of importance in the National Period of American Literature, was born
in New York City. Unable on account of ill-health to continue his
education, Irving went abroad in 1804. Returning two years later, he
was admitted to the bar, but he never engaged in the actual practice
of law. In 1815 Irving again went to Europe, this time upon matters
connected with the cutlery business in which, as silent partner, he
was engaged with his brothers. It was seventeen years before he again
set foot upon his native soil, but when he did come back, he was
widely known, both for his writings and for his diplomatic service
as member of the American legations, first at Madrid (1826-1829) and
later at London (1829-1831). During the next decade, Irving was in
this country, living quietly at Sunnyside, as he called his home at
Tarrytown-on-the-Hudson. In 1842, accepting an appointment as Minister
to Spain, he went to Europe for a third time and remained abroad four
years. Upon his return home, he gave himself up entirely to writing,
finishing his monumental work upon Washington but a short time before
his death. He is buried in the Tarrytown Sleepy-Hollow Cemetery--within
sight of the road down which one of his characters, Ichabod Crane, made
his precipitous flight in mad endeavour to escape the headless horseman.
Irving’s first book, “A History of New York,” published as from the pen
of “Diedrich Knickerbocker,” appeared in 1809. It attracted immediate
attention and established its author’s reputation as a humourist;
but unfortunately its fun at the expense of the ancestors of certain
American families roused not a little rancour. Irving’s next work,
“The Sketch Book,” was published, first in parts in 1819, and then in
two volumes in the following year. This book and “Bracebridge Hall, or
The Humourists” (1822), “Tales of a Traveller” (1824), “The Alhambra”
(1832), and “Wolfert’s Roost” (1855), are all miscellaneous collections
of sketches, short stories, and character studies, of which one
volume is not inferior to another. The first of them received cordial
recognition from Scott, who arranged for its publication in London; and
the last had a wide circulation both in America and in England.
During Irving’s first visit to Spain, he became interested in certain
biographical and historical material there easily accessible, and put
it to use when he was writing “The Life and Voyages of Christopher
Columbus” (1828), “The Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada” (1829),
“The Voyages of the Companions of Columbus” (1831), “The Alhambra,”
already mentioned, and “The Life of Mahomet” (1849). Upon Irving’s
return to America his interest in the same kind of material continued,
and led him to publish “The Life of Goldsmith” (1849), and “The Life
of Washington” in six volumes (1855-1859). Irving’s other works are “A
Tour on the Prairies” (1835), “Astoria” (1836), and “The Adventures of
Captain Bonneville” (1837).
Irving was the first American writer to gain literary reputation
abroad; nor was the interest which he awakened there merely that of
curiosity wondering what would come out of a wilderness. It may be that
the great bulk of his work is not widely read at present, but such
stories as “Rip Van Winkle,” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” such
sketches as “The Stout Gentleman” and “Moonlight on the Alhambra” are
perennial. Irving was hardly skilful in his use of pathos, degenerating
not infrequently into the sentimental and even into the maudlin; yet
the buoyancy of his fascinating and delicate humour has seldom been
matched by any other American writer. His graceful, almost faultless
style is akin to that of the writers of _The Spectator_, although it
savours now and then of Goldsmith, and has, according to Scott, a dash
of Swift. Perhaps Lowell best summed up the matter of Irving and his
style in “A Fable for Critics”:
“To a true poet-heart add the fun of Dick Steele,
Throw in all of Addison, _minus_ the chill,
* * * * *
Sweeten just to your own private liking, then strain,
That only the finest and clearest remain,
* * * * *
And you’ll find a choice nature, not wholly deserving
A name either English or Yankee,--just Irving.”
