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After the American Revolution, and increasingly after the War of 1812, American writers were exhorted to produce a literature that was truly native.In the old Southwest, meanwhile, such writers as Davy Crockett, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, Johnson J. Hooper, Thomas Bangs Thorpe, Joseph G. Baldwin, and George Washington Harris drew lively pictures of the ebullient frontier and showed the interest in the common man that was a part of .Jacksonian democracy New England Brahmins Holmes, Oliver Wendell Although Lowell for a time was one of these writers of rather earthy humour, his lifelong ties were to a group of New England writers associated with Harvard and Cambridge, Massachusetts-- the Brahmins, as they came to be called--at an opposite extreme.His skill in weaving history into inventive plots and in characterizing his compatriots brought him acclaim not only in .America and England but on the continent of Europe as well Edgar Allan Poe, reared in the South, lived and worked as an author and editor in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Richmond, and New York City.He himself was overshadowed, in renown at least, by a native-born New Yorker, Washington Irvin Washington Irving Irving, the youngest member of a prosperous merchant family, joined with ebullient young men of the town in producing the Salmagundi papers (1807-08), which satirized the foibles of Manhattan's citizenry.The Yemassee (1835) .and Revolutionary romances show him at his best American Renaissance 6 The authors who began to come to prominence in the 1830s and were active until about the end of the Civil War--the humorists, the classic New Englanders, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and others--did their work in a new spirit, and their achievements were of a new sort.William Cullen Bryant, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Edgar Allan Poe initiated a .great half century of literary development Bryant, a New Englander by birth, attracted attention in his 23rd year when the first version of his poem -Thanatopsis?In part it was because, in this Romantic period of emphasis upon native scenes and characters in many literatures, they put much of .America into their books Particularly full of vivid touches were the writings of two groups of American humorists whose works appeared between 1830 and 1867.Longfellow adapted European methods of storytelling and versifying to narrative poems dealing with 7 American history, and a few of his less didactic lyrics perfectly married technique and subject matter.His work was shaped largely by analytical skill that showed clearly in his role as an editor: time after time he gauged the taste of readers so accurately that circulation figures of magazines under his direction soared impressively.His work, especially his critical writings and carefully crafted poems, had perhaps a greater influence in France, where they were .translated by Charles Baudelaire, than in his own country Two Southern novelists were also outstanding in the earlier part of the century: John Pendleton Kennedy and William Gilmore Simms.His Essays (1841-44), Representative Men (1850), and English Traits (1856) were thoughtful and poetic explanations of his beliefs; and his roughhewn lyrics, packed with thought and feeling, were as close to 17th-century Metaphysical poems as any produced in his own time .Henry David Thoreau: Walden Pond Cabin An associate of Emerson with a salty personality of his own and an individual way of thinking, Henry David Thoreau, a sometime 8 surveyor, labourer, and naturalist, was closer to the earthy and the practical than even Emerson was.Ralph Waldo Emerson, most famous of the Concord philosophers, started as a Unitarian minister but found even that liberal doctrine too confining for his broad beliefs.The latter was a record of his experiences and ponderings during the time he lived in a hut by Walden Pond--a defense of his belief that modern man should simplify his demands if need be to -suck out all the marrow of life.?Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Lowell were all aristocrats, all steeped in foreign culture, all professors at Harvard.He became a Transcendentalist who, like other ancient and modern Platonists, trusted to insights transcending logic and experience for revelations of the deepest truths.His scheme of things ranged from the lowest objects and most practical chores to soaring flights of imagination and inspired beliefs.Simms's forte was the writing of historical novels like those of Scott and Cooper, which treated the history of the frontier and his native South Carolina.He also was more of a humorist--a dry Yankee commentator with a flair for paradoxical phrases and sentences.a burlesque history that mocked pedantic scholarship and sniped at the old Dutch families.He was the first American writer to win the ungrudging (if somewhat surprised) .respect of British critics 5 James Fenimore Cooper won even wider fame.It showed itself in his critical essays, wherein he lucidly explained and logically applied his criteria.His gothic tales of terror were written in accordance with his findings when he studied the most popular magazines of the day.In part this was because they were in some way influenced by the broadening democratic concepts that in 1829 triumphed in Andrew Jackson's inauguration as president.(1865)--gave .fine expression to noble sentiments The Transcendentalists Concord, Massachusetts, a village not far from Cambridge, was the home of leaders of another important New England group.These qualities gave distinction to A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849) and to Walden (1854).Still later, however, under the influence of Wordsworth and other Romantics, he wrote nature lyrics that vividly represented the New England scene.Irving's models in these works were obviously Neoclassical English satirists, from whom he had learned to write in a polished, bright style.Later, having met Sir Walter Scott and having become acquainted with imaginative German literature, he introduced a new Romantic note in The Sketch Book (1819-20), Bracebridge Hall (1822), and other works.tales (1823-41), a five-volume series celebrating the career of a great frontiersman named Natty Bumppo.series (1858-91), brought touches of urbanity and jocosity to a perhaps oversober polite literature.The way for this group had been prepared by the rise of a theological system, Unitarianism, which early in the 19th century had replaced Calvinism as the faith of a large share of the New Englanders.As if in response, four authors of very respectable stature appeared.As a poet, he achieved fame with -The Raven?One group created several down-east Yankee characters who used commonsense arguments to comment upon the political and social scene.Lowell, in poems descriptive of the out-of-doors in America, put much of his homeland into verse.Finally, he was a learned man, widely read in Western classics and books of the Orient.His masterpieces of terror---The Fall of the House of Usher?So were his detective stories, such as -The Murders in the Rue Morgue?(1841), which historians credited as the first of the genre.The most important of this group were Seba Smith, James Russell Lowell, and Benjamin P. Shillaber.Holmes, in occasional poems and his -Breakfast Table?His odes-- particularly the -Harvard Commemoration Ode?This, as well as some later poems, was written under the influence of English 18th-century poets.Turning to journalism, he had a long career as a fighting liberal editor of The Evening Post.This was followed by A History of New York (1809), by -Diedrich Knickerbocker,?novels, he did his best work in the -Leatherstocking?(1842), -The Cask of Amontillado?(1846), and others-- were written according to a carefully worked out psychological method.In Swallow Barn (1832), Kennedy wrote delightfully of life on the plantations.In his essay -Civil Disobedience?(1817) appeared.Following the pattern of Sir Walter Scott's -Waverley?(1839), -The Masque of the Red Death?These authors caught the talk and character of New England at that time as no one else had done.(1845).

After the American Revolution, and increasingly after the War of
1812, American writers were exhorted to produce a literature that
was truly native. As if in response, four authors of very
respectable stature appeared. William Cullen Bryant, Washington
Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Edgar Allan Poe initiated a
.great half century of literary development
Bryant, a New Englander by birth, attracted attention in his 23rd
year when the first version of his poem ―Thanatopsis‖ (1817)
appeared. This, as well as some later poems, was written under the
influence of English 18th-century poets. Still later, however,
under the influence of Wordsworth and other Romantics, he wrote
nature lyrics that vividly represented the New England scene.
