr.; John Pendleton Kennedy;

William Gilmore Simms

Dramatists: George Henry Boker

The West

American Humor: Josh Billings; Artemus Ward

Historians: William Hickling Prescott; John Lothrop Mot­ley;

Francis Parkman

Other Writing: Dorothea Dix; Elihu Burritt; John Neal;

Charles Fenno Hoffman; John Godfrey Saxe; Henry Charles Carey;

William Wirt; James Kent; Washington Allston

Supplementary List of Authors

V       Transcendentalism: Its Major and Minor Figures

Origin of Concept

Group Activitie

Major Figures: William Ellery Channing (1780-1842); Ralph Waldo Emerson; Henry David Thoreau; Bronson Alcott; Margaret Fuller

Minor Figures: Theodore Parker; Henry Hedge; Jones Very;

Christopher Pearse Cranch; William Ellery Channing (1818-1901);

Orestes Augustus Brownson; James Freeman Clarke

VI      The Genteel Tradition of New England: Ite Major Figures

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; John Greenleaf Whittier; Nathaniel Hawthorne;

Oliver Wendell Holmes; James Russell Lowell

VII    Walt Whitman: Prophet of Democracy

VIII   Mid-Century Minor Figures: Romancers, Essayists, Poet

Harriet Beecher Stowe; James T. Fields; George William; Curtis;

Bayard Taylor; Louisa May Alcott; Thomas Bailey Aldrich;

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

THE TRIUMPH OF REALISM: 1865-1914

IX      The Local-Colorists

Historical Background

General View of the Literature

The West: Bret Harte; Edward Eggleston; John Hay;

Joaquin Miller; Other Local-Colorists

The South: Joel Chandler Harris; Lafcadio Hearn; George W. Cable;

James Lane Allen; Other Local-Colorists

New England: Sarah Orne Jewett; Mary E. Wilkins Free­man;

Other Local-Colorists

X       The Gilded Age: Conservatism and Iconoclasm

Mark Twain; William Dean Howells; Henry James;

Ham­lin Garland; Stephen Crane

Reformers, Historians, and Philosophers

XI      Democracy and the Common Man: Novelists and Short-Story Writers

Ambrose Bierce; Edward Bellamy; Francis Marion Craw­ford; H. G Bunner

Other Novelists and Short-Story Writers

XII    Convention and Revolt in Poetry

Emily Dickinson; Sidney Lanier; Edward Rowland Sill; John B. Tabb;

Bliss Carman; Richard Hovey; William Vaughn Moody

Other Lyrists

XIII   Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism: Essayists, Critics, and Playwrights  

John Burroughs; Henry Adams; Gamaliel Bradford

Other Essayists and Critics

Playwrights

YESTERDAY AND TODAY

XIV   Representative Authors

Historical Background

General View of the Literature

Short-Story Writers and Novelists

Poets

Important Playwrights

Essayists, Critics, Educators, and Philosophers

Appendix : Supplementary Bibliographies

Index

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