I. THE NEW LITERATURE. -- NEW YORK AND THE KNICKERBOCKER GROUP.

WITH the turn of the century, our young republic entered upon an era of expansion and development which can be described only as marvelous. The rapid progress in the settlement of the West, the influx of foreign immigration, the growth of the larger cities, extension of transportation systems by construction of canals and government roads, application of the new inventions employing the power of steam in river navigation and on railroads, -- these features of American progress during the first fifty years in our first completed century of national existence can be here but thus briefly summarized. It is unnecessary to attempt a full historical outline of that period of growth and change except to note that coincidentally with this expansive period of material prosperity and growth, our national literature entered upon what we may not inaptly term its golden age -- the age of its best essayists, novelists and poets, our real American men of letters.

Birth of the New Literature.

We have traced the slow steps of literary effort recorded in the several colonies to the close of their existence as colonies; and, immediately after the period of revolution, we have recognized the new and fresh impulse of creative imagination in the little group of simple nature-poems by Philip Freneau, and imaginative power of somewhat differing type in the sombre but not altogether unreal romances of Charles Brockden Brown. But Freneau and Brown are only heralds of coming achievements; of the appearance of a literature national in scope and of importance sufficient to command recognition by the people of England and the Continent, and possessed of an artistic excellence felt and enjoyed by all.

New York.

There were evidences of literary activity in Boston, in Philadelphia, and in New York. Little groups of literati, as they liked to call themselves, mightily interested in the development of a national literature, gave an atmosphere that was helpful to literary effort; and they themselves accomplished what could be accomplished by interest, patriotism, and industry when joined with talent, modest if not mediocre. For some reason, New York took precedence over Boston and Philadelphia in these first decades of the nineteenth century and not only sheltered a coterie of enthusiastic, congenial comrades of the pen, whose lively essays in both prose and verse provoked the humor of the town, but pushed into the light of more than local fame the names of Paulding, Halleck, Drake, and Dana; and before the quarter mark in the century was reached had produced two of the century's greatest writers, Irving and Cooper. These are the Knickerbocker writers, so called in deference to the old Dutch traditions of Manhattan, the spirit of which was directly inherited by most of them, and the influence of which appeared to some extent in their work. In 1825, the poet Bryant came to live in New York, and his name is therefore grouped with those already mentioned, although not a native of the state. He was, however, of their generation and, like Halleck and Dana, an adopted son of New York.

The significance of these first decades of the nineteenth century in their relation to the beginnings of the new literature will appear when we note the dates of the following events. It was in 1807 that the Irvings, together with their friend Paulding, published the first of the anonymous Salmagundi papers; in 1809, appeared the humorous masterpiece, the Knickerbocker History of New York. In 1817 it was that the editors of the North American Review -- itself a publication only two years old -- printed Bryant's great poem Thanatopsis and his Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood. Irving's Sketch-Book, appearing in 1819, established that writer's place permanently in the leadership of American letters. In 1821, Cooper published his second novel -- and first success -- The Spy; and that same year was further signalized in a literary way by the printing at Boston of Bryant's first volume of verse. By 1825, Irving had added Bracebridge Hall and Tales of a Traveller to his earlier volumes; Cooper had written The Pioneers and The Pilot. Bryant had published among additional poems The Yellow Violet, To a Waterfowl, Green River, A Winter Piece, and A Hymn to Death.

In England.

In comparison with the works of contemporary British writers, this brief list of American publications appears modest indeed; for by 1825 Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey had produced all that was characteristic of their work; Keats had died in 1821, Shelley in 1822, and Byron in 1824; Scott had written the last of the Waverley novels; Tom Moore had reached the height of his popularity; Charles Lamb had published the first series of the Essays of Elia; De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater had appeared in 1821; and Macaulay's first essay, that on Milton, was printed in 1825. And yet, although meagre when brought thus in comparison with the literature of the mother-land, this beginning of our national literature is after all not so insignificant as it may seem; it was a beginning, and the question once derisively put in 1820, by Sidney Smith, a witty Englishman -- "Who reads an American book?" -- could now be answered, in 1825, affirmatively by many of his countrymen. Before considering in detail the work of the three prominent Americans in this group, let us note briefly some of the minor authors who are associated with them.

James K. Paulding, 1778-1860.

