Children's Stories in American Literature, 1660-1860

In Short

This work serves as a literary survey, cataloging the lives and contributions of the foundational figures in American letters between 1660 and 1860. By chronicling the transition from imitative colonial writing to a distinctly American voice, it provides a biographical and critical roadmap for readers to understand the emergence of the nation’s cultural identity. Through portraits of figures like Hawthorne, Irving, and Stowe, the volume offers a historical window into how these authors shaped the moral and imaginative world of their time, ultimately securing their place in the national canon.

The Story

The narrative begins with the nascent stages of American letters, moving quickly into the nineteenth century, when the country finally found its own literary footing. The arc follows a trajectory of growth: from the early, sparse colonial efforts to the flourishing of a sophisticated national literature. The history is told not through dry analysis, but through the lives of the men and women who authored it. The reader meets John James Audubon, whose obsession with the natural world moved him from a misunderstood youth in France to the meticulous chronicler of American bird life. The narrative then shifts to Washington Irving, who used wit and invention to create a mythology for a young nation, most famously with his clever marketing of the fictional Diedrich Knickerbocker to sell a history of New York.

As the nineteenth century progresses, the stakes of American literature grow. The story highlights the rise of the historical novel and the epic exploration of the American frontier through James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking tales, which captured the rugged, vanishing life of the pioneer. Simultaneously, the focus moves toward the poets and thinkers of New England. William Cullen Bryant emerges as the voice of the American landscape, shifting the focus away from older European inspirations. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe represent the deepening of American psychological and romantic fiction, while Ralph Waldo Emerson provides the moral and philosophical anchor for the age.

The narrative expands to include the historians, such as George Bancroft and William H. Prescott, who worked with painstaking effort—often overcoming physical infirmity—to document the conquest and development of the Americas. The scope then widens to encompass the social conscience of the era, particularly through Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her work, and the public reception it garnered, marks a pivotal moment where literature became a catalyst for national reform. The story concludes by looking at the later giants of the period, such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, who solidified the prominence of New England as a literary hub. The book ends by situating these primary figures within a broader context of secondary writers, historians, and biographers, creating a complete picture of a century that transitioned from regional uncertainty to a mature, influential national voice.

How It Unfolds

The birth of observation The narrative introduces the early naturalists and early writers, establishing how the American wilderness and local history first demanded to be recorded. It frames the struggle of the artist to capture nature, noting how Audubon moved from producing "family of cripples" in his early sketches to masterful studies.

The invention of myth The focus shifts to the literary tricks and legends of Washington Irving, who gave New York its identity through his playful, imagined Dutch histories. This section illustrates how the author used the "clever means" of fictional personas to engage the public imagination.

The frontier and the forest The book examines the rise of the American romance through Cooper’s Leatherstocking series, which mythologized the settler. It describes how the scout Natty Bumppo became a representative figure of the American spirit, blending historical reality with the romance of the wild.

The voice of the spirit and the state The survey moves toward the moral and political weight of the mid-nineteenth century, detailing the contributions of Emerson and Stowe. It frames their work as a vital shift from pure storytelling to the development of a national conscience and a distinct American philosophy.

The People

John James Audubon stands as the primary example of the artist who transforms failure into a "great life work" through sheer persistence in nature. Washington Irving emerges as the wit of the group, a man who transformed a dream about the past into a literary reality. James Fenimore Cooper provides the archetype of the frontier hero, whose characters have become synonymous with the rugged American landscape.

William Cullen Bryant serves as the pivot point where American poetry stops looking toward Europe and starts looking at the "wild beauty" of local hills. Nathaniel Hawthorne is presented as the supreme artist of the era, a man of "high imagination" whose work sits at the peak of literary refinement. George Bancroft and Francis Parkman represent the triumph of the intellect over physical adversity, as both men, despite suffering from failing health and partial blindness, produced vast historical records. Harriet Beecher Stowe is identified as the most impactful female voice, a writer whose humanitarian concern moved an entire nation. Finally, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes are cast as the custodians of the New England literary tradition, whose homes and social circles provided the final, stable foundation for an American cultural center.

In Its Own Voice

Regarding the birth of his life's work, Audubon recalls a moment of inspiration:

Audubon turned over the leaves with a new hope in his heart, and although the pictures were badly executed the idea satisfied him.

Describing the transformative power of the Alhambra upon the imagination of Washington Irving:

When he first entered the palace it seemed, he relates, as if he had been transported into the past and was living in an enchanted realm.

Reflecting on the legacy of Bryant’s poetry as a turning point in history:

Thanatopsis is the first great American poem, and it divides by a sharp line the poetry hitherto written on our soil from that which was to follow.

What It's Really About

At its heart, the book argues that literature was the primary vehicle for constructing an American identity. It explores the tension between European tradition and the raw, unrefined potential of the New World. The underlying question is how a young, disparate collection of colonies transformed into a nation capable of producing its own distinct philosophy, poetry, and history. The work emphasizes the moral weight of writing, arguing that American authors were not merely entertainers but architects of the national soul, tasked with reconciling the brutality of the frontier, the legacy of the Indian, and the aspirations of a democratic people.

Why Read It Today

Readers who enjoy the history of ideas will find much to appreciate in these portraits. The book captures the earnest, often romanticized sense of discovery that defined the American literary movement. It is a rewarding read for those interested in the genealogy of famous authors, as it places them within their daily habits, their struggles with health, and their intellectual communities.

However, a contemporary reader should be prepared for the book's period-specific style. Written in the late nineteenth century, the prose is formal, ornate, and occasionally hagiographic, reflecting the values and linguistic habits of its own time. The author’s treatment of the "Indian" and the "pioneer," for instance, reflects the romanticized, often patronizing attitudes common to that era's literary criticism, which readers today will recognize as a product of its time rather than an objective historical account. Despite this, the book remains a valuable, warm, and highly readable guide. It stays with you as a reminder of a time when poets, historians, and novelists were viewed as the primary shapers of the public conscience—a role that feels both distant and profoundly relevant today.