Transcriber's Note This version of the text is unable to reproduce certain typographic features. Italics are delimited with the '_' character as _italic_. Bold text is delimited with the '=' character. The 'oe' ligature is rendered as separate characters. Any text printed using "small capitals" was shifted to all upper-case. There are several illustrations, which cannot be reproduced here. They are represented as [Illustration: <caption>] in the text. Nor can the three chronological charts, in Chapters VII and XXVII, and preceding the Index of Periodicals, be readily reproduced here. The information is included here, using a different rendering, with some loss of precision. Some of the timelines extend before or beyond the dates included by the author's design. In Chart I, those lines which extended past the right side are ended with arrowheads. These charts, as well as the other illustrations are available in an HTML version, (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45353/45353-h/45353-h.htm) where they can be more faithfully rendered. These charts would be best viewed using a monospaced font for this text. Please see the transcriber's notes at the end of this text for a more complete account of any other textual issues and their resolution. A HISTORY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE BY PERCY H. BOYNTON THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO AUTHOR OF "PRINCIPLES OF COMPOSITION," "LONDON IN ENGLISH LITERATURE," EDITOR OF "AMERICAN POETRY" GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON · NEW YORK · CHICAGO · LONDON ATLANTA · DALLAS · COLUMBUS · SAN FRANCISCO COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY PERCY H. BOYNTON ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 419.11 _The Athenæum Press_ GINN AND COMPANY · PROPRIETORS · BOSTON · U.S.A. PREFACE The general purpose in the preparation of this book has been to eliminate negligible detail and to subordinate or omit authors of minor importance in order to stress the men and the movements that are most significant in American intellectual history. The book has therefore been written with a view to showing the drift of American thought as illustrated by major writers or groups and as revealed by a careful study of one or two cardinal works by each. In this sequence of thought the growth of American self-consciousness and the changing ideals of American patriotism have been kept in mind throughout. The attempt is made to induce _study_ of representative classics and _extensive reading_ of the American literature which illuminates the past of the country--chiefly, of course, in reminiscent fiction, drama, and poetry.