History of American Literature Part 29

Burroughs's _Indoor Studies_, Chap. 1., _Henry D. Th.o.r.eau_.

Woodberry's _Nathaniel Hawthorne_.

Henry James's _Hawthorne_.

Conway's _Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne_.

Fields's _Nathaniel Hawthorne_.

Julian Hawthorne's _Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Wife_.

George Parsons Lathrop's _A Study of Hawthorne_.

Bridge's _Personal Recollections of Nathaniel Hawthorne_.

Rose Hawthorne Lathrop's _Memories of Hawthorne_.

Julian Hawthorne's _Hawthorne and his Circle_.

Gates's _Studies and Appreciations_. (Hawthorne.)

Canby's _The Short Story in English_, Chap. XII. (Hawthorne.)

Samuel Longfellow's _Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with Extracts from his Journals and Correspondence_, 3 vols.

Higginson's _Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_.

Carpenter's _Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_.

Robertson's _Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_.

Carpenter's _John Greenleaf Whittier_.

Higginson's _John Greenleaf Whittier_.

Perry's _John Greenleaf Whittier_.

Pickard's _Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier_, 2 vols.

Pickard's _Whittier-Land_.

Greenslet's _James Russell Lowell, his Life and Work_.

Hale's _James Russell Lowell_. (_Beacon Biographies_.)

Scudder's _James Russell Lowell, A Biography_, 2 vols.

Hale's _James Russell Lowell and his Friends_.

James Russell Lowell's _Letters_, edited by Charles Eliot Norton.

Morse's _Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes_, 2 vols.

Haweis's _American Humorists_.

Ticknor's _Life of William Hickling Prescott_.

Ogden's _William Hickling Prescott_.

Peck's _William Hickling Prescott_.

Holmes's _John Lothrop Motley, A Memoir_.

Curtis's _The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley_.

Sedgwick's _Francis Parkman_.

Farnham's _A Life of Francis Parkman_.

SUGGESTED READINGS

Since the works of the authors of the New England group are nearly always accessible, it is not usually necessary to specify editions or the exact place where the readings may be found. Those who prefer to use books of selections will find that Page's _The Chief American Poets_, 713 pp., contains nearly all of the poems recommended for reading. Prose selections may be found in Carpenter's _American Prose_, and still more extended selections in Stedman and Hutchinson's _Library of American Literature_.

TRANSCENDENTALISM AND THE DIAL.--Read Emerson's lecture on _The Transcendentalist_, published in the volume called _Nature, Addresses, and Lectures_. _The Dial_ is very rare and difficult to obtain outside of a large library. George Willis Cooke has collected in one volume under the t.i.tle, _The Poets of Transcendentalism, An Anthology_ (1903), 341 pp., some of the best of the poems published in _The Dial_, as well as much transcendental verse that appeared elsewhere.

SLAVERY AND ORATORY.--Selections from _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ may be found in Carpenter, 312-322; S. & H., VII., 132-144. Webster's _Reply to Hayne_ is given in Johnston's _American Orations_, Vol. I., 248-302. There are excellent selections from Webster in Carpenter, 105-118, and S. & H., IV., 462-469. Selections from the other orators mentioned may be found in Johnston and S. & H.

EMERSON.--Read from the volume, _Nature, Addresses, and Lectures_, the chapters called _Nature_, _Beauty_, _Idealism_, and the "literary declaration of independence" in his lecture, _The American Scholar_. From the various other volumes of his _Essays_, read _Self-Reliance_, _Friendship_, _Character_, _Civilization_.

From his nature poetry, read _To Ellen at the South_, _The Rhodora_, _Each and All_, _The Humble-Bee_, _Woodnotes_, _The Snow-Storm_. For a poetical exposition of his philosophy, read _The Problem_, _The Sphinx_, and _Brahma_.

Th.o.r.eAU.--If possible, read all of _Walden_; if not, Chaps. I., _Economy_, IV., _Sounds_, and XV., _Winter Animals_ (Riverside Literature Series).

From the volume called _Excursions_, read the essay _Wild Apples_. Many will be interested to read here and there from his _Notes on New England Birds_ and from the four volumes, compiled from his _Journal_, describing the seasons.

HAWTHORNE.--At least one of each of the different types of his short stories should be read. His power in impressing allegorical or symbolic truth may be seen in _The Snow Image_ or _The Great Stone Face_. As a specimen of his New England historical tales, read one or more of the following: _The Gentle Boy_, _The Maypole of Merry Mount_, _Lady Eleanore's Mantle_, or even the fantastic _Young Goodman Brown_, which presents the Puritan idea of witchcraft. For an example of his sketches or narrative essays, read _The Old Manse_ (the first paper in _Mosses from an Old Manse_) or the _Introduction_ to _The Scarlet Letter_.

_The Scarlet Letter_ may be left for mature age, but _The House of the Seven Gables_ should be read by all.

From his books for children, _The Golden Touch (Wonder Book)_ at least should be read, no matter how old the reader.

LONGFELLOW.--His best narrative poem is _Hiawatha_, and its strongest part is _The Famine_, beginning:--

"Oh, the long and dreary Winter!"

The opening lines of _Evangeline_ should be read for both the beauty of the poetry and the novelty of the meter. The first four sections of _The Courtship of Miles Standish_ should be read for its pictures of the early days of the first Pilgrim settlement. His best ballads are _The Wreck of the Hesperus, The Skeleton in Armor, Paul Revere's Ride,_ and _The Birds of Killingworth._ For specimens of his simple lyrics, which have had such a wide appeal, read _A Psalm of Life, The Ladder of St. Augustine, The Rainy Day, The Day is Done, Daybreak, Resignation, Maidenhood, My Lost Youth._

WHITTIER.--Read the whole of _Snow-Bound,_ and for specimens of his shorter lyrics, _Ichabod_, _The Lost Occasion_, _My Playmate_, _Telling the Bees_, _The Barefoot Boy_, _In School Days_, _My Triumph_, _An Autograph,_ and _The Eternal Goodness._ His best ballads are _Maud Muller, Skipper Ireson's Ride,_ and _Ca.s.sandra Southwick._