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The American Spirit in Literature: A Chronicle of Great Interpreters

Chapter 44: Chapter IV
By Bliss Perry
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About This Book

An interpretive chronicle surveys the nation's literary development from colonial beginnings through subsequent generations, arguing that restlessness, experimentation, and a sense of transiency shaped themes and styles. It profiles early religious and civic writers alongside secularizing forces, discusses regional differences and social change, and considers how institutions and public life influenced literary production. Biographical sketches and critical readings of prominent interpreters illustrate recurring motifs of faith, enterprise, and moral uncertainty, while chapters trace the evolution of national character as expressed in poetry, prose, and public discourse.

Tales of a Traveler, Irving, 91.
Tales of a Wayside Inn, Longfellow, 155.
Tamerlane and Other Poems, Poe, 89.
Taylor, Bayard, 255.
Telling the Bees, Whittier, 158.
Tennessee's Partner, Harte, 242.
Thanatopsis, Bryant, 103, 104, 106.
Thomas, Edith, 257.
Thompson, Denman, 248.
Thoreau, H. D., representative of New England thought, 119; life and writings, 130-139; nature-writing, 262; typically American, 265.
Ticknor, George, 89, 111, 178, 216.
Timrod, Henry, 225.
To Helen, Poe, 189, 192.
Tom Sawyer, Clemens, 238.
Tour of the Prairies, Irving, 91.
Transcendentalism, 111 et seq., 218; bibliography, 270-271.
Tritemius, Whittier, 161.
True Relation, Smith, 8-10, 25-26.
True Repertory of the Wrack of Sir Thomas Gates, Kt. vpon and from the Islands of the Bermudas, Strachey, 26.
Tuckerman, F. G., quoted, 117.
Twain, Mark, see Clemens, S. L.
Twice-Told Tales, Hawthorne, 148.
Tyler, Professor, 64.


U

Ulalume, Poe, 192.
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Stowe, 98, 208, 219, 220-223.
Union of the Colonies, Franklin, 59.
Unitarianism, 112-113.


V

Verplanck, J. C., 107.
Very, Jones, 141.
Virginia, a continuation of English society, 14; in 1724, 44.
Virginia House of Burgesses, Address of the, Jefferson, 80.
Virginians, The, Thackeray, 45.
Vision of Sir Launfal, The, Lowell, 170, 172.


W

Walden, Thoreau, 131, 134, 135.
Walley, Thomas, 41.
Warner, C. D., 93.
Washington, George, 64-65, 66, 77-78.
Waterfowl, To a, Bryant, 103, 106.
Webster, Daniel, eulogy for Adams and Jefferson, 86-87; civic note in oratory of, 208; criticism of Clay, 210; his oratory, 211-215.
Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers, A, Thoreau, 131.
Wendell, Barrett, 6.
West, The, in American literature, 237 et seq.
Westchester Farmer, The, Seabury, 76.
When Lilacs last in the Dooryard Bloomed, Whitman, 201.
When the Frost is on the Punkin, Riley, 248.
Whitaker, Alexander, 26-27, 38.
Whitman, Walt, in 1826, 90; in New York, 108; life and writings, 196-205; died (1892), 255; typically American, 265; argues for American books, 266.
Whittier, J. G., in 1826, 90; attitude towards Transcendentalism, 143; life and writings, 157-164; died (1892), 255.
William and Mary College, 62.
William Wilson, Poe, 194.
Williams, Roger, 2, 16, 19, 32-34, 38, 40-41.
Willis, N. P., 107.
Winthrop, John, 17, 18, 28-29.
Wirt, William, 245.
Wister, Owen, 243.
Wonder-Book, The, Hawthorne, 145, 147.
Woodberry, George, 257.
Woodworth, Samuel, 107.
Woolman, John, 69.
Wreck of the Hesperus, The, Longfellow, 155.


Y

Yale University, 62.
Years of my Youth, Howells, 250.




The Chronicles of America Series

  1. The Red Man's Continent
    by Ellsworth Huntington
  2. The Spanish Conquerors
    by Irving Berdine Richman
  3. Elizabethan Sea-Dogs
    by William Charles Henry Wood
  4. The Crusaders of New France
    by William Bennett Munro
  5. Pioneers of the Old South
    by Mary Johnson
  6. The Fathers of New England
    by Charles McLean Andrews
  7. Dutch and English on the Hudson
    by Maud Wilder Goodwin
  8. The Quaker Colonies
    by Sydney George Fisher
  9. Colonial Folkways
    by Charles McLean Andrews
  10. The Conquest of New France
    by George McKinnon Wrong
  11. The Eve of the Revolution
    by Carl Lotus Becker
  12. Washington and His Comrades in Arms
    by George McKinnon Wrong
  13. The Fathers of the Constitution
    by Max Farrand
  14. Washington and His Colleagues
    by Henry Jones Ford
  15. Jefferson and his Colleagues
    by Allen Johnson
  16. John Marshall and the Constitution
    by Edward Samuel Corwin
  17. The Fight for a Free Sea
    by Ralph Delahaye Paine
  18. Pioneers of the Old Southwest
    by Constance Lindsay Skinner
  19. The Old Northwest
    by Frederic Austin Ogg
  20. The Reign of Andrew Jackson
    by Frederic Austin Ogg
  21. The Paths of Inland Commerce
    by Archer Butler Hulbert
  22. Adventurers of Oregon
    by Constance Lindsay Skinner
  23. The Spanish Borderlands
    by Herbert Eugene Bolton
  24. Texas and the Mexican War
    by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson
  25. The Forty-Niners
    by Stewart Edward White
  26. The Passing of the Frontier
    by Emerson Hough
  27. The Cotton Kingdom
    by William E. Dodd
  28. The Anti-Slavery Crusade
    by Jesse Macy
  29. Abraham Lincoln and the Union
    by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson
  30. The Day of the Confederacy
    by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson
  31. Captains of the Civil War
    by William Charles Henry Wood
  32. The Sequel of Appomattox
    by Walter Lynwood Fleming
  33. The American Spirit in Education
    by Edwin E. Slosson
  34. The American Spirit in Literature
    by Bliss Perry
  35. Our Foreigners
    by Samuel Peter Orth
  36. The Old Merchant Marine
    by Ralph Delahaye Paine
  37. The Age of Invention
    by Holland Thompson
  38. The Railroad Builders
    by John Moody
  39. The Age of Big Business
    by Burton Jesse Hendrick
  40. The Armies of Labor
    by Samuel Peter Orth
  41. The Masters of Capital
    by John Moody
  42. The New South
    by Holland Thompson
  43. The Boss and the Machine
    by Samuel Peter Orth
  44. The Cleveland Era
    by Henry Jones Ford
  45. The Agrarian Crusade
    by Solon Justus Buck
  46. The Path of Empire
    by Carl Russell Fish
  47. Theodore Roosevelt and His Times
    by Harold Howland
  48. Woodrow Wilson and the World War
    by Charles Seymour
  49. The Canadian Dominion
    by Oscar D. Skelton
  50. The Hispanic Nations of the New World
    by William R. Shepherd




Transcriber's Notes


Introduction:

The Chronicles of America Series has two similar editions of each volume in the series. One version is the Abraham Lincoln edition of the series, a premium version which includes full-page pictures. A textbook edition was also produced, which does not contain the pictures and captions associated with the pictures, but is otherwise the same book. This book was produced to match the textbook edition of the book.

We have retained the original punctuation and spelling in the book, but there are a few exceptions. Obvious errors were corrected--and all of these changes can be found in the Detailed Notes Section of these notes. The spelling of some index entries were changed to match the spelling used in the text. The Detailed Notes Section also includes issues that have come up during transcription. One common issue is that words are sometimes split into two lines for spacing purposes in the original text. These words are hyphenated in the physical book, but there is a question sometimes as to whether the hyphen should be retained in transcription. The reasons behind some of these decisions are itemized.


Detailed Notes Section:


A Note on Centuries

Throughout the Chronicles of America series, most authors have chosen to hyphenate "seventeenth-century customs" but not hyphenate "customs in the seventeenth century." In the latter case, seventeenth century is the object of a preposition, while in the former case, seventeenth-century is an adjective. This book somewhat adheres to that standard. Below is a list of phrases in this text which ought to have the hyphen, but do not, and hence, do not adhere to the standard previously outlined. None of these clauses were changed in transcription.

  • Page 55: England is weary of seventeenth century "enthusiasm,"
  • Page 85: the immense nineteenth century audience
  • Page 90: nineteenth century England
  • Page 93: other eighteenth century tradition,
  • Page 138: twentieth century America can see
  • Page 166: resembled such a typical eighteenth century figure
  • Page 182: a nineteenth century historian


Chapter II

• Page 36:
Under-estimate is hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing in the sentence: "It is the present fashion to under-estimate the power of Wigglesworth's verse." There is one other occurrence of underestimate and there is one occurrence of underestimated, both spelled without the hyphen.


Chapter IV

• Page 72:
State-papers is hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing in the clause: "orations and pamphlets and state-papers inspired by." On page 67, state papers is written as two words and on page 82, state paper is written as two words. While state-papers can only be transcribed as "state-papers" or "statepapers," "state papers" is the only option consistent with the author's other usage of the phrase. The word was transcribed "state papers."


Chapter V

• Page 90:
Tree-tops is hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing in the clause "watching the birds in the treetops of Elmwood." On page 245, tree-tops was spelled with a hyphen, so we kept the hyphen here.
• Page 98:
Stout-hearted is hyphenated and split between two lines in the clause: "the stout-hearted old pioneer could afford to bide his time." On page 84, a variation of the word includes the hyphen: "his stout-heartedness in disaster." Therefore, we retained the hyphen.


Chapter VI

• Page 133:
Poll-tax is hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing. We kept the hyphen.
• Page 137:
Wolf-like is hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing. We kept the hyphen.
• Page 138:
Post-office is hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing. We kept the hyphen.


Chapter VII

• Page 145:
On Page 145, Hawthorne's The Snow-Image contained a hyphen, but the same title on page 148 did not have a hyphen: The Snow Image.
• Page 153:
Fellow-men was hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing. There was no other usage of the word in the book. We transcribed the word without the hyphen, fellowmen.
• Page 172:
The First Snow-Fall was hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing. There was no other usage of that title in the book. We transcribed the word with the hyphen, The First Snow-Fall.


Chapter IX

• Page 208:
Epoch-making is hyphenated and split between two lines for spacing. On page 184, the hyphen was used, so we retained it here.


Index

• Page 276:
Changed the acute accent to a grave accent in the spelling of Crèvecœur to match the text in index entry: Letters from an American Farmer, Crévecœur, 60, 68.
• Page 276:
Change Leatherstocking to Leather-Stocking in index entry "Leather-Stocking Tales, Cooper,"
• Page 278:
Change Oake to Oakes in index entry "Oake, Urian."
• Page 280:
Change Twicetold to Twice-Told in index entry "Twice-Told Tales, Hawthorne."