Reading: Early American Art and Literature

In 1818 a critic wrote an article on American culture in a British magazine. The critic … concluded that there was none. Americans were too busy clearing land and building settlements to write books or create art…. [The] article angered Americans. Still, they could not argue with it. Though the United States had writers and artists in those years, most looked to Europe for ideas for their work. They saw their own country as rude [or undeveloped] and backward. The only way to produce great work, they thought, was to copy European styles and subjects. The spirit of democracy and equality that swept though the country in the mid-1800s changed that attitude. American artists and painters began to take pride in their country and its unique way of life. American history and scenery became subjects of their work. These books and paintings are still respected today. Early American Literature In the first decades after the Revolution, American writers borrowed English styles. They usually limited their writings to formal essays, such as The Federalist [Papers]. American fiction developed slowly. Eager readers had to wait for new novels to arrive from England. The first truly “American” writer of fiction was Washington Irving. He was also the first to be admired outside the United States. Irving was from New York and wrote about the Dutch-English heritage of his state.… when he published a book of short stories including ”Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” his fame was assured. James Fenimore Cooper went even further toward creating truly American literature. In The Leatherstocking Tales, a collection of five novels [the most famous of which is The Last of the Mohicans], he wrote about a frontier character named Natty Bumppo. These books were published between 1823 and 1841. In them, Copper portrayed American Indians as noble and showed the ways settlers misused the wilderness. Edgar Allan Poe, one of the greatest of the early American writers, edited magazines and wrote poems, short stories, and mysteries. His horror stories continue to terrify readers. Poe’s series of stories about a French private detective made him the father of the modern detective story.

New England Authors By the 1840s, American writers were taking pride in their country’s culture. They were moving to produce a uniquely American philosophy and style. The man who led that movement was Ralph Waldo Emerson. Born in Boston and educated at Harvard, Emerson was minister for several years. In 1832 he resigned, and he spent the rest of this life lecturing and writing. Emerson’s message was based on Jacksonian ideals and the realities of American life. He taught that it was important for people to truly understand themselves. Americans needed to be self-reliant to survive in the new cities and on the frontier, he believed. In a speech made in 1837, Emerson urged American scholars to free themselves from their European roots and develop their own way of thinking. Emerson’s ideas became part of a new, American philosophy which became known as transcendentalism. This philosophy attracted many young writers and thinkers. They made New England a center for American literature. Many became involved in the utopian community at Brook Farm. Nathaniel Hawthorne, who joined Brook Farm in 1841, wrote powerful novels about spiritual conflict. The most famous of these, The Scarlet Letter, was set in Puritan Massachusetts. American history was an important theme in the work of a New England poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Another Massachusetts poet, John Greenleaf Whittier, wrote celebrations of country life. He also used his poetry to attack slavery. Politics and Literature One of the most original thinkers of the times was Henry David Thoreau, a man who took strong political stands. A student of Emerson’s, Thoreau believed in simplicity and in living in harmony with nature. In 1845, Thoreau moved to the quiet shores of Walden Pond, in the woods near Concord, Massachusetts. He explained why:

I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

For two years Thoreau lived alone, writing about this life and the nature around him. The book of these writings, Walden, has influenced many environmentalists. Perhaps Thoreau’s most powerful message was contained in this essay, “Civil Disobedience.” In it, he said that people should not obey laws they consider unjust. They should not protest with violence, he wrote, but by peacefully refusing to obey. Thoreau practiced what he preached. Rather than pay taxes to support the Mexican War, Thoreau went to jail. This practice of passive resistance influenced future world leaders such as Mohandas K. Gandhi in India and Martin Luther King, Jr., in the United States. Margaret Fuller was another New England writer whose work touched on political themes. Her cause was women’s rights. Fuller was a friend of Emerson’s and edited a literary magazine, The Dial. She published a best-selling book, Women in the Nineteenth Century, which angered many. To others, the book was a rallying cry. “We would have every … barrier thrown down,” she wrote. “We would have every path laid open to Woman as freely as to Man.” Fuller, like many other literary figures of the time, lived near Emerson. Two of the most original writers of the 1850s, however, were not part of the New England scene. Herman Melville lived in New York. Having been a sailor as a young man, he once wrote, “A whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.” Melville drew on that experience in his books. Moby-Dick, or the White Whale, published in 1851, is considered by many to be one of the greatest American novels of all time. Walt Whitman, a New York poet, wanted to create a special literature that would reflect the character of the country. His collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, expresses his faith in democracy and in the young American nation. In his introduction he wrote, “The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.” The Visual Arts Before the 1800s, most American painters tried to make their art look European. Great artists such as John Singleton Copley and Benjamin West painted portraits of famous leaders and the wealthy. Their paintings of great, heroic scenes ignored American scenery and the lives of ordinary people. Around 1825 Thomas Cole began painting landscapes in a simple, direct style. Cole became the leader of a group of American artists who often painted the Hudson River valley in New York state. Called the Hudson River School, this group of painters mainly drew quiet scenes of natural beauty. George Caleb Bingham’s pictures, on the other hand, reflected the energy of life on the frontier. He painted scenes of the Mississippi Valley. Other American artists began painting landscapes of the western plains and mountains. John James Audubon used his talents to detail the birds and animals of America. Raised in France, Audubon moved to the United States at the age of eighteen. He worked as a merchant, lost all his money, and went to jail for debt in 1819. When he got out, he decided to devote himself to art. Audubon was fascinated by the birds of his adopted country and spent every free moment sketching them. Unlike the naturalists of his time, Audubon did not draw the birds stiffly sitting. Instead he captured them in flight or movement, giving them a truly natural feel. Unable to find a publisher interested in his work, Audubon went to Britain in 1826. People there recognized his genius and produced his Birds of America. These engravings, along with his drawings and paintings, remain American masterpieces.

Mason, Lorna C., William Jay Jacobs, and Robert P. Ludlum. History of the United States, Volume I: Beginnings to 1877. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, pp. 421-425. Identification: Early American Art and Literature

Literature - Identify the author who wrote the given work or matches the description.

1. ______first truly “American” fiction writer – Rip Van Winkle, Legend of Sleepy Hollow; wrote about Dutch-English culture in New York

2. ______wrote about New England fishing and whaling; Moby Dick is a major work in American literature

3. ______poet who described country life and supported abolition

4. ______Leatherstocking Tales, including Last of the Mohicans, described frontier life and the life of settlers and Native Americans

5. ______poet who composed “Paul Revere’s Ride” and other poems with the theme of American history

6. ______leader of the transcendentalist movement; wrote about self- Reliance and understanding one’s self

7. ______wrote fiction about spiritual conflict, including The Scarlet Letter

8. ______Romantic era author of mysteries and horror stories

9. ______poet and essayist who, for a while, lived in seclusion, producing Walden and his essay on civil disobedience; went to jail for refusing to pay taxes to protest the Mexican War

10. ______poet who composed “Leaves of Grass” collection about American Democracy; his poem “O Captain, My Captain” is about the death of Abraham Lincoln

11. ______transcendentalist and women’s rights activist who published The Dial and Women in the Nineteenth Century

13. ______short-lived utopian society made up of New England authors and artists

Art – Identify the themes or inspiration of each artist’s work.

13. John Singleton Copely:

14. Benjamin West:

15. Thomas Cole:

16. Hudson River School:

17. George Caleb Bingham:

18. John James Audubon: