The Early

National
Period
American Literature
Daily and Saturday shift

Professor: Luis Alvarado

Learning Objective

Students will take a first approach to the literary works of

authors from the early national period and the main
features included in such works.
Contents 1 What do you know about the Early National
Period in Literature?

2 Part 1 - Washington Irving

3 Part 2 - Satire

4 Part 3 - James Fenimore Cooper

5 Part 4 - William Hill Brown

What do you know about the Early
National Period in Literature?

Sharing time!

"Great minds have purposes;

others have wishes."
 Part 1

Washington
Irving
After the revolution, America became the “birthplace of freedom” and a hub of sterling political and
philosophical minds. But a cultural hub? Not so much. Americans may have broken the shackles of
England politically, but they were still very much tied to England culturally, following England’s
tastes in fashion, literature, and music.

Ironically it was Washington Irving (1783–1859), a writer who lived most of his life in Europe, who
raised American literature to international heights. Irving was born in New York City to a Scottish-
born father and an English-born mother. As a young man he read widely and read many of the
English greats such as Shakespeare, but he had a taste for adventure, not writing. He made
attempts to run away to sea at age fourteen, but his parents, who named him after George
Washington, had envisioned more illustrious heights for him. They forced him to study law instead.
 Part 1

Washington
Irving
Irving adopted many pen names over his career: Geoffrey Crayon, Jonathan Oldstyle, and Anthony
Evergreen. For the publication of A History of New York, he created an elaborate ruse where he got
the New York Evening Post to publish an article revealing the book was written and left behind by a
mysterious man who was “not entirely of his right mind” named Diedrich Knickerbocker.

Irving realized he had a flair for satire, and followed Salmagundi with A History of New York, a
parody account of New York’s history that combined fact with exaggeration and featured prominent
New York figures with mock seriousness. No one was safe from his barbed pen; even Thomas
Jefferson, who was president at the time, was spoofed. The book was hilarious and a huge success
in its time and made Irving an international sensation—it was said that Charles Dickens carried it in
his pocket. The fresh, irreverent style greatly impacted later American satirists such as Mark Twain.
 Part 1

Washington Irving's
Rip Van Winkle
“Rip Van Winkle” was published in the last installment of The Sketch Book in 1819. Here Irving
created an American “antihero” a laid-back figure who created success from . . . not working. Rip is
a beloved man from a small town near the Catskill Mountains. However, his wife continually nags him
to get a job. He enjoys his leisure time, telling stories, giving presents, and going on solitary
adventures in the Catskills. Rip decides to escape his wife’s nagging by going to the woods and
discovers a man dressed in Dutch clothing who asks him to help carry a keg. They walk up a
mountain together and discover a group of men playing bowling. They offer Rip a drink and he falls
asleep. When he wakes up, he learns that twenty years have passed and the American
Revolutionary War has happened. Rip has slept through one of the most difficult periods in
American history, unscathed. His story helped Americans have faith that, even if you didn’t like to
work hard, you might still become a success—on your terms.
 Part 1

Washington Irving's
Sleepy Hollow
Who doesn’t have an image of the Headless Horseman tearing through a cemetery at night on a wild
horse? Ichabod Crane, the enervated school teacher, and his skinny horse, and Katrina Van Tassel,
the rustic beauty and Crane’s love interest, are characters who immediately captured readers’
imaginations. The realistic depictions of the rural American landscape mixed with a tinge of the
macabre influenced many writers after Irving. The story has been adapted many times since it was
published, even forming the basis for a hit television series, Sleepy Hollow.
 Part 1

Washington Irving's
Sleepy Hollow (excerpt)
He was, in fact, an odd mixture of small shrewdness and simple credulity. His appetite for the
marvellous, and his powers of digesting it, were equally extraordinary; and both had been increased
by his residence in this spellbound region. No tale was too gross or monstrous for his capacious
swallow. It was often his delight, after his school was dismissed in the afternoon, to stretch himself
on the rich bed of clover, bordering the little brook that whimpered by his school-house, and there
con over old Mather’s direful tales, until the gathering dusk of the evening made the printed page a
mere mist before his eyes. Then, as he wended his way, by swamp and stream and awful woodland,
to the farm-house where he happened to be quartered, every sound of nature, at that witching
hour, fluttered his excited imagination
 Part 2

