San Antonio College Library

Proclaimed by James Fenimore Cooper to be "the author of America," William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) was one of nineteenth century America's foremost poets and public intellectuals. In this, the first major biography of Bryant in almost forty years, Gilbert H. Muller reintroduces a quintessential New Yorker who commanded the nation's literary, cultural, urban, and political life for more than half a century.

Tom Paine and republican religion -- Landscape as religion: Irving, Bryant, Cooper -- Transcendentalism and Emerson -- The cosmic optimism of Walt Whitman -- The pessimism of Mark Twain -- The cosmic loneliness of Robert Frost.