THE MENTOR 1916.05.01, No. 106,
American Pioneer Prose Writers

Fame In Name Only

What do we really know of them—these library gods
of ours? We know them by name; their names
are household words. We know them by fame; their
fame is immortal. So we pay tribute to them by purchasing
their books—and, too often, rest satisfied with that.
The riches that they offer us are within arm’s length, and
we leave them there. We go our ways seeking for mental
nourishment, when our larders at home are full.

Three hundred years ago last week William Shakespeare
died, but Shakespeare, the poet, is more alive
today than when his bones were laid to rest in Stratford.
It was not until seven years after his death that the first
collected edition of his works was published. Today
there are thousands of editions, and new ones appear
each year. It seems that we must all have Shakespeare
in our homes. And why? Is it simply to give character
to our bookshelves; or is it because we realize that the
works of Shakespeare and of his fellow immortals are the
foundation stones of literature, and that we want to be
near them and know them?

We value anniversaries most of all as occasions for
placing fresh wreaths of laurel on life’s altars. In
the memory of Shakespeare, then, let us pledge ourselves
anew to our library gods. Let us turn their glowing pages
again—and read once more those inspired messages of
mind and heart in which we find life’s meaning.

JONATHAN EDWARDS

JONATHAN EDWARDS

Monograph Number One in The Mentor Reading Course

Jonathan Edwards was one of the most impressive figures
of his time. He was a deep thinker, a strong writer, a
powerful theologian, and a constructive philosopher. He
was born on October 5, 1703, at East (now South) Windsor,
Connecticut. His father, Timothy Edwards, was a minister
of East Windsor, and also a tutor. Jonathan, the only son, was the fifth
of eleven children.

Even as a boy he was thoughtful and serious minded. It is recorded
that he never played the games, or got mixed up in the mischief that
the usual boy indulges in. When he was only ten years old he wrote
a tract on the soul. Two years later he wrote a really remarkable
essay on the “Flying Spider.” He entered Yale and graduated at the
head of his class as valedictorian. The next two years he spent in New
Haven studying theology. In February, 1727, he was ordained minister
at Northampton, Massachusetts. In the same year he married
Sarah Pierrepont, who was an admirable wife and became the mother
of his twelve children.

In 1733 a great revival in religion began in Northampton. So intense
did this become in that winter that the business of the town was threatened.
In six months nearly 300 were admitted to the church. Of course
Edwards was a leading spirit in this revival. The orthodox leaders of
the church had no sympathy with it. At last a crisis came in Edwards’
relations with his congregation, which finally ended in his being driven
from the church.

Edwards and his family were now thrown upon the world with
nothing to live on. After some time he became pastor of an Indian mission
at Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He preached to the Indians through
an interpreter, and in every way possible defended their interests against
the whites, who were trying to enrich themselves at the expense of the
red men.

President Burr of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University)
died in 1757. Five years before he had married one of Edwards’
daughters. Jonathan Edwards was elected to his place, and installed in
February, 1758. There was smallpox in Princeton at this time, and the
new president was inoculated for it. His feeble constitution could not
bear the shock, and he died on March 22. He was buried in the old
cemetery at Princeton.

Edwards in personal appearance was slender and about six feet tall,
with an oval, gentle, almost feminine face which made him look the
scholar and the mystic. But he had a violent temper when aroused, and
was a strict parent. He did not allow his boys out of doors after nine
o’clock at night, and if any suitor of his daughter remained beyond that
hour he was quietly but forcibly informed that it was time to lock up
the house.

Jonathan Edwards would not be called an eloquent speaker today;
but his sermons were forceful, and charged with his personality. These
sermons were written in very small handwriting, with the lines close
together. It was Edwards’ invariable habit to read them. He leaned
with his left elbow on the cushion of the pulpit, and brought the finely
written manuscript close to his eyes. He used no gestures; but shifted
from foot to foot while reading.

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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Monograph Number Two in The Mentor Reading Course

Probably no American of humble origin ever attained to
more enduring fame than many-sided Benjamin Franklin.
The secret of his rise can be tersely told. He had ceaseless
energy, guided by a passion for the improvement of mankind.
A recital of his accomplishments sounds like a round
of the old counting game, “doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief.” He was,
in fact, all the list except the “thief.”

