The Cambridge History of American Literature

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The Cambridge History of American Literature

The Cambridge History of American Literature in four volumes was published between 1917 and 1921 by the Cambridge University Press in England, and by G. P. Putnam's Sons in New York. It was the successor to the 14 volume The Cambridge History of English Literature. It was edited by William Peterfield Trent, John Erskine, Stuart P. Sherman, and Carl Van Doren.— Excerpted from The Cambridge History of English and American Literature on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Preface

CONTENTS

BOOK I

COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY LITERATURE

CHAPTER I

TRAVELLERS AND EXPLORERS, 1583–1763

By George Parker Winship, A.M., Librarian of the Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Harvard University.	PAGE
The Earliest Adventurers. Captain John Smith. Newfoundland. William Vaughn. Robert Hayman. Robert Sedgwick. Pamphlets of the Land Companies. Narratives of Indian Captivities. Mrs. Rowlandson. John Gyles. Jonathan Dickinson. The Quakers. Alice Curwen. George Keith. Sarah Knight. William Byrd. Dr. Alexander Hamilton.	1

CHAPTER II

THE HISTORIANS, 1607–1783

By John Spencer Bassett, Ph.D., Professor of American History in Smith College.

Captain John Smith. His Veracity. Early New England Historians. "Mourt's" Relation. Edward Winslow. William Bradford. John Winthrop. Edward Johnson. Nathaniel Morton. Later New England Historians. Narratives of the Indian Wars. Captain John Mason. Rev. William Hubbard. Benjamin Church. Samuel Penhallow. Daniel Gookin. Cadwallader Colden. John Lawson. Political Histories. Robert Beverley. Rev. William Stith. William Smith. Samuel Smith. Rev. Thomas Prince. Thomas Hutchinson.

14

CHAPTER III

THE PURITAN DIVINES, 1620–1720

By Vernon Louis Parrington, A.M., Professor of English in the University of Washington.

Puritans and Politics. Puritanism as Jacobean Radicalism. Types of Church Polity Corresponding to Types of State Polity—Monarchical, Aristocratic, Democratic. Early New England Congregationalism a Compromise between Aristocracy and Democracy. The Emigrants: the Theocratic Group—John Cotton, Nathaniel Ward, John Eliot; the Democratic Group—Roger Williams, Thomas Hooker. The Second Generation: the Theocratic Group—the Mathers; the Democrats—John Wise. Learning of the Puritan Divines. Their Industry. Their Influence.

31

CHAPTER IV

EDWARDS

By Paul Elmer More, A.M., LL.D., Formerly Editor of The Nation.

Edwards's Early Years. His Marriage. His Journal. His Love of God. His Preaching. The Great Awakening. Narrative of Surprising Conversions. Thoughts on the Revival of Religion. Marks of a Work of the True Spirit. Treatise Concerning Religious Affections. The Quarrel with the Northampton Congregation. Stockbridge. President of the College of New Jersey. Death. The Relations of Edwards to the Deistic Controversy. The Freedom of the Will.

57

CHAPTER V

PHILOSOPHERS AND DIVINES, 1720–1789

By Woodbridge Riley, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy in Vassar College.
The Three Enemies of Orthodoxy—Rationalists, Enthusiasts, Ethical Reformers. The Whitefield Controversy. Charles Chauncy. Edward Wigglesworth. Jonathan Mayhew. Samuel Johnson. John Woolman.	73

CHAPTER VI

FRANKLIN

By Stuart P. Sherman, Ph.D., Professor of English in the University of Illinois.
Franklin's Training. His Early Years. His First Writings. Philadelphia. London. The Pennsylvania Gazette. His Public Activities. Experiments in Electricity. Missions to England. Franklin in the Revolution. Mission to France. Death. His Religion. His Morals. His Politics. His Scientific Interests. His Style.	90

CHAPTER VII

COLONIAL NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES, 1704–1775

By Elizabeth Christine Cook, Ph.D., Instructor in English in Teachers College, Columbia University.

Literature in the Colonial Newspapers. The New England Courant. The New England Weekly Journal. Franklin as Journalist. Advertisements of Books. The South Carolina Gazette. The Virginia Gazette. Politics in the Later Newspapers. The Vogue of French Radicalism. The Massachusetts Spy. Magazines. The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle. The American Magazine. The Pennsylvania Magazine. The Royal American Magazine.

111

CHAPTER VIII

AMERICAN POLITICAL WRITING, 1760–1789

By William MacDonald, Ph.D., Professor of History in Brown University.

