American Literature

I

Introduction

American Literature, literature written in the English language by inhabitants of the United States; it includes the literature written by residents of the 13 original colonies.

II

Colonial and Prerevolutionary Period

The first American literature is generally considered to be certain accounts of discoveries and explorations in the New World that frequently display the largeness of vision and vigour of style characteristic of contemporary Elizabethan writers. Such qualities are evident in the work of Captain John Smith. His Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles (1624) had the enormous vitality of much English prose in the epoch of the King James Bible.

This rich energy diminished, as literature, especially in the New England colonies, became preoccupied with theology. A religious explanation for every event was eloquently provided. Among the notable works in this vein are History of Plimmoth Plantation (posthumously pub. 1856) by William Bradford, an early governor of Plymouth Colony and The History of New England by John Winthrop, earliest governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, first published in relatively complete form in 1853. The vast theological work Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), subtitled The Ecclesiastical History of New England From Its First Planting, by the Puritan clergyman Cotton Mather was, in spite of its awkward style and didacticism, a masterpiece of religious scholarship and thought. Mather was the author of more than 400 printed works, and his father, Increase, also a clergyman, wrote about 100.

A counter voice was that of Thomas Morton, an English adventurer in America, who in The New English Canaan (1637) expounded the point of view of an early rebel against Puritanism.

Modern readers have probably found more of interest in the accounts of Indian wars and of captivities. Notable among the former are narratives such as A Brief History of the Pequot War by the English colonist John Mason, edited in 1736 by the historian Thomas Prince. Among the many published reports about colonists captured by Native Americans, perhaps the most celebrated is the narrative by Mary Rowlandson.

Much pious verse was written during the early colonial period. The first book printed in the colonies, in fact, was a hymnal, The Whole Book of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre (1640), better known as the Bay Psalm Book; this was the work of three New England clergymen, Richard Mather, John Eliot, and Thomas Weld. The most notable colonial poets were Anne Bradstreet (The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, 1650); Edward Taylor, whose exceptionally fine Poetical Works was first published in 1939; and the clergyman Michael Wigglesworth, whose once-popular poem The Day of Doom (1662) recounts in ballad metre the end of the world from a firmly Calvinist viewpoint.

The literature of the colonies outside New England was generally of a less theological cast. Present-day readers may still be amused by the wit and satire of A Character of the Province of Maryland (1666) by George Alsop, an indentured servant; and they will be charmed by A Brief Description of New York (1670) by the publicist Daniel Denton. Other writings of this period may be found in the collection edited by Albert C. Myers, Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, Delaware, and West Jersey, 1630-1708 (1912).

With the 18th century, interest moved to more secular, practical problems. The work of the Puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards remains significant, however. Popularly associated with his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741), Edwards is distinguished for his clarity of expression in such metaphysical works as A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God (1737) and Freedom of the Will (1754).

Two names commonly associated with provincial life illustrate the growing secularism of American writing. The first is William Byrd, a plantation owner. His History of the Dividing Line (written 1738, first pub. 1841) has remained a humorous tour de force, and his even more belatedly published diaries, Secret Diary (1941), and Another Secret Diary (1942), are comparable to the work of his near contemporary, the English diarist Samuel Pepys. The other, more famous name is that of Benjamin Franklin, whose unfinished Autobiography has become a landmark of American literature. His various letters, satires, “bagatelles”, almanacs, and scientific writings demonstrate the breadth of his knowledge and interests.

The earliest known work by a black American writer is “Bar’s Fight, August 28, 1746”, 28 lines of verse by Lucy Terry. Shortly afterwards came the poem “An Evening Thought; Salvation by Christ, with Penitential Cries” (1760) by a slave, Jupiter Hammon. The African-born poet Phillis Wheatley, the servant of a tailor’s wife in Boston before her release from slavery, was the first black American to receive considerable critical acclaim as a writer. Her collection Poems on Various Subjects: Religious and Moral (1773, London) is predominantly religious in tone.

III

The War of Independence and After

The flowering of American thought between the accession of George III in 1760 and the creation in 1789 of a federal government is notable in intellectual history.

A

Revolutionary Period

The writings of the American statesmen of the period deserve to be read, as the Literary History of the American Revolution (1897) by the historian Moses Coit Tyler makes evident. Better known to the modern reader is the famous series of papers known as The Federalist, written in 1787-1788 by the statesmen John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, whose defence of the new United States Constitution still offers one of the most persuasive arguments on behalf of constitutional government.

Although American literature did not achieve full maturity in the 18th century, its scope was at least widened. The first American newspaper, Publick Occurrences, appeared in Boston in 1690; its one edition was suppressed by colonial authorities because it did not have a licence. Fourteen years later the journalist John Campbell founded the Boston News-Letter. The first magazines appeared in 1741 in Philadelphia, when the printer Andrew Bradford founded the American Magazine and Benjamin Franklin established his General Magazine and Historical Chronicle.

Towards the end of the century, several notable literary personalities emerged amid the tumult of the American War of Independence, particularly the propagandist Thomas Paine, whose pamphlets Common Sense (1776) and the 12 issues of Crisis (1776-1783) awakened American enthusiasm for independence. Paine, however, lost favour in America when he published in London The Age of Reason (1794-1796), which argued against Christianity—but also against atheism. An important political satire was the mock epic M’Fingal (1775-1782) by the lawyer and poet John Trumbull. The most versatile and sensitive poet of the period was Philip Freneau, whose “The House of Night” (1779) was a powerful exercise in Gothic Romanticism and whose nature poetry is still read.

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789, London), regarded as the fullest and most penetrating account of an 18th-century black man’s life, was the first published autobiography by a black American. It is attributed to Olaudah Equiano, a slave who bought his freedom, settled in England, and afterwards became active in the antislavery movement.