Boston gave him to America on January 17, 1706, but Philadelphia
claimed him early, and he stamped himself upon the Quaker City almost
as definitely as did William Penn.

Passing over his precocious boyhood, when he wrote for the Boston
publication of his brother James with a skill that at the time was held
astonishing, the day he reached Philadelphia he was a great, overgrown
boy, his clothes most unsightly; for he had been wrecked trying to make
an economical trip from New York by sailboat. With the exception of a
single Dutch dollar he was penniless. As he trudged about the streets,
his big eyes drinking in the sights, his cupid-bow mouth ready to smile
at the slightest provocation, he munched a roll of bread. His reserve
food supply was a loaf under each arm.

He was an expert printer, and printers were wanted in Philadelphia.
He soon got a job, after which he found a boarding place in the home of
one Read, with whose daughter, Deborah, he promptly fell in love.

After a few years the governor of Pennsylvania urged him to go to
London to purchase a printing plant of his own. The official had promised
to send letters and funds aboard the ship in the mail-bag; but at
the critical moment forgot all about it. So young Franklin landed in London
without a cent, and played a short engagement as “beggar man.”

Again his skill as a printer saved him from want, and he remained
five years, having a most interesting time, meeting many of the great
men of England, all of whom were charmed with his wit and philosophy.

In all that period he did not write a single letter to Deborah Read;
yet he seemed surprised and hurt on his return to Philadelphia to find
the young woman married to another. But Deborah’s husband, who
had treated her cruelly, quite civilly left her a widow, so that Franklin,
careless but faithful, was able ultimately to claim her as his wife.

For the next twenty years Franklin did something new at almost
every turn. He flew a kite in a thunder shower, drew down electricity,
and invented the lightning rod, to the salvation of generations of rural
sales agents. He invented a stove that still holds his name. He organized
the first fire company in America, and founded the first public
library. All the while he was publishing “Poor Richard’s Almanac,”
which to this day ranks as an epigrammatic masterpiece.

American politics soon claimed Franklin as an ideal diplomatist.
English and Scottish universities honored him with degrees for his discoveries
and writings. In Paris he became the most popular man of
the period, and was overwhelmed with attention from all classes.

He was one of the first signers of the Declaration of Independence;
and he rounded out his political career as governor of Pennsylvania and
one of the framers of the Constitution. He died in Philadelphia in
April, 1790, in some respects the greatest of Americans.

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CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN

CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN

Monograph Number Three in The Mentor Reading Course

Charles Brockden Brown has often been called the
earliest American novelist; but today his books are very rarely
read. All of them are romantic and weird, with incidents
bordering on the supernatural. They are typical of the
kind of novel general at the time Brown lived.

He was born on January 17, 1771, in Philadelphia. His parents were
Quakers. As a boy his health was bad, and since he was not able to join
with other boys in outdoor sports he spent most of his time in study.
His principal amusement was the invention of ideal architectural designs,
planned on the most extensive and elaborate scale. Later this
bent for construction developed into schemes for ideal commonwealths.
Still later it showed itself in the elaborate plots of his novels.

Brown planned in the early part of his life to study law; but his constitution
was too feeble for this arduous work. He had his share of the
youthful dreams of great literary conquests. He planned a great epic
on the discovery of America, with Columbus as his hero; another with
the adventures of Pizarro for the subject; and still another upon the
conquests of Cortes. However, as with the case of many great dreams,
they were given up.

When he was still a boy he wrote a romance called “Carsol,” which
was not published, however, until after his death. The next thing he
wrote was an essay on the question of women’s rights and liberties.
This question was already becoming an important one in England,
where William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft were publishing their
writings. Brown was much influenced by the works of both.

Although Brown’s books make heavy reading, yet his companionships
were of the liveliest. It was said that no man ever had truer
friends or loved these friends better. One of his closest friends was Dr.
Eli Smith, a literary man. It was through him that Brown was introduced
into the Friendly Club of New York City, where he met many
other workers in the literary field. And it was under their influence that
he produced his first, important work.

This was a novel published in 1798, called “Wieland, or the Transformation.”
A mystery, seemingly inexplicable, is solved as a case of ventriloquism,
which at that time was just beginning to be understood
thoroughly. His next book was “Arthur Mervyn,” remarkable for its
description of the epidemic of yellow fever in Philadelphia. “Edgar
Huntley,” a romance rich in local color, followed this. An effective use
is made of somnambulism, and in it Brown anticipates James Fenimore
Cooper’s introduction of the American Indian into fiction.

The novelist then wrote two novels dealing with ordinary life; but
they proved to be failures. Then he began to compile a general system
of geography, to edit a periodical, and to write political pamphlets; but
all the time his health was failing. On February 22, 1810, he died of
tuberculosis.

His biographer, William Dunlap, who was the novelist’s friend, says
that Brown was the purest and most amiable of men, due perhaps to his
Quaker education. His manner was at times a little stiff and formal;
but in spite of this he was deeply loved by his friends.

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WASHINGTON IRVING

WASHINGTON IRVING

Monograph Number Four in The Mentor Reading Course

A bankruptcy produced one of the greatest American
writers. If the business house with which Washington Irving
was associated had not failed, he might never have seriously
attempted to take up literature.

Washington Irving was born in New York City on April
3, 1783. He was named after George Washington, who at that time was
the idol of the American people. Both his parents were immigrants from
Great Britain. His father was a prosperous merchant at the time of
Irving’s birth.

Irving was a mischievous boy. Perhaps this was due to the fact that
Deacon Irving was a severe father. He detested the theater, and permitted
no reading on Sunday except the Bible and the Catechism. Washington
was permitted on weekdays to read only Gulliver’s Travels and
Robinson Crusoe. Nevertheless, in spite of his father’s strictness, the
boy managed to steal away from home to attend the theater.

Irving intended to be a lawyer; but his health gave way, and he
had to take a voyage to Europe. In this journey he went as far as Rome,
and in England made the acquaintance of Washington Allston, the
famous American painter, who was then living there. On his return
he was admitted to the bar; but he made little effort at practising.

In the meanwhile, however, he, his brother William, and J. K.
Paulding wrote some humorous sketches called “Salmagundi Papers,”
which were quite successful.

About this time came the single romance of Irving’s life. Judge
Hoffman, in whose law office he was, had a daughter named Matilda.
The young lawyer fell in love with her; but this romance was brought
to a tragic end by her death. Irving never married, remaining true
throughout life to the memory of this early attachment.

Irving’s first important piece of writing was the Knickerbocker History
of New York. It was a clever parody of a history of the city
published by Dr. Samuel Mitchell. The book was received with enthusiasm
by the public, and Irving’s reputation was made.

His health, never of the best, again gave way. In 1815 he revisited
Europe, and made the acquaintance of many important people there,
including Disraeli, Campbell, and Scott. The business in which he
was a silent partner fell into bad conditions and ended with a bankruptcy
which left Irving virtually without resources. His brother, who
was an influential member of Congress, secured for him a secretaryship
in the United States Navy Department with a salary of $2,500 a year;
but Irving declined this, with the intention of writing for a living.

From that time he was successful. All his books were eagerly received,
and it was not long before he was considered America’s leading
writer. He went to Spain as attaché of the American legation in
1826. When he returned to the United States he found his name a
household word. Then he decided to settle down somewhere in the
country and quietly enjoy life. He built a delightful home on the Hudson
River, New York, to which he gave the name of “Sunnyside,” where
he spent his last years. His charming personality attracted to him
many friends, and there were no worries to bother him. He continued
his writing to the very last. He died of heart disease at Sunnyside on
November 28, 1859. On the day of his funeral all the shops in Tarrytown
were closed and draped in mourning. Both sides of the road leading
to his grave at Sleepy Hollow were crowded with sorrowful mourners.

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JAMES KIRKE PAULDING

JAMES KIRKE PAULDING

Monograph Number Five in The Mentor Reading Course

It is rather unusual to find that the most familiar writing of
an author is merely a bit of nonsense. Yet the verse of
James Kirke Paulding best known to us today is the tongue-twister
quoted above. He wrote poetry, most of which
is gracefully commonplace, and a good many novels, attractive
in style but of no great interest.