The Pre-eminence of American Political Literature. James Otis. The Stamp Act Controversy. The Stamp Act Congress. John Dickinson. Samuel Adams. The First Continental Congress. The Loyalists. The Satirists. Franklin. Thomas Paine. A Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms. The Declaration of Independence. The Journal of the Continental Congress. The Crisis. The Constitutional Convention. The Federalist.

124

CHAPTER IX

THE BEGINNINGS OF VERSE, 1610–1808

By Samuel Marion Tucker, Ph.D., Professor of English in the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute.
The Three Periods. Verse in the Southern and Middle Colonies. The First New England Poets. The Memorial Poems. Anne Bradstreet. The Bay Psalm Book. Michael Wigglesworth. Dryden and Pope in New England. Philadelphia Poets. The Long Poems of the Eighteenth Century. Timothy Dwight. Political verse. David Humphreys. Joel Barlow. John Trumbull. Tory Satirists. Lyric Poetry. Philip Freneau.	150

BOOK II

EARLY NATIONAL LITERATURE

CHAPTER I

TRAVELLERS AND OBSERVERS, 1763–1846

By Lane Cooper, Ph.D., Professor of English in Cornell University.

The Background of the Travellers. Nature and the Natural Man. The Routes of the Travellers. The Varieties of their Aims. Their Common Interests. Jonathan Carver. William Bartram. St. Jean de Crèvecœur. Notes on the State of Virginia. The Lewis and Clark Expedition. The Literary Wars between England and America. The Answers of Cooper and Irving. The Influence of the Travellers. The Travellers and Wordsworth.

185

CHAPTER II

THE EARLY DRAMA, 1766–1860

By Arthur Hobson Quinn, Ph.D., Dean of the College, University of Pennsylvania.

The Origins of the Drama in College Exercises. Influence of the Early Companies. Godfrey's Prince of Parthia, the first American Play. The Closing of the Theatres. The Revolutionary Satirists. Tyler's Contrast. William Dunlap. J. N. Barker. J. H. Payne. Beginning of the Creative Period. Stone's Metamora. The Philadelphia Group: R. M. Bird, R. P. Smith, Conrad, Boker. Types of Drama. Romantic Tragedy. Historical and National Plays. Comedy and Melodrama. The "Yankee" Plays. The Realistic New York Drama. Social Satire. Romantic Comedy. Gothic Melodrama. Domestic Drama. Farce. The Periods in the Development of the American Drama.

215

CHAPTER III

EARLY ESSAYISTS

By George Frisbie Whicher, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English in Amherst College.
The Periodical Essay in America. Joseph Dennie. William Wirt. James Kirke Paulding. Richard Henry Dana the elder. Nathaniel Parker Willis. Henry Theodore Tuckerman.	233

CHAPTER IV

IRVING

By Major George Haven Putnam, Litt.D.
Early Years. First Voyage to Europe. Salmagundi. Diedrich Knickerbocker. England. Spain. The Spanish Books. A Tour on the Prairies. A New Publisher. Later Years. Irving's Cosmopolitanism. A History of New York. The Sketch Book. Bracebridge Hall. Tales of a Traveller. Life of Columbus. The Conquest of Granada. Legends of the Alhambra. Life of Mahomet. Life of Washington.	245

CHAPTER V

BRYANT AND THE MINOR POETS

By William Ellery Leonard, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English in the University of Wisconsin.
I. Bryant
Early Years. Bryant's Independence as a Poet. The Unity of his Life and Work. His Ideas. Nature in Bryant. Bryant's Images. His "Surveys." Bryant as Naturalist. His Fairy Poems. His Translations. His Artistry. His Style. Limitations as a Poet. Bryant as Critic and Editor. His Prose Style. Bryant the Citizen.	260
II. Minor Poets
Richard Henry Dana the elder. James Kirke Paulding. James Gates Percival. Samuel Woodworth. George P. Morris. Charles Fenno Hoffman. Nathaniel Parker Willis. Joseph Rodman Drake. The Culprit Fay. Fitz-Green Halleck.	278

CHAPTER VI

FICTION I: BROWN, COOPER

By Carl Van Doren, Ph.D., Head Master of The Brearley School, Associate in English in Columbia University.

