The Paucity of pre-20th Century American Authors

For some time now, as I started building a database for my library (using
Paradox with interlinked tables (one for authors, the other for books), I was
amazed to find how few writers actually managed to die before the end of the
19th Century. In the list below, 23 died before January 1, 1900, and another two
managed not to see out the year 1900. I admit the list is limited to authors
whose works I have in my possession, and not by way of anthology.

Franklin, Benjamin 1706 1790
Paine, Thomas 1737 1809
Poe, Edgar Allan 1809 1849
Cooper, James Fenimore 1789 1851
Irving, Washington 1783 1859
Thoreau, Henry David 1817 1862
Hawthorne, Nathaniel 1804 1864
Willis [Parton], Sara Payson [Fanny Fern] 1811 1872
Bryant, William Cullen 1794 1878
Abbott, Jacob 1803 1879
Dana, Richard Henry 1815 1882
Emerson, Ralph Waldo 1803 1882
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth 1807 1882
Dickinson, Emily 1830 1886
Alcott, Louisa May 1832 1888
Lowell, James Russell 1819 1891
Melville, Herman 1819 1891
Whitman, Walt 1819 1892
Whittier, John Greenleaf 1807 1892
Parkman, Francis 1823 1893
Holmes, Oliver Wendell 1809 1894
Field, Eugene 1850 1895
Stowe, Harriet Beecher 1811 1896
Crane, Stephen 1871 1900
Warner, Charles Dudley 1829 1900

I know that there are others, e.g., Cotton Mather, Anne Bradstreet, Roger
Winthrop, all of whom were essayists or journal keepers, and Mary Rowlandson and
others like her who wrote captivity narratives, and that there were other
fiction writers and poets, e.g., William Brown Hill (1765-1793), author of the
first American novel - The Power of Sympathy (which was about incest and
adultery), Hannah Webster Foster (1758-1840), who may hold the honors for the
second American novel - The Coquette (which was about seduction and moral fall),
Susanna Rowson (1762 -1824), Sarah Wentworth Morton (1754-1846) (a poet whose
sister was the subject matter for Brown's novel), but all in all, they are very
few indeed. Even Joel Chandler Harris survived to 1908. And the Victorian era
romance novelists that my mother collected seemed to follow the longevity of the
Queen herself and to a woman died in the 20th century. I acknowledge that many
who survived into the 20th century are still considered 19th century writers,
e.g., Bret Harte (d. 1902) Kate Chopin (d. 1904), Lew Wallace (d. 1905), Bierce
Ambrose (disappeared 1914), but very quickly one has to start asking were those
that survived longer really 19th century writers.

As it is, I am struck by the paucity of the numbers, even when supplemented by
authors that 90% - make that 98% - of Americans have never heard of. At the
same time I look to my as yet unindexed English authors, but from the expanse of
the wall covered with British books, it is clear that no such apparent dearth of
writing affected the English in this period, let alone the Irish writers, who
usually exported themselves to London for better pay.

Is this vacuum that I perceive real? Were American novelists that rare in the
19th century?


Francis A. Miniter

Published novelists, yes, in the earlier part of the 19th century. Until around
the Civil War, it was much much cheaper for publishers to reprint British
fiction (for which they seldom paid royalties) than to take on an American
author. When copyright loopholes were closed and leveled the playing field a
bit (sorry, I don't have the date), there was a surge in book publications by
US fiction writers.

Fancis A. Miniter writes:

Is this vacuum that I perceive real? Were American novelists that rare in
the
19th century?


Bob
Print Matters! Used & Rare Books
http://www.abebooks.com/home/printmat

Is this vacuum that I perceive real? Were American novelists that rare in the
19th century?

Can't resist (my first post ever). Interesting subject, and very nice
compilation in the initial post.

First of all, off the top of my head, I have to add two more.
(Although you comment on novelists, the list encompasses other
writers).
- George Bancroft - widely published popular historian
- Margaret Fuller

As I understand it, British authors were widely read here (many of
them of course were quite understandably upset about pirated editions
in which they didn't get compensated by American publishers). The
reading public in the 18th century was still tied to Britain
culturally and not open to native authors. And thus publishers banked
on proven commodities. It wasn't until mid-century when American
authors were openly calling for support of an American voice (wasn't
Emerson quite outspoken on this?)

