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A Literary Coming of Age |
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A Literature of Their
Own
“Who reads an American book?” When English
critic Sydney Smith posed this question in 1818, he assumed the answer was
“nobody.” By the end of the American Renaissance, however, he might have
changed his answer to “plenty of people.” Visit Gonzaga University for a
look at the social and political events of the period. Then, zoom in on
the writers and thinkers who were at the forefront of America’s literary
renaissance.
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Hawthorne and Melville: Opposites
Attract |
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Fast
Friends
A sudden rainstorm drove them both to
shelter. By the time the rain stopped, their friendship had taken root.
Seek your own literary shelter at The Life and Works of Herman Melville,
where you can learn more about the famous friendship between Melville and
Nathaniel Hawthorne. Then, see if you can find the seeds of a literary
coming-of-age in the letters that Melville and Hawthorne
exchanged.
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Intellectual and Social Life in New
England |
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We Hold These Truths to
Be Self-Evident
While Horace Mann was
dedicating himself to improving public education and William Lloyd
Garrison was fighting to abolish slavery, the women of Seneca Falls, New
York, were busy organizing for their rights. Take a trip to Seneca Falls
for a tour of the Women’s Rights National Historical Park. While you’re
there, take a look at Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s “Declaration of
Sentiments.”
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The Transcendentalists: True Reality Is
Spiritual |
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The Staggering Miracles
of Nature
Not content with the conventional
interpretations of life, death, and God, the Transcendentalists painted
their own picture of the world as a living mystery, in which even a mouse
was “a miracle enough to stagger quintillions of infidels.” Visit
Perspectives in American Literature to find out why the Transcendentalists
sought miracles in nature.
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A Closer Look: That Was Then . .
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1846: Portrait of a
Nation
In his will, James Smithson left the
United States half a million dollars to establish an institution “for the
increase and diffusion of knowledge.” His wishes were honored with the
establishment of the Smithsonian Institution in 1846. Today, the
Smithsonian has dedicated a special exhibit to the year of its
establishment. Head over to the National Portrait Gallery and see what
American life was like in 1846.
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Across the Web |
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Nineteenth-Century
Bestsellers
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman
Melville weren’t the best-selling authors of their day; instead, that
honor went to what Hawthorne described as a “mob of scribbling women.”
Hawthorne blamed his lack of popularity among the reading public on the
“trash” these women wrote. Head over to Scribbling Women to find out who
these women were and what they were writing.
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