Were the prominent remote journalists who as of late resulted in these present circumstances nation to do praise to the colossal soul of Lowell on the event of the centennial of his introduction to the world, to be informed that in his own particular nation this regularly American artist was not viewed as worth the genuine consideration of the school under graduate they would be not somewhat astonished and baffled. However such is the situation. In our driving colleges Lowell as well as other American journalists are entirely disregarded, or, best case scenario are given optional thought. The adolescent who wishes to guzzle the soul of Poe or Whittier, or Emerson or Bryant must translate for himself the compositions of these types of the country's life and history, for in his school work he will discover them forgot about for the investigation of more supported remote authors. In one of our best known colleges, an organization whose Faculty contains one of the premier living American men of letters, there is offered no course at all, graduate or undergrad, upon^ the writing of this nation. Were it not for the superficial investigation of a couple favored Americans in courses upon the general field of letters, this school would appear to be careless in regards to the very presence of a national writing. Of the several astonishing young fellows who leave its lobbies every year to take their places in the life of the country, few in fact are familiar with the Biglow Papers, Leaves of Grass, the Commemoration Ode or other extraordinary works inseparably joined with the soul and history of America. All over the story is the same; our own writers are disregarded for the moment investigation of remote scholars. In a conspicuous New England college, which numbers its unmistakable New England college, which numbers its registers by the thousand, there is given yet one course upon the field of American letters, a two hour course, " precluded in 1917-1918," which starts with Franklin and finishes up with the essayists of today. Another foundation which feels it pointless to offer more than two general half-term courses on the national writing, gives its understudies the chance of giving their thoughtfulness regarding such offerings as the Arthurian Legends, Dante in English, Early English Literary Types, Layamon's Brut.
Early English Literary Types, Layamon's Brut. An examination of the indexes of all the extensive Eastern universities uncovers not one course on the American artists, not one on the American writers, not one on American writers. In spite of the fact that courses on Chaucer, Wordsworth, Spencer and Milton are normal, clearly Emerson, to whom Professor Bliss Perry commits a half term at Harvard, is the main American considered deserving of watchful study.
This deplorable situation is in extensive part represented by the normal confusion that American writing is a piece of English writing, and should dependably and definitely keep on being so. " obviously," says one pundit, " when we think of it as precisely we can't neglect to see that the writing of a dialect is one and unbreakable and that the nativity or the habitation of the individuals who make it is important nothing. Pretty much as Alexandrian writing is Greek, so American writing is English; and as Theocritus requests consideration in any record of Greek writing, so Thoreau can't be precluded from any history of English writing in general."
It needs no profound examination to see this is an insignificant bandy. Without a doubt it ought not be important to bring up that writing in English does not inexorably make one an English author. On the off chance that by English writing is implied all works written in the English dialect, then one must incorporate into it the preparations of Whitman and Mark Twain and Hawthorne and Emerson. In the event that our origination of writing is kept to the vehicle of expression, to words and sentences, then American writing has no presence and our universities are very right in committing their thoughtfulness regarding the most noted scholars in English, independent of their residence or of the subject of their works.
In any case, on the off chance that we acknowledge as right the perspective which defines writing as the reflection and the propagation of the life of a people, there is an American writing, unmistakable and separated from the writing of England, and deserving of our consideration and study. On the off chance that the life of the American individuals merits understanding, the examples of that life can't be disregarded in our focuses of society and instruction. On the off chance that the basic heart of old New England, with its devoutness, its cheapness, its wholesomeness is still a matter important to the country which owes such a great amount to it, one can't consign to indefinite quality the compositions of Whittier and Holmes and Howells and Lowell ; in the event that we are to comprehend the soul of the old South, the soul which gave us Washington and Madison, we should know Timrod and Lanier and Thomas Nelson Page.
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