So I think you are right. There was a vacuum, or rather, the space was
filled with British writers.

dave

"Francis A. Miniter" wrote in message
...

Is this vacuum that I perceive real? Were American novelists that rare in
the 19th century?



Have you looked at Lyle Wright's 3-volume *American Fiction*? Hundred and
hundreds of pre-1900 American novelists. For just the period 1851-75, he's
got 1,450 authors! That part is available online here with full text:

http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/web/w/wright2/


A couple years ago I picked up quite a rare mid-19/c American novel:

Mary C. Edgar, *A Catholic Story, or Four Months' Residence in the House of
a Convert from Protestantism* (Philadelphia: M. Ethian, 1845), not in
Library of Congress; not in Wright, *American Fiction 1774-1850*; not in
Menendez, *The Roads to Rome: An Annotated Bibliography*, chap. 5 "Novels of
Conversion"; not in Menendez, *The Catholic Novel: An Annotated
Bibliography*. Only three other copies located: British Library, Harvard
Divinity School Library, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary Library
(Philadelphia).

One of the gems of my collection.


William M. Klimon
http://www.catholicbookcollector.com

William M. Klimon wrote:

"Francis A. Miniter" wrote in message
...


Is this vacuum that I perceive real? Were American novelists that rare in
the 19th century?


Have you looked at Lyle Wright's 3-volume *American Fiction*? Hundred and
hundreds of pre-1900 American novelists. For just the period 1851-75, he's
got 1,450 authors! That part is available online here with full text:

http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/web/w/wright2/


A couple years ago I picked up quite a rare mid-19/c American novel:

Mary C. Edgar, *A Catholic Story, or Four Months' Residence in the House of
a Convert from Protestantism* (Philadelphia: M. Ethian, 1845), not in
Library of Congress; not in Wright, *American Fiction 1774-1850*; not in
Menendez, *The Roads to Rome: An Annotated Bibliography*, chap. 5 "Novels of
Conversion"; not in Menendez, *The Catholic Novel: An Annotated
Bibliography*. Only three other copies located: British Library, Harvard
Divinity School Library, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary Library
(Philadelphia).

One of the gems of my collection.


William M. Klimon
http://www.catholicbookcollector.com



Thank you. I was unaware of the resource. I will look into it further. I have
already bookmarked the link you cited.

Your mention of the Mary Edgar book reminded me that I had never found out
anything about a strange book I have - "Whatever is, is Right" by A. B. Child
(1860). Wright does not mention him, so I went to the Library of Congress
website from which I learned that he lived from 1813 - 1879. While the Libary
of Congress has two of his books, it does not have this book. Coincidentally,
however, there is now one copy that I could locate through Addall.com - a copy
listed on Alibris, but in rather sad condition. (Mine at least is good to very
good.) So at least I have made some progress on one of my question marks from
all this.

Francis A. Miniter

In general, yes there was a dearth of US writers in this time period. But,
don't forget the popular novelists. The writers you listed are all literary
writers, and there was a highly fertile area of publishing in the Dime
Novels (and Blood and Thunder tales). Also you've left out Charles B. Brown.
And the other Brown, whose first name I can't recall. ... He wrote literally
the first novel in the US. There were few native US writers from the very
early 19th century in part because of the copyright laws, but also because
of population. If you assume that "x" percent of the population will become
published, professional writers; "x" of a nation the size of England during
those years yields a far larger number than "x" of the population of the US
during those same years. I forget exactly what the population was, but it
was in the very low millions. I recall from my American Literature survey
classes as an English major that American Literature didn't really develop
until what is commonly called "The American Renaissance," roughly about
1820. And as for writers straddling different centuries; what matters most
is what years they were most productive and active as writers. Forget about
their birth and death dates, look at the publication dates of their works.

"Francis A. Miniter" wrote in message
...
For some time now, as I started building a database for my library (using
Paradox with interlinked tables (one for authors, the other for books), I
was amazed to find how few writers actually managed to die before the end
of the 19th Century. In the list below, 23 died before January 1, 1900,
and another two managed not to see out the year 1900. I admit the list is
limited to authors whose works I have in my possession, and not by way of
anthology.