Turning to journalism, he had a long career as a fighting liberal
editor of The Evening Post. He himself was overshadowed, in
renown at least, by a native-born New Yorker, Washington Irvin
Washington Irving
Irving, the youngest member of a prosperous merchant family,
joined with ebullient young men of the town in producing the
Salmagundi papers (1807–08), which satirized the foibles of
Manhattan’s citizenry. This was followed by A History of New
York (1809), by ―Diedrich Knickerbocker,‖ a burlesque history
that mocked pedantic scholarship and sniped at the old Dutch
families. Irving’s models in these works were obviously
Neoclassical English satirists, from whom he had learned to write
in a polished, bright style. Later, having met Sir Walter Scott and
having become acquainted with imaginative German literature, he
introduced a new Romantic note in The Sketch Book (1819–20),
Bracebridge Hall (1822), and other works. He was the first
American writer to win the ungrudging (if somewhat surprised)
.respect of British critics
5
James Fenimore Cooper won even wider fame. Following the
pattern of Sir Walter Scott’s ―Waverley‖ novels, he did his best
work in the ―Leatherstocking‖ tales (1823–41), a five-volume
series celebrating the career of a great frontiersman named Natty
Bumppo. His skill in weaving history into inventive plots and in
characterizing his compatriots brought him acclaim not only in
.America and England but on the continent of Europe as well
Edgar Allan Poe, reared in the South, lived and worked as an
author and editor in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Richmond, and New
York City. His work was shaped largely by analytical skill that
showed clearly in his role as an editor: time after time he gauged
the taste of readers so accurately that circulation figures of
magazines under his direction soared impressively. It showed
itself in his critical essays, wherein he lucidly explained and
logically applied his criteria. His gothic tales of terror were
written in accordance with his findings when he studied the most
popular magazines of the day. His masterpieces of terror—―The
Fall of the House of Usher‖ (1839), ―The Masque of the Red
Death‖ (1842), ―The Cask of Amontillado‖ (1846), and others—
were written according to a carefully worked out psychological
method. So were his detective stories, such as ―The Murders in the
Rue Morgue‖ (1841), which historians credited as the first of the
genre. As a poet, he achieved fame with ―The Raven‖ (1845). His
work, especially his critical writings and carefully crafted poems,
had perhaps a greater influence in France, where they were
.translated by Charles Baudelaire, than in his own country
Two Southern novelists were also outstanding in the earlier part of
the century: John Pendleton Kennedy and William Gilmore
Simms. In Swallow Barn (1832), Kennedy wrote delightfully of
life on the plantations. Simms’s forte was the writing of historical
novels like those of Scott and Cooper, which treated the history of
the frontier and his native South Carolina. The Yemassee (1835)
.and Revolutionary romances show him at his best
American Renaissance
6
The authors who began to come to prominence in the 1830s and
were active until about the end of the Civil War—the humorists,
the classic New Englanders, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman,
and others—did their work in a new spirit, and their achievements
were of a new sort. In part this was because they were in some
way influenced by the broadening democratic concepts that in
1829 triumphed in Andrew Jackson’s inauguration as president. In
part it was because, in this Romantic period of emphasis upon
native scenes and characters in many literatures, they put much of
.America into their books
Particularly full of vivid touches were the writings of two groups
of American humorists whose works appeared between 1830 and
1867. One group created several down-east Yankee characters
who used commonsense arguments to comment upon the political
and social scene. The most important of this group were Seba
Smith, James Russell Lowell, and Benjamin P. Shillaber. These
authors caught the talk and character of New England at that time
as no one else had done. In the old Southwest, meanwhile, such
writers as Davy Crockett, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, Johnson
J. Hooper, Thomas Bangs Thorpe, Joseph G. Baldwin, and George
Washington Harris drew lively pictures of the ebullient frontier
and showed the interest in the common man that was a part of
.Jacksonian democracy
New England Brahmins
Holmes, Oliver Wendell
Although Lowell for a time was one of these writers of rather
earthy humour, his lifelong ties were to a group of New England
writers associated with Harvard and Cambridge, Massachusetts—
the Brahmins, as they came to be called—at an opposite extreme.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and
Lowell were all aristocrats, all steeped in foreign culture, all
professors at Harvard. Longfellow adapted European methods of
storytelling and versifying to narrative poems dealing with
7
American history, and a few of his less didactic lyrics perfectly
married technique and subject matter. Holmes, in occasional
poems and his ―Breakfast Table‖ series (1858–91), brought
touches of urbanity and jocosity to a perhaps oversober polite
literature. Lowell, in poems descriptive of the out-of-doors in
America, put much of his homeland into verse. His odes—
particularly the ―Harvard Commemoration Ode‖ (1865)—gave
.fine expression to noble sentiments
The Transcendentalists
Concord, Massachusetts, a village not far from Cambridge, was
the home of leaders of another important New England group. The
way for this group had been prepared by the rise of a theological
system, Unitarianism, which early in the 19th century had
replaced Calvinism as the faith of a large share of the New
Englanders. Ralph Waldo Emerson, most famous of the Concord
philosophers, started as a Unitarian minister but found even that
liberal doctrine too confining for his broad beliefs. He became a
Transcendentalist who, like other ancient and modern Platonists,
trusted to insights transcending logic and experience for
revelations of the deepest truths. His scheme of things ranged
from the lowest objects and most practical chores to soaring
flights of imagination and inspired beliefs. His Essays (1841–44),
Representative Men (1850), and English Traits (1856) were
thoughtful and poetic explanations of his beliefs; and his roughhewn lyrics, packed with thought and feeling, were as close to
17th-century Metaphysical poems as any produced in his own
time
.
