AMERICAN LITERATURE

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AMERICAN LITERATURE

• ROMANTICISM PERIOD AUTHORS (1800-1860)

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Washington Irving (1783-1859)
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Washington Irving

• A. The Sketch Book (1819) first collection of
  short stories by an American author includes
  Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy
  Hollow
• B. The Devil and Tom Walker (published later)
• C. Father of American Literature and of short
  stories
• D. Stories based on legends and folklore
• 1. RVW is a NY/Dutch legend/folktale that
  involves American materials

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James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)
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James Fenimore Cooper

• The Leatherstocking Tales (5 novels)
• 1. The Deerslayer (1841) Romantic hero
  known as Deerslayer or Natty Bumpothe first
  American Romantic hero
• a. Current day Romantic heroes Lone Ranger,
  Superman, Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones
• 2. The Last of the Mohicans (1826) Natty
  is
• Hawkeye in this one
• 3. The Pathfinder (1840)
• 4. The Pioneers (1823)
• 5. The Prairie (1827)

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James Fenimore Cooper

• B. Coopers Formula for a successful novel
• 1. Brave hero
• 2. Loyal Indian companion
• 3. Encounter with danger
• 4. Danger as a test of strength
• 5. Last-minute rescue (or escape)

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James Fenimore Cooper

• C. First American Novelist? (some consider
  Charles Brockden Brown to be the first)
• D. Novels stories about Indians were unique to
  U.S.

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William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)
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William Cullen Bryant

• Thanatopsis
• 1. didactic poem poem intended to
  instruct/teach
• 2. Thanatopsis means a view of death
• i. Bryant wants you to live your life and when
  it is time to die, accept death and die
  peacefully
• ii. Mutability all things change and die
• B. To a Waterfowl
• C. Wrote most of his poems when he was 14-17
  yrs.his best ones were written when he was young

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William Cullen Bryant

• D. Father of American Poetry first writer to
  
• make a living by poetry
• E. Concerned with humanitarian reform
• 1. Abolitionist
• 2. Elevated nature to a religion

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

• Most popular American Poet of the 19th century
• B. Fireside Poets
• 1. James Russell Lowell
• 2. Oliver Wendell Holmes
• 3. John Greenleaf Whittier
• 4. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• C. Didactic poems
• (i.e., they teach something)

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

• D. Opening lines of Evangeline This is the
  forest primeval . . .
• E. Tales of a Wayside Inn (poems) book length
• Paul Reveres Ride most famous tale
• Song of the Hiawatha (poem book length)
• Most popular poet in the world in his lifetime

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Paul Reveres Ride by Longfellow

• Listen my children and you shall hearOf the
  midnight ride of Paul Revere,On the eighteenth
  of April, in Seventy-fiveHardly a man is now
  aliveWho remembers that famous day and year.
• He said to his friend, "If the British marchBy
  land or sea from the town to-night,Hang a
  lantern aloft in the belfry archOf the North
  Church tower as a signal light,--One if by land,
  and two if by seaAnd I on the opposite shore
  will be,Ready to ride and spread the
  alarmThrough every Middlesex village and
  farm,For the country folk to be up and to arm.
  . . .

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John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)
Former Whittier home in Amesbury, Mass.
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John Greenleaf Whittier

1. Snowbound (long poem)
2. Abolitionist
3. Quaker
4. The Atlantic Monthly he founded this magazine
5. One of the fireside poets

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Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)
U.S.S. Constitution
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Oliver Wendell Holmes

• Old Ironsides signed it with an H
• Helped found The Atlantic Monthly
• C. Light verse humorous poetry he wrote some
  of this

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James Russell Lowell (1809-1894)
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James Russell Lowell

• One of the fireside poets - called this
  because families often read them in the evening
  by the fireside (also, these poets were widely
  taught in early American schools)