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America Discovers Its Literary Past: Early American Literature in Nineteenth-Century
Anthologies
Author(s): Rose Marie Cutting
Source: Early American Literature, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Winter, 1975), pp. 226-251
Published by: University of North Carolina Press
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AMERICA DISCOVERS ITS LITERARY PAST:
EARLY AMERICAN LITERATURE IN
NINETEENTH-CENTURY ANTHOLOGIES
Rose Marie Cutting
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
When critics and historians discuss nineteenth-century studies

of early American literature, they usually start and end with the
work of Moses Coit Tyler1. Perry Miller, the foremost student of
colonial America, lauds Tyler as the "pioneer" he undoubtedly was.
Miller suggests, however, that Tyler alone explored this field during
the nineteenth century; supposedly, Tyler was the first to correct the
mistaken idea that "only a few almanacks and provincial newspapers"
had been written during the colonial period.2 Tyler himself is partially
responsible for this belief, for he announced that he could "find al
most no help in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries," and com
pared the colonial period to "the interior of Africa ... on the maps
unexplored territory.' "3
The tributes paid to Tyler's work have obscured the fact that
Americans were studying their literature long before Tyler wrote his
first volume. This is not to dispute the claim that Tyler's work is the
first full-fledged "literary history" (as the term is generally used) but
to point out that nineteenth-century readers had access to a great
wealth of information about their writers by way of a source that
was also historical and critical in nature: the literary anthology, a type
of book that reigned supreme during the middle years of the century.
In some of these books, the literature of early America was
presented in surprisingly extensive form. Furthermore, the most im
portant anthologies were compiled and nurtured by men whose influ
ence on the subsequent study of American literature has been profound:
Rufus W. Griswold, "the most influential anthologist of his day,"4
and Evert and George Duyckinck, who challenged and supplanted
Griswold. Their anthologies, especially Griswold's The Poets and Poe
try of America (1842), The Prose Writers of America (1846), and
the Duyckincks' Cyclopedia of American Literature (1855), served
as the first important histories of American literature and the chief
America Discovers Its Literary Past 227
means by which it reached the reading public. The suggestion that
American literature was neglected before the Civil War is wrong; in
particular, early American literature did not have to wait for Tyler
to "resurrect" it.5
The first anthologies of American literature to achieve com
mercial success and prolonged popularity were produced by Rufus W.
Griswold. Griswold's reign as America's "anthological czar" began
in 1842 with the publication of his most renowned anthology, The
Poets and Poetry of America, a book that was reissued every year
(at least once and sometimes twice) until Griswold's death in I857.6
The first articles in The Poets and Poetry treat Freneau and
other poets of the Revolution, but Griswold did not foster the persist
ent myth that the New England Puritans were hostile to verse. "From
the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth there was at no period a lack
of candidates for the poetic laurel," Griswold tells his readers, 7
and supplies a history of colonial verse in the introduction to the an
thology. Apparently, much of Griswold's knowledge of this verse came
second-hand, for his introduction was plagiarized from an anthology
published in I829, Samuel Kettell's Specimens of American Poetry.
Specimens of American Poetry is the first important collection
of American verse. Kettell discusses and quotes one hundred-and
eighty-nine writers, covering the earliest poets of New England up to
Whittier. The third volume provides the first bibliography of Ameri
can poetry, a catalog beginning with the Bay Psalm Book.8 Not
surprisingly, the American public was not eager to purchase a three
volume (II67-page) anthology of American poetry written before
I829. S. G. Goodrich, the publisher, complained of losing fifteen
hundred dollars on the book, moreover, "Goodrich's Kettell of poetry"
became a "kind of proverb of misfortune or misjudgment."9
Nevertheless, without giving credit to Kettell, Griswold resur
rected the Specimens. By condensing a substantial part of Kettell's
first volume, Griswold managed to cover many of the colonial
poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Anne Bradstreet,
Michael Wigglesworth, Roger Wolcott, Benjamin Tompson, Thomas
Godfrey, Benjamin Church, Mather Byles, to name only a few). Gris
wold denied the literary value of the "elaborate metrical composi
tions" that passed for verse in colonial America.10 But his willing
ness to pillage Kettell did not preclude independent study even with
regard to this verse. For example, Griswold reprinted a poem called
"New England's Annoyances" as "the first verse by a colonist." Ket
tell had not mentioned this work, probably the earliest ballad com
posed in America."
228 Early American Literature, IX, I975
Because Griswold admired the poetry of the revolutionary pe
riod, he went to the trouble of writing separate articles on Freneau,
the Connecticut Wits, and other poets of the latter half of the eight
eenth century. Therefore, his important collection of American litra
ture introduced readers to the verse of America's two earliest centuries,
as well as to the verse of the nineteenth century. In fact, even though
the survey of colonial verse in The Poets and Poetry is largely stolen,
Griswold deserves credit for recognizing and passing on the substan
tial amount of information that Kettell had made available.
Other works prove that Griswold studied and --reported upon
early American literature long before Tyler. An article on Puritan
verse written for Graham's Magazine also contains information not
found in the Specimens.12 "Curiosities of American Literature"
a collection of articles totaling sixty pages-repeats much of the in
formation already given in The Poets and Poetry but supplies some new
essays on writers such as Cotton Mather and Roger Williams.13
However, Griswold made his major contribution to the study
of American literature through his anthologies. The Prose Writers
of America (1846) contains articles on Jonathan Edwards, Franklin,
Jefferson, Madison, Marshall, Hamilton, Fisher Ames, Timothy
Dwight, Charles Brockden Brown and other early writers. As usual,
Griswold's stress on nineteenth-century literature does not preclude
work with early writers. Nonetheless, he neglected the prose of the sev
enteenth century and of the first half of the eighteenth century. Ed
wards is the only pre-revolutionary writer singled out as worthy of a
separate essay. Otherwise, the introduction merely alludes to a few
early writers: John Eliot, Cotton Mather, Jonathan Mayhew, Samuel
Johnson, Samuel Hopkins, Ezra Stiles.14 In spite of his hostility
towards it, Griswold did a far better job of introducing his readers to
early American verse. He probably would have been willing to supply
a similar sketch of colonial prose, regardless of his own opinion of
this literature. But, in 1846, no one had yet essayed a serious study of
colonial American prose.
The image of early American literature in Griswold's antholo
gies changed as Griswold edited new collections, revised old antholo
gies, and responded to the pressure of competition. For example, in
1848 Griswold published another of his popular collections, The Fe
male Poets of America. In this collection, he no longer dismissed Anne
Bradstreet with the cursory treatment given her in 1842. The Poets
and Poetry followed Kettell's lead by reprinting a selection from "Con
templations," but Griswold did not offer any critical judgments on
the work of this early poetess and therefore apparently did not absolve
it from the condemnation leveled against Puritan verse in general. In
his later anthology, Griswold declared Anne Bradstreet "superior to
any poet of her sex who wrote in the English language before the
close of the seventeenth century," and offered restrained praise of
her verse for evincing "imagination" and "the best learning of her
age."15
Griswold's expanded account of Anne Bradstreet introduced
nineteenth-century readers to her personal poetry. Declaring that
they show "the fervor and simplicity of the sincerest passion," he
quoted from two poems Anne Bradstreet addressed to her husband
when he was absent and reprinted a moving poem on the prospect
of her own death that was written before the birth of one of her chil
dren. He also included two elegies, "marked by similar beauties,"
one on the death of her daughter-in-law and one addressed to her
grandchild.16 The first is merely conventional but the elegy on the
child (which begins "Farewell, dear child, my heart's too much con
tent") has been extolled as one of the "finest" in American litera
ture.17
Griswold did not discuss Anne Bradstreet's verse at any length
and failed to distinguish between her best poetry and poems of lesser
value. Nevertheless, he anticipated the taste of twentieth-century
readers by praising the poetry that was inspired by her own life. There
fore, The Female Poets of America offered readers a good account of
America's "Tenth Muse."
