Materials . . .

Portrait of Margaret Fuller (1810-1850)

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge. This image file is in the public domain. I created it with a scanner and an out-of-copyright book that I own. Use it as you please. Source of the original image: James Parton, Horace Greeley, T.W. Higginson, et al., Eminent Women of the Age; Being Narratives of The Lives and Deeds of The Most Prominent Women of the Present Generation (Hartford: S.M. Betts, 1869) 173.

Portrait of Emma Willard (1787-1870)

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge. This image file is in the public domain. I created it with a scanner and an out-of-copyright book that I own. Use it as you please. Source of the original image: James Parton, Horace Greeley, T.W. Higginson, et al., Eminent Women of the Age; Being Narratives of The Lives and Deeds of The Most Prominent Women of the Present Generation (Hartford: S.M. Betts, 1869) 332.

The Advocate of Moral Reform for July 16, 1838

"Moral Reform" was an antebellum movement that consisted of societies, mainly female, devoted to (a) curbing the violent sexual passions and (b) generally reducing the amount of extramarital sex in America. The movement might be understood as a part of the broader temperance movement; the moral reform movement, as represented here, at least, also sought the restraint of passion and the cultivation of reason and religious feeling. As you will see if you "continue reading," Kathlene Verib copied the entire contents of a single issue of The Advocate of Moral Reform. This number features the following catalog of vice and crime: slovenly dress, premarital sex, sex with prostitutes, the premature sexualization of children, adultery, attempted rape, and the neglect of one's duty to promote and support Female Moral Reform societies.

Here is Kathlene Verib's edition of this number, with a brief introduction and a bibliography, in both PDF and (for searching purposes) plain ASCII format. Enjoy.

Portrait of Royall Tyler (1757-1826)

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge. This image file is in the public domain. I created it with a scanner and an out-of-copyright book that I own. Use it as you please. Source of the original image: Edmund Clarence Stedman and Ellen Mackay Hutchinson, eds., A Library of American Literature: From the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, vol. 4 (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1889) 92.

Portrait of Lydia Sigourney (1791-1865)

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge. This image file is in the public domain. I created it with a scanner and an out-of-copyright book that I own. Use it as you please. Source of the original image: James Parton, Horace Greeley, T.W. Higginson, et al., Eminent Women of the Age; Being Narratives of The Lives and Deeds of The Most Prominent Women of the Present Generation (Hartford: S.M. Betts, 1869) 84.

Selections from William A. Alcott’s Moral Reformer and Teacher on the Human Constitution (1835)

Shawna Hoffman read the March 1835 issue of William Alcott's Moral Reformer and Teacher on the Human Constitution and prepared the following edition of what she regarded as the most interesting parts.

Portrait of Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810)

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge. This image file is in the public domain. I created it with a scanner and an out-of-copyright book that I own. Use it as you please. Source of the original image: Edmund Clarence Stedman and Ellen Mackay Hutchinson, eds., A Library of American Literature: From the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, vol. 4 (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1889) frontispiece.

N.P. Willis, “The Icy Veil” (1846)

The series of short editions and out-of-print primary texts, prepared by students enrolled in my courses, resumes with this edition by Mike Kimble.

Book order for American Literature 1, Fall 2007

Here are the books for my Fall 2007 section of American Literature 1.

Book order for Whitman and Dickinson, Fall 2007

Here are the books for the Fall 2007 graduate seminar.

Book order for American Women Poets, Fall 2007

Here are the titles for my fall 2007 section of American Women Poets.

Portrait of William Byrd

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge. This image file is in the public domain. I created it with a scanner and an out-of-copyright book that I own. Use it as you please. Source of the original image: Edmund Clarence Stedman and Ellen Mackay Hutchinson, eds., A Library of American Literature: From the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, vol. 2 (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1889) 302.

Portrait of Jonathan Edwards

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge. This image file is in the public domain. I created it with a scanner and an out-of-copyright book that I own. Use it as you please. Source of the original image: Edmund Clarence Stedman and Ellen Mackay Hutchinson, eds., A Library of American Literature: From the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, new edition, vol. 2 (New York: William Evarts Benjamin, 1894) 374.

American Romantic Fiction, Spring 2007, All the words

Here are the first group of words for American Romantic Fiction.

Portrait of John Winthrop, scientist

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge. This image file is in the public domain. I created it with a scanner and an out-of-copyright book that I own. Use it as you please. Source of the original image: Edmund Clarence Stedman and Ellen Mackay Hutchinson, eds., A Library of American Literature: From the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, new edition, vol. 2 (New York: William Evarts Benjamin, 1894) 438.

Fall 2007 courses

Right now I am scheduled to teach the following courses: American Women Poets (MWF 9:55am), American Literature 1 (MWF 11am), and Whitman and Dickinson (Tuesday 5:20pm).

Portrait of William Penn

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge. This image file is in the public domain. I created it with a scanner and an out-of-copyright book that I own. Use it as you please. Source of the original image: Edmund Clarence Stedman and Ellen Mackay Hutchinson, eds., A Library of American Literature: From the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, new edition, vol. 2 (New York: William Evarts Benjamin, 1894) 227.

American Literature 1, Spring 2007, All the words

Here are all the words for the Spring 2007 sections of American Literature 1.

Portrait of Metacomet

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge. This image file is in the public domain. I created it with a scanner and an out-of-copyright book that I own. Use it as you please. Source of the original image: Edmund Clarence Stedman and Ellen Mackay Hutchinson, eds., A Library of American Literature: From the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, new edition, vol. 2 (New York: William Evarts Benjamin, 1894) 64.

