But these
laws are not easy to codify and we must avoid the temptation to
discover, in any particular period, more of unity than there
actually was. And we must always remember that there will be
beautiful prose and verse unrelated to the main national
tendencies save as "the literature of escape." We owe this lesson
to the genius of Edgar Allan Poe.
Let us test these principles by applying them to the earliest
colonists. The first book written on the soil of what is now the
United States was Captain John Smith's "True Relation" of the
planting of the Virginia colony in 1607. It was published in
London in 1608. The Captain was a typical Elizabethan adventurer,
with a gift, like so many of his class, for picturesque
narrative. In what sense, if at all, may his writings on American
topics be classified as "American" literary productions? It is
clear that his experiences in the New World were only one phase
of the variegated life of this English soldier of fortune. But
the American imagination has persistently claimed him as
representing something peculiarly ours, namely, a kind of pioneer
hardihood, resourcefulness, leadership, which was essential to
the exploration and conquest of the wilderness.
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