WASHINGTON IRVING (1783-1859)

·        Was a humorist and an ironist

·        Was the first great prose stylist of American Romanticism

·        Writes from his personal life in a great and graceful style that reveals his enthusiasm for lif

·        Kept a sketch book for sketching out his stories

·        Wrote the first modern short stories and the first great American juvenile literature

·        Was the first American writer to win International fame

·        Was a gifted cultural ambassador

·        Wrote under several pseudonyms before using his own name

·        Was admitted to the New York bar

·        Brought a new element to American literature

·        Served as secretary of the American legation in London

·        Spent 17 years abroad before returning to live in America

·        Named his home in New York “Sunnyside”

 

JAMES FENNIMORE COOPER 1789-1851)

·        Is known as the creator of the American hero-mytH

·        Is remembered as a master of the adventurous narrative

·        Created idealized situations and characters

·        His histories gained him a reputation as a critic of American society

·        In his youth, he was privately tutored; later attended Yale, but never received a degree

·        Married wealthy Susan Augusta DeLancey and settled in Cooperstown, New York

·        Wrote his first novel, a fiction, in response to his wife's challenge, pursued the historic novel before attempting his first real success with the fictional character

·        Created Natty Bumppo with his first contribution to the Leatherstocking Tales, The last of the Mohicans. Later Natty becomes Deerslayer, Hawkeye, Pathfinder, and Leatherstocking.

 

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT (1794-1878)

·        Was the first American poet to be revered as a national monument

·        Was an individual of force, courage, and dynamic liberalism with a winning personality

·        Was an effective leader of American culture and political life from the Jacksonian Age to the Civil War

·        Gained a reputation as a critic

·        In formulating the romantic movement, he provided examples of disciplined imagination and precise expression, replacing the usual "insipid" generalizations of nature with close obligation of the natural object

·        Includes characteristics of the neoclassical restraint and didacticism in his works

·        Began writing verse at the age of 9, and was published by the age of 14

·        Gave up writing for a time to study law and hold political office

·        "Thanatopsis" was his first great success

·        Was called to read "The Ages" as the Phi Beta Kappa poem at Harvard

·        Was editor-in-chief of the Evening Post

·        His persistent themes besides religion and nature deals with humanitarian reform and national morality

·        Fought for freedom of speech, religion, and of labor association and free trade, freedom of the masses from oppressive debtor laws and exploitation of banking and currency regulations, and freedom of slaves

 

RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882)--- A founder of the Transcendental movement and the founder of a distinctly American philosophy emphasizing optimistic individuality, and mysticism, Emerson was one of the most influential literary figures of the 19th century. Raised to be a minister in Puritan New England, Emerson sought to create all things new" with a philosophy stressing the recognition of God Immanent, to the presence of ongoing creation and revelation by a god apparent in all things and who exists within everyone. Also crucial to Emerson's thought is the related eastern concept of the essential unity of all thoughts, persons, and things in the divine whole. Traditional values right and wrong, good and evil, appear in his work as necessary opposites, evidencing the effect of German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel's system of dialectical metaphysics. Emerson's works also emphasize individualism and each persons quest to break free from the trappings of the illusory world in order to discover the godliness of the inner Self. Emerson is perhaps the single most influential figure in American literary history. More than any other author of his day, he was responsible for shaping the literary style and vision of American romantic period, the era when the United States first developed a distinctly national literature worthy of comparison to that of the mother country.

 

·        Was a prophet, a priest, a law-giver, an essayist, a critic, a poet, a lecturer, and a philosopher

·        Delivered "The American Scholar" he fore Harvard's Phi Beta Kappa Society in 1837

·        In manner, he was gracious and considerate, an engaging mixture of persuasiveness and self-deprecation

·        Wrote the elegy "Threnody" upon the death of his first and favorite daughter, Waldo

·        His poetry is terse, often elliptical, gnomic expression which interweaves symbolic images and provocative statement. More important is his transcendental movement of irregularities in rhythm and rhyme, and line length in order to capture the "artful thunder" of the ancient bards.