Henry David Thoreau: Walden Pond Cabin
An associate of Emerson with a salty personality of his own and
an individual way of thinking, Henry David Thoreau, a sometime
8
surveyor, labourer, and naturalist, was closer to the earthy and the
practical than even Emerson was. He also was more of a
humorist—a dry Yankee commentator with a flair for paradoxical
phrases and sentences. Finally, he was a learned man, widely read
in Western classics and books of the Orient. These qualities gave
distinction to A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
(1849) and to Walden (1854). The latter was a record of his
experiences and ponderings during the time he lived in a hut by
Walden Pond—a defense of his belief that modern man should
simplify his demands if need be to ―suck out all the marrow of
life.‖ In his essay ―Civil Disobedience‖ (1849; originally titled
―Resistance to Civil Government‖), Thoreau expounded his
anarchistic views of government, insisting that if an injustice of
government is ―of such a nature that it requires injustice to another
[you should] break the law [and] let your life be a counter friction
”.to stop the machine
Associated with these two major figures were such minor
Transcendentalists as Bronson Alcott, George Ripley, Orestes
Brownson, Margaret Fuller, and Jones Very. Fuller edited The
Dial, the chief Transcendental magazine, and was important in the
.feminist movement
New England Reformers and Historians
Harriet Beecher Stowe
A worldwide movement for change that exploded in the
revolutions of 1848 naturally attracted numerous Americans.
Reform was in the air, particularly in New England. At times even
Brahmins and Transcendentalists took part. William Lloyd
Garrison, ascetic and fanatical, was a moving spirit in the fight
against slavery; his weekly newspaper, The Liberator (1831–65),
despite a small circulation, was its most influential organ. A
contributor to the newspaper—probably the greatest writer
associated with the movement—was John Greenleaf Whittier. His
simple but emotional poems on behalf of abolition were collected
9
in such volumes as Poems Written During the Progress of the
Abolition Question…(1837), Voices of Freedom (1846), and
Songs of Labor, and Other Poems (1850). The outstanding
novelist of the movement—so far as effect was concerned—was
Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) combined
the elements of contemporary humour and sentimental fiction in
such a powerful manner that it, according to some, helped to
.precipitate the Civil War
One other group of writers—and a great novelist—contributed to
the literature of New England in this period of its greatest glory.
The group consisted of several historians who combined scholarly
methods learned abroad with vivid and dramatic narration. These
included George Bancroft, author of History of the United States
(completed in 12 volumes in 1882), and John Lothrop Motley,
who traced the history of the Dutch Republic and the United
Netherlands in nine fascinating volumes (1856–74). The leading
member of the group was Francis Parkman, who, in a series of
books (1851–92), wrote as a historian of the fierce contests
between France and England that marked the advance of the
American frontier and vividly recorded his own Western travels in
.)The Oregon Trail (1849
Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman
History also figured in tales and romances of Nathaniel
Hawthorne, the leading New England fictionist of the period.
Many tales and longer works—for example, his masterpiece, The
Scarlet Letter (1850)—were set against a background of colonial
America with emphasis upon its distance in time from 19thcentury New England. Others, such as The House of the Seven
Gables (1851), dealt with the past as well as the present. Still
others, such as The Marble Faun (1860), were set in distant
countries. Remote though they were at times from what
Hawthorne called ―the light of common day,‖ they showed deep
.psychological insight and probed into complex ethical problems
11
Another great American fiction writer, for a time a neighbour and
associate of Hawthorne, was Herman Melville. After relatively
little schooling, Melville went to sea; a whaling ship, as he put it,
was his ―Yale College and his Harvard.‖ His first books were
fiction in the guise of factual writing based upon experiences as a
sailor—Typee (1846) and Omoo (1847); so were such later works
as Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850). Between 1846 and
1851, however, Melville’s reading in philosophy and literary
classics, as well as in Hawthorne’s allegorical and symbolic
writings, gave him new interests and aims. The first sign of this
interest was Mardi (1849), an uneven and disjointed transitional
book that used allegory after the model of Rabelais to comment
upon ideas afloat in the period—about nations, politics,
institutions, literature, and religion. The new techniques came to
fruition in Moby Dick; or, The Whale (1851), a richly symbolic
work, complex but brilliantly integrated. Only in short stories,
Benito Cereno—a masterpiece of its genre—and others, in the
psychological novel Pierre (1852), and in the novelette Billy Budd
(written 1890?) was Melville later to show sporadic flashes of the
.genius that created Moby Dick
Whitman, Walt
An ardent singer of the praise of Manhattan, Walt Whitman saw
less of the dark side of life than Melville did. He was a believer in
Jacksonian democracy, in the splendour of the common man.
