Young people's story of American literature

Front matter

YOUNG PEOPLE'S

STORY OF

AMERICAN

Foreword

A STORY is not necessarily bound by historical perspective; and in the following ''Young People's Story of American Literature," the aim has been three-fold: First, to bring into clear outline such biographical and dramatic elements as appeal to young people and stimulate them to seek further.

Second, to incite the youth and maiden in committing to memory poetic selections. These faithfully garnered will prove a rich treasure.

Third, to interest the student in visiting the shrines of our own land as eagerly as those abroad.

In collecting materials for the book, the writer has been enabled through great courtesy to visit many of the places mentioned, and has noted much of local value in a desire to add colour to the story. Every shrine visited has made more vivid the personality associated with it.

So the '' Firstly, Secondly, and Thirdly," are in brief: To seek companionship of the best books; to memorise choice poems; and to make pilgrimages to the homes of American authors.

The writer acknowledges, with thanks, the permission given by Houghton, Mifflin and Company to

FOREWORD

reprint extracts from the works of Whittier, Lowell, Longfellow, Holmes, Thoreau, Stedman, and others; by Charles Scribner's Sons to quote from the poems of Rev. Dr. Henry Van Dyke, Eugene Field, and Sidney Lanier; by Small, Maynard and Company to quote short extracts from the poems of Rev. John B. Tabb; by Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Company to quote from the poems of Paul Hamilton Hayne; by D. Appleton and Company to quote from the poems of William CuUen Bryant; and by Little, Brown and Company to quote *' Poppies in the Wheat," copyright 1892, by Roberts Brothers, and also some short quotations from other poems of Helen Hunt Jackson.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I The Evolution of the Book i

II Beginnings of the Story ........ 4

II Beginnings Of The Story

American literature — where does it begin? Surely not among the prehistoric mound-builders whose instruments and ornaments are unearthed to-day. They builded their homes, tilled their soil, and worked their mines, but thus their record sadly ends: " They had no poet and they died."

Next, in historic sequence, we glance at the Indian, who is becoming to-day more and more to the American author a theme of romance. What was his contribution to the literature of an aboriginal age? It was scanty indeed — but it formed a beginning; for his speech and songs of magic and love displayed bold courage and an eloquent symbolism that we may not overlook.

The following, taken from Dr. Schoolcraft's " Indian Tribes " is an expressive illustration: —

" My love is tall and graceful as the young pine waving on the hill, and as swift in his course as the noble, stately deer; his hair is flowing and dark, as the blackbird that floats through the air, and his eyes like the eagle's, both piercing and bright; his heart, it is fearless and great, and his arm, it is strong in the fight, as this bow made of iron wood which he easily bends. His aim is as sure in the fight and chase as the hawk which ne'er misses its prey,

PICTOGRAPH

MANUSCRIPT BOOK

PRINTING PRESS Copyright, by Curtis & Cameron

THE EVOLUTION OF THE BOOK

MURAL DECORATIONS IN THE CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY, BY JOHN W. ALEXANDER

BEGINNINGS OF THE STORY

Ah, aid me, ye spirits! of water, of earth, and of sky, while I sing his praise."

Leaving behind us the mound-builder and the Indian, we next consider true American literature, which is divided into three periods: Colonial, Revolutionary, and National.

The Colonial began in America when in *' Merrie England '' the golden '' Elizabethan Age " was at its height: when Shakespeare was unfolding his marvellous creations, and when Spenser sang of his *' Fairie Queene," England disporting itself alike in drama and pageant.

Colonial literature here forms striking contrast to the brilliant period abroad, and it must have small space in our scheme, compared to that we must give to Revolutionary and National; and yet there is revealed in it to-day an increasing interest. We hear much of Colonial Dames and houses and architecture and historic data.

Truly these colonists " builded better than they knew," and our first duty must be to trace the earlier foot-prints which they made.

Ill

JAMESTOWN AND CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH

Colonial literature has two divisions: one treats of *' Jamestown and the Cavalier " — the other of " Plymouth, the Pilgrim, and the Puritan." We consider *' Jamestown and the Cavalier " first, for this was the earlier.

