Literature

American. American literature is divided for convenience into three periods: the Colonial period, the Revolutionary period, and the period of the Republic. As a matter of fact, all that precedes the nineteenth century must be looked upon as preparatory. A few names of importance appear, Benjamin Franklin's being the greatest. Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards were eminent divines who wrote on religious subjects. Barlow and Freneau were poets; Hamilton, Washington, and Jefferson may also be named as writers of influence. With the nineteenth century and Washington Irving, American literature really begins. James Fenimore Cooper produced the first novel and William Cullen Bryant is the first great poet. Halleck, Drake, and N. P. Willis are other poets who belong to this first group of American authors, sometimes classed as the Knickerbocker writers, because they all wrote for the Knickerbocker Magazine.

Two important movements began to influence the literature of America at about this time. The transcendental movement, affecting modes of thought, religion, and criticism; and the anti-slavery movement, striking deeper into the hearts and consciences of the people. The influence of these movements may be traced in both poetry and prose. Following Bryant, our first great poet, are the other New England poets, Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, Whittier, and Emerson; the Southern poets, Poe and Lanier; and the Metropolitan writers, so-called because they wrote from the great centers of life. Among these are Aldrich, Stedman, Gilder, Stoddard, Curtis, Warner, Whitman, Field, and others. Other poets whom it is difficult to classify are Riley, Edith Thomas, Joaquin Miller, and John James Pratt.

Among prose writers we find Emerson, Holmes, and Lowell as critics and essayists; Bancroft, Motley, and Prescott among historians; Phillips, Clay, Calhoun, Webster, and Lincoln as orators. Thoreau and Burroughs are the first of a long list who have produced nature studies of interest and literary merit. Humor, too, has been well represented by Mark Twain, Josh Billings, Charles Brown, and Petroleum V. Nasby. Since about 1870 the novel has been supreme in American literature. The interest in the reading and the writing of fiction has doubtless weakened literature so far as other lines are concerned. Soon after the Civil War the school of realism, as it is called, arose, with Howells and James as its founders. Toward the end of the century, Crawford, Mary Johnstone, Winston Churchill, and others led a reaction in favor of the romantic tale and the historical novel. The problem novel, too, has been produced, though it has not been as popular here as in England. A taste for the short story and the justification of such taste by the production of artistic examples, has been a recent feature in literature. Many names may be mentioned in this field. Mary Wilkins, Frank Stockton, Edward Everett Hale, and Margaret Deland are among the best short story writers. The reader is referred to separate articles on the individual authors mentioned in this article and on many other American writers whose names have been omitted necessarily from this sketch.