The image of early American literature conveyed by Griswold's
most popular anthology also changed when he revised this collection.
Substantial changes were made in The Poets and Poetry in I847,
1849, and 1855. However, the introduction and the earliest articles,
and hence the discussion of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century liter
ature, remained unchanged until I855, the last revision before Gris
wold's death.
TRe first article of the i855 edition still honors Freneau, but
the Puritan poets are newly emphasized as one of the attractions of
the book by being listed in the table of contents for the first time.
Griswold once again condemns Puritan verse: "The best praise which
could be awarded to American verses was that they were ingeniously
grotesque." He mitigates his strictures, however, by declaring, for the
first time, that Puritan prose sometimes achieved a "stately eloquence":
"The 'renowned' Mr. Thomas Shepard, the 'pious' Mr. John Norton,
and our own 'judicious' Mr. Hooker . . . and several of their contem
poraries frequently wrote excellent prose." He then lauds Edwards
and a few other eighteenth-century divines-Mayhew, Chauncy, Bel
230 Early American Literature, IX, 1975
lamy, Hopkins. Griswold also added a paragraph on Cotton Mather's
literary productions. It is primarily a sympathetic account, in
spite of the condemnation of Mather's style:
The "Magnalia," "Christian Philosopher," "Essays to Do Good," "Wonders of
the Invisible World," and many more, however disfigured by those striking
faults of style which at the time were a prevailing fashion, contain passages of
eloquence not less attractive than peculiar. With all their pedantry, their ana
grams, puns, and grotesque conceits, they are thoughtful and earnest, and abound
in original and shrewd observations of human nature, religious obligations, and
providence.
Mather's works show qualities valued by nineteenth-century readers:
they are "earnest," "pious," and even "original."18
In 1855 Griswold introduced other new elements into his
history of early American verse. He was no longer merely plagiarizing
from Kettell (who had not studied much of this literature). These
additions appear to be a direct response to the challenge offered by the
Duyckincks' Cyclopedia of American Literature. Griswold's biogra
pher reports that he had spies keeping him informed of the progress of
the Duyckincks.19 The spies apparently did a good job, for Gri
wold frequently expanded his history by incorporating the very features
emphasized in the Cyclopedia. The Duyckincks awarded their first
article to George Sandys; Griswold added a paragraph on Sandys'
translation of the "Metamorphosis," supposedly "the earliest. verse
produced in America"; the Duyckincks wrote a series of articles on
the writers connected with Franklin; Griswold added several para
graphs on these writers of the middle colonies; the Duyckincks made
an effort to give credit to early writers from the South; for the first
time, Griswold singled out Southern writers for special attention; the
Duyckincks analyzed-in great detail-an early miscellany, The
Pietas et Gratulatio; Griswold also proved that he had studied this
collection with the zeal of an antiquarian; the Duyckincks assembled
a long section on the ballads and songs of the Indian wars and the Re
volution; Griswold added a paragraph on this type of literature and
promised further work on it.20
Griswold did not change the introduction to The Poets and
Poetry for thirteen years-not until the year in which the Cyclo
pedia was published. In I855 Griswold was dying. But "news of
the approaching Cyclopedia threw him into a rage of jealousy,"
and he "dragged himself to Philadelphia" to get out a new edi
tion of his most important anthology.21 No one has examined
the changes Griswold made in this collection. His last-minute efforts
to expand his work on early American literature are a tribute to the
Duyckincks' Cyclopedia, a book which gives due attention, for the
first time, to the earliest literature of America, as well as to the liter
ature of the nineteenth century.
The warfare between the Duyckincks and Griswold started
long before I855. Evert and George Duyckinck belonged to "Young
America," a group of literary critics affiliated with the liberal branch
of the Democratic party. As a conservative Whig, Griswold engaged
in a number of skirmishes with "Young America." Moreover, Evert
Duyckinck's many literary activities challenged Griswold's preemi
nence as a spokesman for American literature. In addition to his
work on the Cyclopedia, Evert Duyckinck edited several important
journals (Arcturus and The Literary World), and provided Ameri
can writers with an outlet for their works by editing Wiley and Put
nam's Library of Choice Reading. Throughout his life, Duyckinck
offered personal encouragement to American writers such as Haw
thorne, Melville, and Simms.22
The Cyclopedia was the first important rival to challenge
Griswold's domination over the production of anthologies. In I855,
this massive ("ten-pound") two-volume work became the leading
authority on American literature and thus successfully dethroned
America's "anthological czar."23
The Cyclopedia begins with an account of George Sandys'
translation of Ovid as the first work of literary importance written in
America, moves to William Vaughan, who wrote poetry while in
Newfoundland, introduces William Morrell's Nova Anglia, lauds
and reprints William Wood's verse catalogs of American trees, ani
mals, and fish as well as Wood's prose descriptions of Indian customs,
launches into a long account of the heroic and noble Captain John
Smith (and all his works and deeds), briefly sums up the careers of
less important writers (Thomas Harriot, Alexander Whitaker, Wil
liam Strachey), proceeds to give a lengthy history of Harvard Col
lege, its presidents and their writings, and an exhaustive analysis of
Pietas et Gratulatio, examines and quotes from the Bay Psalm
Book, then presents Nathaniel Ward, John Cotton, John Norton,
Thomas Hooker, John Winthrop, Thomas Morton, William Brad
ford, John Davenport, Roger Williams, John Clarke, Samuel Gor
ton, Edward Johnson, John Eliot, Daniel Gookin, Thomas Shepard,
and proceeds relentlessly through article after article on major and
minor figures who in some way contributed to early American litera
ture.
In the preface to the Cyclopedia, the Duyckincks declare
that the effort to present colonial and revolutionary literature was
one of the chief purposes of their book: "To the early periods, the
preference was to be given in fullness of display."24 The first
volume of the -book proves beyond doubt that substantial contribu
tions were made to American letters during the first two centuries
of settlement, and that the Duyckincks diligently examined the enor
mous amount of material written during these centuries. More
over, the Duyckincks successfully avoid the extremes taken by their
predecessors: instead of Kettell's indiscriminate praise or Griswold's
wholesale condemnation, they report with scholarly objectivity on
works without literary value and also attempt to call attention to the
best in early American literature.
The Duyckincks made a conscientious effort to study a; type
of literature that has been neglected even in the twentieth century,
early American verse. They wisely subsumed the labors of their
predecessors-Kettell and Griswold-and also did independent re
search. Indeed, the major traditions with regard to this verse were
initiated by Kettell, long before Tyler ostensibly "resurrected" it,
so that the latter also carried on traditions established by previous
students of American literature. For example, Kettell and Griswold
had written about the two Puritans most distinguished for verse in
their own day-Michael Wigglesworth and Anne Bradstreet. The
editors of the Cyclopedia, however, provided more detailed and
scholarly studies of America's chief colonial poets.
