The Dover Anthology of American Literature, Volume I: From the Origins Through the Civil War (Volume 1)

by Bob Blaisdell (editor)

"This is a fantastic compilation of some really important pieces of American Literature. If you are a college student or even a motivated high school student, you will definitely want this on your bookshelf. Most importantly though, if you are someone who just genuinely enjoys reading and would like to expand your repertoire to some of the best in American literature, this is the book for you!" — Old Musty Books
Ranging from colonial times to the mid-19th century, this compact and inexpensive anthology offers a fascinating overview of early American literature. The authoritative texts are supplemented with informative introductory notes and suggestions for further reading.
Starting with Cherokee creation myths and Powhatan's moving speech, "Why Should You Destroy Us, Who Have Provided You with Food," the 18th-century selections include the writings of poets Anne Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley; preacher Jonathan Edwards; statesmen Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and others. From the early and mid-19th century come excerpts from the journals of Lewis and Clark; stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Louisa May Alcott; the poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Walt Whitman; and essays, speeches, verse, and memoirs by other prominent Americans.

Genres: Nonfiction, Literature

672 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Bob Blaisdell is a published adapter, author, editor, and an illustrator of children's books and young adult books. He teaches English in Brooklyn at Kingsborough Community College. He is a reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle and Christian Science Monitor and the editor of more than three dozen anthologies for Dover Publications. Email him at Robert.Blaisdell@Kingsborough.edu

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 3.5 of 5

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.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dover Anthology of American Literature Volume I: From the Origins Through the Civil War edited by Bob Blaisdell is a summary of two hundred years of American literature. The collection includes poetry, short works and excerpts from longer works.

As much as I read, American literature is a weak point. I like my poetry English and my literature French or Russian. I am not totally ignorant of American literature as some of it fit into my history background. Being an anthology of great works, the works themselves do not need reviewing, but rather how representative it is of the whole.

From the historical point, several keys events happened in the period: Settlement of the colonies, Indian relations, slavery, independence, westward expansion/exploration, women’s movement, abolition, The Great Awakenings, and the Civil War. Many of the writers included are very well known. Melville’s Moby Dick is sampled, Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown, and Scarlet Letter is sampled, and perhaps my favorite writer of the period, Thoreau and his On Civil Disobedience is included.

The collection includes many writers that I had forgotten and some that are obscure. Margaret Fuller, the activist. writes on the role of women. Julie Ward Howe, whose name most won’t recognise, wrote a poem that every American knows and has probably sung many times -- “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. Other writers include those that not usually thought of as writers. Tecumseh writes to the other Indian nations for unity of the tribes. Other writers record the Cherokee Creation Story. Anne Bradstreet who composed the first published book of verse in the colonies has her work included. William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass take up the abolitionist movement. Louis and Clark record their westward journey. Lincoln’s speeches and an excerpt from Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin round out the period.

This collection does offer a view of American history through literature and personal writings. The major points in American history are all covered through one or more author. The relations between the competing races in America is also reflected in the writings of native Americans, slaves, and free men. The literature chosen brings a human touch to the history that is recorded. The writing of James Fenimore Cooper competes with Black Hawk. The creation of an American style of literature championed by Emerson, expanded by Whitman, and popularized by Poe.

Looking at this work with the eyes of an historian it comes through as a fine representation of the early history of the United States. The writers and the content reflect the moods and experiences of a wide range of Americans. As America grew from a colony to a country on the verge of becoming a power, so did its writers. The history recorded in fiction, poems, journals, and letters show the same growth. As America came to its own on the world stage, so did its writing.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was thankful to receive this anthology from First Reads. As an old English major, I spent years with the Norton anthologies in college. It's a pleasure to see the Dover edition and once more enjoy the scope of literature in an anthology. This thrift edition is well-done...reasonably priced but very readable in both print and selection. It begins with the myths of the Cherokees and goes through selected writings of Abraham Lincoln. Between are all the beloved authors who wrote as our nation was growing westward, developing, and establishing the American culture. While I love reading bestsellers, mysteries, and suspense, this anthology reminds me to revisit the classics and elevate my thoughts as only the classics can do. An anthology encourages that by giving us selections sized for an evening's read. This series makes classic literature affordable and easier to have on the shelf for a family to enjoy.

[MeriBeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dover Anthology of American Literature edited by Bob Blaisdell currently consists of two volumes with a third to be published in 2015. This is an excellent anthology which introduces the reader to a variety of genres and eras in American Literature. As a homeschooling parent of a high schooler, this volume makes an excellent core text for a course on American Literature giving enough material to intrigue the student and lead them further into independent study. When compared to the hugely popular Norton Anthologies, I much prefer the Dover versions for their completeness and ease of use and reading. Definitely recommended for all interested in American Literature.

Book received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[kathyrn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dover Anthology of American Literature, Volume I: From the Origins Through the Civil War (Dover Thrift Editions) contains many writing by historical persons I've heard of and many I haven't heard of but I think should have. The writings I want to read first are by the American Indians starting with "You Have Got Our Country But Are Not Satisfied " by Red Jacket Sagoyewatha a Seneca who is answering a missionary who has come to convert them. This book gives a brief introduction to the author of each of the works and the source of the original work for additional reading. Read as a netgalley copy.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good reference book. I am constantly checking info in it.