·        His works display an ecstatic enthusiasm which is imaginative and personal, and often are filled with aphorisms

·        Stressed individualism

 

CROSSCURRENTS: TRANSCENDENTALISM, WOMEN, AND SOCIAL IDEAS:

 

ELIZABETH PEABODY (1804-1894)

  • Was tutored in Greek by Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Opened the first kindergarten in the US
  • First woman bookseller in Boston
  • First woman publisher
  • Tireless reformer for abolition, and woman suffrage

 

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON (1815-1902)

  • Studied law but could not practice because she was a woman
  • Attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention but could not attend because women were barred from participation
  • Organized a convention to discuss women’s rights

 

SOJOURNER TRUTH (1797-1883)

  • Was born a slave (New York)
  • Worked as a domestic until she heard God’s call to be an itinerate preacher
  • Impressed her audience with her physical size, imperial bearing, and impassioned speaking
  • Was illiterate,  thus her speeches exist as others remember them

 

 

HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817-1862) Is considered one of the key figures of the American Transcendental movement, and his "Walden" or "Life in the Woods," a record of tow years that he spent living alone in the woods near Concord, Massachusetts, is viewed as one of the finest prose works in American Literature. Part autobiography, part fiction, part social criticism, "Walden" is a work which advocates a simple, Self-sufficient way of life in order to free the individual from Self-imposed social and financial obligations. He also pleads for a more intimate relationship between human beings and nature as an antidote to the deadening influence of an increasingly industrialized society. Thus, Thoreau's works embody the tenets of American Transcendentalism as articulated by Ralph Waldo Emerson and others. His aphoristic yet lyrical prose style and intense moral and political convictions have secured his place beside Emerson as the most representative and influential of the New England Transcendentalists. He is considered along with such figures as Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville as a major 19th century American author.

 

·        Grew up in genteel poverty, his mother running a boarding house supplement the family's income

·        After hearing Emerson's "The American Scholar," Thoreau Modeled himself after Emerson

·        His essays reflect his character in that they reveal a simplistic and divine unity of nature, a faith in humanity, a sturdy individualism, and a deep-rooted love for one place as an epitome of the universe.

·        Suffered deep bereavements in his personal life with the loss of both his brother and his sister

·        Was actively concerned with social issues and the unity of humanity and nature

·        Was never inclined to any career, but chose rather to work to live life

·        Was owner of and a teacher in a private school (1838-1841), a worker in his father's pencil factory, a surveyor, and an essayists and lecturer

 

EDGAR ALLEN POE (1809-1849) is known as the architect of the modern short story, He also popularized the forms of both horror and detective stories with more complexity and self-consciousness in the artistic manner of the 20th century. In all his writings can be seen his brilliant command of language and techniques as well as an inspired and original imagination. Even today, Poe still remains one of the most popular authors in the world. In the realms of the macabre and supernatural, his works resemble his own troubled and disturbed life of poverty, anxiety and fantastic tragedy. Poe's life was a series of disasters: psychologically crippling childhood deprivations, bitter literary squabbles, overwhelming poverty, failed publishing ventures, and an unsuccessful suicide attempt.

·        Attended Manor House School in Stock Newington, England, the University of Virginia, and the US Military Academy at West Point

·        Was a novelist, critic, short story writer, and poet

·        Acquired the rank of Sergeant-Major in the US Army as Edgar Allen Perry from 1827-1829

·        Married his cousin, Virginia when she was only thirteen years old

·        Much of his writings embody a world of the bizarre and macabre satanic characters

·        Is known as the neurotic genius

·        Was a self-proclaimed aristocrat, a wit, a gambler and a heavy drinker

·        Was intensely creative when not troubled with fits of acute mental depression and drinking bouts

·        Was impoverished for most of his life

·        His literary executor, Rufus Griswold, described Poe as demonic and depraved, an "egotistic villain" with "scarcely any virtue."

 

NANTHANIEL HAWTHORNE (1804-1864) 

THEMES :

THE SUBCONSCIOUS: Like Poe, Hawthorne is concerned with internal struggles and dilemmas, and what lies beneath the conscious. Often internal forces pull his characters in tow directions; sometimes the intellect and the intuition are conflicting operatives within his individuals. While Emerson calls on individuals to "trust thyself" and listen to their inner voices, Hawthorne seems to respond with a question: which inner voice do I listen to? Sometimes these inner forces or motives for action are inscrutable, less definable.

 

THE LOSS OF INNOCENCE: Many of Hawthorn’s characters wander into unfamiliar territories, sometimes representative of inner explorations, as in the allegorical "Young Good Brown." Frequently, the loss of innocence or an awareness of a sin-ridden world has devastating results, as the characters do not seem to know what to do with their new-found knowledge and new self’s, as in Goodman Brown's case when he withdraws from his wife and community.

 

SIN---INHERITED, HIDDEN, And EXPOSING: Consider Melville's statement from "Hawthorne and Moses,"

Certain it is, however, that this great power of blackness in [Hawthorne] derives its force from its appeals to that Calvinistic sense of Innate Depravity and Original Sin, from whose visitations, in some shape or other, no deeply thinking mind is always wholly free.

