This book discusses the relation of literature to society in the first decades of United States history, a relation that was conceptualized by some as one between the republic of letters and the new republic. In that day, most who thought about the matter defined literature as all of written knowledge, which is to say that belles lettres constituted a very small part of what they regarded as literary. Moreover, for a number of them belles lettres...

Also includes material on George Lippard, Margaret Fuller, and George Washington Harris.

"Mark Twain emerges in this book as something of a paradox. His humor made him rich and famous, but he was unhappy with the role of humorist. He satirized the rapacious economic practices of his society, yet was caught up in those very practices himself. He was a literary genius who revolutionized the national literature, yet was unable to resist whatever quirky notion or joke that crossed his mind, often straying from his plot or contradicting his...