Early american novel

Early American Novels

Early American Novels

Beginning of American Literature

While the New England colonies have often been regarded as the centerpiece of early American literature, the first North American settlements had been founded elsewhere many years earlier. Many towns are older than Boston, such as Saint Augustine, Jamestown, Santa Fe, Albany, and New York. Furthermore, English was not the only language in which early North American texts were written. The eventual emergence of the English language was hardly inevitable. The large initial immigration to Boston in the 1630s, the high articulation of Puritan cultural ideals, and the early establishment of a college and a printing press in Cambridge all gave New England a substantial edge. However, political events eventually would make English the lingua franca for the colonies at large as well as the literary medium of choice. One such event is the conquering of New Amsterdam by the English in 1664, which was renamed New York. The first item printed in Pennsylvania was in German although it issued from the press established by an immigrant Englishman, and was the largest book printed in any of the colonies before the American Revolution.

Printing

The printing press was active in many areas, from Cambridge and Boston to New York, Philadelphia, and Annapolis. From 1696 to 1700, only about 250 separate items were issued in all these places combined. This is a small number compared to the output of the printers in London at the time. However, printing was established in the American colonies before it was allowed in most of England. In England restrictive laws had long confined printing to four locations: London, York, Oxford, and Cambridge. Because of this, the colonies ventured into the modern world earlier than their provincial English counterparts.

Effects of Enlightenment Thought

During the eighteenth century, writing shifted focus from the Puritanical ideals of Winthrop and Bradford to the power of the human mind and rational thought. The belief that human and natural occurrences were messages from God no longer fit with the new human centered world. Many intellectuals believed that the human mind could comprehend the universe through the laws of physics as described by Isaac Newton. The enormous scientific, economic, social, and philosophical, changes of the eighteenth century, called the Enlightenment, impacted the authority of clergyman and scripture, making way for democratic principles. The increase in population helped account for the greater diversity of opinion in religious and political life as seen in the literature of this time. In 1670, the population of the colonies numbered approximately 111,000. Thirty years later it was more than 250.000. By 1760, it reached 1,600,000. The growth of communities and therefore social life lead people to become more interested in the progress of individuals and their shared experience on the colonies. These new ideals are accounted for in the widespread popularity of Benjamin Franklin’s ‘’Autobiography.’’