Inspired by the Romantic concept of a poet as prophet and also by
the Transcendental philosophy of Emerson, Whitman in 1855
published the first edition of Leaves of Grass. As years passed,
nine revised and expanded editions of this work were published.
This autobiography in verse was intended to show the ideas,
beliefs, emotions, and experiences of the common man in a great
period of American individualism. Whitman had a hard time
winning a following because he was frank and unconventional in
his Transcendental thinking, because he used free verse rather
than rhymed or regularly metred verse, and because his poems
were not conventionally organized. Nevertheless, he steadily
11
gained the approval of critics and in time came to be recognized as
.one of the great poets of America
From the Civil War to 1914
Like the Revolution and the election of Andrew Jackson, the Civil
War was a turning point in U.S. history and a beginning of new
ways of living. Industry became increasingly important, factories
rose and cities grew, and agrarian preeminence declined. The
frontier, which before had always been an important factor in the
economic scheme, moved steadily westward and, toward the end
of the 19th century, vanished. The rise of modern America was
.accompanied, naturally, by important mutations in literature
Literary comedians
Josh Billings, Mark Twain, Petroleum V. Nasby
Although they continued to employ some devices of the older
American humorists, a group of comic writers that rose to
prominence was different in important ways from the older group.
Charles Farrar Browne, David Ross Locke, Charles Henry Smith,
Henry Wheeler Shaw, and Edgar Wilson Nye wrote, respectively,
as Artemus Ward, Petroleum V. (for Vesuvius) Nasby, Bill Arp,
Josh Billings, and Bill Nye. Appealing to a national audience,
these authors forsook the sectional characterizations of earlier
humorists and assumed the roles of less individualized literary
comedians. The nature of the humour thus shifted from character
portrayal to verbal devices such as poor grammar, bad spelling,
and slang, incongruously combined with Latinate words and
learned allusions. Most that they wrote wore badly, but thousands
of Americans in their time and some in later times found these
authors vastly amusing
.
Fiction and local Colourists
12
The first group of fiction writers to become popular—the local
colourists—took over to some extent the task of portraying
sectional groups that had been abandoned by writers of the new
humour. Bret Harte, first of these writers to achieve wide success,
admitted an indebtedness to prewar sectional humorists, as did
some others; and all showed resemblances to the earlier group.
