VOICES FROM 19TH-CENTURY AMERICA
Because some texts are just too interesting to leave in the library
While I study 19th-century American works for children,
I can’t resist the odd work for adults. Of course, neither could the
children: they read whatever they could understand, and a few things they
couldn’t. (“Gail Hamilton” was a favorite with the
readers of
Robert Merry’s Museum.)
These works aren’t readily available either in reprint or on the web, but
they deserve to be better known.
Enjoy!
Short pieces
Some oddments: Recipes and
other bits and pieces of interest or fancy-tickling.
I keep a list of
Things We Know that Ain’t Quite So
about early 19th-century culture.
Novels, Novelists, & Readers; or, Text &
Temptation in 19th-century America is an anthology of works on novels
and their effects.
The gales of September 22-23, 1815 and
September 3, 1821 devastated New England in a
time before 24-hour news coverage.
A poem about Sarah Bishop
(1823), by
Samuel Griswold Goodrich,
is one of Goodrich’s first
published works. Bishop was a ghostly figure
in his Recollections of a Lifetime. This is
the first time that the author of the untitled poem has been identified.
In 1827-1828, the
Juvenile Gazette
printed notices of marriages and deaths,
mostly in Providence, Rhode Island.
“Ode, Addressed to J. G. Percival, M. D.” (September
1832) includes editor Melzar Gardner’s explanation of editorial changes; both appeared in
The Bouquet.
“To the Departing Comet” (January
1836) is a fanciful exploration of Halley’s Comet; the poem appeared in the
American Monthly Magazine.
“Negro Songs—American Music” (October
1853), by Ser. Longley, takes Stephen Foster to task for the subjects of his
songs and their dialect.
Books & book-length works
“Gertrude of Wyoming,” by Thomas
Campbell (1809)
While Campbell was a British poet, this work on an incident during the
American Revolution was popular with early 19th-century American readers and
can be difficult to find. A version published in the U. S. in 1865 is
transcribed here.
René, by Françoise-René Chateaubriand
(translated by
Samuel Griswold Goodrich; 1814)
Charged with overwrought sentiment and overripe prose, this tale of a young
Frenchman who comes to be mentored by a native American was popular with
romantic spirits in many countries. Twenty-one-year-old Goodrich practiced
his French by translating (and abridging) the story; it was published in the
Connecticut Spectator by his friend, Simeon L. Loomis. This is the
first time the translator has been identified. Another translation was
published in book form a year later.
Memoirs of a Captivity Among the
Indians of North America, by John Dunn Hunter (3rd. ed, 1824)
John Dunn Hunter (1798?-1827) was white, but was reared by the
Kansas and the Osage from around age two, after his parents were killed by
Kickapoo. In 1816, he left his family, eventually living with whites and
learning English; and writing this book (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Ohme,
Brown, & Green, 1824) about his life, the people he knew growing up, and the
wonderful landscape in which he lived most of his life. His memoirs provided
the basis for
“
Jumping Rabbit’s Story,” published in
Robert Merry’s Museum in 1843.
This text is also available as an ebook.
The Legendary (1828)
Edited by N. P. Willis and published by
Samuel Goodrich,
The Legendary was
an early attempt to promote American writers. Though the periodical lasted
only one year, it focused on American subjects and included works by Lydia
Maria Child, N. P. Willis, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Fitz-Greene Halleck,
and Lydia H. Sigourney.
The table of contents includes
first and last lines of poems and first sentences or phrases of essays and
short stories. (A transcription of both volumes is in the works.)
Contemporary reviews are on a
separate page, organized by year.
The Token (1828-1842)
Edited by
Samuel
Goodrich,
The Token was one of many gift books available to early
19th-century readers. These lavishly bound, lushly illustrated collections of
poetry and prose were published annually and intended as Christmas and New
Year’s gifts—reminding us that, in early 19th-century America, New Year’s
was a gift-giving holiday. Gift books were published both
for children
and for adults, though the audiences often overlapped: some pieces by
Goodrich printed in
The Token were reprinted in his works for children,
including
Robert Merry’s Museum.
Goodrich saw in
The Token a chance to promote American writers and
engravers. He succeeded very well, especially with the writers, who included
John Neal, Catherine Sedgwick, N. P. Willis, Lydia Sigourney, Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow, and—in retrospect, most significant—Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Selections include Hawthorne’s works,
with others, from the 1836 volume, with selections to appear from other
volumes.
A massive table of contents
includes first and last lines of poems, first sentences or phrases of essays,
and just-for-information images of the engravings; with information on
reprints, where available.
Reviews of the Token
are organized here by year.
Truth, by William J. Snelling (1831 & 1832)
Truth is William Joseph Snelling’s attempt at a satiric poem on
American poets. Snelling’s models may have been Alexander Pope and George
Gordon, Lord Byron, but he was no Byron or Pope. However, the books provide
a glimpse of literary types in early America. The first and the second
editions are presented here, with notes and reviews.
Scenes in My Native Land, by Lydia H. Sigourney (1844)
Scenes in My Native Land is a mixture of poems and essays on American
subjects: Connecticut’s Charter Oak, John G. C. Brainard, the Newport Tower,
the Wyoming Valley. Sigourney describes the American Asylum for the Deaf and
Dumb at Hartford, the Moravian colonies in Pennsylvania, a chronology of New
England snowstorms in autumn 1843, and a discussion of Niagara-obsessed
Francis Abbot.
Dictionary of Americanisms,
by John Russell Bartlett (1848)
The
Dictionary of Americanisms (New York: Bartlett and Welford, 1848)
went through at least four editions between 1848 and 1877. As a record of
the “colloquial language of the United States,” it’s a fascinating look at
the words that actually came out of the mouths of early 19th-century
Americans. It’s also a window into U. S. history, with tiny essays on early
political parties (the Democratic party, for example, was known as the
“Loco-foco” after an incident of the kind which won’t surprise observers of
the political process), economics (how bears and bulls went to Wall Street),
and culture (both
strong drink and the
Millerites); its collection of quotes offers later readers examples from a
wide variety of early-19th-century works (everything from Congressional
speeches to
Sam Slick in England). And where else will you find
discussions of words like “sanctimoniouslyfied” and “absquatulate”? or of
phrases like “acknowledge the corn” and “red dog money”?
This text is also available as an ebook.
The Behaviour Book, by Eliza Leslie (1853)
Eliza Leslie (1787-1858) was an astonishingly prolific writer for
children and for adults.
The Behaviour Book (Philadelphia: Willis P.
Hazard, 1853) is more than just a look at mid-19th-century rules of
etiquette. Leslie covers the wide range of daily life: four pages are
devoted to selecting an umbrella (green silk ones weren’t colorfast); she
includes instructions for making a good black ink; and bed-making gets half a
page. It’s a chatty book, full of anecdotes (George Washington telling a
tall tale to a credulous traveler) and one-paragraph essays on subjects like
having a bedroom window open and how to refer to black servants. It’s also a
wealth of anecdotal information about Leslie’s native Philadelphia, including
a child’s rhyme listing its principal streets.
This text is also available as an ebook.
Fern Leaves from Fanny’s Portfolio, by “Fanny Fern” (1853)
“Fanny Fern” was Sara Payson Willis (1811-1872), whose
father, Nathaniel Willis, founded and edited
Youth’s Companion.
Escaping a bad second marriage, and with two children to support, Sara turned
to writing: her first essay appeared in the
Olive Branch and was
quickly reprinted. She soon became one of the most highly paid authors in
19th-century America; three years after her first essay was published,
Sara was hired to write one essay a week for the
New York Ledger
for the unheard-of sum of $100 per column. Alternately humorous, satiric,
and sentimental, her pieces cover the range of 19th-century American life,
from the death of children to the delicate subterfuge of a widow eager to
remarry.
Many of the pieces were gathered into two collections,
both titled Fern Leaves from Fanny’s Portfolio.
Ruth Hall, by “Fanny Fern” (1854)
“Fanny Fern” was Sara Payson Willis (1811-1872), who by
the time
Ruth Hall was written was already famous as an essayist;
her newspaper essays were published in
two popular collections in 1853.
Ruth Hall
(New York: Mason Brothers, 1854) was her first novel (she eventually wrote
another, and a novelette), but in theme and tone it’s very much a piece with
the newspaper essays: sentimental and satiric. Sara could be devastating,
especially, on the subject of families and of family relationships; here,
the character of Ruth’s brother—“Hyacinth Ellet”—is based on Sara’s
own brother, whom she’ already satirized as “Apollo Hyacinth” in the
second collection titled
Fern Leaves from Fanny’s Portfolio.
The novel itself is vaguely autobiographical.
This text is also available as an ebook.
Buds, Blossoms, and Leaves, by “Eulalie” (1854)
“Eulalie” was Mary Eulalie Fee Shannon (1824-1855), an American poet who
published one collection of her … ah … unchallenging poetry (Cincinnati:
Moore, Wilstach, & Keys, 1854). Rhymed expositions on death and landscapes
and death and seasons and death, the poems are distinguished mostly for
subject matter—the California Gold Rush, Hungarian patriot Lajos Kossuth,
the Crystal Palace, local celebrities—and for the fact that Eulalie
probably is California’s first published woman poet.
Recollections of a Lifetime, by Samuel
Griswold Goodrich (1856)
Samuel Griswold Goodrich (1793-1860) was a pivotal figure in early
19th-century American publishing. His
Recollections (New York &
Auburn: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1856) is a look at over 50 years of
American culture, and at a busy, productive life. Early American religion,
passenger pigeons, the solar eclipse of 1806, the meteor of 1807, the
Hartford Convention, the Revolution of 1848—Goodrich experienced it all.
Filled with anecdotes and heavily footnoted, this 1100-page work is a rich
source of information on early American publishing and New England life.
Annotation (& proofreading!) of Recollections is an ongoing project.
Gala-Days, by “Gail Hamilton” (1863)
“Gail Hamilton” was Mary Abigail Dodge (1833-1896), an American essayist.
In pieces humorous, satirical, and sentimental, Dodge covered domestic
subjects, the American Civil War, and women’s rights.
Gala-Days
(Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1863), is a collection of eight essays—six of
which appeared originally in the
Atlantic Monthly—on topics serious
and frivolous: the family canary, a journey through New York and Canada,
young children and women with loved ones fighting the War. She includes a
scathing look at cultural expectations of motherhood.
This text is also available as an ebook.
Woman’s Rights, by John Todd (1867)
John Todd helped to educate 19th-century Americans with
The Student’s
Manual and works published in children’s periodicals.
Woman’s
Rights (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1867) is his response to the growing
women’s rights movement. Based on “good sense” and Todd’s reading of the
bible, his argument was dismantled by “Gail Hamilton” in
Woman’s Wrongs in 1868.
This text is also available with Woman’s Wrongs as an ebook.
Wool-Gathering, by “Gail Hamilton” (1867)
Writing as “Gail Hamilton,” Mary Abigail Dodge (1833-1896) published at least
eight books between 1863 and 1872.
Wool-Gathering is the record of her
trip through Minnesota and the South in 1866. Part documentary and part
philosophical, Dodge’s work describes a nation in transition. Dodge includes
descriptions of travel by rail and steamboat, a service in an
African-American church, Southern attitudes after the War, and farm life in
Minnesota.
This text is also available as an ebook.
Woman’s Wrongs, by “Gail Hamilton”
(1868)
“Gail Hamilton” was Mary Abigail Dodge (1833-1896), an American essayist
who published at least eight books between 1863 and 1872. While works like
Gala-Days emphasize humor and
sentimentality,
Woman’s Wrongs (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1868) is
her furious answer to criticisms of the women’s rights movement. Specifically,
it’s an answer to the Rev. John Todd’s
Woman’s Rights,
which covers the usual 19th-century objections to women’s suffrage and
equality. Todd’s argument is built around Christianity, a tactic Hamilton
found especially noxious. “The Mohammedan and the Mormon doctrines are that
women have no life in the next world except through their husbands,” she
notes here. “The Christian doctrine is that they have none in this.”
This text is also available with Woman’s Rights as an ebook.
Popular Amusements, by J. T. Crane
(1869)
Methodist minister Jonathan Townley Crane (1819-1880) explores the pros and
cons (mostly cons) of various forms of recreation in mid-19th-century America,
in
Popular Amusements (Cincinnati: Jennings & Pye; New York: Eaton
& Mains, 1869). Dancing, chess-playing, horse-racing, baseball: all are
subjected to scrutiny. From the point of view of the 21st century, the most
entertaining chapter in this book is his diatribe against novels—which his
son, novelist Stephen Crane, appears to have ignored.
This text is also available as an ebook.