James Kirke Paulding was born in Dutchess County, New York, on
August 22, 1779. He attended the village school for a short time; but
in 1800 went to New York City, where, in connection with his brother-in-law,
William Irving, and Washington Irving, another of the American
pioneer prose writers, he began to publish in January, 1807, a series of
short, lightly humorous articles called the “Salmagundi Papers.” In
1814 a political pamphlet of his, “The United States and England,” attracted
the notice of President Madison. He was favorably impressed,
and the next year appointed him secretary to the Board of Navy Commissioners.
He held this position until November, 1823. He was navy
agent in New York City from 1825 to 1837.

Paulding was always a successful man of affairs and an able politician.
In recognition of his ability, President Van Buren made him a member
of his cabinet in 1837 as Secretary of the Navy.

Later he retired to Poughkeepsie, New York, where he divided his
time between writing and farming. He died on April 6, 1860.

Paulding came of good old Knickerbocker blood. In his work he
never liked to revise what he had already written, nor did he plan out his
books. His best known work is perhaps the “Dutchman’s Fireside,”
which has many pleasing pages of Dutch life.

He also wrote a number of poems; but these do not measure up to
the standards of good poetry. One of them, “The Backwoodsman,”
extends over three thousand lines, few of which may be termed good.

Paulding was one of the first distinctively American writers. From
his father, an active Revolutionary patriot, he inherited strong anti-British
sentiments. Throughout his life he was a vigorous protester
against intellectual thraldom to the mother country.

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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER

Monograph Number Six in The Mentor Reading Course

James Fenimore Cooper was one of the most popular
writers that ever lived. Almost every American has read
some or all of Cooper’s books, and his stories have been
translated into nearly all the languages of Europe, and indeed
into some of Asia. Balzac, the French novelist, admired
him greatly. Victor Hugo, another famous French writer, said
that Cooper was greater than any novelist living at that time. Many of
Cooper’s readers gave him the title of “The American Walter Scott.”

Cooper was born at Burlington, New Jersey, September 15, 1789.
His boyhood was spent in the wild country around Otsego Lake, New
York. His father was a judge and a member of Congress. Cooper entered
Yale at the early age of fourteen, and was the youngest student
on the rolls.

At college he did not pay much attention to his studies, and in fact
was rather wayward. Before he had even completed his junior year,
his resignation was requested. His father interceded for him; but it
was useless. The young man then entered the United States navy;
but, after becoming a midshipman, he resigned to marry. He then settled
down in Westchester County, New York. His home life proved to
be most happy.

He published his first book, “Precaution,” anonymously. Then
came “The Spy,” in 1821, a success from the very first. Many novels
followed in rapid succession. In 1826 he went to Paris, where he published
“The Prairie,” which many consider the best of all his books. He became
very popular abroad. The most distinguished people of Europe
felt honored to entertain him.

In 1833 he returned to America, where he discovered that his popularity
was declining, as American critics did not believe that his later
books were measuring up to his earlier standard. He resented the sharp
criticism of several of his writings, and much ill feeling grew up between
the novelist and the public.

In particular he was on bad terms with his neighbors in the village
of Cooperstown, New York, where he lived. This came to a climax
in a fierce quarrel over the ownership of a bit of woodland which extended
into the lake near his home, Otsego Hall. Cooper won in the courts;—but
the villagers evened things up with him by personal attacks. Law-suits
followed one after another. Although Cooper pretended indifference
to public opinion, nevertheless he suffered under the abusive attacks.

Cooper was not on intimate terms with the prominent literary men of
his day. Toward the end of his life he loved his home more and more.
He was fond of walking in the woods and fields, and, as he himself said,
he had “an old man’s yearning for the solemn shadows of the trees.” On
September 14, 1851, he died peacefully in his home at Cooperstown,
surrounded by members of his family.

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AMERICAN PIONEER PROSE WRITERS

By HAMILTON W. MABIE

Author and Critic

THE MENTOR

MAY 1, 1916 · DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE

JONATHAN EDWARDS’ MEETING HOUSE

Built 1737—Torn down 1812

The literatures of the great nations have begun with the childhood
of those nations; that is to say, with fairy tales and legends and
songs of heroism; with Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey,” the Song
of Beowulf (bay´-o-wulf), to name a few among many of the great beginnings
of writing. In this country the pioneer writers shared the conditions
of the pioneer builders of homes and communities. They were not,
however, a people in their intellectual infancy. The country was new;
but the people were old. They had all left literature of a high order
behind them. Many of them must have been familiar with poetry and
prose in English, French, and German, to say nothing of the classic
literature which the scholars knew; and there were many scholars, north
and south, among the early settlers.

