American Writers is a work of literary criticism by American writer and critic John Neal. Published by Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in five installments between September 1824 and February 1825, it is recognized by scholars as the first history of American literature and the first substantial work of criticism concerning US authors. It is Neal's longest critical work and at least 120 authors are covered, based entirely on Neal's memory. With no notes or books for reference, Neal made multiple factually inaccurate claims and provided coverage of many authors that modern scholars criticize as disproportionate to their role in American literature. Scholars nevertheless praise the staying power of Neal's opinions, many of which are reflected by other critics decades later, notably "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" by Mark Twain. Theories of poetry and prose in American Writers foreshadowed and likely influenced later works by Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman. Neal argued American literature relied too much on British precedent and had failed to develop its own voice. He offered sharp criticism of many authors while simultaneously urging critics not to offer writers from the US undeserved praise, lest it stifle the development of a truly distinct American literature. Poe's later critical essays on literature reflected these strictures.
Neal wrote the series in London, where he lived between 1824 and 1827. Having moved there from Baltimore, his goals were to establish himself as America's leading literary figure, encourage the development of a uniquely American writing style, and reverse British disdain for literature from the US. He soon became the first American published in any British literary journal, American Writers being the longest and best-remembered of his works on American topics in multiple UK periodicals. He wrote for Scottish publisher William Blackwood under an English pseudonym, which Neal assumed was convincing. Blackwood and British readers likely realized they were reading the work of an American, and multiple leading American periodicals revealed Neal as the author before the series was completed.
The series was well received in the UK and exerted influence over British critics, some of whom copied Neal's analyses and misinformation into their own essays. It conversely drew considerable ire from US journalists, none more severe than William Lloyd Garrison, who warned Neal to be on guard should he return to his home country. When he did, Neal found inflammatory broadsides and in-person hostility in his hometown of Portland, Maine, leading to a fistfight. In defiance, he decided to stay in Portland, where he lived until his death forty-nine years later. The first postmortem republication of a substantial work by Neal was 1937, when Fred Lewis Pattee collected American Writers for the first time into one publication. That 1937 edition remains the most accessible of Neal's literary productions.
Background Blackwood engages Neal
After eight years in Baltimore, John Neal sailed to England in late 1823. He pursued three primary goals: supersede Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper as the leading US literary figure, usher into existence a new uniquely American literary style, and reverse British disdain for American literature. To accomplish the third goal, Neal sought publication in British literary journals to expose UK readers to writing from the US and convince them of its value. A "man of grievances" according to English scholar George L. Nesbitt, Neal envisioned those journals as a "blazing rocket-battery" he could turn to fire upon the readership of "swarming whipper-snappers" in Great Britain. Thinking highly of his own abilities, he was confident he would fast become a leading literary figure in London.
Neal's resources were running low after three months in England with no income. Capitalizing on Europeans' interest in US politics sparked by recent news of the Monroe Doctrine, he wrote an article on the five US presidents and current presidential candidates and submitted it to Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. His letter said he was about to leave London to explore Europe, but: "In the mean time, I must have some sort of employment to keep me out of mischief." Biographer Donald A. Sears says "the situation was desperate" when Neal received a response from Scottish publisher William Blackwood: "You are exactly the correspondent that we want". The payment of five guineas was more than Neal had ever received for any magazine submission.
Early American literature scholar William B. Cairns considered Blackwood's the most important literary periodical in 1820s Great Britain, a period when such periodicals were more influential than ever before. Neal was already familiar with it and had read it in Baltimore. The editors of a six-volume 2016 academic collection of Blackwood's articles called it "the most brilliant, troubling, acerbic and imaginative periodical of the post-Napoleonic age". Literature scholar Fritz Fleischmann described the magazine as subscribing to an "aesthetic belief in original thoughts expressed in bold and forceful language". The editor of a 1959 academic Blackwood's collection used the words "riotous" and "blackguardly". The magazine had not published a single piece on an American topic from June 1822 until Neal's first piece in May 1824.
Neal felt he was a good fit for Blackwood's, having sought it out as "the cleverest, the sauciest, and most unprincipled of our calumniators", he later wrote. Cairns agreed, writing: "Neal's slashing style and the somewhat sensational nature of his utterances fitted well with the manner of Blackwood's". Blackwood seemed to enjoy Neal's style and wanted it in his magazine. Neal was one of many new contributors adopted by Blackwood in the early 1820s; alongside Eyre Evans Crowe, he was one of two to exhibit the publisher's desired style notably well. Neal's article in the May 1824 issue was the first by an American to appear in any British literary journal, and it was soon republished by the New European in multiple languages throughout mainland Europe.