It was in the winter of 1606, that a party of romantic aristocrats, unruly gallants, mechanics and farmers, and beggars pushed thither by friends — adventurers all — set out in a pigmy fleet of three ships from England for America. They were under a charter to a London Company to seek here gold mines and precious stones.

Four months they sailed over three thousand miles of unknown sea, and finally in April, 1607, were driven by storm into a large river, its shores blooming with dogwood and redbud, and on a bright day, they landed on the bank at a perilous spot ; and James River and Jamestown were later named in honour of their illustrious English King.

This was the region which the chivalrous Sir Walter Raleigh — the dauntless sailor — had previously penetrated in one of his futile attempts to colonise North America; and though he had not

JAMESTOWN AND CAPTAIN SMITH

conquered, he had succeeded in christening the land Virginia, in gratitude to his '' Virgin Queen," and this name yet binds Virginia to the Mother Country.

And as at Jamestown our forbears disembarked — the dense wilderness behind, the wide ocean before — how little they realised the boundless future ! With the exception of Gosnold and Captain John Smith, they knew nothing of leadership, but many of them were manly men who loved liberty and adventure. The struggle was bitterly waged against famine and the Indians; but out of all, the Virginia colony was established — the jirst permanent English settlement in North America.

There may have been imaginative, resourceful spirits among these pioneers, but what wonder that they had scant leisure for literary pursuits — for drama or pageant or smooth narrative. No poet or novelist could assert himself. These were days of action not thought; and yet in compacts and journals and letters home, we may discover, even at this remote date, the beginnings of our story of American literature — for we at once descry the picturesque figure of the redoubtable John Smith — soldier, captain, governor, saviour and historian, of the colony.

He stands at the gateway of American literature just as the old tramp-explorer. Sir John Mandeville, stood three hundred years before, at the gateway of English literature.

A born fighter was this Lincolnshire boy, who very early ran away from home, '' foreign countries for to see." He fought in France, the Netherlands, and Italy; he fought the Spanish, Tartars and Turks; and blazoned on his escutcheon were the heads of three Turkish champions that he had severed in single combat.

He encountered shipwreck and slavery; and a veritable knight-errant of English chivalry, he returned to London, at the age of twenty-five — a battle-scarred hero.

Then catching Gasnold's enthusiasm, he was seized with a mania for colonisation, and being just in time, he started in 1607, with the motley crew for Jamestown. They sailed for the riches of the South Sea — they found as their '' El Dorado " only cotton and tobacco; but dependable Captain Smith endured hardships and disappointments with optimism.

In his little pinnace. Discovery, he explored the Virginian bays, so carefully surveying the coast, that among his works he published, in 161 2, *' A Map of Virginia, with a Description of the Country, the Commodities, People, Government, and Religion " — a voluminous title, but it was a fashion in those days to make a title a summary of the contents of a book.

Captain Smith bartered so skilfully with the Indians that he kept the colony from starvation. His

JAMESTOWN AND CAPTAIN SMITH

services were of unquestioned value: at one time governor — at another barely escaping the gallows — his zeal being always greater than his discretion.

After hundred of settlers had been added to the colony, he was removed; returning afterwards to explore the New England shores, he received from King James the title " Admiral of New England." All told, he was in America less than three years.

Captain Smith's life did not seem adapted to literary achievement, but he wrote two booklets here which gave him a place in colonial literature. His other works belong to the long, quieter years that followed his going back to England.

It is strange to think of the hardy soldier, seated in his aboriginal hut of logs and mud, and on an improvised desk with goose-quill pen, recounting his deeds. His apology is, that he '' admired those whose pens had writ what their swords had done." He explained that he could not " write as a clerk, but as a soldier," and he begs his friends and wellwishers to accept the results !

There being no printing-press in America, his first writings appeared in London, in 1608 — the year that Milton was born. Eight volumes, large and small, related to Virginia, giving account *' of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as hath Happened " there. In fact. Captain Smith must not only have interested others in book-making but also tempted many to the colony.

His best book, ** A General History of Virginia," is a rough-hewn recountal of the initial contact with the wilderness, made by the adventurous pen of one who was always the centre of the adventures! His fault was boastfulness — but had he not a right to glory in his great deeds?

