The Down Easters

by John Neal

I had seen her in my youth, I knew her when the war of 1812 broke out, and I knew her at the close of that war, when it began to be considered a very proper thing for people to go to church twice a day--rain or shine--provided they were not able to keep a carriage. I knew her at a period when fire and earth-quake had made it rather fashionable to pray--and when very respectable and very genteel people, were known to pray--and when the most beautiful women of New-York were to be seen at church, though Broadway, the Battery, and both rivers were open at the time; and she appeared to me to grow younger and younger every year.

Hardcover

First published October 1, 2006

About the author

John Neal was an American writer, critic, editor, lecturer, and activist. Considered both eccentric and influential, he delivered speeches and published essays, novels, poems, and short stories between the 1810s and 1870s in the United States and Great Britain, championing American literary nationalism and regionalism in their earliest stages. Neal advanced the development of American art, fought for women's rights, advocated the end of slavery and racial prejudice, and helped establish the American gymnastics movement.