_Bryant and Others._--William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) is generally
thought of as a poet, but his prose was not inconsiderable either
in amount or in value. During his long connection with the New York
_Evening Post_, from 1826 until the end of his life, he wrote daily
editorials of high literary quality, contributed to many other
journals, and delivered frequent orations upon various subjects. A
collection of Bryant’s prose works in two volumes was published in
1894: one who reads them is convinced that their author was possessed
of a clear, smooth style, an accurate, careful judgment, and good
common sense. Whittier (1807-1892) and Longfellow (1807-1882) may not
improperly be mentioned here, although, like Bryant, they also are
best known as poets. Whittier was closely associated with William
Lloyd Garrison in the Abolition movement and contributed much to
its literature. Controversial writing, however, seldom lives, and
Whittier’s has not proved an exception to the rule. In addition to one
or two attempts at novel-writing, Whittier published “Supernaturalism
in New England” (1847), “Old Portraits and Modern Sketches” (1850), and
“Literary Recreations” (1854); but these works are not important in
style or in matter. The demands of metre and rhyme upon Whittier seem
to have prevented the appearance, in his poetry, of certain crudities
which sadly mar his prose. Longfellow’s prose, on the other hand, is
more important. It is marked by a delicacy and refinement which would
go far towards keeping it well known, if the author’s greater fame as
a poet did not eclipse his renown as a prose writer. In addition to
two romances, he published “Outre Mer” (1825), a volume in aim and
content somewhat like Irving’s “Sketch Book”; and under the title of
“Drift Wood” he included in the first edition of his “Complete Prose
Works” (1857) a collection of stray essays and book reviews originally
contributed to various periodicals.
_Edgar Allan Poe._--Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1869), like the three authors
just mentioned, was a poet, yet to his own time he was perhaps even
better known as a short story writer and essayist. Opinions about the
value of his literary work have been as various as those respecting
his character; but it is safe to claim for him no mean place among
writers of criticism. In this department of literature he undertook to
bring about a reform among American authors who had passed from timid
deference to English opinion into the stage of noisy and indiscriminate
praise of every piece of writing produced in this country. From a study
of Coleridge, Poe had come to the conclusion that poetry was a matter
of “intellectual happiness”; its soul was the imagination. A person of
metaphysical acumen, therefore, by noting how poetic moods are excited,
could produce a finer poem than one who, lacking the analytical
faculty, could only feel the emotions he desired to arouse in his
readers. Poe laid great stress, too, on perfection of form as of the
utmost importance in producing an effect; truth was a secondary matter,
except in detail, and as a means of securing assent to a conclusion
which might be essentially untruthful. The object of poetry, he
thought, is to arouse a subtle, indefinite pleasure; this was imparted
by music; hence the necessity of melody, of the refrain.
As a critic, Poe was often savage in the extreme; but it must be
remembered, as we look back upon him, that the urbanity of the modern
book reviewer was then a thing unknown. Poe’s literary judgments have
in the main been justified, although some of his unsparing attacks in
“The Literati of New York” arouse resentment even at this late day,
while his equally unrestrained laudation of certain of his now wholly
forgotten contemporaries leads one near to contemptuous amusement.
Poe’s most important contribution to the theory of writing are two
essays usually reprinted with his poems; of these “The Philosophy of
Composition” first appeared in _Graham’s Magazine_ for April, 1846,
and “The Poetic Principle,” originally a lecture, was printed in
_Sartain’s Magazine_ for October, 1850. Perhaps an essay “On Critics
and Criticism” ought also to be mentioned; it was first published in
_Graham’s Magazine_ for January, 1850.
_Ralph Waldo Emerson._--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), serious,
high-minded, and well balanced, affords a striking contrast in almost
every way to Poe. Born in Boston, he was graduated from Harvard College
at the age of nineteen. After teaching school for a time, he became
minister of the Old North Church in his native city, but in 1835
withdrew from his charge because of his aversion to the rite of the
Lord’s Supper. Taking up his residence at Concord, Massachusetts, he
spent the rest of his years in writing and lecturing. While engaged in
the latter work he went as far west as California and made two visits
abroad. During the first, Emerson met Wordsworth, Coleridge, Landor,
and De Quincey, who received him graciously, George Eliot, who referred
to him as “the first man she had ever seen,” and Carlyle, who found
in the visitor a hero well worthy of sincere admiration. Dignified
and simple in manner, deep and kindly in thought, he found contentment
in an uneventful career; sympathising strongly with those who would
live the life of the spirit, he supported in theory the Brook Farm
experiment; advocating anti-slavery ideas, he opened his church to
Abolition agitators; but objecting on principle to war, he proposed
to buy the slaves and educate them morally. He went down to his grave
loved by his neighbours and honoured by many who knew him only through
his works.
