1. Early 19th Century Literature
Unit II
Early 19th Century Literature

2. The Rise of American Writing
By the 1850s compulsory school laws were in place
Levels of education and literacy had risen significantly
Magazines were highly popular
Most books were almanacs, school-books, self-help manuals, and works on religion, medicine, or law
American writers won increasing national and international fame.

3. Key Authors Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Emily Dickinson’s poetry later achieved international fame
Frederick Douglass’s Slave Narrative
Edgar Allen Poe and his gothic stories
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau and transcendentalism

4. Cultural Nationalism Patriotic songs
Paint vast panoramas of American scenes
Monumental buildings to represent the American people
Hudson River School of landscape painters: America’s mountains, valleys, forest, and rivers

5. Literary Changes Novels, short stories, and poems replaced sermons
Literature sought to glorify the land
Emphasis on free expression of emotion
The novel of terror became profitable, just as it remains today
There was a greater interest in America’s language and its people
Authors wrote about they saw, what they feared, what they hoped for, and what they imagined.