James Kirke Paulding was a typical member of the Knickerbocker group; he was of Dutch descent and made good use of the Dutch traditions in his most successful work, a novel, published in 1831, entitled The Dutchman's Fireside. A relative by marriage of William Irving, Paulding was early associated with Washington Irving and his brother, William, in the production of the humorous Salmagundi papers which appeared in 1807. Subsequently Paulding undertook, alone, a new series of the Salmagundi, which came out in 1819-20. During the period of the War of 1812, he produced two clever satires directed at the British navy -- one of these, The Lay of the Scotch Fiddle, being a parody upon Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel. In 1818, he published The Backwoodsman, a metrical narrative of frontier life in six books -- not a strong performance. Paulding was altogether overshadowed in a literary way by Irving and Cooper, both of whom he attempted to follow. He wrote considerable verse, nothing of which attains to excellence, and of his novels three only call for mention: Koningsmarke, the long Finne, dealing with the Swedish settlements (1823), The Dutchman's Fireside, a study of old Dutch life along the Hudson (1831), and Westward Ho! a tale of Kentucky (1832). Paulding was also the author of a popular life of Washington, published in 1835. He served as Secretary of the Navy under Van Buren.

Fitz-Greene Halleck, 1790-1867.

One of the most energetic members of this New York coterie was Fitz-Greene Halleck, a descendant of the apostle, John Eliot. Halleck was born in Guilford, Connecticut, and in 1811 came to New York and was employed in a banking-house as clerk. He later entered the office of John Jacob Astor, who at his death left Halleck an annuity of forty pounds. Halleck was a poet from his youth, and three or four of his compositions are not likely to slip from the memory of American readers so long as there are schoolboys to declaim the stirring lines of his Marco Bozzaris, or men to quote by the graves of their friends his simple and tender poem, On the Death of Drake.

Of Halleck's poems, three are considered notable:Alnwick Castle (1827), Burns (1827), and Marco Bozzaris (1825). The strength of the poet is in these compositions; but perhaps this is surpassed by the pathos and sincerity of the beautiful elegy on Drake --

"Green be the turf above thee,
   Friend of my better days!
None knew thee but to love thee,
   Nor named thee but to praise."

A long poem, Fanny, in the style of Byron's Beppo, written in 1819, was popular at the time, but has fallen into oblivion. Halleck retired on his annuity in 1849, returned to his old home in Connecticut and there spent the remainder of his days. Upon the eightieth anniversary of his birth, a monument erected by his townspeople over his grave was dedicated to his memory -- the first honor of the kind bestowed upon an American poet.

Joseph R. Drake, 1795-1820.

The association of Halleck and Drake in the most intimate of friendships is one of the pleasant incidents of our literary history. Joseph Rodman Drake was born in New York, became a student of medicine, wrote but a brief amount of verse, -- although that was of a high quality, -- and died at twenty-five. "There will be less sunshine for me hereafter," said Halleck, "now that Joe is gone."

The two poets joined in contributing to the New York Evening Post a series of anonymous poems, under the general title of The Croakers. These appeared in 1819; they were light, satiric, often personal in aim, and capital examples of what is frequently called "society verse." They excited a great deal of comment at the time, and are said to have been a subject of conversation in drawing-rooms, book-stores, and coffee-houses on Broadway and throughout the city. One of the best poems in the series was Drake's The American Flag, of which the concluding lines --

"Forever float that standard sheet!
   Where breathes the foe but falls before us,
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet,
   And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us?"

Drake's principal composition is a long but graceful poem, full of charm and animated by a most poetical fancy, entitled The Culprit Fay. It was written in 1816, and grew out of a discussion in the group of poets -- Cooper being with them at the time -- as to the possibility of drawing from American streams poetical inspiration like that found in the historic and legend-haunted rivers of Scotland. Drake affirmed that it could be done; and in three days, it is said, he produced his brilliant poem, the scene of which is laid in the Highlands of the Hudson. Although written previous to the appearance of Irving's Sketch-Book, the poem was not published until 1835.

Richard Henry Dana, 1787-1879.