Cooper's Neutral Ground

Here's a Google Earth placemark to consider when beginning James Fenimore Cooper's 1821 historical romance, The Spy: A Tale of Neutral Ground.

American Romantic Fiction, Spring 2007

Here is the syllabus for American Romantic Fiction.

American Literature 1, Spring 2007

Here is the syllabus for the evening section of American Literature 1. (Note that the words are here.)

American Literature 1, Spring 2007

I am teaching two sections of American Literature 1 this spring. Here is the syllabus for the late morning section meeting. (Note that the words are here.)

Portrait of Joel Barlow

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge. This image file is in the public domain. I created it by scanning my copy of the original. Use it as you please. Source of the original image: Edmund Clarence Stedman and Ellen Mackay Hutchinson, eds., A Library of American Literature: From the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, vol. 4 (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1889) 46.

Note to Spring 2006 students

Syllabi for American Literature 1 and American Romantic Fiction will be online next week. American Literature 1 students will find this semester's course much like those of previous sections. Click on the American Literature 1 "category" link in the right sidebar. In American Romantic Fiction, we will read the books in chronological order. The books are listed in this order on this book list page. This you will find by clicking on the American Romantic Fiction "category" link in the right sidebar.

Portrait of Samuel Sewall

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge. This image file is in the public domain. I created it by scanning my copy of the original. Use it as you please. Source of the original image: Edmund Clarence Stedman and Ellen Mackay Hutchinson, eds., A Library of American Literature: From the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, vol. 2 (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1889) 188.

Slave gravesite on former sugar plantation found

Matt Probasco reports for the Associated Press that "researchers from Denmark and the U.S. Virgin Islands want to unearth up to 50 skeletons" found on private property in St. Croix.

Tombstone of Susan Gilbert's father found

The Associated Press reports that Gen. Thomas Gilbert’s headstone was found in the front yard of the Emily Dickinson Museum. On Halloween, no less.

American Romantic Fiction, Spring 2007, book order

Here are the books for next semester's American Romantic Fiction course.

American Literature 1, Spring 2007, book order

Here are the two books for next semester's American Literature 1.

John Ledyard's "Death of Captain Cook" (1783)

Louis J. Slimak prepared this edition of John Ledyard's "Death of Captain Cook" for the Spring 2006 section of Early American Literature.

St. Kitts and London, birthplace and performance of James Grainger's The Sugar-Cane

James Grainger, a London physician, accepted a four-year tour of duty overseeing plantations on St. Kitts between 1759 and 1763. He spent much time while there composing his long georgic poem, The Sugar-Cane.

Edward Taylor of Westfield

Here's a set of Google Earth placemarks illustrating Edward Taylor's life.

Some places of Samuel Sewall

Known today for his role in the Salem witch trials, his diary, and his "Selling of Joseph," Samuel Sewall helped to govern large parts of Boston for many decades in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century.

Providence of Roger Williams

The main artery of eary Providence, Rhode Island lay on the east side of the river. Once Towne Street, it is now called North and South Main Streets.

Jean de Brébeuf's Huronia Mission

In a small park by a southern Ontario lake, a museum has recreated a Huron village and the long house constructed to hold the handful of Jesuits who came here in 1636 to spread Christianity (and, sadly, smallpox).

Politics in American Literature, all the words

Here are the words for the 2006 edition of Politics in American Literature.

Fort Nassau, Fort Orange, Fort Saybrook, and Fort Christina

Here are Google Earth placemarks indicating the location of four early American military installations that were important to the Swedish, Dutch, and English settlements in the second quarter of the seventeenth-century.

Settings for Mary Rowlandson's Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration

The following places figure as settings for Mary Rowlandson's Narrative of Captivity.

Fiction Appreciation, all the words

Here are the words for my Fall 2006 section of Fiction Appreciation.

Lewes, Delaware

In 1631 the Dutch established a settlement in Lewes, Delaware, which was soon massacred.

Watertown, home of John Pond

John Pond arrived here with his family after sailing in the Lyon with supplies ordered by Governor John Winthrop.

Places in Anne Bradstreet's life

Anne Bradstreet landed at Salem in 1630, moved to Cambridge in 1631, and then moved to a farm in North Andover in 1645 where she lived until her death.

Brackenridge handout for Politics in American Literature

The handout called "Hugh Henry Brackenridge, “Provincial Honors to an Exciseman” (1807)" can be found here as both HTML and PDF. All hail Alex Morris, graduate student from the Spring 2006 section of Early American Literature, for his preparation of this reading.

Angola, source of 1619 Jamestown slaves

On September 4, 2006, Lisa Rein reported for the Washington Post (in "Mystery of Va.'s First Slaves Unlocked 400 Years Later," page A1) that "new scholarship and transatlantic detective work" has determined that the first group of slaves brought to Virginia came from Angola.

Manomet, 1623's Indian settlement closest to Plymouth

Emmanuel Altham numbered among the Company of Adventurers for New Plymouth, a group of merchants who partially financed the Plymouth plantation with hopes to later profit by this investment through trade. His "Letter to Sir Edward Altham" (1623) describes Manomet, the Indian settlement closest to Plymouth.

Hannah More handout

That Hannah More handout that we read for the second day of class in Politics in American Literature? Here it is.

Fiction Appreciation, Fall 2006

Here's the syllabus for my Fall 2006 section of Fiction Appreciation.

Politics in American Literature, Fall 2006

Here's the syllabus for Politics in American Literature. A week before classes began, I learned that Lillie Devereux Blake's Fettered for Life has gone out of print, which is most regretful. As a consequence, there is hole in the center of the reading list that we will fill with various short readings.

American Literature 1, Fall 2006

Here is the syllabus for this fall's section of American Literature 1. (The word list is over here.)