One of Wigglesworth's long poems, "God's Controversy with
New England," was not published until 1871; Tyler, of course,
gave an account of it, although the Duyckincks did not. But the
brothers scrutinized both "The Day of Doom" and "Meat Out of the
Eater." The omission of the latter poem from Kettell's anthology in
dicates the unfinished state in which he left the study of early Ameri
can verse. Similarly, in 1842, Griswold discussed only "the Day of
Doom. "25
Both Kettell and Tyler reveal a prejudice against Puritan
theology when they discuss Wigglesworth's colonial bestseller. Kettell
condemns the "moral sentiments" of "The Day of Doom" as "re
pugnant" to modern readers, while Tyler shudders at the "repulsive"
God who speaks in this poem.26 Characteristically, the Duyckincks
do not attack Wigglesworth's work; they take a different approach
to the poem by carefully selecting passages likely to appeal to their
readers. For example, they quote the introduction to the poem, lines
in which the poet expresses his desire to turn poetry from its service
of heathen religions and use it for true religious purposes. Moreover,
the brothers reprint another selection from the volume in which "The
Day of Doom" was printed, "A Song of Emptiness-Vanity of
Vanity." This versification of the ubi sunt theme exhibits Wiggles
worth at his "best," declare the Duyckincks, an opinion which has
been seconded in the twentieth century by Miller and Johnson.27
The Duyckincks also carefully examine Anne Bradstreet's
verse. Kettell merely catalogs the titles of her didactic poems, and
Griswold of course does likewise. But the brothers analyze the faults
and virtues of this verse. Admitting that much of it is "doggrel,"
they quote lines enjoyable for their "homely unction" and "humor"
and also quote from the occasional passages of "true" poetry, for
example, a description of flowers and a bird in "Spring." Wherever
they find "sincere" poetry, the brothers praise and quote it; hence
they include a "warm" poem in honor of Anne Bradstreet's master,
DuBartas. But the "best specimen" of her pen is another "genuine"
expression of her love of nature, "Contemplations," which is quoted
in its entirety.28
In singling out "Contemplations" for special attention, the
Duyckincks were operating within a tradition that holds throughout
the nineteenth century. In 1829 Kettell announced that "Contem
plations" was Anne Bradstreet's best poem; Griswold reprinted pas
sages from it in The Poets and Poetry and also in The Female Poets
of America. In 1867, John Harvard Ellis, Anne Bradstreet's editor,
declared that "Contemplations" proves she possessed "true poetic
feeling." Tyler was thus a latecomer in 1878 when he lauded this
poem as her best work. Like the Duyckincks, Tyler preferred Anne
Bradstreet's "sincere" poetry. He laments the bookishness of most
of her poetry, but praises "Contemplations" as a "genuine expression
of poetic feeling."29
Ironically, Tyler and the Duyckincks failed to benefit from
Griswold's work on Anne Bradstreet. In The Female Poets of Amer
ica, he praised the "sincerity" of her elegies and the poems addressed
to her husband. Even though they admired and searched for "sin
cere" verse, Tyler and the brothers Duyckinck paid no attention to
the personal poetry where this quality is most evident. Occasionally,
Rufus Wilmot Griswold uncovered genuinely valuable early Amer
ican literature which his scholarly successors overlooked.
In presenting early American verse, the Duyckincks included
the forms that were most popular, such as elegies, epitaphs, didactic,
meditative, and occasional verse, and introduced a large number of
minor writers whose work was important in its day. With regard to
extent of coverage, the Cyclopedia compares well with Tyler's history.
The brothers omit only John Norton from the writers that Tyler in
cludes in his two chapters on New England verse.30 But it is dif
ficult to evaluate how adequately the Cyclopedia treats seventeenth
century verse because the standard works by which it could be
judged-Tyler's history and the modern histories-also seem indebted
to the same source that the Duyckincks used-the invaluable work
of the pioneer Kettell.
Thus Tyler grants poetic talent to one colonial elegy, Urian
Oakes' funeral elegy on Thomas Shepard, and later literary histori
ans also single out this poem for special commendation. However
much Tyler may be responsible for modern interest in this elegy,
the tradition of praise goes back at least to Kettell, who quotes
and lauds it. Griswold therefore reprinted several stanzas in The
Poets and Poetry and in the "Curiosities." When the Duyckincks in
cluded part of the elegy in their book, they were only following a
tradition that was already well established.31
Similarly, by praising and quoting the complimentary verse that
John Rogers addressed to Anne Bradstreet, the Duyckincks antici
pated Tyler's later encomium. But Kettell had earlier quoted Rogers'
poem and extolled it as second only to the work of Anne Brad
street for "correctness and elegance." Griswold, as one might expect,
extracted some stanzas for his historical introduction. In addition,
the latter was astute enough to reprint these stanzas (taken from "one
of the best poems written in this century before the Revolution")
when introducing Anne Bradstreet in The Female Poets of America.32
It is worth repeating that Griswold taught his readers much about
early American literature.
Because it is so thorough, the Cyclopedia includes much verse
not found in Kettell's anthology or even in Tyler's history. For in
stance, the redoubtable Kettell merely notes that Nathaniel Ward
wrote verse, while Tyler studies only Ward's prose. But the Duyck
incks quote Nathaniel Ward's tribute to Anne Bradstreet, a vigorous
and clever poem deservedly praised in the twentieth century as one
of the best examples of the "sprightly lines" that the Puritans
sometimes penned.33
In general, the verse the Duyckincks studied when expanding the
work of their predecessors has historic but not literary value. For in
stance, the only copy of Peter Foulger's "A Looking Glass for the
Times" (I675) that Kettell knew about had been lost, and so he could
quote only a few extracts. In I842, Griswold was able to print
several other passages from the poem but characteristically did not
reveal his source. Even though they acknowledged the poem's lack
of artistry, the Duyckincks ferreted out a manuscript copy and put
on a grand display of this rare work in the Cyclopedia; Foulger's
poem is spread over four pages and is clarified by learned notes.34
The elaborate attention given this seventeenth-century poem demon
strates how seriously the brothers studied such literature.
Eighteenth-century verse has far higher status in the Cyclo
pedia, however, for the Duyckincks believed that much of it has
true literary value. They carried on Griswold's work by presenting
more scholarly studies of the same poets and by introducing their
readers to many more writers. The Cyclopedia studies the neoclas
sical imitators of Pope, the poets who marked the beginnings of liter
ature in the middle colonies, popular verse of a variety of types, the
songs and ballads of the eighteenth century, revolutionary satire, and
the verse of the Connecticut Wits. When Tyler declared that he
could "find almost no help from previous investigators of American
literature in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries," he failed to
give due credit to his predecessors.
Indeed, Tyler frequently provides less adequate accounts of
eighteenth-century poets than Kettell, Griswold, or the Duyckincks,
because Tyler is hostile to much of early American verse. (Tyler
generally denigrates Puritan poets and seldom shows much esteem for
later verse writers.) For instance, because he completely dismisses her
claims to poetic talent, Tyler grants only one paragraph to Phillis
Wheatley, one of America's female imitators of Pope and the first
black American to have a book published.35 The articles that
Griswold and the Duyckincks wrote on Phillis Wheatley are more
thorough and more appreciative.
Griswold introduced Phillis Wheatley to the public in The
Female Poets of America, offering further evidence of his indepen
dent research, for Kettell had merely listed her in his bibliography.
Griswold summarizes Phillis Wheatley's life and quotes her poetry,
justifying her place in his anthology by declaring that her poems
are "equal to much of the contemporary verse that is admitted to be
poetry by Phillis' severest judges."36
The Duyckincks display Phillis Wheatley's work at far greater
length, truly nullifying Griswold's claim to a proprietary interest in
this female poet. The brothers reprint poems (already quoted by Gris
wold) from her publications but they also present a number of poems
from her manuscripts. Moreover, to do justice to this writer, they take
on the role of traditional critics. Pointing out the "beauties" of her
verse, they quote poems that show her "eloquence," lines that demon
strate how "gracefully" she writes and passages that "would do honor
to any pen." In generalizing on her achievement, they judge it "far
from mediocrity.''37
Tyler neglects other types of eighteenth-century verse besides
the neoclassical style that he abhors. Because he deems it of inferior
literary quality, he slights popular verse. For instance, John Osborn
wrote two popular poems. Kettell extols Osborn's elegy on his young
sister and his "celebrated whaling song, once on the tongue of every
Cape Cod sailor." Griswold's anthology informs readers about the
"Whaling Song" and quotes the elegy. Of course, the Cyclopedia in
cludes Osborn's once-popular description of the death of a whale.