Within a brief period, books by pioneers in the movement
appeared: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Oldtown Folks (1869) and
Sam Lawson’s Oldtown Fireside Stories (1871), delightful
vignettes of New England; Harte’s Luck of Roaring Camp, and
Other Sketches (1870), humorous and sentimental tales of
California mining camp life; and Edward Eggleston’s Hoosier
Schoolmaster (1871), a novel of the early days of the settlement of
Indiana. Down into the 20th century, short stories (and a relatively
small number of novels) in patterns set by these three continued to
appear. In time, practically every corner of the country had been
portrayed in local-colour fiction. Additional writings were the
depictions of Louisiana Creoles by George W. Cable, of Virginia
Blacks by Thomas Nelson Page, of Georgia Blacks by Joel
Chandler Harris, of Tennessee mountaineers by Mary Noailles
Murfree (Charles Egbert Craddock), of tight-lipped folk of New
England by Sarah Orne Jewett and Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, of
people of New York City by Henry Cuyler Bunner and William
Sydney Porter (―O. Henry‖). The avowed aim of some of these
writers was to portray realistically the lives of various sections and
thus to promote understanding in a united nation. The stories as a
rule were only partially realistic, however, since the authors
tended nostalgically to revisit the past instead of portraying their
own time, to winnow out less glamorous aspects of life, or to
develop their stories with sentiment or humour. Touched by
romance though they were, these fictional works were transitional
to realism, for they did portray common folk sympathetically; they
did concern themselves with dialect and mores; and some at least
.avoided older sentimental or romantic formulas
Twain, Mark: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
13
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) was allied with literary
comedians and local colourists. As a printer’s apprentice, he knew
and emulated the prewar sectional humorists. He rose to
prominence in days when Artemus Ward, Bret Harte, and their
followers were idols of the public. His first books, The Innocents
Abroad (1869) and Roughing It (1872), like several of later
periods, were travel books in which affiliations with postwar
professional humorists were clearest. The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer (1876), Life on the Mississippi (1883), and The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), his best works, which recreated the life of the Mississippi valley in the past, were closest
to the work of older humorists and local colourists. Despite his
flaws, he was one of America’s greatest writers. He was a very
funny man. He had more skill than his teachers in selecting
.evocative details, and he had a genius for characterization
Born and raised in Ohio, William Dean Howells was an effective
advocate of a new realistic mode of fiction writing. At the start,
Howells conceived of realism as a truthful portrayal of ordinary
facets of life—with some limitations; he preferred comedy to
tragedy, and he tended to be reticent to the point of prudishness.
The formula was displayed at its best in Their Wedding Journey
(1872), A Modern Instance (1882), and The Rise of Silas Lapham
(1885). Howells preferred novels he wrote after he encountered
Tolstoy’s writings and was persuaded by them, as he said, to ―set
art forever below humanity.‖ In such later novels as Annie
Kilburn (1888) and A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890), he chose
characters not only because they were commonplace but also
because the stories he told about them were commentaries upon
.society, government, and economics
The Naturalists
14
Other American writers toward the close of the 19th century
moved toward naturalism, a more advanced stage of realism.
Hamlin Garland’s writings exemplified some aspects of this
development when he made short stories and novels vehicles for
philosophical and social preachments and was franker than
Howells in stressing the harsher details of the farmer’s struggles
and in treating the subject of sex. Main-Travelled Roads (1891)
and Rose of Dutcher’s Coolly (1895) displayed Garland’s
particular talents. These and a critical manifesto for the new
fiction, Crumbling Idols (1894), were influential contributions to a
.developing movement
Other American authors of the same period or slightly later were
avowed followers of French naturalists led by Émile Zola.
Theodore Dreiser, for instance, treated subjects that had seemed
too daring to earlier realists and, like other Naturalists, illustrated
his own beliefs by his depictions of characters and unfolding of
plots. Holding that men’s deeds were ―chemical compulsions,‖ he
showed characters unable to direct their actions. Holding also that
―the race was to the swift and the battle to the strong,‖ he showed
characters defeated by stronger and more ruthless opponents. His
major books included Sister Carrie (1900), Jennie Gerhardt
(1911), The Financier (1912), The Titan (1914), and—much
.)later—An American Tragedy (1925
Dreiser did not bother with—or did not care for—niceties of style
or elaborate symbolism such as were found in French naturalistic
works; but Stephen Crane and Frank Norris were attentive to such
matters. In short novels, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893) and
The Red Badge of Courage (1895), and in some of his short
stories, Crane was an impressionist who made his details and his
setting forth of them embody a conception of man overwhelmed
by circumstance and environment. Frank Norris, who admired