The exploration and settlement of the country was a great adventure,
which involved not only peril, but very hard work. In every colony
people had to begin at the beginning,—to get roofs over their heads to
protect them from the climate, to raise the things they were to eat, to
protect themselves from the Indians,—to do a thousand things of which
people of our day are unconscious because they were done so long ago.
The distances between the colonies were great, the means of communication
were slow and infrequent, and the colonists knew very little of one
another. They were isolated communities, not in any sense a nation.
And so the early writing was the expression
of the experiences and convictions of small
communities. There cannot be a national
literature until there is a national consciousness;
and in the early days in America
there was not even a sectional consciousness.
There was only local consciousness.

THE JONATHAN EDWARDS ELM, Northampton, Mass.

Set by Jonathan Edwards in 1730—The house of Josiah D.
Whitney stands on the right of Edwards’ house

The first book written on the continent
was by that flamboyant, but very
versatile Virginia colonist, Captain John
Smith; a brave soldier, with a very warm
and highly inventive imagination, whose
habit of boasting has robbed him of a great
deal of credit which really belonged to him.
He wrote an account of adventures in Virginia,
which may be taken as
the beginning of American
writing, and still has value.
There was a long interval during
which the writing of the
colonists was devoted to theological
discussion, or to accounts
of the new world in
which they were living.

A large part of the early
writings of New England was
more or less theological; but
none of this writing rose to the
rank of literature until Jonathan
Edwards appeared in the first
half of the eighteenth century.

JONATHAN EDWARDS

The son of a minister who was a lover
of learning as well as of religion, like a great
many other ministers of his time in New
England, who prepared young men for college,
and gave his daughters the same kind of instruction
in the same subjects. Edwards was
also the grandson of a minister on his mother’s
side; and his ancestry, like his descendants,
was notable for intellectual vigor. He graduated
from Yale College at the age of
thirteen,—not an uncommon happening in
that day of few entrance requirements,—and
the qualities of his mind and the direction
of his taste are indicated by the fact that
he was already making notes on the
mind and on natural philosophy. He
studied for the ministry, and when he
was twenty-four years old settled at
Northampton, Massachusetts, where he
was fortunate enough to marry a woman
as remarkable as himself, of whom he
wrote a description which has become a
classic in the literature of love. Edwards
was pursued by a haunting sense of sinfulness,
and the depravity of the world
often weighed heavily upon him. Mrs.
Edwards happily
combined a
piety equal to
that of her husband with great cheerfulness
of disposition.

HOUSE IN BOSTON IN WHICH
FRANKLIN WAS BORN, 1706

MEDALLION OF FRANKLIN, Age 72

By Jean Baptiste Nini

FRANKLIN’S GRAVE

Fifth and Arch Sts., Philadelphia

EDWARDS AS AN AUTHOR

A man of his intensity was certain to
come into collision with some of the ideas
held by his contemporaries and with much of
their practice; and Edwards finally antagonized
his congregation to such a degree that at
the age of fifty-six he preached his farewell sermon.
Several avenues of work were open to
him, for he had become a man of wide reputation;
but he settled at Stockbridge, Massachusetts,
and wrote in the quiet
of what was then a wilderness
his famous treatise on “The
Freedom of the Will,” which is
probably the most important
American contribution to philosophy.
It is his sermons, however,
rather than his treatises, which
entitle his work to a place in the
history of American literature.
Between eleven and twelve hundred
of these sermons are preserved
in Yale University Library.
They are characterized by great
vigor of thought, intensity of feeling,
and often impressive power
of statement. One of them, more
famous, though in some respects
not so true a piece of literature as
others, “Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God,” created great commotion
in its time, and the glow of
the fire which possessed the preacher has not yet wholly faded from its pages.

