# The Cambridge History of American Literature

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published in four volumes 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.
The Cambridge History of American Literature
Edited by William Peterfield Trent, M.A., LL.D. Professor of English in Columbia University
John Erskine, Ph.D. Professor of English in Columbia University
Stuart P. Sherman, Ph.D. Professor of English in the University of Illinois
Carl Van Doren, Ph.D. Head Master of The Brearley School
In Three Volumes
Colonial and Revolutionary Literature Early National Literature: Part I
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons Cambridge, England: University Press 1917
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 |
| 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 |

### 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.
* Chapter XI: Hawthorne
       By John Erskine
* Chapter XII: Longfellow
       By William Peterfield Trent
* Chapter XIII: Whittier
       By William Morton Payne
* Chapter XIV: Poe
       By Killis Campbell
* Chapter XV: Publicists and Orators
       By A. C. McLaughlin
* Chapter XVI: Webster
       By Henry Cabot Lodge
* Chapter XVII: Writers on American History, 1783-1850
       By John Spencer Bassett
* Chapter XVIII: Prescott and Motley
       By Ruth Putnam
* Chapter XIX: Early Humorists
       By Will D. Howe
* Chapter XX: Magazines, Annuals, and Gift-Books, 1783-1850
       By William B. Cairns
* Chapter XXI: Newspapers, 1775-1860
       By Frank W. Scott
* Chapter XXII: Divines and Moralists, 1783-1860
       By Samuel Lee Wolff
* Chapter XXIII: Writers of Familiar Verse
       By Brander Matthews
* Chapter XXIV: Lowell
       By Ashley H. Thorndike

### Book III, Later National Literature

* Chapter I: Whitman, Author:Emory Holloway
* Chapter II: Poets of the Civil War I: The North, Author:Will D. Howe
* Chapter III: Poets of the Civil War II: The South, Author:Edwin Mims
* Chapter IV: The New South: Lanier, Author:Dudley Miles
* Chapter V: Dialect Writers, Author:C. Alphonso Smith
* Chapter VI: The Short Story, Author:Fred Lewis Pattee
* Chapter VII: Books for Children, Author:Algernon Tassin
* Chapter VIII: Mark Twain, Author:Stuart P. Sherman
* Chapter IX: Minor Humorists, Author:George Frisbie Whicher
* Chapter X: Later Poets, Author:Norman Foerster
* Chapter XI: The Later Novel: Howells, Author:Carl Van Doren
* Chapter XII: Henry James, Author:Joseph Warren Beach
* Chapter XIII: Later Essayists, Author:George S. Hellman
* Chapter XIV: Travellers and Explorers, 1846-1900, Author:Frederick S. Dellenbaugh
* Chapter XV: Later Historians, Author:John Spencer Bassett
* Chapter XVI: Later Theology, Author:Ambrose White Vernon
* Chapter XVII: Later Philosophy, Author:Morris R. Cohen
* Chapter XVIII: The Drama, 1860-1918, Author:Montrose J. Moses
* Chapter XIX: Later Magazines, Author:William R. Cairns
* Chapter XX: Newspapers Since 1860, Author:Frank W. Scott
* Chapter XXI: Political Writing Since 1850, Author:William Kenneth Boyd
* Chapter XXII: Lincoln, Author:Nathaniel Wright Stephenson
* Chapter XXIII: Education, Author:Paul Monroe
* Chapter XXIV: Economists, Author:Edwin R. A. Seligman
* Chapter XXV: Scholars, Author:Samuel Lee Wolff
* Chapter XXVI: Patriotic Songs and Hymns, Author:Percy H. Boynton
* Chapter XXVII: Oral Literature, Author:Louise Pound
* Chapter XXVIII: Popular Bibles, Author:Woodbridge Riley
* Chapter XXIX: Book Publishers and Publishing, Author:Earl L. Bradsher
* Chapter XXX: The English Language in America, Author:Harry Morgan Ayres
* Chapter XXXI: Non-English Writings
** German, Author:Albert Bernhardt Faust
** French, Author:Edward J. Fortier
** Yiddish, Author:Nathaniel Buchwald
** Aboriginal, Author:Mary Austin
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1951, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 73 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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