Tyler, however, dismisses Osborn in a footnote, labeling him "prob
ably a poet among sailors and a sailor among poets."38
By reporting on some eighteenth-century verse, the Duyckincks
were challenging their rival's claim to preeminence as a student of
American literature. Over forty pages of the Cyclopedia are devoted
to ballads and songs of the "Indian, French, and Revolutionary
Wars." It is difficult to believe this massive array was not stimulated
by a desire to surpass Griswold in a field in which he had special
competence. For Griswold was a collector of American ballads and
had written several articles on them. Moreover, Griswold clearly re
vealed his rage at the Duyckincks for invading his territory when he
reviewed the Cyclopedia after it was published. He singled out the
section on the ballad for special attack, declaring that the only
worthwhile verse in the entire article had been stolen from Griswold's
earlier accounts of it.39
Repeatedly, the Cyclopedia appears to be completing a job
Griswold left undone in reporting on early American literature. To
cite another instance, an article in the "Curiosities of American
Literature" entitled "Satirical, Dramatic, and Other Poems on Public
Affairs" ends with a bibliography of further works belonging to this
category. Griswold gives only the title of "The Fall of British Tyran
ny, or American Liberty Triumphant," but the Duyckincks furnish
long quotations from this "dramatic Satire." Similarly, Griswold
lists only the title of "A Dialogue between a Southern Delegate and
his Spouse," but his rivals reprint sections from this "clever squib
in verse."40
The Duyckincks also challenged their rival by producing
more scholarly studies of the writers honored with separate articles in
The Poets and Poetry. Like Griswold, the Duyckincks quote Alsop's
"Monody on the Death of Washington" but they outdo their enemy
by providing copious extracts from the manuscript of an unpub
lished poem by Alsop.41 The Duyckincks hunted up the original
edition of Barlow's "The Hasty Pudding," so that their version in
cludes the preface and the passages omitted in The Poets and Poetry.42
Griswold devotes a considerable amount of attention to Trumbull's
"Progress of Dulness" and "McFingal." But readers could learn even
more from the elaborate analyses of these poems in the Cyclopedia.
Moreover, the Cyclopedia reprints specimens from all three parts of
the former (Griswold had neglected Miss Harriet Simper, the co
quette) and quotes the entire third canto of "McFingal" (granting
over five pages to this work in comparison to the one page allowed
it in Griswold's anthology).43
The literary warfare between Griswold and the Duyckincks
grew more complex with regard to another eighteenth-century Ameri
can poet. In 1842, Griswold honored Philip Freneau with the first ar
ticle in The Poets and Poetry. Griswold lauded Freneau for showing
"more genius and more enthusiasm than any other bard whose powers
were called into action during the great struggle for liberty," and hence
presented a sympathetic account of Freneau's verse (particularly his
songs and ballads).44 When the Cyclopedia came out, it offered
Griswold some stiff competition. Like their rival, the Duyckincks
were sympathetic but granted their admiration far more scope for ex
pression. The Cyclopedia devotes over twenty pages to Freneau. A long
memoir by Dr. John W. Francis (who was personally acquainted with
the poet) supplements the biographical sketch. All editions of Freneau's
verse are deemed worthy of discussion and quotation, and the poet's
various styles of verse are vigorously applauded: the "humorous, home
ly simplicity peculiarly his own, in which he paints the life of village
rustics"; the "fine tact and delicate handling" of his poems on
"higher themes," such as the American Indian and the beauties of
nature; "the more boisterous current of his humor when he came out
among men to deal with quackery, pretence, and injustice." At the
end of their article, the Duyckincks provide further illustrations from
Freneau's best verse and also from his prose. The nineteenth-century
reader could learn much about this early American writer from the
Cyclopedia.45
The reader of the revised The Poets and Poetry of America, how
ever, would also learn a great deal about Freneau. For Griswold
altered his article on this poet. The editions before 1855 supplied
only one page of introductory material. In I855, Griswold presented
an introduction that was four times as long and worked hard to com
pete with his rivals. He peppered his article with the reminiscences of
four people who had personally known Freneau. In addition, he per
formed the task of critic to a greater extent than usual; for instance,
he extolled Freneau's "finely conceived" and "very carefully fin
ished" poems on the American Indian, the first such verse to treat this
subject "in a truly artistical manner." In I855, Griswold championed
the poet with far more vigor than in 1842: Freneau was unquestion
ably a man of "considerable genius"; the "creative passion" which in
spired his poems would guarantee their continued fame.46
America's "anthological czar" and the Duyckinck brothers
could display the riches of eighteenth-century American poetry for
their readers because of their sincere interest in this literature, their
liking for much of it, and their extensive knowledge of it. In addition,
the rivalry between them stirred them to greater efforts. The Duy
ckincks tended to expend most effort on writers that Griswold had al
ready treated, such as Phillis Wheatley or Freneau. Griswold, too,
revealed the true extent of his erudition only when he revised his an
thology to meet the challenge of the Cyclopedia.
In his autobiography, the publisher S. G. Goodrich explained
the ignominious failure of Kettell's anthology, "Goodrich's Kettle
of poetry":
? . . the rejection of the book arose, no doubt partly from the idea then encouraged
by the critics, that it was the height of folly for us, Americans, to pretend to any
literature. To include the writings of Timothy Dwight, Joel Barlow, and Phillis
Wheatley in a book called Poetry, was then deemed a great offense at the bar
of criticism. It is true that these notions have passed away, and Dr. Griswold
and Messrs. Duyckinck have found in the mine wrought so abortively by Mr.
Kettell, both gold and glory.47
Goodrich believed that he was describing a revival of interest in

American verse. But the poets he names-Dwight, Barlow, Wheat
ley-are, of course, all eighteenth-century poets. Significantly, Ket
*tell does not include the poetry of Phillis Wheatley, a fact Good
rich overlooks. Griswold and the Duyckincks reprinted her works
in order to encourage the study of early American verse, as well as
of nineteenth-century literature. Goodrich's comment indicates that,
from the point of view of a contemporary who is also one of the best
sources of information on publishing in the middle of the nineteenth
century, these anthologists had achieved their goal.
The Cyclopedia also manifests a growth of interest in early
American prose, a literature which had not been seriously examined
as yet. When introducing the colonial period in their preface, the
Duyckincks stress the dominance of the "New England Puritan
school";48 their work proves that they did not have difficulty
in identifying the prominent writers of this group. For example, the
Cyclopedia lacks only one of the New England writers classified by
Tyler as important minor theologians, William Hooke, whose sig
nificance is certainly debatable.49 But the literary (as distin
guished from the historical) value of the work of these early prose
writers was a more serious challenge to the Duyckinck brothers.