FRANKLIN, from a painting by D. Martin

LITERATURE OF THE REVOLUTION

As the War of the Revolution approached the colonists began to
have hopes and fears in common, and the war was preceded by a war of
words. The grievances of the colonists were stated many times, sometimes
with great force of reasoning and clearness; and a literature of discussion
and debate, which reached the public largely through pamphlets,
came into existence. Samuel Adams of Massachusetts
wrote a stirring defense of the rights of the
colonists. James Adams, James Otis, and Thomas
Jefferson came to the front in this discussion; and
their writing took on the dignity of literature.

FRANKLIN

THOMAS PAINE

One of the most vigorous contributors to this
discussion was Thomas Paine, an Englishman by
birth, whose ability as a writer attracted the attention
of Benjamin Franklin, then in London, at
whose suggestion Paine came to America. He had
already made himself somewhat noted as a radical
critic of the English government and political system, and within a year
of his arrival in this country became editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine.
His “Common Sense,” a pamphlet published in 1776, was a very
vigorous argument in favor of severing all ties with the mother country.
The argument was put so strongly, and at the same time with such simplicity,
that it made a great impression on all kinds of people, and the
Pennsylvania legislature, in recognition of the services he had rendered
to the American cause, made him a gift of five hundred pounds. This pamphlet
was immediately translated into various European languages. His
“Crisis,” which was published from time to time during the war, was also of
great importance to the Americans, and the
first number was read by order of Washington
to every regiment in the colonial army. This
was in the terrible winter of 1776, and the
spirit and courage expressed in these papers did
much to relieve the despondency of the time.
The “Age of Reason,” an attack on the Bible,
published in 1794, shocked the world, and so
beclouded Paine’s reputation that his great service
to the country has been largely overlooked.

CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN

By Wm. Dunlap—1806

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

If one wanted to name three men who are
in a supreme degree representative of three
leading American types, he would not go far
astray if he named Franklin, Emerson, and
Lincoln. Several years before the Revolution
Hume described Franklin as “The First
and indeed the first great Man of Letters in America”; and Dr. Johnson,
in that most delightful exploitation of ignorance and eloquence, “Taxation
No Tyranny,” described him as “a master of mischief.” Franklin
was then one of the foremost representatives of the colonists, and one of
the most ardent advocates of their claims. For thirty years Europe
knew more about him than any other man in America, not excepting
Washington. He was a Bostonian by birth, the son of a tallow chandler.
He had a casual contact with the Boston Latin School; but his formal
education was finished in his eleventh year, when he began to work as a
general utility boy in his father’s shop. He was fond of reading, and was
fortunate enough to possess Bunyan’s works, and a little later he was
reading Robinson Crusoe and other works by Defoe, who undoubtedly
had great influence on his style. His love of books inclined him to the
printer’s trade, and his self-education went on rapidly. Another piece of
good fortune was finding a volume of the Spectator. He has given a very
interesting account of his use of this classic of sound, clear English prose,
and has described its influence on his language and style. Then he read
Xenophon’s “Memorabilia,” which gave him a clear idea of the Socratic
method of discussion. At the age of fifteen he was already writing for
the colonial press, contributing essays notable for their very sensible moralizing
and their practical wisdom; for Franklin was, and still is, the representative
of American practical sagacity and commonsense.

POOR RICHARD’S ALMANAC

Fame and fortune came to him with the publication of Poor Richard’s
Almanac, which began in 1732 and was continued for a quarter of a
century. These almanacs
went into almost every
house in America, and
served not only as calendars,
lists of events, warnings
about the weather,
with doggerel verses, but
furnished proverbs of a
very practical character,
and also margins on which
all sorts of notes could be
written. “Keep thy shop
and thy shop will keep
thee,” is a good example
of “Poor Richard’s” practical wisdom. His personal
experience at home and abroad made
Franklin in many ways the most conspicuous
American of his time. His industry is shown by
the fact that his work fills a hundred and seven
volumes. In this mass of writing, of greatest importance
is his Autobiography, which told the
story of his life from his childhood to his arrival
in London in 1757. It is a straight, clear, unpretentious piece of writing,
and, all things considered, must be considered one of the most important
original contributions to American literature.

