Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thorea was surely one of the finest writers to emanate from the United States before the Civil War. His novel Walden describes an almost perfect settlement where the subject lives simply in natural surroundings and is an ideal introduction to his seminal work. Another important work is his essay on Civil Disobedience which is perhaps one of the best known elements which argues for resistance to civil government which is a moral opposition to an unjust state.
Thoreau’s books and articles number over 20 volumes and he has several contributions on natural history and philosophy where he also anticipated several methods and findings of ecology as well as environmental history. He was also perennially interested in details of philosophical austerity as well as modern day environmentalism.
Thoreau certainly cuts to the core in his book Walden which deals with some very interesting topics such as the building of a log cabin and survival on the barest forms of human life. His descriptions of hunting for game and survival, as well as the level of natural homeliness in all proceedings makes for a strikingly interesting read.
Another aspect of Thorea’s work which is perhaps linked to the Civil war is his lifelong opposition to slavery and his prominent abolitionism. He worked assiduously in favour of John Brown and was also very much involved in the slavery question writing opinion articles in newspapers and suchlike. His contribution to American literature before the Civil War cannot be overstated.
Harriet Beecher Stow – the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stow hailed from Conecticut and was the seventh of twelve children with her mother dying when she was only five years old. From an early age, Stowe was consistently exposed to righteousness and good by her outspoken father Lyman Beecher and her siblings were also quite famous in their own right with several taking on prominent careers.
She is perhaps best remembered for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin which deals with the immoral question of slavery. He description of the life of the slave Tom is very effective as well as rather beautiful in the sense that she manages to convey the intensely humanistic elements of the slavery question and how this was a cruel scheme of things.
Stowe is also credited with having started the Civil War through her novel, principally due to the fact that when the book came out it caused what can only be termed as a furore both in the North as well as in the South for substantially different reasons. The North increased its anti-slavery stance obviously shocked by the real life descriptions in the book while the South obviously retrenched seeing this as an intrusion into its way of life.
Stowe was also an ardent abolitionist and very active campaigner against slavery. Her famous meeting with Abraham Lincoln where he told her that she was the person who started this war off with her book has remained indelibly imprinted into memory. Although she will always be remembered for Uncle Tom’s Cabin, she is definitely an author to be considered on a much wider scale than that novel alone.
Edgar Allen Poe – the master of the short story
Edgar Allen Poe who was born in 1809 and died in 1849 was a very important author and literary critic in the pre Civil war era albeit his life was quite short and tragic. He is best remembered for his series of short stories such as ‘The Tell Tale Heart’, ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ and others which focus on the gruesome and the macabre in their efforts to tell the tales.
Through difficult beginnings as a semi adopted child, Poe forged his way out on his own after attempting an ill fated military career. He also attented the University of Vorginia for a semester but did not find that to his liking and moved on almost immediately. He brings a panache and almost creepy descriptiveness to his story such as ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ which we will discuss slightly here.
This is one of those truly classic Poe stories which reveals the depth of human revenge and depravation to right a wrong which is obviously something which rankles extremely deeply. It is loosely based upon the story of Romeo and Juliet with two rival families, involving Montresor and and Fortunato, two supposed friends but in their heart of hearts, they are indeed sworn enemies.
Montresor has vowed to destroy Fortunato once and for all for the various wrongs which he perceived were done to him over the years. Naturally enough, he chooses the carnival time to carry out his dastardly deed and one has to argue that the punishment meted out to Fortunato was far from appropriate as being buried alive is definitely the worse kind of death ever.
Poe’s story is typical of his several contributions to the genre and is definitely one of his best known which shows the crude magnificence of his art and gift for narration.
James Fenimore Cooper – exploring American tradition
James Fenimore Cooper, perhaps best remembered for his novel ‘The Last of the Mohicans’ was a popular author who lived in the late 18th century and early 19th who focused on several aspects of American history in his novels. He was the son of a US Congressman and was based in New York in the early years of his life.
Fenimore Cooper was enrolled at Yale University and he was not so successful, being actively involved in pranks which eventually saw him expelled. He was not so much of an orderly person yet his talent could not be denied in any case and his novel, ‘The Last of the Mohican’s is actually a classic of American literature.
In this novel, Fenimore Cooper examines several aspects of the relationship between the British, the Americans who came and settled in the country as well as Native Americans. The story moves along quite well and there are some descriptive elements which are quite memorable especially some of the battle scenes.
Fnimore Cooper also wrote a lot of other fiction which was not always well received and he was also very active in politics being an enthusiastic opponent of the Whigs who in their turn criticized him greatly. However one cannot deny his significant contribution to American literature which was substantial and although he did not have an effect on the Civil War having died several decades before it broke out, he was also an important opinionist on the question of slavery.
Works Cited:
Lance Schachterle and Kent Ljungquist, "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Defenses: Twain and the Text of The Deerslayer" in Joel Myerson, ed., Studies in the American Renaissance, 1988 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1988) (pp. 401-417)
Allen, Hervey. "Introduction". The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1927.
Hendrick, Joan (1994). Harriet Beecher Stowe: a Life. Oxford University Press. p. 6. ISBN 0-19-506639-1. Retrieved 30-Jun-2011.
Henry David Thoreau : A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers / Walden / The Maine Woods / Cape Cod, by Henry David Thoreau, Library of America, ISBN 0-940450-27-5