In speaking of Virginia, he quaintly says : —

" There is but one entrance into this country, and that is at the mouth of a goodly bay eighteen or twenty miles broad. . . . Within is a country that may have the prerogative over the most pleasant places known, for earth and heaven never agreed better to frame a place for man's habitation. The mildness of the air, the fertility of the soil, and the situation of the rivers are as propitious to the use of man, as no place is more convenient for pleasure, profit, and man's sustenance, under any latitude or climate. So, then, here is a place, a nurse for soldiers, a practice for mariners, a trade for merchants, a reward for the good, and that which is most of all, a business to bring such poor infidels to the knowledge of God and His Holy Gospel."

Recall these words to-day! Think of his Old Point Comfort — of the many that have since found comfort within its harbour; and of its Military School which has become truly *' a nurse for soldiers"; of Hampton Roads and '* its practice for mariners " ; of ** the trade for merchants," at Newport News and Norfolk; and best of all, of the gracious Hampton Institute, with its civilising and Christianising influences. Was not Captain Smith,

MONUMENT TO CAPT. JOHN SMITH, JAMESTOWN, VA,

JAMESTOWN AND CAPTAIN SMITH

with everything else, gifted with prophetic vision?

Besides, he first gave the Indian to American literature, for you remember that he lived long before Cooper and Longfellow. For the race in general, he had no respect. He dubs the Indian as inconstant, crafty, cautious and covetous, quick-tempered, malicious and treacherous. He made an exception, however, in his Pocahontas story; it may be a myth but it is his finest bit of colouring.

How vivid is the picture of his capture by Powhatan — his rescue by the beautiful maiden; of her bringing corn to the famished colonists, and her later royal reception in London as the daughter of an Indian king. It is the first dramatic tale that comes into American literature.

John Smith began his literary work when Shakespeare was. writing; he, too, was a dramatist, but in a different way. While some of his descriptions border on the marvellous, he is always able to make up in romance what he lacks in history, and his compositions have done more to preserve his fame than his brave doings.

His enemies accused him of exaggeration, saying that '' He writ too much, and done too little." But whatever he '* writ " and whatever he *'done," his chivalrous narrative is a most valuable literary relic.

We do not like to think that Captain John Smith, our earnest chronicler, *' died poor and neglected in England," — but so it is told.

II

The ** English Drayton " in a " spirited valedictory " to the three ship-loads of heroic fortunehunters who had sailed from England, in 1606, prophesies for them a literary future : —

** And as there plenty grows

Of laurel everywhere, — Apollo's sacred tree — You It may see A poet's brows To crown, that may sing there,"

IV Other Writers Of The Virginia Colony

And there were other attempts besides that of Captain John Smith to leave to posterity a literary record. William Strachey, secretary of the colony, wrote and sent to London, in 1610, a manuscript, telling of a fierce storm and shipwreck off the Bermuda Islands — " the still vex'd Bermoothes " ; and this thrilling description, it is thought, may have furnished a plot to Shakespeare in '* The Tempest."

George Sandys, treasurer of the colony, working sometimes by the light of a pine knot, made a most imaginative translation of Ovid's *^ Metamorphoses,"

And there were later adventurers and annalists: among them, Colonel William Byrd, a wealthy and brilliant man, and an amateur in literature, who, in 1736, when writing the history of his experience in running a dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina, gives a pleasant picture of colonial life; but he says : —

" They import so many negroes hither, that I fear the colony will, some time or other, be known by the name of * New Guinea.' ''

Bacon's Rebellion was one of the most striking episodes in these anti-Revolutionary times; and in 1676, '* The Burwell Papers" described it, and in these appeared some elegiac verses on the death of Nathaniel Bacon.

So Virginia, the *' Cradle of the Republic," became, also, the '' Cradle " of a literature associated with noble names.

Many of the colonists came from the titled ranks of English society. They were the originators of the '' F. F. V's," or '' First Families of Virginia," and strongly bound both to royalty and the Established Church. Instead of building many towns, these planters spent a manorial existence on their broad estates, devoting their free and careless hours to fox-hunting, horse-racing, and cock-fighting.