Franklin, Benjamin 1706 1790
Paine, Thomas 1737 1809
Poe, Edgar Allan 1809 1849
Cooper, James Fenimore 1789 1851
Irving, Washington 1783 1859
Thoreau, Henry David 1817 1862
Hawthorne, Nathaniel 1804 1864
Willis [Parton], Sara Payson [Fanny Fern] 1811 1872
Bryant, William Cullen 1794 1878
Abbott, Jacob 1803 1879
Dana, Richard Henry 1815 1882
Emerson, Ralph Waldo 1803 1882
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth 1807 1882
Dickinson, Emily 1830 1886
Alcott, Louisa May 1832 1888
Lowell, James Russell 1819 1891
Melville, Herman 1819 1891
Whitman, Walt 1819 1892
Whittier, John Greenleaf 1807 1892
Parkman, Francis 1823 1893
Holmes, Oliver Wendell 1809 1894
Field, Eugene 1850 1895
Stowe, Harriet Beecher 1811 1896
Crane, Stephen 1871 1900
Warner, Charles Dudley 1829 1900

I know that there are others, e.g., Cotton Mather, Anne Bradstreet, Roger
Winthrop, all of whom were essayists or journal keepers, and Mary
Rowlandson and others like her who wrote captivity narratives, and that
there were other fiction writers and poets, e.g., William Brown Hill
(1765-1793), author of the first American novel - The Power of Sympathy
(which was about incest and adultery), Hannah Webster Foster (1758-1840),
who may hold the honors for the second American novel - The Coquette
(which was about seduction and moral fall), Susanna Rowson (1762 -1824),
Sarah Wentworth Morton (1754-1846) (a poet whose sister was the subject
matter for Brown's novel), but all in all, they are very few indeed. Even
Joel Chandler Harris survived to 1908. And the Victorian era romance
novelists that my mother collected seemed to follow the longevity of the
Queen herself and to a woman died in the 20th century. I acknowledge that
many who survived into the 20th century are still considered 19th century
writers, e.g., Bret Harte (d. 1902) Kate Chopin (d. 1904), Lew Wallace (d.
1905), Bierce Ambrose (disappeared 1914), but very quickly one has to
start asking were those that survived longer really 19th century writers.

As it is, I am struck by the paucity of the numbers, even when
supplemented by authors that 90% - make that 98% - of Americans have never
heard of. At the same time I look to my as yet unindexed English authors,
but from the expanse of the wall covered with British books, it is clear
that no such apparent dearth of writing affected the English in this
period, let alone the Irish writers, who usually exported themselves to
London for better pay.

Is this vacuum that I perceive real? Were American novelists that rare in
the 19th century?


Francis A. Miniter

I'm surprised at how many interesting American spiritual writers there were in
that period. And it seems as a response notes, that vacuum you mention was for
more literary novelists. What some novelists created also was for more of a
spiritual aim, rather than a "worldly" literary one.

Basically, greatness and utility in writers is ultimately a matter of taste.
Perhaps the authors you've listed have the greatest collector's value.
--
Robert Pearson
http://www.rspearson.com/
ParaMind Brainstorming Software http://www.paramind.net

In "Francis A. Miniter" writes:

As it is, I am struck by the paucity of the numbers, even when supplemented by
authors that 90% - make that 98% - of Americans have never heard of. At the

I could add a couple more off the top of my head:

Charles Brockden Brown (Wieland, Arthur Mervyn, etc.) 1771-1810
William Gilmore Simms (The Yemassee, etc., and lots of bad poetry) 1806-1870

Did you list Cooper? Melville?

Is this vacuum that I perceive real? Were American novelists that rare in the
19th century?

I don't know.


--
Jonathan Baker | Hanuca, Xmas, & Saturnalia all begin on 25th of
| the Winter Solstice Month. Which came first? Us.
Web page http://www.panix.com/~jjbaker

In . net "Nobody" writes:

writers, and there was a highly fertile area of publishing in the Dime
Novels (and Blood and Thunder tales).

Right. Horatio Alger 1832-1899. I saw his room on Harvard Yard once,
visiting a high-school friend. There was a list posted with all previous
denizens of the room.

--
Jonathan Baker | Hanuca, Xmas, & Saturnalia all begin on 25th of
| the Winter Solstice Month. Which came first? Us.
Web page http://www.panix.com/~jjbaker