The Novel in the Colonies. Influence of Richardson. Mrs. Morion. Mrs. Foster. Mrs. Rowson. Charlotte Temple. Hugh Henry Brackenridge. Modern Chivalry. Charles Brockden Brown. Alcuin. Arthur Mervyn. Wieland. Ormond. Brown's Indebtedness to Godwin. Edgar Huntly. Isaac Mitchell. Tabitha Tenney. Samuel Woodworth. James Fenimore Cooper. Youth. Naval Career. Precaution. The Spy. The Pioneers. The Pilot. The Last of the Mohicans. The Prairie. Residence in Europe. Red Rover. The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish. Notions of the Americans. Novels written in Europe. Return to America and Ensuing Controversies. Writings on Naval Affairs. Later Nautical Tales. Later Border Tales. The Pathfinder. The Deerslayer. The Littlepage Manuscripts. Cooper's Rank as a Romancer.

284

CHAPTER VII

FICTION II: CONTEMPORARIES OF COOPER

By Carl Van Doren

The Services of the Historical Romance in the Development of the American Novel. The Influence of the Frontier. The Sections Celebrated by the Romancers. John Neal. Mrs. Child. Miss Sedgwick. D. P. Thompson. Paulding. Bird. Kennedy. Judge Beverley Tucker. Caruthers. William Gilmore Simms. His Devotion to South Carolina. The Variety of his Miscellaneous Work. Guy Rivers. The Yemassee. The Partisan Series. Simms's Border Tales. His Tragic Later Career. Mrs. Kirkland. James Hall. Kentucky in Fiction. Bird's Mexican Romances. Mayo. Melville. Typee. Omoo. Mardi. Moby Dick. Ware. Judd. The Victory of Fiction in the United States.

307

CHAPTER VII

By Harold Clark Goddard, Ph.D., Professor of English in Swarthmore College.

New England Transcendentalism a Phase of a World-Wide Movement. Religious rather than Political. Transcendentalism the Natural Sequel of Puritanism. Channing. The German Influence. The Transcendental Club. The General Principles of Transcendentalism. Its Vagaries. Alcott. Ripley. Brook Farm. The Dial. Margaret Fuller. Parker. Abolitionism. The Relations of European and American Transcendentalism. The Essentially Native Character of New England Transcendentalism.

326

CHAPTER VII

EMERSON

By Paul Elmer More

The High Place of Emerson in American Letters. His Youth and Training. His Journals. Nature. Essays. The American Scholar. The Divinity School Address. Representative Men. English Trails. Emerson's Optimism. Emerson's Resignation from the Ministry. Its Significance. His Place in the Romantic Movement. Form and Style. Ideas. His Failure to Perceive the Meaning of Evil. The Rarity and Beauty of his Accomplishment.

349

Bibliographies	363
Index	567

[edit] Book I: Colonial and Revolutionary Literature

Chapter I: Travellers and Explorers, 1583-1763

By George Parker Winship, A.M, Librarian of the Harry Elkins Widener Collection, Harvard University.

The Earliest Adventurers. Captain John Smith. Newfoundland. William Vaughn. Robert Hayman. Robert Sedgwick. Pamphlets of the Land Companies. Narratives of Indian Captivities. Mrs. Rowlandson. John Gyles. Jonathan Dickinson. The Quakers. Alice Curwen. George Keith. Sarah Knight. William Byrd. Dr. Alexander Hamilton

Chapter II: The Historians, 1607-1783

By John Spencer Bassett, Ph.D., Professor of American History in Smith College.

Captain John Smith. His Veracity. Early New England Historians. "Mourt's" Relation. Edward Winslow. William Bradford. John Winthrop. Edward Johnson. Nathaniel Morton. Later New England Historians. Narratives of the Indian Wars. Captain John Mason. Rev. William Hubbard. Benjamin Church. Samuel Penhallow. Daniel Gookin. Cadwallader Colden. John Lawson. Political Histories. Robert Beverley. Rev. William Stith. William Smith. Samuel Smith. Rev. Thomas Prince. Thomas Hutchinson

Chapter III: The Puritan Divines, 1620-1720

By Vernon Louis Parrington, A.M., Professor of English in the University of Washington.

Puritans and Politics. Puritanism as Jacobean Radicalism. Types of Church Polity Corresponding to Types of State Polity -- Monarchical, Aristocratic, Democratic. Early New England Congregationalism a Compromise between Aristocracy and Democracy. The Emigrants: the Theocratic Group -- John Cotton, Nathaniel Ward, John Eliot; the Democratic Group -- Roger Williams, Thomas Hooker. The Second Generation: the Theocratic Group -- the Mathers; the Democrats -- John Wise. Learning of the Puritan Divines. Their Industry. Their Influence.