Emerson made his earliest appearance as a writer in a book entitled
“Nature” (1836), but he first attracted real attention by his Phi
Beta Kappa oration before Harvard College in 1837. This address, now
published in his collected works as “The American Scholar,” made so
strong an appeal to his listeners to break away from the influence of
England in matters of authorship that Holmes with his usual felicity
termed it “our literary Declaration of Independence.” For three or
four years, beginning in 1840, Emerson was editor of _The Dial_.
In 1841 he published his first collection of “Essays”; and three
years later his second. From then on at irregular intervals other
volumes of like content appeared; of these the most important, in
all probability, are “Representative Men” (1850), “The Conduct of
Life” (1860), and “Society and Solitude” (1870). There is no need
of an enumeration of Emerson’s books, since they are all similar
in form, content, and purpose. While Emerson is in no true sense a
philosopher, he did project a theory of life. Sincerity he regarded as
fundamental, and his belief in the formative influence of great men
was almost identical with that held by Carlyle. By the possession of
“transcendental reason,” man, according to Emerson, becomes intuitively
aware of the truth. This truth or doctrine has been reduced by some
critic to three propositions: (1) God is in all things and all things
are in God. (2) Each created existence is essential to every other
created existence. (3) Nothing which has once existed ever ceases to
exist. To the average reader these ideas are bewildering and have been
collectively designated as “a new philosophy maintaining that nothing
is everything in general, and everything is nothing in particular.” It
is related as a fact, that after an address by Emerson before a college
society, the minister in charge of the meeting devoutly prayed that the
hearers might be preserved from ever again being compelled to listen
to such transcendental nonsense. At the close of the meeting Emerson
imperturbably remarked that the gentleman seemed a very conscientious,
plain-spoken man.
The distance between Emerson’s thought and that of most men laid him
open to the charge of obscurity, an accusation which is still widely
repeated by those who do not trouble themselves to read or to think.
It cannot be denied that Emerson is often mystical, and that he must
find spiritual insight and almost poetic imagination in those who
would penetrate to the heart of his teachings; but it is unfair to
give the impression that, save to the initiated, he is nearly always
incomprehensible. Page after page of his writings offers no difficulty
whatever to the most cursory reader, and his work as a whole is within
the ken of any serious and unprejudiced reader. In style Emerson is
sometimes forbidding through a strong tendency to condensation of
expression; but the beauty of his thought frequently draws to itself a
diction and order which transform his prose into veritable poetry. His
strong, earnest spirituality is never fanatical, his perfect trust in
what he called the Over-Soul is never sentimental, his full confidence
that the world is making for ultimate good is never unpractical.
Looking upon the universe as “one vast symbol of God,” he escaped
pantheism on one hand and materialism on the other. As a teacher
uttering his uplifting thought through literature, Emerson, it may be
confidently said, stands without a rival among American writers.
_Henry David Thoreau._--Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) is by many
readers coupled with Emerson. Born in Concord, Massachusetts, he spent
the greater part of his life in his native town and its vicinity.
He was graduated at Harvard College in 1837, although he refused
his diploma on the ground that it was not worth five dollars. He
gave occasional lectures and wrote many books: of these he himself
published but two, “A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers” (1849)
and “Walden, or Life in the Woods” (1854). To these have been added
from time to time since Thoreau’s death several volumes entitled
“Excursions in Field and Forest” (1863), “The Maine Woods” (1864),
“Cape Cod” (1865), and “A Yankee in Canada” (1866). The greater part
of his voluminous journal was published in 1906 and 1907, though
extensive selections had been previously printed in four volumes
bearing respectively the names of the four seasons of the year. More
than any other well-known American author, Thoreau strove to get at
Nature’s inmost heart. Withdrawing to Walden Pond, he spent the larger
part of his time for two years in reading and meditation; feeling
then that his object had been accomplished, he returned to town life.
