CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN
Charles Brockden Brown’s stories were published still earlier; and he is often spoken of as the predecessor of Hawthorne. Like Francis Hopkinson, he was a Philadelphian, who studied law and made literature his profession. His first novel, “Wieland, or The Transformation,” was a story of ventriloquism, very artificial, but skilful and interesting. This was followed by a much more striking tale, “Edgar Huntley,” a tale of terror, which seemed to predict Poe, and this in turn by three or four other novels. Brown was an industrious man, and his activity extended into other fields. He published a number of pamphlets and semiscientific treatises. His work had little permanent value. It was sentimental and unreal, and lacked art; but its morbid psychology and a certain kind of intensity gave it popularity at the time.
PAULDING’S HOME AT PLEASANT VALLEY, N. Y.