Chapter IV: Edwards

By Paul Elmer More, A.M., LL.D., Formerly Editor of The Nation.

Edwards's Early Years. His Marriage. His Journal. His Love of God. His Preaching. The Great Awakening. Narrative of Surprising Conversions. Thoughts on the Revival of Religion. Marks of a Work of the True Spirit. Treatise Concerning Religious Affections. The Quarrel with the Northampton Congregation. Stockbridge. President of the College of New Jersey. Death. The Relations of Edwards to the Deistic Controversy. The Freedom of the Will

Chapter V: Philosophers and Divines, 1720-1789

By Woodbridge Riley, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy in Vassar College.

The Three Enemies of Orthodoxy -- Rationalists, Enthusiasts, Ethical Reformers. The Whitefield Controversy. Charles Chauncy. Edward Wigglesworth. Jonathan Mayhew. Samuel Johnson. John Woolman.

Chapter VI: Franklin

By Stuart P. Sherman, Ph.D., Professor of English in the University of Illinois.

Franklin's Training. His Early Years. His First Writings. Philadelphia. London. The Pennsylvania Gazette. His Public Activities. Experiments in Electricity. Missions to England. Franklin in the Revolution. Mission to France. Death. His Religion. His Morals. His Politics. His Scientific Interests. His Style.

Chapter VII: Colonial Newspapers and Magazines, 1704-1775

By Elizabeth Christine Cook, Ph.D., Instructor in English in Teachers College, Columbia University.

Literature in the Colonial Newspapers. The New England Courant. The New England Weekly Journal. Franklin as Journalist. Advertisements of Books. The South Carolina Gazette. The Virginia azette. Politics in the Later Newspapers. The Vogue of French Radicalism. The Massachusetts Spy. Magazines. The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle. The American Magazine. The Pennsylvania Magazine. The Royal American Magazine.

Chapter VIII: American Political Writing, 1760-1789

By William MacDonald, Ph.D., Professor of History in Brown University.

The Pre-eminence of American Political Literature. James Otis. The Stamp Act Controversy. The Stamp Act Congress. John Dickinson. Samuel Adams. The First Continental Congress. The Loyalists. The Satirists. Franklin. Thomas Paine. A Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms. The Declaration of Independence. The Journal of the Continental Congress. The Crisis. The Constitutional Convention. The Federalist.

Chapter IX: The Beginnings of Verse, 1610-1808

By Samuel Marion Tucker, Ph.D., Professor of English in the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute.

The Three Periods. Verse in the Southern and Middle Colonies. The First New England Poets. The Memorial Poems. Anne Bradstreet. The Bay Psalm Book. Michael Wigglesworth. Dryden and Pope in New England. Philadelphia Poets. The Long Poems of the Eighteenth Century. Timothy Dwight. Political verse. David Humphreys. Joel Barlow. John Trumbull. Tory Satirists. Lyric Poetry. Philip Freneau.

[edit] Book II, Early National Literature

Chapter I: Travellers and Observers, 1763-1846

By Lane Cooper, Ph.D., Professor of English in Cornell University.

The Background of the Travellers. Nature and the Natural Man. The Routes of the Travellers. The Varieties of their Aims. Their Common Interests. Jonathan Carver. William Bartram. St. Jean de Crèveœur. Notes on the State of Virginia. The Lewis and Clark Expedition. The Literary Wars between England and America. The Answers of Cooper and Irving. The Influence of the Travellers. The Travellers and Wordsworth.

Chapter II: The Early Drama, 1756-1860

By Arthur Hobson Quinn, Ph.D., Dean of the College, University of Pennsylvania.

The Origins of the Drama in College Exercises. Influence of the Early Companies. Godfrey's Prince of Parthia, the first American Play. The Closing of the Theatres. The Revolutionary Satirists. Tyler's Contrast. William Dunlap. J. N. Barker. J. H. Payne. Beginning of the Creative Period. Stone's Metamora. The Philadelphia Group: R. M. Bird, R. P. Smith, Conrad, Boker. Types of Drama. Romantic Tragedy. Historical and National Plays. Comedy and Melodrama. The "Yankee" Plays. The Realistic New York Drama. Social Satire. Romantic Comedy. Gothic Melodrama. Domestic Drama. Farce. The Periods in the Development of the American Drama.

Chapter III: Early Essayists

By George Frisbie Whicher, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English in Amherst College.

The Periodical Essay in America. Joseph Dennie. William Wirt. James Kirke Paulding. Richard Henry Dana the elder. Nathaniel Parker Willis. Henry Theodore Tuckerman.