Richard Henry Dana was born in Boston, and was one of the associate editors of the North American Review, when Bryant's early poems were accepted for that publication. In 1821, he began in New York to publish a new magazine, The Idle Man, in which Bryant's poems continued to appear. When Bryant arrived in New York and took his first editorial position in charge of the New York Review, in 1825, he included Dana's poem, The Dying Raven, along with Halleck's Marco Bozzaris, in the first issue of that magazine. Mr. Dana did not produce many poems. A volume, entitled The Buccaneer, and Other Poems, was published in 1827. One lyric, The Little Beach-Bird, has found a permanent place. It is interesting to note that the poet was one of several descendants of Anne Bradstreet to attain some distinction in verse. The larger part of his long life was lived in retirement, and his influence in the development of our literature was perhaps strongest indirectly in his criticism, and in his personal association with his literary friends. His son, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815-82), is even more widely known than his father, as the author of the popular narrative, Two Years before the Mast (1840).

Other Minor Poets.

Among the minor poets belonging to this period of fresh beginnings, several call for mention who were not directly in association with the Knickerbocker group. John Pierpont (1785-1866), a native of Connecticut and later a Unitarian clergyman in Boston, was the author of the spirited Warren's Address, and of the poem, The Pilgrim Fathers. His Airs of Palestine, and Other Poems was published first in 1816. James Gates Percival (1795-1857), a man of remarkable versatility, also Connecticut born, was a physician, a geologist, and a linguist. He wrote fluently -- although little of his work is familiar now. The Coral Grove is one of his brightest compositions. His first volume of poems, Prometheus, appeared in 1820. Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1791-1865), born at Norwich, Connecticut, and for many years head of a famous select school for girls, which she established at Hartford in 1814, was a pioneer in the cause of higher education for women. She was a prolific writer, the author of fifty-three volumes in prose and verse. Her first volume of Moral Pieces appeared in 1815. Emma H. Willard (1787-1870), another Connecticut woman who became famous as an educator, -- she conducted the Troy Female Seminary 1821 to 1838, -- published a volume of poems in 1830, in which was included the well-known song, Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep. George Morris (1802-64), who was the author of many poems of sentiment popular in his day, is now remembered for only one -- Woodman, Spare that Tree. Samuel Woodworth (1785-1842) is likewise remembered as the author of one song -- The Old Oaken Bucket (1826). John Howard Payne (1791-1852), whose name is immortalized because of his Home, Sweet Home, was an actor and writer of plays. He was born in New York and lived a wandering life. His tragedy, Brutus (1818), was his most successful drama. The opera, Clari, the Maid of Milan, in which occurs the famous song, was written in Paris, in 1823, and produced at Covent Garden, London. Payne was United States Consul at Tunis from 1841 until his death. In 1883, his remains were removed to Washington, and there interred. Francis Scott Key (1779-1843) wrote The Star-Spangled Banner in 1814. Key was detained as a prisoner on board a British man-of-war during the bombardment of Fort McHenry; all night he watched the engagement with keenest anxiety, and in the morning wrote the words of his song. It was printed immediately and to the air of Anacreon in Heaven was sung all over the land. Another national anthem, America, was written, in 1832, by Rev. Samuel F. Smith (1808-1905). The name of Washington Allston (1778-1843) should be included in this group, for the most distinguished of our earlier American painters was also a leader in literary culture and the author of numerous graceful poems. James Abraham Hillhouse (1789-1841), of New Haven, was one of the earliest of Americans to attempt the poetic drama on the lines of Byron and Shelley. His Dramas appeared in 1839. Charles Fenno Hoffman (1806-84), founder of the Knickerbocker Magazine in 1833, was the author of light and brilliant verse. His career was closed by insanity in 1849.

N.P. Willis, 1806-67.

In contemporary estimation, at least, no other member of the New York group, during the thirties and forties, quite equalled Nathaniel Parker Willis. He was born in Portland, Maine, was graduated from Yale College in 1827, and served his apprenticeship as a man of letters in Boston. After his removal to New York he was associated with George P. Morris as editor of the New York Mirror. In 1844 he made a place on the Mirror for Poe. It was in that paper that The Raven was published (January, 1845). During his visits to England and the continent, Willis wrote for the Mirror or the Home Journal lively sketches of picturesque scenes and notable people; these were gathered in Pencillings by the Way (1835, 1844) and Loiterings of Travel (1840). He wrote two plays, also, Bianca Visconti (1837) and Tortesa, the Usurer (1839). The Sacred Poems (1843) represent his most worthy accomplishment in verse.