Our first writer of importance was Irving, whose Sketchbook was published in 1820. Irving has been called the “American Addison.” He might almost as well be called the American Lamb, though Lamb’s essays did not begin to appear till five years later: and he was more of a story-teller than Lamb. James Fenimore Cooper began his literary career as a professed imitator of Scott in 1820; but he soon developed a purely American romantic novel, the novel of the Indian. He is no very great novelist; but his books are still popular. The first American poet was William Cullen Bryant, whose best poem, Thanatopsis, was written when he was eighteen, in 1812. Between 1830 and 1840 appeared some of the best work of Poe, Longfellow, and Emerson; but they were as utterly distinct in their spirit and purposes as if they had belonged to different ages. Poe was the poetic inventor, the discoverer of the dramatic principles of plot in story-writing, and the original literary critic; Longfellow was the sweet singer of the people, the home poet, unoriginal but beloved by all; Emerson was the philosopher and man of letters combined, the serious essay writer and interpreter to the people of the new discoveries of the great students of philosophy. Following Longfellow were the poets Lowell, Whittier, and Holmes, all of whose best work just preceded or just followed the Civil War. SCARLET LETTER--1851. The one great American novelist is Hawthorne, whose Scarlet Letter appeared in 1851--his first great novel--and whose best work was all completed prior to 1861, the year of his return from his consulship at Liverpool. Many of our political leaders have been great writers, too. The first was Benjamin Franklin, whose Poor Richard’s Almanac and Autobiography must certainly be included among the great works of American letters. Then Daniel Webster, who stands among the first of great orators in the English language, was the author (between 1830 and 1860) of a series of speeches, many of which have been accepted as an important part of our literature. And among short masterpieces there is none greater than the Gettysburg speech of Abraham Lincoln, though it would not be proper to speak of him as a man of letters. It will be seen that practically all of our great American literature appeared between the War of 1812 and the Civil War. Since the Civil War there has been a new era; but it is not our present purpose to estimate current writers. SUMMARY.