Robert Beverly, in his '' History of Virginia," published in 1705, emphasises Southern hospitality. Indeed, this was one of the strongest traits in the character of the planter. Families of ample means sent their sons abroad to be educated; and the court-house rather than the school was the nucleus of social and political life.

It was proposed early in the seventeenth century to build a University, and some Englishmen donated the money for the purchase of the land ; but a terrible Indian massacre interfered. So William and Mary College was not begun at Williamsburg until 1660, and did not receive its charter until 1693. It was closely fashioned after Oxford, in England; and

WRITERS OF VIRGINIA COLONY

James Blair, its founder, and author of ** The Present State of Virginia," was a man alike of force and intellect. And many more old chroniclers there were who wrote about Virginia, the State destined later on to be *' The Mother of Presidents." Doubtless, their documents are historically valuable but they would form curious reading for us.

And what may we find in Jamestown to-day to help us recall our earliest colonial literature? Only a few indefinite relics. Captain Smith selected this as '* a fit place for a great city," but it proved too marshy and unhealthful. The land, however, has been recently set apart by the ** Virginia Antiquarian Society," in order to preserve the ruins.

Among them, there is seen under water the remains of a powder-house built by Captain Smith. There are, also, some graves in an ancient burial-ground. The most attractive thing is an old church tower, which legend says stands upon the spot where, under a sail stretched between the trees, the colonists first worshipped. Near this to-day is a statue of valorous John Smith, whose pluck and daring laid the foundation of our earliest literary structure. The inscription reads: *' So thou art brass without but gold within."

PILGRIM AND PURITAN CHRONICLERS

Jamestown and Plymouth were the rallying-points of very distinct ideals in this dawn of American civilisation, and the contrast was typical even in the landing of Cavaliers and Pilgrims.

The former arrived in Virginia, amid the blossom and fragrance of the Southern spring-time, while the Pilgrims, in 1620, thirteen years later, disembarked in the dead of winter on the bleak New England coast — so bleak that in a few months there were but forty-four survivors of the hundred who had come on the Mayflower.

Stern men were these Pilgrims! Having earlier opposed the Established Church, they had been "harried out of England, by King James I, and after toilsome years in Holland, the little company set sail for America — not seeking gold and gems like the Cavaliers but just * Freedom to worship God.' " And with the Puritans who landed with Winthrop, in 1630, they were for nearly two centuries masters of the religious, political, and literary life of New England.

These devout Old Testament heroes laboured with desperate zeal, for time was too solemn to be frit-

PILGRIM, PURITAN CHRONICLERS

tered away. Narrow and bigoted, of restrained speech, they had come to enjoy religious liberty — never to give it! Those who dared differ from them must follow their example and seek other lands. In truth, these fanatical nation-builders commended the persecution of witches, and forbade Friends and Baptists to join them.

Yet with all their fanaticism and all their mistakes — they planted '' a Government by the People, a Church without a Bishop, a State without a King/' Perhaps they did this more securely, because their vision was bounded by theology, law, and education.

Plymouth, Massachusetts, was their first settlement, and hardly were their primitive cabins built here before the rectangular meeting-house topped the hill; and on its flat roof small cannon were placed, making it at once a military as well as religious post. Summoned to church by the drum-beat, it was compulsory to go, and none were freemen until they became church members.

Every man carried his gun, and with the Indian ever in the foreground, spiritual warfare was too often converted into earthly conflict. The Bible was the text-book; the sermon might easily be from two to four hours long, and the prayers, too, were lengthy and profound.

At first, the congregation did not sing, for singing turned the mind from God; but Rev. John Cotton investigated the subject under several heads, and citing as an illustration that Paul and Silas sang Psalms in prison, it was finally decided that the Puritans might sing, too.

Several divines assisted in making a metrical version of the Book of Psalms. In doing this, they were faithful to the original Hebrew, and the version was inharmonious, without poetic grace, the apology being : —

"We have respected rather a plaine translation then to smooth our verses with the sweetness of any paraphrases and soe have attended conscience rather than elegance. . . . That soe we may sing in Sion the Lord*s songs of prayse according to his owne will; until hee take us from hence and wipe away all our teares, and bid us enter our Master's ioye to sing eternall Hallehuiahs."