For a brief period, Thoreau lived as an inmate of Emerson’s household
and became an unconscious disciple of the man who entertained him. A
transcendentalist imbued with a strong spirit of otherworldliness,
he may perhaps be best summed up in Emerson’s words. “He was bred to
no profession; he never married; he lived alone; he never went to
church; he never voted; he refused to pay a tax to the state; he ate no
flesh; he drank no wine; he never knew the use of tobacco; and though
a naturalist he used neither rod nor gun.” Thomas Wentworth Higginson
has pointed out that Thoreau’s fame has survived two of the greatest
dangers that can beset reputation--a brilliant satirist for critic
(Lowell), and an injudicious friend for biographer (Channing).
_Minor Transcendentalists._--Minor transcendentalists, and connected
therefore with Emerson and Thoreau, were Amos Bronson Alcott
(1799-1888), and Sarah Margaret Fuller (1810-1850). Both, like Emerson,
were contributors to _The Dial_ but unlike him did not hold aloof from
the Brook Farm experiment. Alcott’s chief works were “Tablets” (1868),
“Concord Days” (1872), and “Table Talk” (1877); Margaret Fuller’s, “A
Summer on the Lakes” (1843), “Woman in the Nineteenth Century” (1844),
and “Papers on Literature and Art” (1846). Other essayists who may be
mentioned as identifying themselves with the Brook Farm movement or
with the Transcendental Club out of which it grew, were three noted
clergymen, William Ellery Channing (1780-1842), the founder of the
club; Theodore Parker (1810-1860), the pulpit representative of its
theories, and James Freeman Clarke (1810-1888), a frequent contributor
to its organ, _The Dial_. In later years each of these men published
works which are still occasionally read. Channing’s numerous writings
were brought together in five volumes in 1841, and, under the title
“The Perfect Life,” a selection from them was made in 1872. He must
not be confused with a younger William Ellery Channing (1818-1901),
his brother’s son, the author of a monograph on “Thoreau, the Poet
Naturalist” (1873) and of “Conversations from Rome” (1902). Parker’s
chief works aside from his sermons were “Miscellaneous Writings” (1843)
and “Historic Americans” (1870); Clarke’s, “Orthodoxy, its Truths and
Errors” (1866) and “Ten Great Religions” (1871).
The Transcendental Movement appealed to all sorts and conditions of
men: philosophers exchanged ideas with journalists, and ministers with
writers of fiction. Of the members who later became known as editors
the most important were George Ripley (1802-1880), Charles Anderson
Dana (1819-1897), and George William Curtis (1824-1892), all of whom
at some time or other were upon the staff of _The New York Tribune_.
Ripley and Dana were joint editors of “The American Encyclopedia”
(1857-1863); but they also worked independently, the former putting
together fourteen volumes entitled “Specimens of Foreign Standard
Literature” (1838-1842), the latter making that still famous collection
“The Household Book of Poetry and Song” (1857). Curtis’ interests were
so many and so various that he has been classified as journalist,
orator, publicist, and author. His most important works were “Lotus
Eating” (1852), “Potiphar Papers” (1853), and “Essays from the Easy
Chair” (1891), the last a collection of brief papers originally
contributed to _Harper’s Magazine_.
_Oliver Wendell Holmes._--Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) stands
in some contrast to the chief writers of the Transcendental School.
On the whole they were marked by deliberate seriousness, but he
possessed a clear, crisp spontaneity which often broke forth into
sparkling fun. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a member of what he
facetiously styled “The Brahmin Caste” of New England, he counted among
his ancestors more than one English governor of the Colonial period
and that famous woman of her time, Anne Bradstreet, “the Tenth Muse.”
