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American literary masters

Chapter 2: PREFACE
By Leon H. Vincent
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About This Book

Nineteen concise biographical and critical essays examine prominent American writers of the early to mid nineteenth century. Each study outlines life and character, surveys major works and genres—poetry, fiction, essays, and history—and considers style, recurring themes, and critical responses. Arranged in short, comparable sections, the essays aim to clarify individual contributions and trace how varied voices and literary modes helped shape a developing national literature.

PREFACE

The nineteen men of letters whose work is reviewed in this volume represent an important half-century of our national literary life. The starting-point is the year 1809, the date of “A History of New York by Diedrich Knickerbocker.” No author is included whose reputation does not rest, in part, on some notable book published before 1860.

Readers of modern French criticism will not need to be told that the plan of dividing the studies into short sections was taken from Faguet’s admirable “Dix-Septième Siècle.”

I am indebted for many helpful criticisms to Mr. James R. Joy, to Miss Mary Charlotte Priest, and especially to Mr. Lindsay Swift of the Boston Public Library.

L. H. V.

January 23, 1906.