The '' Bay Psalm Book " was one of the very first books printed in America. It came from the Cambridge Press, in 1640. When it was used the Psalms were lined off, two lines at a time, and this was followed by the command " Sing ! " To-day the '' Bay Psalm Book " is a curiosity of literature. Here is one of the paraphrases : —

" How good and sweet, O see For brethren 'tis to dwell

As one in unity!

It's like choice oyl that fell

The head upon That down the beard unto Beard of Aaron." 18

.1

\ J

■a

GOV. JOHN WliiTHROP

COTTON MATHER

Fiom an old wood cut.

JOHN ELIOT

JONATHAN EDWARDS f I

PILGRIM, PURITAN CHRONICLERS

It may be added that attendance at service was the only amusement shared by the sanctimonious Pilgrims, and from it came strength for the weekly conflict. To them, " Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy " held a meaning quite unknown now. New Englanders may well be proud of such ancestry, and yet congratulate themselves that they did not belong to the earlier generations.

Literature in these days was the handmaid of religion, and attendance at school was as obligatory as at church. Settlements of fifty families were compelled to establish a school — if there were a hundred, it must be a grammar-school.

In 1636, Cambridge College was founded. It did not receive — like William and Mary, in Virginia — rich gifts from English donors; but the four hundred pounds with which it was started were gotten in New England. Two years later, by bequest of John Harvard, a young Charlestown minister, the college had an endowment fund of three thousand five hundred dollars, and three hundred volumes constituting his entire library.

In 1639, it was ordered that *' the college agreed upon formerly to bee built at Cambridg shal bee called Harvard CoUedge," in honour of its first benefactor; and in 1650, the Institution was chartered '' for the education of the English and Indian youth of the country in knowledge and godlyness."

Nearly a hundred years after John Harvard's death, the alumni of Harvard University erected a monument to his memory in the burial-ground of Charlestown, dedicated with an address by Edward Everett.

Yale College was founded in 1700, and its library was begun at a meeting of Connecticut ministers, each depositing forty books upon a table, declaring as he laid them down: " I give these books for the founding of a college in this colony." A commemorative stone may be seen at Saybrook, Connecticut, the original site of the college.

We are reminded of Burges Johnson's words : - —

" The little Yankee colleges, God bless them heart and soul — Each little lump of leaven that leaveneth the whole ; What need of mighty numbers if they fashion, one by one, The men who do the little things a-needing to be done ? "

And from the *' stern and rock-bound " New England coast — the land of the evening lamp and the winter fire — has come to us a more abundant literature than from the " Sunny South." Weighty tomes there are with cumbersome titles that belong to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; and while our literature of to-day concerns itself chiefly with the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, we must, in order to get the continuity of our subject, take from the top shelf of the dark closet a few of these dusty recordings, and glance at the men who penned them.

PILGRIM, PURITAN CHRONICLERS

Governor Bradford — himself a Mayflower passenger — was an inveterate diarist. He ruled the Province from 1621 to 1657, and it is said that he managed the affairs with the discretion of a Washington. He was the skilful diplomat who — during a famine when a chief sent to the colony a bundle of arrows tied in a serpent's skin — returned the skin crammed with powder and bullets.

Governor Bradford appears here not because of his political wisdom, but as the author of his unique ** History of Plymouth Plantation." This was not written in Captain John Smith's boastful style, but just as a quaint, vigorous, straightforward chronicle, inspired by piety.

It describes feelingly the persecution in England; the departure for Holland; the setting forth from Delfthaven; the perils encountered on the furious ocean; the compact and the landing; the desolate wilds and famine; the sufferings and death-roll of the first winter; troubles and treaties with the Indians; the building of the State on a sure foundation; — all ending in peace and liberty.

This picturesque but ponderous year-book would have made Governor Bradford a forerunner in letters, but he can hardly be ranked as *' The Father of American Literature," as he has sometimes been styled. There are fine passages but little perspective. The following which refers to leaving Holland has alvvays been accounted a gem. —

ai

"So they lefte yt goodly and pleasant citie which had been ther resting-place near 12 years; but they knew they were pilgrimes, and looked not much on those things, but lift up their eyes to ye heavens, their dearest countrie, and quieted their spirits."

