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==Post-independence==
[[File:US-original-Declaration-1776.jpg|thumb|The opening of the original printing of the Declaration, printed on July 4, 1776 under Jefferson's supervision.[Julian P. Boyd, [http://journals.psu.edu/pmhb/article/view/43289/43010 "The Declaration of Independence: The Mystery of the Lost Original"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150212073815/http://journals.psu.edu/pmhb/article/view/43289/43010 |date=February 12, 2015 }}. ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 100, number 4 (October 1976), p. 456.]]]
In the post-war period, [[Thomas Jefferson]] established his place in American literature through his authorship of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], his influence on the [[United States Constitution|U.S. Constitution]], his autobiography, his [[Notes on the State of Virginia]], and his many letters. [[The Federalist]] essays by [[Alexander Hamilton]], [[James Madison]], and [[John Jay]] presented a significant historical discussion of American government organization and republican values. [[Fisher Ames]], [[James Otis, Jr.|James Otis]], and [[Patrick Henry]] are also valued for their political writings and orations.
Early American literature struggled to find a unique voice in existing literary genre, and this tendency was reflected in novels. European styles were frequently imitated, but critics usually considered the imitations inferior.
=== The First American Novel ===
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the first American novels were published. These fictions were too lengthy to be printed as manuscript or public reading. Publishers took a chance on these works in hopes they would become steady sellers and need to be reprinted. This scheme was ultimately successful because male and female literacy rates were increasing at the time. Among the first American novels are [[Thomas Attwood Digges]]'s ''Adventures of Alonso'', published in London in 1775 and [[William Hill Brown]]'s ''[[The Power of Sympathy]]'' published in 1789. Brown's novel depicts a tragic love story between siblings who fell in love without knowing they were related.
In the next decade important women writers also published novels. [[Susanna Rowson]] is best known for her novel ''Charlotte: A Tale of Truth'', published in London in 1791.[Parker, Patricia L. "Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson." ''The English Journal.'' 65.1: (1976) 59-60. ''JSTOR.'' Web. 1 March 2010.] In 1794 the novel was reissued in Philadelphia under the title, ''[[Charlotte Temple]].'' ''Charlotte Temple'' is a seduction tale, written in the third person, which warns against listening to the voice of love and counsels resistance. She also wrote nine novels, six theatrical works, two collections of poetry, six textbooks, and countless songs.[Schweitzer, Ivy. "Review." ''Early American Literature.'' 23.2: (1988) 221-225. ''JSTOR.'' Web. 1 March 2010.] Told from Foster's point of view and based on the real life of Eliza Whitman, the novel is about a woman who is seduced and abandoned. Eliza is a "coquette" who is courted by two very different men: a clergyman who offers her a comfortable domestic life and a noted libertine. Unable to choose between them, she finds herself single when both men get married. She eventually yields to the artful libertine and gives birth to an illegitimate stillborn child at an inn. ''The Coquette'' is praised for its demonstration of the era's contradictory ideas of womanhood.[Hamilton, Kristie. "An Assault on the Will: Republican Virtue and the City in Hannah Webster Foster's 'The Coquette'." ''Early American Literature.'' 24.2: (1989) 135-151. ''JSTOR.'' Web. 1 March 2010] even as it has been criticized for delegitimizing protest against women's subordination.[Joudrey, Thomas J. [http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/TNEQ_a_00257?journalCode=tneq "Maintaining Stability: Fancy and Passion in 'The Coquette'.]" ''New England Quarterly.'' 86.1 (2013): 60-88.]
[[File:Washington Irving and his Literary Friends at Sunnyside.jpg|thumb|240px|[[Washington Irving]] and his friends at [[Sunnyside (Tarrytown, New York)|Sunnyside]]]]
Both ''The Coquette'' and ''Charlotte Temple'' are novels that treat the right of women to live as equals as the new democratic experiment. These novels are of the Sentimental genre, characterized by overindulgence in emotion, an invitation to listen to the voice of reason against misleading passions, as well as an optimistic overemphasis on the essential goodness of humanity. Sentimentalism is often thought to be a reaction against the Calvinistic belief in the depravity of human nature.[Campbell, Donna M. "The Early American Novel: Introductory Notes." ''Literary Movements.'' 14 July 2008. 1 March 2010. http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/earamnov.htm]
While many of these novels were popular, the economic infrastructure of the time did not allow these writers to make a living through their writing alone.[[[Mildred Lewis Rutherford|Rutherford, Mildred]]. ''American Authors.'' Atlanta: The Franklin Printing and Publishing Co., 1902.]
[[Charles Brockden Brown]] is the earliest American novelist whose works are still commonly read. He published ''[[Wieland (novel)|Wieland]]'' in 1798, and in 1799 published ''Ormond'', ''[[Edgar Huntly]]'', and ''[[Arthur Mervyn]]''. These novels are of the Gothic genre.
The first writer to be able to support himself through the income generated by his publications alone was [[Washington Irving]]. He completed his first major book in 1809 titled ''A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty.''[Reynolds, Guy. "The Winning of the West: Washington Irving's 'A Tour on the Prairies'." ''The Yearbook of English Studies.'' 34: (2004) 88-99. ''JSTOR.'' Web. 1 March 2010.]
Of the picaresque genre, [[Hugh Henry Brackenridge]] published ''Modern Chivalry'' in 1792-1815; [[Tabitha Gilman Tenney]] wrote ''Female Quixotism: Exhibited in the Romantic Opinions and Extravagant Adventure of Dorcasina Sheldon'' in 1801; Royall Tyler wrote ''The Algerine Captive'' in 1797.[{{cite book|last=Sears|first=Donald A.|title=John Neal|publisher=Twayne Publishers|year=1978|isbn=080-5-7723-08|page=82}}]) in 1828. [[Catherine Maria Sedgwick]] wrote ''A New England Tale'' in 1822, ''Redwood'' in 1824, ''[[Hope Leslie]]'' in 1827, and ''The Linwoods'' in 1835. [[James Kirke Paulding]] wrote ''The Lion of the West'' in 1830, ''The Dutchman's Fireside'' in 1831, and ''Westward Ho!'' in 1832. [[Omar ibn Said]], a Muslim slave in the Carolinas, wrote an autobiography in [[Arabic]] in 1831, considered an early example of [[African-American literature]].[{{Cite journal|last=Marfo|first=Florence|date=2009|title=African Muslims in African American Literature|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/27743138|journal=Callaloo|volume=32|issue=4|pages=1213–1222|issn=0161-2492}}][{{Cite book|last=Said, Omar Ibn.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1043364329|title=Muslim American Slave : the Life of Omar Ibn Said.|date=2014|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-24953-3|oclc=1043364329}}][{{Cite web|title=Summary of Autobiography of Omar ibn Said, Slave in North Carolina, 1831. Ed. John Franklin Jameson. From The American Historical Review, 30, No. 4. (July 1925), 787-795|url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/omarsaid/summary.html|access-date=2020-08-08|website=docsouth.unc.edu}}] [[Robert Montgomery Bird]] wrote ''Calavar'' in 1834 and ''[[Nick of the Woods]]'' in 1837. [[James Fenimore Cooper]] was a notable author best known for his novel ''[[The Last of the Mohicans]]'' written in 1826.