American writers and the picturesque tour
Subtitle: the search for national identity, 1790-1860
By: Beth L. Lueck.
Series: Garland reference library of the humanities ;; v. 1967; Garland studies in nineteenth-century American literature ;; v. 7; Garland studies in nineteenth-century American literature ;; vol. 7.
Publisher: Garland Pub.
Published: 1997
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 211
Subjects: Travelers' writings, American -- History and criticism; American prose literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Travelers -- United States -- History -- 19th century; National characteristics, American, in literature; Travel writing -- History -- 19th century; Picturesque, The, in literature; Group identity in literature; Landscape in literature; Travelers in literature; Travel in literature
Description: Even before the age of the Romantics, travel literature was a favorite genre of English and American writers and readers. After the War of 1812, Americans' passion for scenic beauty inspired them to take the picturesque tour of America as well as going to Europe for the requisite Grand Tour. The written American version of the popular British tour in various guidebooks helped shape the literature of the new nation as nearly every major writer of the first half of the 19th century contributed to it from Poe, who provided several comic pieces, and Irving to Thoreau, for whom the tour symbolized moral and spiritual growth, and Margaret Fuller. --Publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.