Americans on Fiction, 1776-1900 Volume 1

Preface and Acknowledgements, Introduction: ''Who Reads an American Book?, Note on the Texts, 1. Preface to The Pmver of Sympatf?y (1789), 2. Preface to Charlotte Temple (1791), 3. Preface to The Afgerine Captive (1797), 4. Advertisement to Wieland (1798), 5. To the Public (1799), 6. The Difference between History and Romance (1800), 7. Novel Reading (1804), 8. Preface to The Gamesters (1805), 9. On the Cause of the Popularity of Novels (1807), 10. American Language and Literature (1815), 11. Reflections on the Literary Delinquency of America (1815), 12. Brown's Life and Writings (1819), 13. National Literature (1820), 14. James Fenimore Cooper's The Spy (1822), 15. Three Prefaces to A New-England Tale (1822-1852), 16. Introduction to The Spectre if the Forest (1823), 17. A Word to the Reader (1823), 18. The Wilderness and The Spectre if the Forest (1824), 19. Preface to Redwood (1824), 20. Redwood (1825), 21. Preface and Unpublished Preface to Rachel Dyer (1828), 22. American Literature (1833), 23. English Literature (1833), 24. Themes for Western Fiction (1833), 25. Discourse on the West (1834), 26. Southern Literature (1834), 27. American Literature: Its Impediments (1835), 28. A Biographical Sketch of James Fenimore Cooper (1838), 29. Literature of Virginia (1838), 30. Ripley's Specimens (1838), 31. A Discourse on American Literature (1838), 32. Confessions of a Novel Reader (1839), 33. The Inferiority of American Literature (1840), 34. Modern Fiction (1842), 35. Cooper, His Genius and Writings (1842), 36. Cooper's Wyandotte (1843), 37. Cheap Literature: Its Character and Tendencies (1844), 38. Literary Prospects for 1845 (1845), 39. American Literature: The Present State of American Letters; The Prospect and Means of Their Improvement (1845), 40. American Letters-Their Character and Advancement (1845), 41. Americanism in Literature (1845), 42. Caroline M. Kirkland (1846), 43. Catharine M. Sedgwick (1846), 44. The Wigwam and the Cabin (1846), 45. The Need for a National Literature (1847), 46. Longfellow's Kavanagh: Nationality in Literature (1849), Explanatory Notes