Thus the Cyclopedia recognizes the importance of John Cotton,
Thomas Hooker, and Thomas Shepard, the "great divines" chosen
by Tyler as the three outstanding preachers in early New England.50
Conscientiously, the brothers quote from Cotton's doctrinal tracts,
without granting Cotton any artistic talent. On the other hand, they
treat Hooker, "one of the greatest preachers of his time in either
England,'51 with more generosity by focusing on his power as a
preacher and using two selections to introduce readers to Hooker's
impassioned rhetoric. Moreover, the Duyckincks proclaim the liter
ary value of one of Thomas Shepard's works. Shepard's Autobiog
raphy is mentioned by Tyler only because it supplies biographical
information,52 but the Duyckincks were wise enough to look for
possible contributions to American literature among the many spirit
ual autobiographies written by the Puritans. Hence the Cyclopedia
commends the "simple, earnest style" of Shepard's Autobiography,
places the work in its literary tradition by comparing it to John
Bunyan's classic account of his spiritual experiences, and reprints
several selections, granting an entire page to Shepard's memorable
description of the shipwreck off Yarmouth.53
In covering the major colonial writers, the Duyckincks,
of course, wrote an article on Jonathan Edwards, duly discussing
Edwards' theological and philosophical treatises. But their search
for works of artistic value prompted them to devote much of their
attention to Edwards' Personal Narrative. The passages chosen for
quotation are primarily from this later specimen of the spiritual
autobiography, usually selections that reveal Edwards' attempt to
convey his sense of spiritual ecstasy. Because of the literary and
pious qualities of Edwards' prose, the Duyckincks declare that his
narrative recalls "the sublime imagination of Sir Thomas Browne."
Since Browne's reputation was high in the middle of the nineteenth
century, readers were unlikely to miss the significance of the tribute.54
Naturally, the Cyclopedia provides abundant opportunities
for acquainting the reader with an important writer from an earlier
period of the "New England Puritan School." In the article on Cot
ton Mather, appropriately one of the longest on a seventeenth-century
author, the Duyckincks introduce the important works of this prolif
ic writer and weigh Mather's productions for evidence of literary
skill. They announce that Mather had a special talent for sketching
his contemporaries: "Character painting, in funeral sermons and
eulogies, was one of the strong points of Mather's genius." Moreover,
240 Early American Literature, 1A, 1975
the brothers' knowledge of seventeenth-century English literature

aids them in evaluating the achievements of this much-abused Puri
tan. For instance, the Magnalia Christi Americana is described as
"a compound of quaint English Dr. Thomas Fuller's Church His
tory and Worthies." By relating Mather's "great work" to the
seventeenth-century tradition to which it belongs, the brothers were
able to defend the American history from the charge that it is merely
a literary curiosity. Like Fuller's histories, the Magnalia deserves
study and "will long attract" the student of seventeenth-century
literature.55
The willingness of the Duyckincks to recognize literary value
in forms of literature too often neglected by critics and historians is
well exemplified by their work on Roger Williams. They reprint
long extracts from that "noble work," "The Bloody Tenent," com
plimenting Williams with the title that was most prized in their own
century by claiming that Williams shows himself a "poet" in his
controversial tracts as well as in his verse. In addition, they award
a considerable part of the article to extracts from the letters ex
changed between Williams and Mrs. Sadlier, a "termagant," whose
Anglican and Royalist sympathies contrast amusingly with those
of the "apostle of toleration." The Duyckincks provide a dramatic
skit covering the whole exchange between the two combatants.56
This section of the Cyclopedia should have done much to convince
readers that colonial prose-and in particular, personal correspond
ence-could provide great pleasure for later readers.
Early American literature is naturally rich in sermons; fortu
nately, the Duyckincks appreciated the artistic possibilities of this
type of literature. For instance, the article they wrote on a New Eng
land preacher best known for his neoclassical verse, Mather Byles,
stresses the literary power of Byles' sermons. The brothers announce
that Byles' "reputation as a wit has overshadowed his just claim to
regard as a pulpit orator." Elaborating on the qualities of style that
make Byles' prose valuable, they laud his "great command of lan
guage," and "terseness of expression," his "great skill in amplifi
cation," and his "imagination" and quote lengthy selections, in
cluding a piece of macabre realism on death worthy of Edgar Allan
Poe, and a purple passage on the butterfly as a symbol of the resur
rection. In 1878, Tyler seconded their opinion by likewise pro
claiming that Byles' witty verse had obscured his true excellence as
a preacher.57
The Duyckincks climax their eulogy of Byles by asserting
that his work "would not do discredit to the best old English divines."
America Discovers Its Literary Past 24I
This was high praise, indeed, for the brothers showed a relish for
seventeenth-century prose which was unusual in their age. Obvi
ously, this taste enabled them to approach early American prose with
greater sympathy. Their predilection for seventeenth-century prose
prompted them to vote John Norton's Life of John Cotton superior
to the style generally used by clergymen of their own age: Norton's
work ". . abounds with those quaint learned illustrations which
those old preachers knew how to employ so well, and which contrast
so favorably with the generally meagre style of the pulpit of the
present day."5'8
Nathaniel Ward's Simple Cobler of Agawam attracted the
Duyckincks precisely because Ward's style is by no means "meagre."
The brothers expended much effort in trying to characterize Ward's
elaborate prose, but they were also concerned to prove that it has true
literary value. Thus they declare that Ward, at his best, "rises
beyond his word catching" to father some "fine passages." As evi
dence, they quote a paragraph that is "very tersely expressed," "an
illustration worthy of Milton," and an image that has a "very Cole
ridgean look."59
A taste for the baroque in seventeenth-century prose
also motivated the Duyckincks to offer tribute to Cotton Mather.
The articles on early Puritan writers are filled with quotations from
Mather. Naturally, he furnishes useful information on the Puritan
era, but Mather's inimitable language accounts for the fact that he
must be quoted rather than paraphrased. The article on John Cot
ton, to cite one example, contains a number of passages from Math
er's life of Cotton, chosen to diplay Mather's "great unction and many
puns." One conceit in particular, declare the Duyckincks, "shows
a fine touch of the imagination"; in fact, it is "worthy of Dr. Ful
ler," a high tribute from men who loved seventeenth-century liter
ature.60
The Duyckincks examined hundreds of other prose writers
besides those belonging to the "New England Puritan school."
Some of the works they discuss may have only historic value, but
many have become recognized classics of early American literature.
In addition to the Puritan, another important tradition of the spirit
ual autobiography, the Quaker journal, receives sympathetic attention
in the articles on John Woolman and Thomas Chalkley.61 The
Duyckincks also analyzed many works from the rich store of
diaries and memoirs that have a secular cast. To indicate its merit
in conveying his "active and politic struggle with the world," the
brothers describe portions of John Adams' Diary, for instance,
Adams' education as a legal student: ". . . stiff, formal, constrained
reading in the days before Blackstone, with many soul and body con
flicts, between flesh and spirit, all set down in the Diary:-memorials
of idleness, pipe-smoking, gallanting ladies, reading Ovid's Art of
Love to Sr. Savil's wife, and forming resolutions against all of them,
in favor of Wood, and Justinian, Locke and Bolingbroke."62
Always open to the value of popular literature, the Duyckincks
recognized the literary value of the captivity accounts, narratives of
imprisonment among the Indians. From John Williams' The Re
deemed Captive, "one of the most interesting productions in our
early literature," they quote the moving passage in which Williams
relates the death of his wife.63 The Cyclopedia also anticipated
Tyler by extolling a "captivity account" of a different sort, Ethan
Allen's history of his adventures as a captive during the Revolution
ary war. The Duyckincks praise the directness and rude strength
of Allen's writing: "He wrote as he acted, a word and a blow. For
a certain quick intense conception of things, the uninstructed phy
sique of the mind, his narrative of his captivity is a model, like his
own figure, of rude, burly, strength."64
The Duyckincks worked hard to assess the literary worth of
many early works that describe the new country. Between the articles
on the sober governors of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth Colony,
Winthrop and Bradford, they placed an account of Thomas Morton,
"mine Host of Ma-re Mount," reprinting with obvious relish Morton's
humorous description of his escapades among the Puritans. From
New English Canaan (1637), they extracted some early American
tall tales (a description of the beaver as an animal that must keep
its tail in the water to prevent it from overheating and falling off,
for instance) and a lyric passage in which Morton enumerates, with
the copiousness of Renaissance prose, the riches that he encountered
in the new world.65
The Cyclopedia likewise applauds the literary achievement
of a later writer unsurpassed at composing "appreciative pictures
of the idyllic life of America in the period just preceding the Revo
lution"-Hector St. John de Crevecoeur. The brothers carefully char
acterize Letters from an American Farmer, placing the book in the
French tradition to which Crevecoeur owes so much, describing the
narrator, summarizing the various letters, quoting extracts from them,
and continually offering tribute to a book that so successfully fo
cuses "the Claude glass of fanciful enthusiasm" on "homely Ameri
can life."66
The Cyclopedia includes a long article on William Bar
tram's Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and
West Florida, now an established minor classic of American literature
but sadly neglected by the literary historians who came after the
Duyckincks. The brothers carefully point out the strengths of a work
that combines the simplicity and sensibility of the Quaker tradition
with the Deist's worship of nature, and blends the acute obser
vation of the scientist with that of the poet. They supply three pages
of extracts to exhibit Bartram's descriptions of exotic Florida and the
skill with which he relates his suspenseful passage through waters
infested with alligators.67
Another early American classic was written by a gentleman

from Virginia, William Byrd. The brothers credit The Westover
Manuscripts, published in I84I, with the literary value modern
readers have granted them. A History of the Dividing Line is singled
out as "one of the most characteristic and entertaining productions
of the kind ever written." "In intimacy with what was best in the
old world and the new," Byrd even rivals Fielding; in particular,
the humor in his history reminds the Duyckincks of Fielding's Jour
ney from London to Lisbon. Taking full advantage of the oppor
tunity to proclaim the talent of this American writer, the brothers
laud Byrd's powers of narration, the "clear, straightforward manner"
in which he relates the story of the expedition to establish the divid
ing line. Byrd also has a special gift for description. The "wit" in
his pictures of the North Carolinians, "who fare no better in Byrd's
hands than the Yankees or the Dutchmen in the annals of Diedrich
Knickerbocker," justifies the flattering comparison with Irving.