Hawthorn’s characters are obsessed with sin---we see children suffering for the sins of their fathers, individuals tormenting themselves for unconfessed sins, and individuals corrupting themselves when they pry into another's heart to detect sin. Hawthorne is rarely concerned with the act of sin or the sin itself; instead, he focuses on the effects of sin on the sinners and the individuals close to them.

 

ISOLATION AND MALE WITHDRAWAL FROM MARRIAGE: any of his characters live in isolation, frequently self-I posed. However, there is the sense that it is extraordinarily difficult to know someone else, and in return, to disclose oneself to another. Even in a circle of love, individuals feel "lonesome," doomed to one form of isolation or another.

 

SEARCH FOR KNOWLEDGE: When Hawthorn’s characters strive for perfection of any sort, the results are devastating for them and their families.

 

AMBIGUITY: Hawthorne is intentionally ambiguous. He does not offer easy explanations and solutions. The interplay of light-dark imagery in several stories suggests not only an awareness of polarities but also the realization that polarities cannot always be reconciled. Very rarely are characters completely good or admirable, and very rarely do allegories and parables lend themselves to neat interpretations. The world and morality are ambiguous, and yet as the laughter indicates at the end of several stories, Hawthorne seems to have achieved a comfort level with ambiguity. He seems to possess a "negative capability" that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts, without reaching after fact and reason.

 

HUMOR (SELF-DEPRECATION, RIDDLES, AND IRONY): Most frequently, Hawthorne is self-depreciating in his journals and prefaces. His irony is apparent and somewhat ironic in that he shows no compassion and merely jokes before turning characters' remains into profitable lime.

PURITAN INFLUENCE: Being five generations removed from his Puritan ancestors, Hawthorne was strongly influenced by the history of Puritanism, though not always favorably. He is known as the "chronicler of the antiquities and the spiritual temper of colonial New England." Witches, persecutors of Quakers, and problems of moral and social responsibility were his concerns, and these influences dominate his literature.

Perhaps Hawthorne best describes himself in the following quote written to Longfellow in 1937, "I have been carried apaart from the main current of life…I have secluded myself from society…I have made a captive of myself and put me into a dungeon; and now I cannot find the key to let me out…"

 

HERMAN MELVILLE (1819-1891) --- Hawthorne gives us a human insight into the character in the following excerpt from his (Hawthorn’s) journal that was written just after Melville had been a guest in his home:

Melville has not been well of late; he ha been affected with neuralgic complaints in his head and limbs, and no doubt has suffered from too constant literary occupation, pursued without much success, latterly; and his writings, for a long while past, have indicated a morbid state of mind.

Melville, as he always does, began to reason of Providence and futurity, and of everything that lies beyond human ken, and informed me that he had 'pretty much made up his mind to be annihilated; but still he does not seem to rest until he gets hold of a definite belief.

He can neither believe nor be comfortable in his belief, and he is too honest and courageous not to try to do one or the other. If he were a religious man, he would be one of the most truly religious and reverential; he has a very high and noble nature, and better worth immortality than most of us.

His energy, intensity, restlessness, curiosity, and uncertainity are features of his character which are found in his writings, and which explain his "stylistic awkwardness….his tendency to lose control of his symbols, to set the metaphysical thunderbolt side by side with factual discussion or commonplace realism.

 

Following are some of Melville's themes:

ESCAPE FROM CIVILIZATION--He creates characters that seek ways of escaping the complexities, inequities, and anxieties of the modern world. Some of his characters escape at sea, in large cities, by evading marriage, manipulating culture, and withdrawing into themselves.

 

DANGERS OF ISOLATION--As in the case of "Bartleby" by ceding internal vitality to external motionlessness, chooses a life that is lonely, unstimulating and imcomplete. In the end, Bartleby finds a new fried and realizes that detachment is impossible and commits suicide.

 

THE INDIVIDUAL VS. AUTHORITY---Questions of authority concern all of Melville's fiction. Melville's authority can be cruel, as is the case with Captain in Billy Budd.

 

THE "FEMININE IN MAN"--- Melville explores the feminine side of his male characters which leads to moments of tenderness and compassion, and often tragedy. In Melville, those who are comfortable with the feminine within lead more fully alive and well-adjusted lives. Similarly, those who replace sex with things or activities become sterile and less vital, internally and externally. He seems to suggest that if we stifle the sexual impulse, we can never be fully alive.

