Member Reviews
Librarian 105878
I never thought I'd read a book like this once I graduated from college, but here I am, delving into the past and reading an assortment of classic, American works.
For a bibliophile such as myself, I find that there are more classic works of literature that I want to read, but because of all the new books I also want to read, there is just not enough time. Enter an anthology such as this that provides pieces of longer, classic works. Editor Bob Blaisdell has collected a strong selection of works that really capture the early days of the United States from a literary perspective.
I was familiar with many of the works included here (and have previously read a few of these) but by no means was I even aware of all of these. If you know me or have been subscribing to my blog, then it should be no surprise that my least favorite works here are the poems. (Sorry poetry fans ... I just don't care for poetry.)
Generally speaking, my favorite works here are those by Indigenous authors. Powhatan's "Why Should You Destroy Us, Who Have Provided You with Food?" is really powerful and I'm disappointed that this was not required reading when I was in school. Likewise, "We All Belong to One Family" by Tecumseh shows thinking far ahead of his own time.
Of course there's a theme among the Indigenous authors and Red Jacket, Sagoyewatha continues on this theme with two pieces, "You Have Got Our Country, but Are Not Satisfied" and "We Are Determined Not to Sell Our Lands."
The works are arranged by initial publication year, but it's a little ironic that just before Red Jacket's essays are excerpts from the Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The last author represented in this volume is Abraham Lincoln. We often don't think about the great speeches of our past political figures as literature (or at least I don't), but in addition the his Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address, we also have the opportunity to read from his first debate with Senator Stephen A. Douglas and his "Meditation on the Divine Will."
Something I probably should have read by now, but have not, is Herman Melville's Moby Dick and I appreciated these select chapters.
This is hardly a quick read but it's a really great way to expose yourself to some of the great classic literary works spanning more than 200 years during the founding years of the United States.
This book includes:
Cherokee Creation Stories (James Mooney)
"How the World Was Made" (1897–1898)
"The First Fire" (1897–1898)
Powhatan
"Why Should You Destroy Us, Who Have Provided You with Food?" (c. 1609)
Anne Bradstreet
The Author to her Book (1650)
To my Dear and loving Husband (1650)
Before the Birth of one of her Children (1650)
Upon a Fit of Sickness, Anno. 1632. Aetatis suae, 19 (1650)
To the Memory of my dear and ever honoured Father Thomas Dudley Esq; Who deceased, July 31, 1653. and of his Age, 77 (1650)
In memory of my dear grand-child Anne Bradstreet. Who deceased June 20. 1669. being three years and seven Moneths old (1650)
To my Dear Children (1650)
In my Solitary houres in my dear husband his Absence (1650)
“As weary pilgrim, now at rest” (1650)
The Prologue [to The Tenth Muse] (1650)
Benjamin Franklin
An Apology for Printers (1731)
From Poor Richard’s Almanack (1733–1758)
Excerpts from Autobiography (“Arriving at moral perfection”) (1793)
Jonathan Edwards
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (1741)
Phillis Wheatley
On Being Brought from Africa to America (1773)
On Imagination (1773)
To S. M., A Young African Painter, On Seeing His Works (1773)
Thomas Paine
From Common Sense (1776)
J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur
Letters from an American Farmer : Letter III: What Is an American (1782)
Sarah Wentworth Morton
The African Chief (1792)
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
From Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806)
Red Jacket, Sagoyewatha
You Have Got Our Country, but Are Not Satisfied (1805)
We Are Determined Not to Sell Our Lands (1811)
Tecumseh
We All Belong to One Family (1811)
Father!—Listen to Your Children! (1813)
Washington Irving
Rip Van Winkle: A Posthumous Tale of Diedrich Knickerbocker (1819–1820)
James Fenimore Cooper
Chapters 3, 17, 29 and 32 from The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
Catharine Maria Sedgwick
Chapters 4–5 (Vol. 1) from Hope Leslie; or Early Times in Massachusetts (1827)
William Lloyd Garrison
To the Public (1831)
Black Hawk
Farewell to Black Hawk (1832)
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Young Goodman Brown (1835)
Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment (1837)
Chapters 5–6 from The Scarlet Letter (1850)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nature (1836)
Self-Reliance (1841)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A Psalm of Life (1838)
The Wreck of the Hesperus (1839)
Beware! (1839)
The Rainy Day (1841)
The Slave’s Dream (1842)
The Day Is Done (1844)
The Arrow and the Song (1845)
The Ladder of Saint Augustine (1850)
The Children’s Hour (1859)
Paul Revere’s Ride (1860)
Killed at the Ford (1866)
Edgar Allan Poe
William Wilson (1839)
The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)
The Raven (1845–1849)
Annabel Lee (1849–1850)
Frederick Douglass
Chapters 6–7 from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Written by Himself (1845)
Margaret Fuller
Educate Men and Women as Souls (c. 1845)
Woman in Poverty (1846)
Francis Parkman
The Oregon Trail: The Buffalo Camp (1848)
Henry David Thoreau
Civil Disobedience (1849)
From Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854)
Herman Melville
Chapters 1, 10–12, 28, 36, 41, 65–66, 87, 110, 128, 133–135 from Moby-Dick (1851)
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Chapters 7–8 of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
Walt Whitman
From Leaves of Grass (1855)
The Wound-Dresser (1865)
Cavalry Crossing a Ford (1865)
A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown (1865)
A Sight in Camp in the Day-Break Grey and Dim (1865)
Not Youth Pertains to Me (1865)
O Captain! My Captain! (1865)
P. T. Barnum
The American Museum (Chapter 9) from The Life of P. T. Barnum Written by Himself (1855)
John Greenleaf Whittier
Brown of Ossawatomie (1859)
Ein Feste Burg Ist Unser Gott (Luther’s Hymn) (1861)
Barbara Frietchie (1863)
Harriet A. Jacobs
From Chapters 17–18, 20–21, 29–31, 40 in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)
Julia Ward Howe
Battle Hymn of the Republic (1862)
Louisa May Alcott
Obtaining Supplies (1863)
A Day (1863)
Abraham Lincoln
First Debate with Senator Stephen A. Douglas (Ottawa, Illinois, August 21, 1858)
Letter: To Jesse W. Fell (December 20, 1859)
Meditation on the Divine Will (c. September 2, 1862)
Letter: To James C. Conkling (August 26, 1863)
Gettysburg Address (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863)
Second Inaugural Address (March 4, 1865)
Index of Authors
Looking for a good book? The Dover Anthology of American Literature Volume 1, edited by Bob Blaisdell is a tremendous collection of early American literature and if you don't have time to read all the original works found here, then make sure to get this collection on your bookshelf.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