Some of Byrd's liveliest sketches of North Carolina and its inhabi
tants are, of course, reprinted for the reader's delectation.
To avoid slighting any of Byrd's merits, the brothers even
report that "there is here and there a moderate allowance for poetry
in sight of the natural beauties of the country." Conceding that "he
does not affect that kind of writing," they nevertheless do not want
to slight the few occasions when Byrd responds to nature in a manner
likely to appeal to nineteenth-century readers. They also bestow due
attention upon the qualities that distinguish Byrd's normal style;
for example, they furnish several of the witty comparisons so fre
quent in his writing. Byrd is "a vivid describer of a wild beast or
an Indian," declare the Duyckincks. In particular, Byrd's "descrip
tion of the savage scalping makes the flesh creep," and so they re
print the passage. Another extract, in which Byrd recounts the na
ture and habits of the bears encountered in the region, demonstrates
the careful attention that he paid to natural history and the artistry
with which he communicated this information.
In short, the Cyclopedia examines Byrd's work in detail, an
nounces the literary importance of A History of the Dividing Line,
and praises Byrd's other works, Progress to the Mines and A Journey
to the Land of Eden, for possessing some of the same valuable qual
ities.68
The contribution made by the Duyckincks and Griswold to the
study of early American literature has not been acknowledged in the
twentieth century. But the nineteenth-century reviews of their books
show a different story. In light of the small proportion of Griswold's
anthologies actually given over to this literature, the attention that
reviewers allow it is remarkable. Ironically, the "historical intro
duction" to The Poets and Poetry, which Griswold pirated so easily
from Kettell, proved one of the most popular parts of the book. Even
a one-paragraph review of the first edition does not neglect the
"interesting historical introduction, in which are given specimens
of the writings of the ante-revolutionary bards,'69 while another
reviewer singles out this introduction as "one of the most interesting
portions of the volume."70 E. P. Whipple lauds the "lively and
learned historical introduction, displaying much research."71 Ed
gar Allan Poe, when reviewing The Poets and Poetry, repeats the
usual condemnation of Kettell's Specimens, a collection of poets
"unheard of except by Mr. Kettell himself" and then congratulates
Griswold for his "exceedingly valuable" historical introduction.72
Not uncommonly, reviewers allot as much space to seventeenth
and eighteenth-century writers as to those of their own century. Thus
The Southern Literary Messenger prints a brief list of some of the
latter, but devotes over half of the article to poets in the "instructive
and entertaining Historical Introduction" and the eighteenth-cen
tury poets in the first articles in the book.73 Griswold even taught
the British and French about America's earliest writers: the authors
of two foreign reviews report on poets from seventeenth- and eight
eenth-century America as well as poets of their own century.74
The improvements in the sixteenth edition of The Poets and
Poetry stimulated still more interest in the early literature. The
author of the North American Review, for instance, condensed Gris
wold's survey of the early verse, as Griswold had shortened Kettell's
work. A nineteenth-century reader (indeed, a twentieth-century
reader) could learn much about early American writers merely by
studying the history of colonial verse presented in this article. Like
Griswold, the reviewer concludes that this verse rarely exceeds "medi
ocrity," but he nonetheless shows surprising sympathy for Wiggles
worth's "poetical merit," lauds the verse of Mather Byles as "un
surpassed in its kind," and praises Trumbull's two mock heroic
poems for their wit and "sprightly and harmonious verse."75
A Knickerbocker review for 1855 also treats the introduction,
described as "rich in the 'grotesque and arabesque,' " as though it
were a major part of the book, and carefully leads readers through a
survey of colonial poets. The reviewer emphasizes the changes in the
anthology; hence Griswold's comments on colonial prose are quoted
and his most significant effort at furnishing a more adequate account
of revolutionary literature-the greatly expanded article on Freneau
-is singled out for special commendation.76
If the reviews are a just indication, Griswold succeeded
where Kettell had failed. As custodian of the American literary herit
age for a number of years, he encouraged the writers of his own age
but also stimulated interest in the literature produced during earlier
years of the American experience.
Reviewers of the Cyclopedia devoted even more attention to
the early literature, and with more justice, since the first volume pro
vides an extended history of it. Because readers knew so little about
this literature, some commentators bestowed more attention upon
it than upon nineteenth-century literature. It is standard procedure
in these reviews to extol the Duyckincks for the "immense research"
that they "carried up to the very sources of American literature,"
to praise them for constructing a "complete" picture of this literature
from the Puritan to the modern period, and to congratulate them
for having performed this task "for the first time." The reviewers
endorse the decision of the Duyckincks to give "fulness of display"
to the early periods, truly an "interesting field of research," and they
pay tribute to the first volume as an especially valuable contribution
to the study of American letters: "We cannot, however, forbear to
record our sense of the permanent value of the first volume as the best
account ever given, and, in many respects, the only one of the appli
ances and men whereby the education of the people of this continent
was initiated."77
In general, the reviews prove that the Cyclopedia effectively
demonstrated the literary merits of some early writers. The Southern
Literary Messenger calls attention to the claims of Southern writers
such as William Byrd. The Church Review and Knickerbocker
praise Mather Byles; the latter, without the religious incentive of
the Church Review, uses Byles to demonstrate that "abundant
passages . . . of intrinsic and resplendent beauty" can be found
in early American literature. George Ripley praises the "elaborate
notice" accorded Freneau, agrees that Freneau's poems reveal "gen
uine poetic fire," and concludes that they should be studied "both
on account of their intrinsic merit and their historical relations."
