Reading Across America

[hannah_arendt]

Thank you very much

And what about any novel/ poetry connected to Puritans? I am going to have a course in American Literature next year, but maybe you`ll help me to find anything interesting

[PeterL]

Thank you very much

And what about any novel/ poetry connected to Puritans? I am going to have a course in American Literature next year, but maybe you`ll help me to find anything interesting

There wasn't much American literature until the 1800's. The Puritans didn't write fiction; they wrote Sermons such as "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards. There were some stories byt John SMith and others and a fair amount of poetry that was overwhelmingly religious.

The novels of Nathaniel Hawthorn were about the Puritans, but they were written 150 years after the fact (The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables are his best known, but his short stories were better. He was the grandson or great grandson of the judge who presided over the Salem witch trials. There was some literature from the early colonial period, but I don't know anything about it. There were other authors who set their stories in the coonial period most notably James Fennimore-Cooper and Washington Irving. As bad as his writing was, Fennimore-Cooper is often called the first American writer, and there is some justification for that. You might also want to consider the writings of Benjamin Franklin. He write an autobiography that is readable, and some of his essays were good.

If I were teaching a course in early American literature, then I think that I would have a piece of Franklin's autobiography. Then I would go to Washington Irving, Cooper, and Hawthorne, and I might handle those in order of the setting of their works. After them there were plenty: Hale, Bierce, Harte, Twain, etc.

[hannah_arendt]

There wasn't much American literature until the 100's. The Puritans didn't write fiction; they wrote Sermons such as "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards. There were some stories byt John SMith and others and a fair amount of poetry that was overwhelmingly religious.

The novels of Nathaniel Hawthorn were about the Puritans, but they were written 150 years after the fact (The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables are his best known, but his short stories were better. He was the grandson or great grandson of the judge who presided over the Salem witch trials. There was some literature from the early colonial period, but I don't know anything about it. There were other authors who set their stories in the coonial period most notably James Fennimore-Cooper and Washington Irving. As bad as his writing was, Fennimore-Cooper is often called the first American writer, and there is some justification for that. You might also want to consider the writings of Benjamin Franklin. He write an autobiography that is readable, and some of his essays were good.

If I were teaching a course in early American literature, then I think that I would have a piece of Franklin's autobiography. Then I would go to Washington Irving, Cooper, and Hawthorne, and I might handle those in order of the setting of their works. After them there were plenty: Hale, Bierce, Harte, Twain, etc.

Thank you very much My course probably won`t be too long many hours, I think. However, as usual, I am going to read more

[cafolini]

There wasn't much American literature until the 100's. The Puritans didn't write fiction; they wrote Sermons such as "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards. There were some stories byt John SMith and others and a fair amount of poetry that was overwhelmingly religious.

The novels of Nathaniel Hawthorn were about the Puritans, but they were written 150 years after the fact (The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables are his best known, but his short stories were better. He was the grandson or great grandson of the judge who presided over the Salem witch trials. There was some literature from the early colonial period, but I don't know anything about it. There were other authors who set their stories in the coonial period most notably James Fennimore-Cooper and Washington Irving. As bad as his writing was, Fennimore-Cooper is often called the first American writer, and there is some justification for that. You might also want to consider the writings of Benjamin Franklin. He write an autobiography that is readable, and some of his essays were good.

If I were teaching a course in early American literature, then I think that I would have a piece of Franklin's autobiography. Then I would go to Washington Irving, Cooper, and Hawthorne, and I might handle those in order of the setting of their works. After them there were plenty: Hale, Bierce, Harte, Twain, etc.

Not true: John Winthrop, William Bradford, Roger Williams, etc., etc.
Cooper a bad writer? Don't be ridiculous. {EDIT}

[hannah_arendt]

Not true: John Winthrop, William Bradford, Roger Williams, etc., etc.
Cooper a bad writer? Don't be ridiculous. {EDIT}

I don`t have much knowledge in American literature but maybe Peter`s opinion depends on the understanding the word "literature"? He wrote "It wasn`t much", not :" It wasn`t at all". But as I have already written, I won`t quarrel about it.