Charles Brockden Brown, an American tale
by Alan Axelrod
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Charles Brockden Brown: An American Tale is the first comprehensive literary, biographical, and cultural study of the novelist whom critic Leslie Fiedler has dubbed "the inventor of the American writer." The author of Wieland, Arthur Mervyn, Ormond, and Edgar Huntly, Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810) is considered the first American professional author. He introduced Indian characters into American fiction. His keen interest in character delineation and abnormal psychology anticipates the show more stories of Poe, Hawthorne, and later masters of the psychological novel. Brown was eager to establish for himself an American identity as a writer, to become what Crèvecoeur called "the new man in the New World." It is especially this intimate identification of writer with country that makes Brown a telling precursor of our most characteristic authors from Poe, Hawthorne, and Cooper to Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Faulkner. To understand its significance, Brown's work must be examined as both art and artifact. Accordingly, Charles Brockden Brown: An American Tale is literary history as well as criticism, embued with insights into a writer's sources and influences and the psychology of literary composition. It is also a fascinating examination of a nation's emotional and intellectual impact on a young man in search of his identity as creative artist. show lessMembers
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125+ Works 4,730 Members
Alan Axelrod was born on August 25, 1952, in New York. He was educated at Northeastern Illinois University and University of Iowa. He is a leading writer about American history, and is the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to American History. In his books, Axelrod presents the facts, details, and faces that have helped shape the history of the show more United States. Axelrod has served as a consultant to several museums and institutions. He has received numerous honors, including a National Cowboy Hall of Fame Award in 1991. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, Literature Studies and Criticism, Horror
- DDC/MDS
- 813.2 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English Post-Revolutionary 1776-1830
- LCC
- PS1137 .A9 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Individual authors 19th century
- BISAC
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- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3