Freneau also receives much attention in the review written for the
North American Review by Henry Tuckerman. Moreover, Tucker
man extols the "permanent literary value" in the "poetic remains"
of colonial as well as revolutionary poets and praises early prose
writers, for example, Cotton Mather "who bequeathed a most richly
characteristic story of New England colonial life" to American liter
ature.78
Tuckerman's lengthy analysis of the Cyclopedia introduces
many of America's early writers to readers of the North American Re
view, but shorter reviews (for instance, Ripley's) also discuss an ex
traordinary number of these writers. The reviews of the Cyclopedia,
like those of Griswold's The Poets and Poetry, show a conscientious
effort to teach readers about the extensive literature America had pro
duced in its first two centuries.
One step in the literary warfare between Griswold and the
Duyckincks yet remains to be examined. Griswold, furious over the
attempt to oust him as the chief authority on American literature,
also reviewed the Cyclopedia. The New York Herald printed this
review, providing adequate scope for Griswold's attack (an entire
page of a six-column newspaper and two and one-half columns on
the following page).79
Griswold obviously feared that readers would respond favor
ably to his rivals' work on the early literature, for the anthologist
directed much of his fire at the first volume of their book. Gris
wold announces that "a hundred of the best intellects of the country"
were omitted from among the colonial writers, but he specifies only
a few writers, generally of dubious fame (for example, Jeremy Drum
mer and George Guese).80 Griswold also chastises the Duyck
incks for not devoting sufficient attention to his favorite early writers
John Higginson, Jonathan Mayhew, Jonathan Edwards. In addi
tion, Griswold indicts the brothers for their lamentable "ignorance"
about "the great lights of learning and literature who were in New
England before the Revolution." Declaring that their blunders
"would require a volume," he lists "a few specimens," and in the
process reveals his own substantial erudition. (To cite one instance,
the Duyckincks implied that John Cotton's verses on Hooker were
"preserved" in Nathaniel Morton's Memorial, but Griswold lo
cates them in a work by Hooker.)81
The errors that Griswold ferreted out are generally not seri
ous, and most of his criticism of the Cyclopedia is patently unfair.
This is especially evident when he strikes out at the Duyckincks
for moving into territory that he had already staked out as his own.
In spite of the fact that Nathaniel Ward and James Rivington both
appear in the "Curiosities of American Literature," Griswold de
clares that they do not belong in the Cyclopedia, and he scoffs at the
Duyckincks for allowing space to other "foreigners," such as Captain
John Smith, Thomas Paine, and a "Frenchman . . . who printed a
feeble work about the common life of the American people"
Crevecoeur.82
Although Griswold's specific criticisms are unjustified, the
fact that he rebukes the Duyckincks for inadequate work on the early
writers is significant. Griswold began by plagiarizing a history of
colonial poetry from Kettell's Specimens and largely ignoring coloni
al prose. Before his death in I855, however, he had acquired such an
extensive knowledge of the early literature that he could make a de
tailed critique of the vast amount of it in the first volume of his
rivals' book. Griswold's review of the Duyckincks' Cyclopedia - like
the Cyclopedia itself-proves that by i855 Americans were already
exploring and assessing the literature written in the first two centu
ries of their country's history.
NOTES
1 See, for instance, Howard Mumford Jones, The Theory of American Liter
ature, rev. ed. (Ithaca, N.Y., 1966), p. 102.
2 Perry Miller, "Foreword," A History of American Literature, 1607-1765,
by Moses Coit Tyler (i878; rpt. New York, 1962), pp. 5-6.
3 Both Miller and Jones quote the letter to the publisher George H. Putnam
in which Tyler makes this statement. For Miller, this "crucial sentence" reveals the
"enduring value" of Tyler's work. Miller, "Foreword," p. 6; Howard Mumford
Jones and Thomas Edgar Casady, The Life of Moses Coit Tyler (Ann Arbor, 1933),
pp. I82-83.
4 Robert E. Spiller, et al., Literary History of the United States: Bibliography,
3rd ed., rev. (New York, 1966), p. 128.
5 Bernard F. Engel, whose dissertation studies ten histories of American
literature, declares that literary historiography was neglected before the Civil War,
because "no Tyler had yet appeared to resurrect colonial writing and writers of the
nineteenth century were still contemporary figures." "Historians of American
Literature since I870," Diss. University of California, Berkeley, 1957, pp. 4-5.
6 Joy Bayless, Rufus Wilmot Griswold (Nashville, I943), pp. 4i-42,
47, 250.
7 Rufus Wilmot Griswold, The Poets and Poetry of America (Philadel
phia, I842), p. xiii.
248 Early American Literature, IX; 1975
8 Samuel Kettell, Specimens of American Poetry with Critical and Bio
graphical Notices (Boston, I829).
9 Samuel G. Goodrich,. Recollections of a Lifetime, or Men and Things
I Have Seen (I857; rpt. Detroit, 1967), II, 289.
10 Griswold, Poets, p. xiii.
11 Griswold, Poets, p. xiii. For information on the poem, see Harrison T.
Meserole, Seventeenth-Century American Poetry (Garden City, N.Y., i968), p.
503.
12 Griswold, '.'Editors Table, Epitaphs, Anagrams, Etc. of the Puritans,"
Graham's Magazine, 24, No. 3 (September 1843), I67-68.
13 Griswold, "Curiosities of American Literature," Curiosities of Litera
ture, by Isaac D'Israeli (New York, 1876), pp. 3-63.
14 Griswold, The Prose Writers of America (Philadelphia, 1847),
pp. I7-18.
15 Griswold, Poets, pp. xiv-xv; The Female Poets of America (Philadel
phia, 1849), pp. I7-I8.
16 Griswold, Female Poets, p. 19.
17 Ann Stanford, "Anne Bradstreet, Dogmatist and Rebel," New Eng
land Quarterly, 39 (1966), 387.
18 Griswold, The Poets and Poetry of America, i6th edition (Philadelphia,
i855), pp. i5-I9.
19. Bayless, p. 243.
20 Griswold. Poets (x855), pp. I5, 21-24, 28-30; Evert and George Duyck
inck, Cyclopedia of American Literature (i875; rpt. Detroit, 1965), I, I-2, 11-14,
141-42, 444-80. Originally issued in i855, the Cyclopedia was brought up to
date by M. Laird Simons in 1875. Simons did not alter the Duyckincks' work.
The two brothers were jointly responsible for the Cyclopedia, but Evert is the more
important editor.
21 Perry Miller, The Raven and the Whale (New York, 1956), pp. 328-29.
22 Several studies treat the nineteenth-century literary battles in which Gris
wold and the Duyckincks became embroiled. See, for instance, Perry Miller's
The Raven and the Whale and also John Stafford's The Literary Criticism of
"Young America," A Study in the Relationship of Politics and Literature 1837
185o (Berkeley, Cal., University of California Press, 1952). In an unpublished
dissertation, George Edwin Mize provides a good account of Evert Duyckinck's
literary activities, "The Contributions of Evert A. Duyckinck to the Cultural Devel
opment of Nineteenth Century America," Diss. New York University I954. Pre
vious studies of Griswold and the brothers Duyckinck discuss their anthologies
only in general terms and show no interest in their work on early American litera
ture. Miller ignores the first volume of the Cyclopedia, but gives a few pages to
the manner in which the Duyckincks treat nineteenth-century authors in the second
volume, The Raven and the Whale, pp. 324-28. Mize dismisses the first volume
of the Cyclopedia in three pages and the second volume in six pages, pp. 191-93,
193-98.
23 See the tribute offered to the Cyclopedia (which actually did weigh ten
pounds when issued in 8855) in Robert E. Spiller, et al., Literary History of the
United States, 3rd ed., rev. (New York, 1966), pp. 235, 240.
24 Cyclopedia, I, vii.
25 Tyler, History, p. 286; Cyclopedia, I, 62-64; Kettell, I, 35-36; Gris

wold, Poets (1842), pp. xviii-xix.
26 Kettell, I, 36; Tyler, History, p. 294.
27 Cyclopedia, 1, 63-64; Perry Miller and Thomas H. Johnson, The
Puritans (New York, I963), II, 549.