 

REALITY VS ILLUSION, AMBUGUITIES ---Melville likes to expose realities or demonstrate how unknowable reality can be, but his realities are difficult to detect. He questions the authority of history and doubts the accuracy of historical fact--it is little more than an illusion for him.

 

CRITIQUE OF CAPITALISM---Some or his works contain images of dehumanized individuals manipulated by capitalists used for profit.

 

Melville's style can best be summarized by looking at the following elements:

NARRATIVE VOICES---In Billy Budd the narrator is unidentified, making it difficult to recognize that the story is told in the first person. Melville often chooses to give his narrator limited information into the totality of its characters.

 

HUMOR---No matter how dark Melville's stories, he does have some humorous moments, often incorporated through the technique of irony. Melville employs this technique in order to suggest something about humanity, often the absurdity of the human condition.

 

NATIONALISM---Melville discusses the potential of American literature with exuberance. With extravagant praise, he compares Hawthorne to Shakespeare in an attempt to celebrate Hawthorn’s genius and to promote Hawthorne and American literature to a larger readership in an effort to convince Americans to be proud of their own writers.

 

POETRY---Melville is as much a poet of the South as the North. He took joy in the Union victory, but he was moved deeply by the huge success on both sides. For him, the Civil War represented a loss of innocence and unrestrained optimism for America. His tone is frequently sober and authoritative, "that of the reconciler who would dissolve the issue of blame in a recognition of common tragedy."

 

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882)

·        Works are accessible (in paperback as well as leather bound issues)

·        Poems are easily comprehended, frequently sentimental, comfortably moralistic, and tersely didactic

·        Was educated and immensely popular

·        Expresses the lives and ideals of humbler Americans

·        Embraced humanitarianism in his works

·        Writes epics that demonstrate an effectiveness in narration, description, and characterization

·        Was at times melodramatic

·        Popularized native stories and legends in classical forms

 

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER (1807-1892)

·        Was one of the "fireside poets" also known as "schoolroom poets"

·        Never considered himself a poet or even an author

·        Was an ardent abolitionist

·        Was imaginative, and impassioned in his works

·        Was elected to the 1835 Massachusetts legislature

·        Incorporates sentimentality in his poetry

·        His 80th birthday was marked by a national celebration in recognition of his unique expression of the common American life.

·        Began writing poetry at a very young age

 

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (1809-1894)

·        Was a professor of Anatomy at Harvard Medical School

·        Is renowned for his contributions to the medical field, especially against infectious disease

·        Was called the most intelligent man in New England

·        Provided the medical profession with the terms "anesthetic" and "anesthesia"

·        Help organize the most distinguished literary journal, the Atlantic Monthly

·        Wrote society verse, in a neoclassic style that reflected his conservatism and his devotion to the literary and social ideals of 18th century England.

·        Much of his poetry is intended to commemorate civic events---jubilees, births, weddings, funerals, reunions, and graduations

·        Writings are refined, civilized, and limited--humble instruments with a few ringing couplets, devised to give the solid mercantile community to which he belonged a slight passing spasm of pleasure

 

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE (1811-1896)

  • Although her most famous work is Uncle Tom’s Cabin, most of her other work does not focus on slavery
  • Was an active advocate for women’s rights as well as an abolitionist
  • Her writing is a forerunner of the realistic movement in literature
  • Her themes center around portraits of local and social life,
  • Her style is accurate and detailed descriptions with detail to local dialect
  • She was neighbors with Samuel Clemens

 

 

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819-1891)

·        Was an essayist, editor, critic, poet and public gentleman

·        Was an ardent reformer, crusading for abolition, temperance, vegetarianism, and women's rights in his youth

·        Was a conserve spokesperson in his older years

·        Taught literature at Harvard, and received honorary degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge

·        Was US ambassador to Spain (1877-1880) and to England (1880-1885)

·        Was considered America's most distinguished man of letters

·        In form his poetry is fluent, cultivated and facile; his dialect verse and his rhymed satire crackled with witty commentary on the follies of his age and on the character of his literary contemporaries

 

THE FIRESIDE POETS: Fireside poetry is poetry that was meant to be read aloud around the family fireside or recited in schoolrooms. It is generally moralistic, didactic, sentimental, nationalistic, direct, accessible, and non-threatening. It could be listened to after a hard day's labor and provide relaxation, escape, and affirmation, even when melancholy. It gave expression to the truths which the majority of people lived by and held sacred. It was the poetry of sentiment that prized simplicity of expression, and was almost always produced in regular meter and rhyme.