Pace, Roy Bennett

Readings in American Literature

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II FROM FRANKLIN TO IRVING, 1758-1809 Introduction. ? In the year 1758 Jonathan Edwards, the last of the great colonial theologians, died. As we noted in writing of Mather, the ascendency of the clergy was already on the wane; and Edwards was the last of that calling who strove to maintain the dictatorship it had possessed. An event of far more importance to letters than the death of Edwards was the appearance in the same year of the most famous piece of literature the colonies produced. This was Franklin's The Way to Wealth, or, Preface to Poor Richard Improved, better known perhaps as Father Abraham's Speech. Its particular significance in the chronology of our literature lies in the fact that it is the first notable piece of writing of the first American to obtain recognition abroad. Bust Of Franklin. By Houdon, noted French sculptor. Rise of Political Literature. ? Although The Way to Wealth is not quite typical of the literary productions of this period, the author is typical of the writers in that most of his life and writing were devoted to the gaining of independence and the establishment of the Republic. The literature of the preceding period was chiefly either leisurely records of current events (in the South), or vigorous religious discussions (in New England). The former dealt with existing conditions only, and was satisfied with them. The latter represented an aspiration for improvement, but only in the direction of a future life. On the other hand, the men we are now to study became convinced that the government under which they lived was unjust; and they devoted the best energies of their pens and voices toward breaking away from this government, and creating a new one and a new society on altogether new principles. Their concern was to...