First American Novels

It was in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century that the nation’s first novels were published. These fictions were too lengthy to be printed as manuscript or public reading. Publishers took a chance on these works in hopes they would become steady sellers and need to be reprinted. This was a good bet as literacy rates soared in this period among both men and women. The first American novel is William Hill Brown’s ‘’The Power of Sympathy’’ published in 1789. In the next decade important women writers also published novels. Susannah Rowson is best known for her novel, ‘’Charlotte: A Tale of Truth’’, published in London in 1791. In 1794 the novel was reissued in Philadelphia under the title, ‘’Charlotte Temple.’’ ‘’Charlotte Temple’’ is a seduction tale, written in the third person, which warns against listening to the voice of love and counsels resistance. In addition to this best selling novel, she wrote nine novels, six theatrical works, two collections of poetry, six textbooks, and countless songs. Reaching more than a million and a half readers over a century and a half, ‘’Charlotte Temple’’ was the biggest seller of the nineteenth century before Stowe’s ‘’Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’’ Although Rowson was extremely popular in her time and is often acknowledged in accounts of the development of the early American novel, ‘’Charlotte Temple’’ is often criticized as a sentimental novel of seduction. Hannah Webster Foster’s ‘’The Coquette: Or, the History of Eliza Wharton’’ was published in 1797 and was also extremely popular. Told from Foster’s point of view and based on the real life of Eliza Whitman, this novel is about a woman who is seduced and abandoned. She gives birth to an illegitimate stillborn child at an inn and is then charged with arrogance because she had refused marriage until she could find someone to be her intellectual companion. ‘’The Coquette’’ is praised for its demonstration of this era’s contradictory ideals of womanhood. Both ‘’The Coquette’’ and ‘’Charlotte Temple’’ are novels that treat the right of women to live as equals as the new democratic experiment. These novels are of the Sentimental genre, characterized by overindulgence in emotion and an optimistic overemphasis on the goodness of humanity. Sentimentalism is often thought to be a reaction against the Calvinistic belief in the depravity of human nature. While many of these novels were popular, the economic infrastructure of the time did not allow these writers to make a living through their writing alone. The first author to be able to support himself through the income generated by his publications alone was Washington Irving. He completed his first major book in 1809 entitled ‘’A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty.’’ Charles Brockden Brown is another early American novelist, publishing ‘’Wieland’’ in 1798, ‘’Ormond’’ in 1799, and ‘’Edgar Huntly’’ in 1799. These novels are of the Gothic genre. Of the Picturesque genre, Hugh Henry Brackenridge published ‘’Modern Chivalry’’ in 1792-1815; Tabitha Gilman Tenney wrote ‘’Female Quixotism: Exhibited in the Romantic Opinions and Extravagant Adventure of Dorcasina Sheldon’’ in 1801; Carlotte Lennox wrote ‘’The Female Quixote’’ in 1752, and Royall Tyler wrote ‘’The Algerine Captive’’ in 1797. Other notable others include William Gilmore Simms, who wrote ‘’Martin Faber’’ in 1833, ‘’Guy Rivers’’ in 1834, and ‘’The Yemassee’’ in 1835. Lydia Maria Child wrote ‘’Hobomok’’ in 1824 and ‘’The Rebels’’ in 1825. John Neal wrote ‘’Logan, A Family History’’ in 1822, ‘’Rachel Dyer’’ in 1828, and ‘’The Down-Eaters’’ in 1833. Catherine Maria Sedgwick wrote ‘’A New England Tale’’ in 1822, ‘’Redwood’’ in 1824, ‘’Hope Leslie’’ in 1827, and ‘’The Linwoods” in 1835. James Kirke Paulding wrote ‘’The Lion of the West’’ in 1830, ‘’The Dutchman’s Fireside’’ in 1831, and ‘’Westward Ho!’’ in 1832. Robert Montgomery Bird wrote ‘’Calavar’’ in 1834 and ‘’Nick of the Woods’’ in 1837. James Fenimore Cooper was also a notable author best known for his novel, ‘’The Last of the Mohicans” written in 1826.

Referenes

Baym, Nina, ed. ‘’The Norton Anthology of American Literature.’’ New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007. Print. Campbell, Donna M. "The Early American Novel: Introductory Notes." ‘’Literary Movements.’’ 14 July 2008. 1 March 2010. <http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/earamnov.htm> Hamilton, Kristie. “An Assault on the Will: Republican Virtue and the City in Hannah Webster Foster’s “The Coquette.” ‘’Early American Literature.’’ 24.2: (1989) 135-151. ‘’JSTOR.’’ Web. 1 March 2010 Parker, Patricia L. “Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson.” ‘’The English Journal.’’ 65.1: (1976) 59-60. ‘’JSTOR.’’ Web. 1 March 2010. Pettengill, Claire C., “Sisterhood in a Separate Sphere: Female Friendship in Hannah Webster Foster’s “The Coquette and the Boarding School.” ‘’Early American Literature.’’ 27.3: (1992) 185-203. ‘’JSTOR.’’ Web. 1 March 2010. Reynolds, Guy. “The Winning of the West: Washington Irving’s ‘A Tour on the Prairies’.” ‘’The Yearbook of English Studies.’’ 34: (2004) 88-99. ‘’JSTOR.’’ Web. 1 March 2010. Rutherford, Mildred. ‘’American Authors.’’ Atlanta: The Franklin Printing and Publishing Co., 1902. Schweitzer, Ivy. “Review: [untitled].” ‘’Early American Literature.’’ 23.2: (1988) 221-225. ‘’JSTOR.’’ Web. 1 March 2010.