Satire

A satire is a piece of writing that uses humor, exaggeration, and irony to expose or criticize
people and society. A famous example of satire is Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, published
in 1729, which mocked harsh British policies toward Ireland by suggesting the impoverished Irish
sell their children to feed British’s rich in order to pay back England.
 Part 3

James Fenimore
Cooper (1789–1851)
James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) began his literary career on a whim: While at home reading
a British novel, he proudly announced to his wife that he could write a better one. His wife Susan
challenged him to back it up, and he took the bet. Within a year he finished his first novel,
Precaution (1820), about English high society. It was a flop.

Not one to give up (and supremely assured of his talent), Cooper persisted. He published another
two novels in the next three years: The Spy in 1821 and The Pioneers in 1823. The Spy was one of
the first historical romances of the American Revolution. With The Pioneers, he established
himself as a worthy writer. The novel sold more than 3,500 copies and featured the character
Cooper that would become best known for Natty Bumppo. Natty Bumppo was the first fictional
American hero.
 Part 3
James Fenimore
Cooper (1789–1851)
Cooper would go on to write five books about Natty, collectively called the Leatherstocking
Tales. People over the world were enthralled with the Natty Bumppo character and the glimpse
into the complexities of American life. The intricate, fast-paced, and exciting plotlines set against
the exotic American frontier made the public hungry for more tales of Bumppo. With these
books, James Fenimore Cooper firmly established himself as the “father of the American novel.”

While Cooper’s literary reputation grew to meteoric heights throughout his life, his personal
reputation suffered. When critics attacked his writing in America and in England, he embroiled
himself in countless lawsuits to counterattack the critics and protect his reputation. When people
began picnicking on his vast property in New York, he sued them. He became known as a
pretentious crank. By the end of his life, his reputation was so bad that he requested his family to
stop any account of his life from ever being published. Despite his problematic personality,
Cooper’s reputation as a renowned American writer still stands strong today.
 Part 3
James Fenimore
Cooper (1789–1851)
The Many Names of Natty Natty Bumppo had many aliases. As a young man, he earned the
name Hawkeye for his ability to quickly spot deer. People called him Pathfinder because he
found paths for many lost and helpless New Englanders through the woods. He earned the name
Straight-Tongue for his honesty, and Deerslayer because of his skilled use of the long rifle.
Finally, he earned the name Leatherstocking for the deerskin leggings he wore in his old age. In
his Leatherstocking Tales, Cooper created several archetypes about American values and
Native Americans that still survive today. Chingachgook represented the “noble red man,” while
Magua, a Huron chief in the novel The Last of the Mohicans, epitomized “the revengeful Indian.”
Natty Bumppo became synonymous with the American values of truth, honor, and masterful skill.
The term “last of the Mohicans” came to mean the “last surviving nobleman of a race” and
referred to both the white man Natty and the Native American Chingachgook. The
Leatherstocking Tales follow major stages in Natty’s life. Cooper wrote them out of order,
beginning with The Pioneers, which featured Natty as an old man.
 Part 3
The Last of the
Mohicans (excerpt)
It was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of North America, that the toils and dangers of the
wilderness were to be encountered, before the adverse hosts could meet. A wide, and,
apparently, an impervious boundary of forests, severed the possessions of the hostile provinces
of France and England. The hardy colonist, and the trained European who fought at his side,
frequently expended months in struggling against the rapids of the streams, or in effecting the
rugged passes of the mountains, in quest of an opportunity to exhibit their courage in a more
martial conflict. But, emulating the patience and self-denial of the practised native warriors, they
learned to overcome every difficulty; and it would seem, that in time, there was no recess of the
woods so dark, nor any secret place so lovely, that it might claim exemption from the inroads of
those who had pledged their blood to satiate their vengeance, or to uphold the cold and selfish
policy of the distant monarchs of Europe.
 Part 3
William Hill Brown
(1765–1793)
William Hill Brown (1765-1793) only lived until the age of 27. However, he produced significant
contributions to literature during his short life. Most importantly William Hill Brown is known for
writing what is considered to be the first American novel, The Power of Sympathy (1789). His
literary works focused greatly on the upkeeping of moral codes in Colonial New England.

Not much is written about William Hill Brown's short life. William Hill Brown was born in Boston in
1765. He anonymously published his first novel, The Power of Sympathy, at the age of twenty-
three. He would go on to write two more novels, Harriot, or the Domestic Reconciliation (1789)
and Ira and Isabella (1807), essays, and poems that were posthumously published in Selected
Poems and Verse Fables 1784-1793 by William Hill Brown (1982).
 Part 3
William Hill Brown
(1765–1793)
The Power of Sympathy followed the sentimental style of Samuel Richardson, an English novelist
credited with developing the Modern English Novel. Hariot

William Hill Brown's novels were based on his knowledge of European Literature. He was
especially inspired by Samuel Richardson's sentimental novel, Clarissa (1747-8). However, rather
than follow the traditions of writing novels set in Britain, Brown's novels are unique for their
being set in the American colonies and representing the local conflicts. or the Domestic
Reconciliation was a romantic tale about a revolutionary soldier. In 1807, another novel by
William Hill Brown was published called Ira and Isabella, which is a tale about the power of
seduction and incest.
 Part 3
William Hill Brown
(1765–1793)
William Hill Brown's novels were based on his knowledge of European Literature. He was
especially inspired by Samuel Richardson's sentimental novel, Clarissa (1747-8). However, rather
than follow the traditions of writing novels set in Britain, Brown's novels are unique for their
being set in the American colonies and representing the local conflicts.

His novels were focused on morality. In them, a character or characters are seduced or
seducers. This inevitably leads to a tragedy of some sort. Brown wanted to remind his readers of
a moral code he felt should be the foundation of American Colonial societies. These moral codes
are based on rationality, restraint, and sympathy.
 Part 3
William Hill Brown
(1765–1793)
Brown was especially concerned with the young women in his society falling into traps of
seduction and involving themselves in scandal. Therefore, his novels have a didactic overtone
that is meant to remind and guide the reader on codes of morality.

His novels may have also included taboo topics such as incest for the purpose of capturing a
reader's attention. In 18th-century literature, taboo topics would thrill audiences and engage
them, which allows Brown's moralistic teachings to be more impactful on the reader.

The Power of Sympathy by William Hill Brown is considered to be the first American novel. It is a
Sentimental Novel that uses the epistolary form. A novel written in Epistolary Form is a novel that
is written as a series of letters.
 Part 3

Ira and Isabella

(excerpt)
Best of women! you overpower my senses, when I would express my gratitude, my voice denies
its assistance. Yet are you not deceived in my passion, I have been led insensibly into the snares
of love, and have attached myself to you without volition. Friendship between our hearts was an
illusive barrier. Prompted to visit you by the irresistible force of Nature, I have imperceptibly
engaged my heart, and nothing shall wrest it from you. I have been called a platonick, but your
eyes have disconcerted the purity of celestial conversation and friendship is adsorbed in love.
My REASON demonstrates that in you I admire the friend: my PASSION persuades me, that,
with infinitely greater ardour, I love the—woman. Isabella blushed; but it was not the blush of
confusion, for she was not embarrassed; neither was it the blush of resentment, for she was not
angry; neither was it the blush of shame, for she loved to hear truth. Was it the blush of
wantonness?34 I am loth to think it, and yet why should Isabella be more unnatural in my hands
than Juliet in those of Shakespeare. When the ghostly father has proposed a scheme for her
union with Romeo, “Then hies the wanton blood up in her cheek.”
 Thank you!

“The air, the water, and the ground are free gifts to
man… Man must drink, breath, and walk—and,
therefore, each has a right to his share of Earth.”
James Fenimore Cooper