After being graduated from Harvard College in 1829, he studied law
for a year and then turned to medicine. Completing his education in
Paris, Holmes returned to America in 1835 to enter upon the practice
of his profession, but in 1839 accepted a professorship of anatomy at
Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire. The following year he entered
upon a similar position in the Harvard Medical School, and remained
there until 1882. In 1886, Holmes visited Europe and received honorary
degrees from Edinburgh, Oxford, and Cambridge. The eight remaining
years of his life he spent quietly at his home in Boston, graciously
receiving even strangers, who felt that they had not really seen that
city unless they had shaken Dr. Holmes by the hand.
Of Holmes’ prose work his “Breakfast Table” series best defends
his right to claim a permanent place of fame. “The Autocrat of the
Breakfast Table,” after appearing serially in the first and second
volumes of _The Atlantic Monthly_ (1857-1858), was immediately
republished in book form, and was succeeded by “The Professor at the
Breakfast Table” (1859), “The Poet at the Breakfast Table” (1872),
and “Over the Tea-Cups” (1891). These works, which have been rather
aptly characterised as “a cross between an essay and a drama,” contain
comments on almost everything in the heavens above, the earth beneath,
and the waters under the earth. The books are at times delightfully
whimsical and scintillatingly witty, at others deeply serious and
minutely analytic, and at still others tenderly generous and movingly
pathetic. Holmes’ other important works in prose are two volumes of
biography, a “Memoir of John Lothrop Motley” (1879) and a “Life of
Ralph Waldo Emerson” (1884); one book of essays, “Pages from an Odd
Volume of Life” (1883); and one diary of travel, “Our Hundred Days in
Europe” (1887).
_Willis_, _Mitchell_, _and Warner_.--Nathaniel Parker Willis
(1806-1867), Donald Grant Mitchell (born in 1822), and Charles Dudley
Warner (1829-1900) are suggested by the mention of Holmes, for they,
like him, were writers of the “genial” essay. Willis was born in
Portland, Maine, and was graduated from Yale at the age of twenty-one.
Entering upon a journalistic career in 1828, he spent a considerable
number of years abroad, whence he sent home for the periodicals of
his day frequent accounts of his foreign travel and experiences. His
complete works have been collected into thirteen volumes, but the best
of his writing may be found in two books published during his lifetime,
“Pencillings by the Way” (1835) and “Letters from Under a Bridge”
(1840). Willis wrote with most painstaking care. It has been left upon
record by James Parton that Willis “bestowed upon everything he did
the most careful labour, making endless erasures and emendations. On
an average he blotted one line out of every three that he wrote, and
on one page of his editorial writing there were but three lines left
unaltered.” It may be added, in passing, that Willis’ father in 1827
founded the well known and widely read _Youth’s Companion_. Mitchell,
for many years better known as “Ik Marvel,” was, like Willis, a New
Englander by birth and a graduate of Yale College. He, also, spent a
few years abroad, acting, in fact, as United States Consul at Venice
in 1853-1855. His works were many, but he is best known as the author
of “Reveries of a Bachelor” (1850) and “Dream Life” (1851). Warner was
in many respects the strongest writer of this group. A New Englander
by birth, he was graduated at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York,
then studied law at the University of Pennsylvania, and finally began
the practice of his profession in Chicago. In 1860 he was called to
Hartford, Connecticut, as editor of a daily paper, and from then on
gave himself up to journalism and other literary interests. His works
were many and varied; the most important are “My Summer in a Garden”
(1870), “Backlog Studies” (1872), “My Winter on the Nile” (1876), and a
“Life of Washington Irving” (1881).
_Some Travellers._--Bayard Taylor’s experiences abroad found their
expression in a number of books; but, readable as they all are, the
first, “Views Afoot” (1846), is the best. It is a work to be compared
with Irving’s “Sketch Book” and Longfellow’s “Outre Mer”; it may not
be far wrong to assign it to a place between the two, inferior to the
first, superior to the second. From Taylor’s numerous works in other
departments of pure literature, “Studies in German Literature” (1879)
and “Essays and Notes” (1880) may be chosen for mention.