Thursday, June 20, 1996
Noon
Caribou Coffee
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
The emergence of literary culture in the United States from 1820 to 1860
coincided with the appearance of some of America's greatest writers and
works. We explored the nature of this culture and its consequences for writers'
literary production and readers' reception of their works.
Various kinds of relationships developed within America's emerging literary
culture. For instance, several writers belonged to clubs and discussion
groups, such as Annapolis' Tuesday Club (1745-1756), Hartford's Friendly
Club (1785-1807), Concord's Transcendental Club (1836-c.1844), and New York's
Friendly Club (c.1789), Knickerbocker Group, and Bread and Cheese Club (c.1822-c.1827).
Judy pointed out that reading circles were particularly important in the
antebellum South, where many writers shared their manuscripts in these circles
in addition to or instead of publishing them. They were important elsewhere
for different reasons. In New York, for example, discussion clubs often
comprised not just writers, but merchants, doctors, lawyers, artists, and
scientists. In New York Intellect, Thomas Bender writes: "Art,
commerce, power were part of a single moral equation" (126). Thus,
such clubs encouraged cross-fertilization between disciplines and perhaps,
as Chris G. suggested, allowed a writer's influence and readership to extend
into other fields. Chris G. wondered if any women belonged to reading clubs,
and Chris S. pointed out that Margaret Fuller managed some "Conversations"
among women between 1839 and 1844. Through this venue, Fuller hoped to help
women develop their intellects; as Judy pointed out, the "Conversations"
were a way for Fuller to put into practice the feminist principles ofWoman
in the Nineteenth Century. The introduction to Fuller in the Heath
Anthology says that Fuller's group anticipated later women's reading
clubs, but does not identify any of these clubs.
As magazine publishing became a major industry in the 1830s, many writers
became involved in professional relationships. Indeed, both Poe and Sarah
Parker Willis (Fanny Fern) complained about the degree to which literary
associates were plugging each others' works rather than writing responsible
reviews. Jane Tompkins has gone so far to suggest that Hawthorne owed at
least some of his literary reputation to his connection to publishing figures
such as Ticknor and Fields. This issue of professional networking becomes
more important in the postbellum period, when Howells both wields a lot
of power as a critic and has numerous personal relationships with writers
such as Twain and James. Mark wondered how often Howells reviewed these
writers' work, and Chris S. noted that Howells never reviewed Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn, but did review The Prince and the Pauper and
other Twain works.
A third brand of relationship was the personal friendship. Perhaps the most
famous of these relationships was that of Melville and Hawthorne, whose
friendship we briefly discussed last week. Judy again argued that Melville,
while continuing to like and respect Hawthorne, lost some of his initial
zeal for their relationship after he realized that Hawthorne was not the
soulmate Melville had hoped to find. Melville, she argued, was obsessed
with the central truth behind all of existence, while Hawthorne seemed content
coping with the consequences; Melville asked, "Why?" while Hawthorne
asked, "What now?" Chris G. referred to Poe's comment that Hawthorne
skated along the surface, and we agreed that Hawthorne was more capable
of--or perhaps doomed to--a more detached relation to the world. Indeed,
the many characters he indicts for their cold detachment from humanity--Chillingworth,
Aylmer, Rappacini, Ethan Brand, Miles Coverdale, and others--closely resemble
an author who tinkers with characters and may even find that he loves them
more than his real human companions. Judy noted that someone once wrote
of Hawthorne that he shrank when he entered a room filled with other people.
Other literary friends included Twain and Howells, Twain and Joel Chandler
Harris, Harris and James Whitcomb Riley, and Howells and James. Chris S.
quoted a striking passage from a letter Twain wrote to Howells on July 21,
1885: "You are really my only author. I am restricted to you. I wouldn't
give a damn for the rest." This type of relationship caused Mark to
ask how much influence one writer might have exerted on another. In other
words, was Twain on any level writing to please Howells?
Finally, we discussed the more abstract aspects of literary culture, the
air that these writers breathed. By their existence and minor notoriety,
for example, Emerson and the other Transcendentalists helped other writers
to shape their own artistic credos. Mark pointed out that Poe vehemently
and vocally opposed the Transcendental notion of artistic intuition and
their interest in literary pursuits of Truth. Judy noted that Melville called
Emerson "noble" and respected Emerson's capacity for diving into
the depths of truth, but also ridiculed Emerson's optimism in the marginal
comments he wrote in his volumes of Emerson's works. Chris S. pointed out
the divergent beliefs of Emerson, who celebrated the present, and Hawthorne,
who felt bound by the past; Mark noted that Hawthorne plays out this conflict
in The House of Seven Gables in the character of the Daguerreotypist,
who paraphrases parts of Nature