One outcome was Melville’s essay, the most unambiguously patriotic of his writings that places Hawthorne just below Shakespeare, and which was published, appropriately, in Duyckinck’s periodical, the Literary World, the most popular literary journal of the time and which had “the largest and most critical audience of any periodical in America.” 1 Melville took up the charge of promoting Hawthorne into a place of public consecration by writing an effulgent and disguised bit of literary propaganda. Since the early 1840s John Sullivan, Cornelius Mathews and Evert Duyckinck had taken part in this loose association of writers and cultural activists that included Nathaniel Hawthorne and later Melville, who were intent on this singular purpose. Superficially, the essay seems to be a fervent tract promoting the objectives of the Young America literary camp for a unique style of nationalist Romantic realism. Herman Melville’s review, “Hawthorne and His Mosses” stands at an enigmatic phase in his career as a writer that that needs to be put into perspective.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |