The Changing Years of American Literature [antikvár]

AN END AND A BEGINNING D \U Y the middle of the nineteenth century, this country could be justly proud of its achievements, liter-ary as well as economic and political. Europeans were not only reading American books; they were alsó praising them for their excellence. America now had a tradition of its own, from which future writers could draw inspiration, and to which they could turn for models. They even had a new model in the short tale or story perfected bv Poe and Hawthorne. One must remember, however, that this tradition developed along the Atlantic seaboard, principally in and around Boston and New York, the oldest centers of culture in the United States. It was a conservative and aristocratic culture, concerned pri-marily with preserving the heritage of the past and fostering an interest in the literature and art of the Old World. It made a tremendous contribution to American thought, education and literature, but it represented only one segment of American life. Even as Emerson, Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe were publishing their literary masterpieces, a new culture was developing to the south and west of the Allegheny Mountains. In time it would replace the mature culture of the East and produce a more "American" literary tradition, because it was not modeled on, and had no close link with, the culture of the Old World.