28 Kettell, I, xxii; Griswold, Female Poets, p. 17; Cyclopedia, I, 53-57.
29 Kettell, I, xxi-xxii; Griswold, Poets (1842), p. xvi; Female Poets,
p. 20; John Harvard Ellis, ed., The Works of Anne Bradstreet (1867; rpt. New
York, 1932), p. lxiii; Tyler, History, p. 259.
30 Tyler, History, pp. 239-3I8.
31 Tyler, History, p. 278. For modern praise of this poem, see Spiller,
Literary History: Bibliography, p. 80, and William Peterfield Trent, et al., The
Cambridge History of American Literature (19I7; rpt. New York, I931) , I, 53.
See also Kettell, I, xxxii; Griswold, Poets (1842), p. xvi; "Curiosities," p. 55;
Cyclopedia, I, 8-9.
32 Cyclopedia, I, 9; Tyler, History, pp. 276-77; Kettell, I, xxxiii; Gris
wold, Poets (1842), p. xiv; Female Poets, p. I8.
33 Kettell, I, 30; Tyler, History, pp. 210-21; Cyclopedia, I, 25, 54;
Miller and Johnson, II, 58o.
34 Kettell, I, xxxv-xxxvi; Griswold, Poets (1842), p. xvi; Cyclopedia,
I, 57-6i.
35 Moses Coit Tyler, The Literary History of the American Revolution,
2nd ed. (New York, 1898), I, I86-87.
36 Griswold, Female Poets, pp. 30-32; Kettell, III, 384.
37 Cyclopedia, I, 38I-85.
38 Kettell, I, 18-24; Griswold, Poets (I842), p. xxii; Cyclopedia, I,
142-43; Tyler, History, p. 309.
39 Griswold, "Editor's Table: The Minstrelsy of the Revolution," Gra
ham's Magazine, 21, No. 4 (October 1842), 219-28; "Curiosities," pp. 27-41;
"Notices of New Publications: The Cyclopedia of American Literature," New
York Herald (February 13, I856), p. 2.
40 Griswold, "Curiosities," pp. 25-26; Cyclopedia, I, 456, 462-64.
41 Griswold, Poets (1842), p. 31; Cyclopedia, I, 5I3-14.
42 Griswold, Poets (1842), pp. 26-30; Cyclopedia, I, 411, 417-20.
43 Griswold, Poets (1842), pp. 6-II; Cyclopedia, I, 324-33.
44 Griswold, Poets (1842), pp. 1-5.
45 Cyclopedia, I, 341-62.
46 Griswold, Poets (i855), pp. 3I-34.
47 Goodrich, Recollections, II, 289.
48 Cyclopedia, I, vi.
49 Tyler, History, pp. 204-05.
50 Tyler, History, p. I83.
51 Vernon Louis Parrington, "The Puritan Divines, 1620-1720," Cam
bridge History, I, 46.
52 Tyler, History, pp. 193-94.
53 See Cyclopedia, I, 25-27 (for Cotton); I, 29-30 (for Hooker); I, 48-49
(for Shepard). The Cyclopedia provides a far more adequate account of these
three divines than does the standard twentieth-century history. Spiller's Literary
History merely alludes to these men in order to illustrate the traits of Puritan prose
style (pp. 55, 58, 6i, 62, 70).
54 Cyclopedia, I, o12-o5. For Browne's reputation, see Rene Wellek,
History of Modern Criticism (New Haven, 1965), III, 89.
55 Cyclopedia, I, 64-71. According to Murdock, the discovery of Mather's
debt to Fuller (supposedly first announced in his essay on colonial literature)
makes it possible to discern the true structure of the Magnalia; as indicated, how
ever, the Duyckincks anticipated Murdock in linking Mather to Fuller. Kenneth
B. Murdock, "The Colonial and Revolutionary Period," The Literature of the
American People: An Historical and Critical Survey, ed. Arthur Hobson Quinn
(New York, I95I), p. 81.
57 Cyclopedia, I, I26-30; Tyler, History, pp. 424-25.
58 Cyclopedia, I, 28.
60 Cyclopedia, I, 27.
61 Cyclopedia, I, 156-60, o16-07.
62 Cyclopedia, I, I94-99.
64 Cyclopedia, I, 216-17; Tyler, History of the American Revolution, II,
229-37.
66 Cyclopedia, I, i83-86.
67 Cyclopedia, I, 233-38. Tyler grants one paragraph to John Bartram
(William's father) but ignores the son (History of the American Revolution, II,
349). In the book that is generally considered the first full-length history of Amer
ican literature, Charles F. Richardson also discusses John but ignores William
Bartram (American Literature, 1607-I885, New York, I889, I, 5II). This neg
lect is the more remarkable since William Bartram's work influenced so many
British and European writers-Wordsworth, Coleridge, Chateaubriand, Southey,
Campbell, Mrs. Hemans, Shelley, Tennyson. See N. Bryllion Fagin, William
Bartram (Baltimore, I933) for Bartram's influence.
69 "Literary Record: The Poets and Poetry of America," The Knicker
bocker, I9, No. 4 (April 1842), 394.
70 "Literary Notices: The Poets and Poetry of America," The Knicker
bocker, 19, No. 6 (June 1842), 584-86.
71 "The Poets and Poetry of America," North American Review, 58, No.
122 (January 1844), i.
72 "Mr. Griswold and the Poets," The Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Chi
cago, I896), III, I5I.
73 "Notices of New Works: The Poets and Poetry of America," The
Southern Literary Messenger, 8, No. 5 (May 1842), 36.
74 "The Poets and Poetry of America," The Foreign Quarterly, 32, No.
44 (January 1844), 297; M. E. Montegut, "A Frenchman's Opinion of American
Female Poets," The International Magazine, 3, No. 4 (July I, i85I), 453-54.
Translated from the Paris Revue des Deux Mondes.
America Discovers Its Literary Past 25I
75 "The Poets and Poetry of America," North American Review, 82, No.
170 January 1856), 236-41.
76 "The Poets and Poetry of America," The Knickerbocker, 46, No. 4
(October i855), 397-99.
77 These comments are taken respectively from the following reviews:
"Review of the Cyclopedia of American Literature," The Knickerbocker, 47, No.
2 (February i856), i89; Henry T. Tuckerman, "A Cyclopedia of American Liter
ature," North American Review, 82, No. I71 (April i856), 325; "Review of the
Cyclopedia of American Literature," Church Review and Ecclesiastical Register,
9, No. I (April I856), 89; "Review of the Cyclopedia of American Literature,"
The Southern Literary Messenger, New Ser. I (January i856), 78.
78 The Southern Literary Messenger (January i856), p. 79; Church Re
view (April i856), pp. 90-9i; Knickerbocker (February i856), p. 189; George
Ripley, "Cyclopedia of American Literature," Putnam's Monthly Magazine, 7,
No, 38 (February i856), 141; Tuckerman, "Cyclopedia," pp. 330-42.
79 Griswold, "Notices of New Publications: The Cyclopedia of American
Literature," New York Herald (February 13, i856), pp. 2-3.
80 Griswold, Herald, p. 3.
81 Griswold, Herald, p. 2.
82 Griswold, "Curiosities," pp. 17-21, 22-24; Herald, p. 2.

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America Discovers Its Literary Past: Early American Literature in Nineteenth-Century

When critics and historians discuss nineteenth-century studies

Goodrich believed that he was describing a revival of interest in

the brothers' knowledge of seventeenth-century English literature

Another early American classic was written by a gentleman

25 Tyler, History, p. 286; Cyclopedia, I, 62-64; Kettell, I, 35-36; Gris

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