Steady contributorship During his three years in England, Neal contributed articles to eight other British periodicals, including The European Magazine, The London Magazine, Monthly Magazine, The New Monthly Magazine, and The Westminster Review. He had an article in the European Reviews inaugural (June 1824) issue, and editor Alexander Walker paid more than Blackwood, but Walker also rejected all of Neal's subsequent submissions after learning Neal was American. Neal sent five more articles to Blackwood with a letter explaining his willingness to cover any manner of topics; Blackwood rejected them all. His sixth submission to Blackwood was accepted, and Neal became a regular contributor, finding himself "warmly welcomed and handsomely paid", according to Sears. As the magazine's first major American contributor, Neal authored at least one article for every issue between May 1824 and February 1825. Neal's presence in its pages was substantial enough that literary historian Fred Lewis Pattee called it a "complete surrender" on the part of "Blackwood's to the swashbuckling young American".
Neal later wrote that he traveled to the UK on a mission to write about American topics, but biographer Irving T. Richards argues Neal more likely settled into that pattern after connecting with Blackwood. Either way, he quickly became Blackwood's primary authority on US topics. This series of articles highlighted cultural similarities between the US and UK, making the case for an improved transatlantic relationship. It served to counterpoise ample content from contemporary UK authors that predominantly disparaged the US, when they considered the new nation at all. A decade later, Neal called Blackwood's "the first British Magazine that ever allowed an American fair play". He further claimed Blackwood "published for me what no other magazine-proprietor in the three kingdoms would have dared to publish".
The first installment of the American Writers series was published in the September 1824 issue. Before publishing the second installment, Blackwood requested some changes, particularly that Neal tone down his attack on John Elihu Hall and refrain from calling him a blackguard. After publishing the last installment in February 1825, Blackwood sent Neal a letter congratulating him on completing the series. He encouraged standalone articles in the future, but to continue on American topics. Neal did not publish anything else substantial in Blackwood's until September, however.
Anonymity Neal was convinced that anything submitted by an American to any British periodical would be rejected if it did not disparage the US. For his writing to be accepted, "Neal treated the venture as an undercover operation", according to literature scholar Ellen Bufford Welch. Pattee said, "he considered [it] an impenetrable disguise". Neal started by introducing himself as Carter Holmes in his first communication with Blackwood, and continued using the pseudonym in all correspondence with him while writing American Writers. He made clear it was a pseudonym, but maintained he was English. Scholars believe Blackwood and his editors figured out quickly they were dealing with an American.
The American Writers series appeared in Blackwood's under the initials X.Y.Z., which Neal borrowed from fellow contributors John Wilson and John Gibson Lockhart. He used other names for other Blackwood's pieces. Despite describing himself in those pages as English, Cairns and Pattee believe most British readers knew they were reading the work of an American. Likely reflecting British readership in general, The Westminster Review stated years later in 1831: "There is no mistaking the hand of John Neal" in his work published in British periodicals.
US readers also largely knew American Writers was the work of an American, and many connected the series to Neal. Based on his reading of the first two installments, Philadelphian John Elihu Hall outed Neal as author in The Port Folio in late 1824. The United States Literary Gazette followed suit the following May. When reviewing his own work in American Writers, Neal hinted at his identity, saying, "we know him well" and describing his anonymously-published novels: "No matter whose they are—mine or another's... I shall neither acknowledge, nor deny them." In his last piece for Blackwood's, published after the final installment of American Writers, Neal proclaimed his true nationality and signed it with his last initial. He revealed his name to Blackwood in a letter around the same time. The protagonist of Neal's 1830 novel Authorship was named Carter Holmes, which the book called a "fictitious name" connected to "Blackwood".
Content
American Writers comprises about 50,000 words over 80 magazine pages. Literature scholars Alfred Fiorelli, Benjamin Lease, and Hans-Joachim Lang counted 120 names among the authors covered by Neal. Both biographer Irving T. Richards and scholar Alberta Fabris put the number at 135. Those figures, both living and dead at the time, included novelists, poets, political writers, scientific writers, philosophers, theologians, journalists, historians, geographers, and even painters. Each figure is covered with at least a paragraph, though some get multiple pages. Richards said the coverage of each writer "frequently grossly violated" their comparative importance, such as the half page on James Fenimore Cooper, six pages on Charles Brockden Brown, eight on himself, and ten on Washington Irving.