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For information on how to proceed, first see the FAQ for blocked users and the guideline on block appeals. The guide to appealing blocks may also be helpful. Other useful links: Blocking policy · Help:I have been blocked You can view and copy the source of this page: ==19th century – Unique American style== [[File:John Neal by Sarah Miriam Peale, c. 1823, oil on canvas - Portland Museum of Art - Portland, Maine - DSC04059.jpg|thumb|right|200px|alt=Color oil painting of the bust of a young white man with light brown short wavy hair and a plain countenance, looking at the viewer. The raised color of a white shirt is visible beneath a dark jacket and cloak. He stands before a plain brown-green background.|[[John Neal (writer)|John Neal]]]] After the [[War of 1812]], there was an increasing desire to produce a uniquely American literature and culture, and a number of literary figures emerged, among them [[Washington Irving]], [[William Cullen Bryant]], and [[James Fenimore Cooper]]. Irving wrote humorous works in ''[[Salmagundi (periodical)|Salmagundi]]'' and the satire ''[[A History of New York|A History of New York, by Diedrich Knickerbocker]]'' (1809). Bryant wrote early romantic and nature-inspired poetry, which evolved away from their European origins. Cooper's ''[[Leatherstocking Tales]]'' about [[Natty Bumppo]] (which includes ''[[The Last of the Mohicans]]'', 1826) were popular both in the new country and abroad. [[John Neal (writer)|John Neal]]'s early works in the 1810s and 1820s played a formidable role in the developing American style of literature.{{cite thesis | last = Fiorelli | first = Edward Alfred | date = 1980 | title = Literary Nationalism in the Works of John Neal (1793-1876) | type = PhD | publisher = Fordham University | url = https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8020060 | at = Abstract}} He criticised Irving and Cooper for relying on old British conventions of authorship to frame American phenomena,Lease 1972, pp. 42, 69 arguing that “to succeed...[the American writer] must resemble nobody…[he] must be unlike all that have gone before [him]” and issue “another Declaration of Independence, in the great Republic of Letters.”{{cite book | last = Neal | first = John | title = Rachel Dyer: A North American Story | publisher = Shirley and Hyde | location = Portland, Maine | year = 1828 | url = https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001692794 | pages = xii, xviii}} As a pioneer of the literary device he alternately referred to as “talk[ing] on paper”{{cite book | last = Neal | first = John | title = Seventy-Six; or, Love and Battle | publisher = J. Cunningham | location = London, England | year = 1840 | url = https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008957328 | orig-year = originally published as ''Seventy-Six'' in 1823 | page = 4}} or "natural writing,",{{cite book | last = Neal | first = John | title = Errata; or, The Works of Will. Adams | publisher = Published for the proprietors | location = New York, NY | year = 1823 | volume = 1 | url = https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001027688 | page = 59}} Neal was “the first in America to be natural in his diction”{{cite book | editor-last = Pattee | editor-first = Fred Lewis | last = Pattee | first = Fred Lewis | chapter = Introduction | title = American Writers: A Series of Papers Contributed to Blackwood's Magazine (1824-1825) | publisher = Duke University Press | location = Durham, North Carolina | year = 1937 | url = https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001026497 | page = 22}} and his work represents “the first deviation from...Irvingesque graciousness.”Lease 1972, p. 70, quoting Harold C. Martin [[File:Edgar Allan Poe portrait.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Edgar Allan Poe]]]] In 1832, [[Edgar Allan Poe]] began writing short stories – including "[[The Masque of the Red Death]]", "[[The Pit and the Pendulum]]", "[[The Fall of the House of Usher]]", and "[[The Murders in the Rue Morgue]]" – that explore previously hidden levels of human psychology and push the boundaries of fiction toward [[mystery fiction|mystery]] and [[fantasy]]. Humorous writers were also popular and included [[Seba Smith]] and [[Benjamin Penhallow Shillaber]] in [[New England]] and [[Davy Crockett]], [[Augustus Baldwin Longstreet]], [[Johnson J. Hooper]], [[Thomas Bangs Thorpe]], and [[George Washington Harris]] writing about the American frontier. The [[Boston Brahmin|New England Brahmins]] were a group of writers connected to [[Harvard University]] and [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]]. They included [[James Russell Lowell]], [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]], and [[Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.]] [[File:Ralph Waldo Emerson ca1857.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Ralph Waldo Emerson]]]] In 1836, [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], a former minister, published his essay ''Nature'', which argued that men should dispense with organized religion and reach a lofty spiritual state by studying and interacting with the natural world. Emerson's work influenced the writers who formed the movement now known as [[Transcendentalism]], while Emerson also influenced the public through his lectures. Among the leaders of the Transcendental movement was [[Henry David Thoreau]], a nonconformist and a close friend of Emerson. After living mostly by himself for two years in a cabin by a wooded pond, Thoreau wrote ''[[Walden]]'' (1854), a memoir that urges resistance to the dictates of society. Thoreau's writings demonstrate a strong American tendency toward individualism. Other Transcendentalists included [[Amos Bronson Alcott]], [[Margaret Fuller]], [[George Ripley (transcendentalist)|George Ripley]], [[Orestes Brownson]], and [[Jones Very]].Gura, Philip F. ''American Transcendentalism: A History''. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007: 7–8. {{ISBN|978-0-8090-3477-2}} As one of the great works of the Revolutionary period was written by a Frenchman, so too was a work about America from this generation. [[Alexis de Tocqueville]]'s two-volume ''[[Democracy in America]]'' (1836&1840)described his travels through the young nation, making observations about the relations between American politics, individualism, and community. The political conflict surrounding [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionism]] inspired the writings of [[William Lloyd Garrison]] and his paper ''[[The Liberator (anti-slavery newspaper)|The Liberator]]'', along with poet [[John Greenleaf Whittier]] and [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] in her world-famous ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' (1852). These efforts were supported by the continuation of the slave narrative autobiography. [[File:Nathaniel Hawthorne old.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]]] In 1837, the young [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] (1804–1864) collected some of his stories as ''[[Twice-Told Tales]]'', a volume rich in symbolism and occult incidents. Hawthorne went on to write full-length "romances", quasi-allegorical novels that explore the themes of guilt, pride, and emotional repression in [[New England]]. His masterpiece, ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'' (1850), is a drama about a woman cast out of her community for committing adultery. Hawthorne's fiction had a profound impact on his friend [[Herman Melville]] (1819–1891), who first made a name for himself by turning material from his seafaring days into exotic sea narrative novels. Inspired by Hawthorne's focus on allegories and psychology, Melville went on to write romances replete with philosophical speculation. In ''[[Moby-Dick]]'' (1851), an adventurous whaling voyage becomes the vehicle for examining such themes as obsession, the nature of evil, and human struggle against the elements. In the short novel ''[[Billy Budd (novel)|Billy Budd]]'', Melville dramatizes the conflicting claims of duty and compassion on board a ship in time of war. His more profound books sold poorly, and he had been long forgotten by the time of his death. He was rediscovered in the early 20th century. Anti-transcendental works from Melville, Hawthorne, and Poe all comprise the [[Dark romanticism|Dark Romanticism]] sub-genre of popular literature at this time. ===Ethnic, African American and Native American writers=== Slave narrative autobiography from this period include [[Frederick Douglass]]'s ''[[Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave]]'' (1845) and [[Harriet Jacobs]]'s ''[[Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl]]'' (1861). At this time, American Indian autobiography develops, most notably in [[William Apess]]'s ''A Son of the Forest'' (1829) and [[George Copway]]'s ''The Life, History and Travels of Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh'' (1847). Moreover, minority authors were beginning to publish fiction, as in [[William Wells Brown]]'s ''[[Clotel|Clotel; or, The President's Daughter]]'' (1853), [[Frank J. Webb]]'s ''The Garies and Their Friends'', (1857) [[Martin Delany]]'s ''Blake; or, The Huts of America'' (1859–62 and [[Harriet E. Wilson]]'s ''[[Our Nig| Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black]]'' (1859) as early African American novels, and [[John Rollin Ridge]]'s ''[[The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta]]'' (1854), which is considered the first Native American novel but which also is an early story about [[Mexican American]] issues. Return to American literature. 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