The manuscript of this famous *' History of Plymouth Plantation," consisting of two hundred and seventy pages, disappeared from Boston in colonial days, and came into the possession of the Lord Bishop of London. In 1897, on request, he generously restored it to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

On Plymouth's hallowed " Burial Hill," stands a marble obelisk, in memory of Governor William Bradford, Zealous Puritan and Sincere Christian, Governor of Plymouth Colony, 1621-1657.

Edward Winslow (1595-1655), was another well-known Plymouth diarist. His, however, was a daybook, not a year-book. He was greatly interested in the Indians, specially in the courteous Massasoit. He became governor and was three times in oiSice.

Governor John Winthrop (1588- 1649), ^Iso recorded doings colonial. He was an aristocratic Englishman of marked wisdom, who, having been elected in England as Puritan leader of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, set sail with his charter and about a thousand followers, in 1630. They settled on the site of modern Boston.

Governor Winthrop, the leading spirit, was historian. His noted ''Journal," called ''A History

PILGRIM, PURITAN CHRONICLERS

of New England," was a faithful reflection of the life of the country. It is in a smoother, more polished style, but not so picturesque as that of Governor Bradford. It began before leaving England and was continued forty years.

All these antiquated chronicles — important though they be in keeping alive our history — would prove tedious reading now-a-days; but Hawthorne, Longfellow and Whittier, by their magic touch, have transformed some of them into unforgettable tales.

" A rock in the wilderness welcomed our sires, From bondage far over the dark rolling sea; On that holy altar they kindled the fires, Jehovah, which glow in our bosoms for Thee.'*

VI

We have referred to Rev. John Cotton, in connection with the *' Bay Psalm Book." He was a robust preacher, who, fleeing from Boston, England, on account of Bishop Laud's persecution, came over to the village of Trimountain, which in his honour was named Boston, and which as has been said was later the capital of Governor Winthrop's colony; and it is a curious fact that while he fled to escape persecution, he waged fiercest war against the Baptist — ' Roger Williams.

He wrote perhaps half a hundred books, but the only thing by which we recall him is his little ninepaged '' Catechism," entitled '* Spiritual Milk for Babes." This was first published in England, while he was pastor there In Boston; but it was many times re-issued in America, for it became '' the Catechism " in an age of catechism-making. It was bound with the *' Primer " so that the youngest New Englander might imbibe " spiritual milk " while learning the alphabet; and the Primer, too, was a sort of sacred book, many Biblical facts being inculcated in its study.

Indeed, with the very first letter " A " was the gloomy announcement : —

" A. In Adam's fall, We sinned all."

and the following are some of the other rhymes : —

" G. As runs the glass

Man's life doth pass.

J. Job feels the rod But blesses God.

N. Nightingales sing In time of spring.

S. Samuel anoints

Whom God appoints.

Z. Zaccheus he

Did climb a tree Our Lord to see."

And so with nearly every letter Is Impressed some lesson either from the Bible or history or Nature; and those simple, rhythmic lines were dear to those who learned their " New England Catechism " *' by heart." When we realise what both Pilgrims and Puritans stood for, it was most natural that even the children should be trained in theology!

Another of these early divines was Thomas

Hooker (15 86-1 649), the founder of Hartford. He usually preached over two hours and wrote many pamphlets with ponderous titles. It seems sad that so much brain-energy was expended in literature scarcely read to-day — for there were great theologians among the makers of the new nation.

The Mather family was far and away the most illustrious clerical-literary one, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Ten of its members were ministers — three of them very famous. Sturdy, indomitable supporters of Calvin's theology, their ceaseless sermons and treaties ended only with their lives.

First, there was the father Richard, the English divine, with stentorian voice and majestic manner, who came to New England, in 1635. Next was his son Increase (1639-1723), who, entering Harvard at twelve, was in turn preacher, diplomat, and educator. He later became the sixth President of Harvard College. He was as full of superstition as of piety, and devils were to him so real that he took a most active part In the persecution of witches.