THE EA RLY AM ERIC AN N O VEL LILLIE D EMING LO S HE IN P ARTIAL FU LFILMENT O F THE RE! UIREMENTS FO R D GR OF D C R O F P L P FACU L E EE O TO HI OSO HY, IN THE TY O F P L P C LU MB A U R HI OSO HY, O I NIVE SITY NEW Y O RK 1 9 0 7 P REFACE To present a fairly comprehensive account of the earliest attempts at novel writing in America has been the aim Of this — 1 8 18 0— study . The period covered that from 7 9 to 3 Opens with the publication o f the first tentative and amateurish American novels and at its close leaves the novel an established form in American literature . Indealing with these early tales much space has been given to description of the stories themselves . This method o f treat — ment seemed to be necessary for two reasons because these t tales are little known , indeed , wi h a few exceptions , they are e generally unknown , and b cause most of them are rare , and some o f them almost inaccessible . m o f The early A erican drama has , course , received much attention and investigation , but the corresponding period in the history Of fiction has been neglected . Yet the first forty years m o f Of A erican fiction produced two novelists real importance , C F C o harles Brocken Brown and James enimore o per, while the drama produced no playwright Of lasting interest or in fl uence. The history of novel writing in this period seems , therefore , to have some claim to attention from the point Of f f view o literary history as well as from that o social interest . The difficulty of gathering material so generally un o r sought by either students collectors has been considerable . SO many books have been discovered by chance that I am _ conscious that there must be many others to which no chance has led me . It seems probable , however , that any further discoveries will fall into some one o f the classes o f fiction here i . discussed , and will thus be chiefly of bibliographical mportance ’ M Mr e l n s y indebtedness to . O scar W ge i bibliography of I early American fiction is Obvious and great . wish , also , to Mr We elin for o express my thanks to . g aid in Obtaining b oks Mr I . and for several additional titles . am indebted to 1 7 3 6 6 3 vi R o f re Edward B . eed Yale University for information in gard to Al onzo and M elis s a; to the Officers Of the New York Society Library for many courtesies and for the u se Of their excellent collection of early fiction , both English and Amer fi C ican , and to the of cers Of the Library of olumbia University for assistance in obtaining books . The original inspiration and the subsequent patient guidance o f this study constitute only a small part o f my debt o f grati P W . P . o f C a I tude to rofessor Trent olumbi University . take this opportunity to express my grateful thanks for many O f e years personal kindn ss and scholarly inspiration . CHAP TER I TH E DIDACTI C A ND THE SENTI M ENTAL WHEN the Revolution made a conscious separation between m A erican and English literature , America had already de elo ed v p a considerable literary activity . Among the fruits o f this incipient literary culture were a mass of religious writing , much verse , some history , a few attempts at drama , and a large amount of political and controversial writing . enr e e The g most notic ably absent from this list is the novel . C olonial America had produced no novelist, although in Eng e land the great novels of the c ntury had long been written . w o f o In vie the active interest shown in p etry and the drama , such apparent neglect o f a prevailing literary fashion can be ff not attributed to lack of literary ambition and e ort . Its causes are rather to be sought in two important aspects of — P early American culture , the surviving uritan spirit, and the colonial spirit . The P uritan attitude toward the lighter forms o f literature too is well known to need discussion here . Its survival is D evident in the words of Timothy wight , whose taste for poetry, and music , and other unpuritanical joys could not reconcile him to the sudden development of fiction which took i place in h s day . Between the Bible and novels there is a ” 1 “ gulf fixed , he says , which few novel readers are willing to pass . The consciousness Of virtue , the dignified pleasure ’ o f having performed one s duty , the serene remembrance Of R a useful life , the hope of an interest in the edeemer,and the promise of a glorious inheritance in the favor o f God are never ” found in novels . O f o The novelists the earlier peri d in America Show , in their t prefaces , a nervous consciousness Of the possibili y of such censure , and endeavor to forestall it by showing that they are 1 avel s i n New E n l and and New Y k L nd n 1 82 Vol I Tr g or . o o , 3 , . , p . 4 7 7 . 2 1 2 — not as other novelists that their works are calculated , not to R E mislead , but to direct, the young mind . The everend nos o our Hitchc ck, one of earliest writers of fiction , and , like D R Timothy wight, a evolutionary chaplain , makes his heroine utter the warning1 Nothing can have a worse effect on the mind of ou r sex than the free use Of those writings which are ff ” the O spring of modern novelists . The same dread of the f Mrs . F pernicious e fects of novel reading appears in oster , R Mrs . owson , and the other literary ladies who were our first novelists . P not uritanism , Of course , did control the opinions of the M whole country . ore general was the colonial spirit , under whose influence Americans loo ked to England as their mother country, gave their sons an English education , whenever pos for own . sible, and sought in English manners a model their Readers filled with such a spirit naturally satisfied their taste for fiction with the stories o f English life which constant fi traf c and intercourse made accessible . This spirit O f filial acceptance could not survive the Revolu . W o tion hen the confusi n of war had had time to subside , a w n thoughtful people , g zing ith a pardo able complacency on what they had already accomplished , decided that thereafter - manners and letters , as well as laws , should be home made . ” e R H su f W have already, said the everend Enos itchcock , fered for by too great an avidity British customs and manners , it is now time to become independent in our maxims , prin ci les o f p education , dress , and manners , as we are in our laws ” 2 and government . Ardent patriots at once applied them selves to the task o f supplying a literature which should o f reflect American manners . Thus the new spirit national self - consciousness united with the unbending of the P uritan spirit to make the last decade Of the eighteenth century one o f novel writing, as well as of novel reading . 3 R Al erine Ca tive oyall Tyler , in the preface to his g p , pub 1 em r s o th e Bl o oms r ove am l . B s t n 1 0 Vol . II . 82 . M oi f g F i y o o , 7 9 , , p 2 l o I e ms r ove a l . 6. m s o the B o m . Vol . I M oir f g F i y , p 3 Th e A l er ne a ve or th e L e and A dven e o D r . U dike g i C pti , if tur s f p Un d e h ll a i s ne a n the Al e n e . Wal l e Vt. 1 . r i , Pr o r mo g g ri s po , , 7 9 7 3 lished 1 in 797 , illustrates both the changed attitude toward the re ading Of fiction and the demand for a novel o f native man ne o f ners . O the first observations the author of the follow ing sheets made upon his return to his native country , after t an absence of seven years , was the extreme avidity wi h which bo oks o f mere amusement were purchased and perused by his E ~ . W countrymen hen he left New ngland , books of biog ra h n our p y, travels , and modern romances were confi ed to seaports ; or if known in the country were read only in the o f families clergymen , physicians , and lawyers ; while certain funeral discourses , the last words and dying speeches of Bryan S ’ haheen and Levi Ames , and some dreary somebody s day of D ’ ” oom , formed the most diverting parts of the farmer s library . W hen he returned , however, he found that libraries and book sellers had filled the land with “ modern travels and novels NO almost as incredible .