MATILDA HOFFMAN

By Malbone

WASHINGTON IRVING

From the painting by Gilbert
Stuart Newton

BUST OF IRVING IN BRYANT
PARK, NEW YORK CITY

JOHN WOOLMAN

SUNNYSIDE, IRVING’S HOME NEAR TARRYTOWN, N. Y.

TABLET BY V. D. BRENNER, ON WASHINGTON
IRVING HIGH SCHOOL, NEW YORK CITY

If John Woolman’s work had borne any resemblance to that of
Jonathan Edwards, Charles Lamb would never have said of it, “Learn
Woolman’s work by heart.” It was as far as possible removed from the
Dantesque vigor of the Puritan preacher. Woolman was a Quaker, born
in New Jersey, with very few educational opportunities, but of a naturally
religious nature, and seemed early, though in a perfectly normal way, to
have thought of the world as the creation of a great and benignant God.
Like many other naturally serious youths of his
time, as of Bunyan’s time, he was sorely beset by
a consciousness of sinfulness, which he expressed
in terms that today seem morbid in their
intensity. He accused himself of offenses of
which it is quite certain that he was innocent;
but he began very early to understand the gospel
of love and to desire above everything else to live
in complete harmony with the will of God. He was not satisfied, however,
to do this by simply obeying the law of righteousness or acquiescing
in a will which he could not oppose. He was eager to make his obedience
positive and active; so he became one of the earliest antislavery men in
the country, and one of the most ardent. His genius saved him from
fanaticism; while his simple earnestness and his effective appeal to the
higher ideals of his auditors made him a persuasive speaker. He hated
slavery; but he never attacked the slaveholder. His nature was one of
singular purity and harmony; and
as he had no self-consciousness and
no ambition, and writing was simply
a means of expression, his nature
got into his style. Although
an illiterate Quaker, an English
critic declared that “He writes in
a style of the most exquisite purity
and grace.” His Journal, which
is considered one of the classics of
early American literature, is an
unaffected and intimate record of
his thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
It was begun in his thirty-seventh year.
It is not in any sense great literature; but it is
real literature, and as contrasted with all the
colonial writing, save that of Edwards and
Franklin, it stands out by reason of the purity
of its style and the beauty of its feeling and
thought.

JAMES K. PAULDING, by Jarvis

The note of mystery was struck early in
American writing, “Peter Rugg,” by William
Austin, appearing in the New England Galaxy
in 1824-1826.

CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN

Charles Brockden Brown’s stories were published
still earlier; and he is often spoken of as
the predecessor of Hawthorne. Like Francis Hopkinson, he was a Philadelphian,
who studied law and made literature his profession. His first
novel, “Wieland, or The Transformation,” was a story of ventriloquism,
very artificial, but skilful and interesting. This was followed by a much
more striking tale, “Edgar Huntley,” a tale of terror, which seemed to
predict Poe, and this in turn by three or four other novels. Brown was
an industrious man, and his activity extended into other fields. He
published a number of pamphlets and semiscientific treatises. His
work had little permanent value. It was sentimental and unreal, and
lacked art; but its morbid psychology and a certain kind of intensity
gave it popularity at the time.

PAULDING’S HOME AT PLEASANT VALLEY, N. Y.

WASHINGTON IRVING

American literature in the strictest sense of the word really began in
the city of New York with the publication of Washington Irving’s Knickerbocker
History of New York. New York was then the most cosmopolitan
of all cities of the New World,
as it was the largest. It was a pleasant
town of twenty-five thousand
people, and it had picturesque traditions;
for it was first settled by the
Dutch, who had, in a way, taken possession
of the Hudson River. They
were followed in turn by the English,
and still later there was a large influx
of French Huguenots. When the
Revolution broke out eighteen languages
were already spoken in the
city of New York. It was natural,
therefore, that the literature of imagination, of humor, and of sentiment
should find a soil in the cosmopolitan society of the town; and Irving,
who was born in the year in which the British troops embarked for England,
who declined to go to college, as his brothers had gone, but read
law and, probably with greater avidity, books of general literature, and
was a lover of nature, had both the temperament and the taste to write
gentle satire. He was a born
observer and loiterer, a man
who saw and felt and meditated.
He had the high spirit
of youth, and when he returned
in 1806 from Europe
he was still a young man, and
there were some other gifted
young men in New York to
keep him company. They published anonymously a series of semi-humorous,
satirical comments on men, women, and things social, dramatic,
and literary, under the title “Salmagundi,” and in these papers Irving’s
humor, sentiment, and delightful style were conspicuous. They were
followed by the Knickerbocker History of New York, in which the audacious
young man broadly burlesqued the ancestors of some of the foremost
people in New York. It was good-natured; but it gave great
offense. It was, however, the first book of quality and feeling written by
an American. In 1815 Irving went to Europe a second time, and did not
return until 1832. During that interval he published
two books, which made a reputation for him
on both sides of the Atlantic, “Bracebridge Hall”
and “The Sketch-Book.” These books made the
colonists, irritated by their long discussion with
England, more tolerant of the mother country,
because they recalled places and customs that had
been dear to their ancestors, or to their own youth.
Thackeray called Irving “the first ambassador
whom the new world of letters sent to the old.”

BIRTHPLACE OF COOPER, Burlington, N. J.

The center house is the home of Capt. James Lawrence

OTSEGO HALL, COOPERSTOWN, N. Y.

Cooper’s boyhood home

COOPER IN 1822, painted by J. W. Jarvis

JAMES K. PAULDING

One of the most prominent members of the
little company of young men subsequently known
as the Knickerbocker writers, who were all friends
of Irving, was James K. Paulding, whose youth
fell in the period of the Revolutionary War. In
consequence he received very little education, but
had great vigor of mind and energy of character.
He early became acquainted with Washington Irving, and a strong friendship
grew up between them. Paulding was one of the contributors to
the Salmagundi papers, and began early to write for various periodicals.
His diverting history of “John Bull and Brother Jonathan”
passed through many editions, and his satirical tendency made him popular
at a time when the feeling in this country against Great Britain
was very strong. A pamphlet entitled “The United States and England,”
which appeared in 1814, secured political preferment for Paulding,
and he was made secretary to the first board of navy commissioners.
A story published in 1831, “The Dutchman’s Fireside,” founded on
an earlier description of the manners of the early Dutch settlers,
was his most successful production, passing through six editions in a
year, and being republished abroad and translated into several languages.
Paulding’s talent, although genuine, was not distinctive enough to
secure his permanent reputation; but he remains a very interesting
figure in a group of delightful writers, and his early skits, if they may be
so called, were very keen satirical comments on some offensive British
traits and qualities.

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER

BUST OF COOPER

David d’Angers—1828

LEATHER STOCKING MONUMENT
AT COOPERSTOWN

Cooper, who was also a New Yorker, published “The Spy” in 1821.
“Precaution,” his first effort in fiction, which had already appeared, was a
study of English society life, about which Cooper knew very little, and it
was a failure. In “The Spy,” Cooper knew his ground and his people.
He had spent much of his boyhood at Cooperstown, in central New York,
near the scene of much of the Indian fighting.
He had heard stories of adventure from Indian
fighters and trappers. Many of the men who
had fought in the American ranks during the
War of the Revolution were still living. “The
Spy” was instantly popular, because it was the
first really American novel written by an American.
It dealt with a very interesting character,
Harvey Birch; and it appealed alike to the men
who knew of the war from experience, and to
those who had been brought up to revere the
veterans of the Revolution. Europe, too, was
intensely curious about the Indian, and the stories
that followed, especially those in the Leather
Stocking Tales, were translated into almost every
European tongue, and are still read in all parts
of the Old World. Boys in remote German
villages are still playing Cooper’s Indians.

Cooper was a very uneven writer, careless,
and indifferent about artistic effects. He was
often diffuse and often commonplace, and he had
not much skill in drawing portraits of men and
women; but he could tell a story rapidly and
dramatically. He knew how to keep his readers
in suspense, and he knew nature, both on
land and at sea.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

THE OPEN LETTER

Why The Mentor? What’s in the name?
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the answer is worth while.

Mentor was a very worthy individual of
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The name of Mentor was brought down
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archbishop of Cambria. He lived
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In this book the character of “Mentor”
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It was more due to Fenelon’s employment
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we are carrying our message of information
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the exclusive community
located there.

W. D. Moffat
Editor

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