Chapter IV: Irving

By Major George Haven Putnam, Litt.D.

Early Years. First Voyage to Europe. Salmagundi. Diedrich Knickerbocker. England. Spain. The Spanish Books. A Tour on the Prairies. A New Publisher. Later Years. Irving's Cosmopolitanism. A History of New York. The Sketch Book. Bracebridge Hall. Tales of a Traveller. Life of Columbus. The Conquest of Granada. Legends of the Alhambra. Life of Mahomet. Life of Washington.

Chapter V: Bryant and the Minor Poets

By William Ellery Leonard, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English in the University of Wisconsin.

- I. Bryant

Early Years. Bryant's Independence as a Poet. The Unity of his Life and Work. His Ideas. Nature in Bryant. Bryant's Images. His "Surveys." Bryant as Naturalist. His Fairy Poems. His Translations. His Artistry. His Style. Limitations as a Poet. Bryant as Critic and Editor. His Prose Style. Bryant the Citizen.

- II. Minor Poets

Richard Henry Dana the elder. James Kirke Paulding. James Gates Percival. Samuel Woodworth. George P. Morris. Charles Fenno Hoffman. Nathaniel Parker Willis. Joseph Rodman Drake. The Culprit Fay. Fitz-Green Halleck.

Chapter VI: Fiction I: Brown, Cooper

By Carl Van Doren, Ph.D., Head Master of The Brearley School, Associate in English in Columbia University.

The Novel in the Colonies. Influence of Richardson. Mrs. Morton. Mrs. Foster. Mrs. Rowson. Charlotte Temple. Hugh Henry Brackenridge. Modern Chivalry. Charles Brockden Brown. Alcuin. Arthur Mervyn. Wieland. Ormond. Brown's Indebtedness to Godwin. Edgar Huntly. Isaac Mitchell. Tabitha Tenney. Samuel Woodworth. James Fenimore Cooper. Youth. Naval Career. Precaution. The Spy. The Pioneers. The Pilot. The Last of the Mohicans. The Prairie. Residence in Europe. Red Rover. The Wept of Wishton-Wish. Notions of the Americans. Novels written in Europe. Return to America and Ensuing Controversies. Writings on Naval Affairs. Later Nautical Tales. Later Border Tales. The Pathfinder. The Deerslayer. The Littlepage Manuscripts. Cooper's Rank as a Romancer.

Chapter VII: Fiction II: Contemporaries of Cooper

By Carl Van Doren

The Services of the Historical Romance in the Development of the American Novel. The Influence of the Frontier. The Sections Celebrated by the Romancers. John Neal. Mrs. Child. Miss Sedgwick. D. P. Thompson. Paulding. Bird. Kennedy. Judge Beverley Tucker. Caruthers. William Gilmore Simms. His Devotion to South Carolina. The Variety of his Miscellaneous Work. Guy Rivers. The Yemassee. The Partisan Series. Simms's Border Tales. His Tragic Later Career. Mrs. Kirkland. James Hall. Kentucky in Fiction. Bird's Mexican Romances. Mayo. Melville. Typee. Omoo. Mardi. Moby Dick. Ware. Judd. The Victory of Fiction in the United States.

Chapter VIII: Transcendentalism

By Harold Clarke Goddard, Ph.D., Professor of English in Swarthmore College.

New England Transcendentalism a Phase of a World-Wide Movement. Religious rather than Political. Transcendentalism the Natural Sequel of Puritanism. Channing. The German Influence. The Transcendental Club. The General Principles of Transcendentalism. Its Vagaries. Alcott. Ripley. Brook Farm. The Dial. Margaret Fuller. Parker. Abolitionism. The Relations of European and American Transcendentalism. The Essentially Native Character of New England Transcendentalism.

Chapter IX: Emerson

By Paul Elmer More

The High Place of Emerson in American Letters. His Youth and Training. His Journals. Nature. Essays. The American Scholar. The Divinity School Address. Representative Men. English Traits. Emerson's Optimism. Emerson's Resignation from the Ministry. Its Significance. His Place in the Romantic Movement. Form and Style. Ideas. His Failure to Perceive the Meaning of Evil. The Rarity and Beauty of his Accomplishment.

Chapter X: Thoreau

By Archibald McKellar MacMechan

The Village Rebel. Thoreau’s Youth and Education. His Reading. Emerson. Rebellions: Church; State; Society. The Experiment at Walden Pond. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Canada. Walden. Style. Thoreau’s Significance.