Crane’s ―aptitude for making phrases—sparks that cast a
momentary gleam upon whole phases of life,‖ himself tried to
make phrases, scenes, and whole narratives cast such gleams in
McTeague (1899), The Octopus (1901), and The Pit (1903). Both
15
Crane and Norris died young, their full abilities undeveloped but
their experiments foreshadowing later achievements in the 20thcentury novel
Henry James
In the books of Henry James, born in New York but later an
expatriate in England, fiction took a different pathway. Like
realists and naturalists of his time, he thought that fiction should
reproduce reality. He conceived of reality, however, as twice
translated—first, through the author’s peculiar experiencing of it
and, second, through his unique depicting of it. Deep insight and
thorough experience were no more important, therefore, than the
complicated and delicate task of the artist. The Art of Fiction
(1884), essays on novelists, and brilliant prefaces to his collected
works showed him struggling thoroughly and consciously with the
problems of his craft. Together, they formed an important body of
.discussion of fictional artistry
An excellent short-story writer, James nevertheless was chiefly
important for novels in which his doctrines found concrete
embodiment. Outstanding were The American (1877), The
Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Spoils of Poynton (1897), What
Maisie Knew (1897), The Wings of the Dove (1902), The
Ambassadors (1903), and The Golden Bowl (1904). The earliest
of these were international novels wherein conflicts arose from
relationships between Americans and Europeans—each group
with its own characteristics and morals. As time passed, he
became increasingly interested in the psychological processes of
his characters and in a subtle rendering of their limited insights,
.their perceptions, and their emotions
Critics of the Gilded Age
Writers of many types of works contributed to a great body of
literature that flourished between the Civil War and 1914—
literature of social revolt. Novels attacked the growing power of
business and the growing corruption of government, and some
16
novelists outlined utopias. Political corruption and inefficiency
figured in Henry Adams’s novel Democracy (1880). Edward
Bellamy’s Looking Backward (1888) was both an indictment of
the capitalistic system and an imaginative picturing of a utopia
achieved by a collectivist society in the year 2000. Howells’s
Traveler from Altruria (1894) pleaded for an equalitarian state in
which the government regimented men’s lives. The year 1906 saw
the publication of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, first of many
works by him that criticized U.S. economic and political life and
.urged socialism as the remedy
Two poets embodied criticisms in songs. Edwin Markham’s ―Man
with the Hoe‖ (1899) was a protest against the exploitation of
labour and vaguely threatened revolution; it immediately
stimulated nationwide interest. A year later William Vaughn
Moody’s ―Ode in Time of Hesitation‖ denounced growing U.S.
imperialism as a desertion of earlier principles; his ―On a Soldier
Fallen in the Philippines‖ (1901) developed the same theme even
.more effectively
Ida Tarbell
With the rise of journalistic magazines, a group of journalists
became notable as critics of America—the group dubbed ―the
muckrakers‖ by Theodore Roosevelt. Ida M. Tarbell’s The
History of the Standard Oil Company (1904) and Lincoln
Steffens’s The Shame of the Cities (1904) were typical
contributions by two members of a large group of journalistic
.crusaders
Henry Adams
One of the most devastating and most literate attacks on modern
life was an autobiography of a scion of an ancient New England
family, the Adamses. Educated at Harvard and abroad, Henry
Adams was a great teacher and historian (History of the United
States [1889–91] and Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres [1904]).
The Education of Henry Adams (printed privately 1906; published
17
1918), however, complained that a lifelong hunt for some sort of
order in the world, some sort of faith for man, left him completely
baffled. The quiet, urbane style served well to underline, in an
.ironic way, the message of this pessimistic book
Poets of the Era
The later 19th century and early years of the 20th century were a
poor period for American poetry; yet (in addition to William
Vaughn Moody) two poets of distinction wrote songs that
survived long after scores of minor poets had been forgotten. One
was Southern-born Sidney Lanier, a talented musician who
utilized the rhythms of music and the thematic developments of
symphonies in such fine songs as ―Corn‖ (1875), ―The
Symphony‖ (1875), and ―The Marshes of Glynn‖ (1878).
Distressed, like many of his contemporaries, by changes in
American life, he wove his doubts, fears, and suggestions into his
.richest poems
Emily Dickinson
The other poet was a New Englander, Emily Dickinson. A shy,
playful, odd personality, she allowed practically none of her
writings to be published during her lifetime. Not until 1890, four
years after her death, was the first book of her poems published, to
be followed at intervals by other collections. Later poets were to
be influenced by her individual techniques—use of imperfect, or
eye, rhymes, avoidance of regular rhythms, and a tendency to
pack brief stanzas with cryptic meanings. Like Lanier, she
rediscovered the value of conceits for setting forth her thoughts
and feelings. Such poems as ―The Snake,‖ ―I Like to See It Lap
the Miles,‖ ―The Chariot,‖ ―Farther in Summer than the Birds,‖
and ―There’s a Certain Slant of Light‖ represented her unusual .talent at its best Tc