To the department of Biography, Jared Sparks has made many valuable contributions. Washington Irving's "Life and Voyages of Columbus" and "Life of Washington" have gained a popularity as extensive as the fame of this charming writer. Mrs. Kirkland, also, has written a popular "Life of Washington." The biographies and histories of J.T. Headley are remarkable for a vivacity and energy, which have given them great popularity. The "Biographical and Historical Studies" of G.W. Greene, Randall's "Life of Jefferson," Parton's Biographies of Aaron Burr and other celebrated men, Mrs. Ellet's "Women of the Revolution" and "Women Artists in all Ages," and Mrs. Hale's "Sketches of Distinguished Women in all Ages," are among the numerous works belonging to this department.
The restlessness of the American character finds a mode of expression in the love of travel and adventure, and within the last thirty years no nation has contributed to literature more interesting books of travel than the United States. Flint's "Wanderings in the Valley of the Mississippi," Schoolcraft's "Discoveries and Adventures in the Northwest," Irving's "Astoria," and Fremont's Reports are instructive and entertaining accounts of the West. The "Incidents of Travel" of John L. Stephens (1805-1857) has had remarkable success in Europe as well as in this country. The adventurous Arctic explorations of E.K. Kane (1822-1857) have elicited universal admiration for the interest of their descriptions and for the heroism and indomitable energy of the writer. These narratives have been followed by those of Hayes in the same field of adventure. The scientific explorations of E.G. Squier have thrown new light on the antiquities and ethnology of the aboriginal tribes of America. Wilkes's "Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition" and Perry's "Narrative of an Expedition to Japan" are full of scientific and general information. Lynch's "Exploration of the Dead Sea" and Herndon's "Valley of the Amazon" belong to the same class. Bartlett's "Explorations in Texas and New Mexico" is interesting from the accuracy of its descriptions and the novelty of the scenes it describes. Among the numerous other entertaining books of travel in foreign countries are those of Bayard Taylor, who has left few parts of the world unvisited; Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast;" Curtis's "Nile Notes;" Norman's "Cities of Yucatan;" Dix's "Winter in Madeira;" Brace's "Hungary," "Home Life in Germany," and "Norse Folk;" Olmsted's "Travels in the Seaboard Slave States," and other works; Ross Browne's "Notes," Prime's "Boat" and "Tent Life," and "Letters of Irenaeus;" Slidell's "Year in Spain;" Willis's "Pencillings by the Way;" Hillard's "Six Months in Italy" and "Letters;" "Memories" and "Souvenirs," by Catherine M. Sedgwick, Sarah Haight, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Grace Greenwood, and Octavia Walton Le Vert.
2. ORATORY.—The public speeches of a nation's chief legislators are shining landmarks of its policy and lucid developments of the character and genius of its institutions. Of the statesmen of the present century, the most eminent are Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. Daniel Webster (1782- 1852) is acknowledged to be one of the greatest men America has produced. His speeches and forensic arguments constitute a characteristic as well as an intrinsically valuable and interesting portion of our native literature, and some of his orations on particular occasions are everywhere recognized as among the greatest instances of genius in this branch of letters to be met with in modern times. The style of Webster is remarkable for its clearness and impressiveness, and rises occasionally to absolute grandeur. His dignity of expression, breadth and force of thought realize the ideal of a republican statesman; his writings, independent of their literary merit, are invaluable for the nationality of their tone and spirit.
The speeches of Henry Clay (1777-1852) are distinguished by a sincerity and warmth which were characteristic of the man, who united the gentlest affections with the pride of the haughtiest manhood. His style of oratory, full, flowing, and sensuous, was modulated by a voice of sustained power and sweetness and a heart of chivalrous courtesy, and his eloquence reached the heart of the whole nation.
The style of John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) was terse and condensed, and his eloquence, though sometimes impassioned, was always severe. He had great skill as a dialectician and remarkable power of analysis, and his works will have a permanent place in American literature. The writings and speeches of John Quincy Adams (1769-1848) are distinguished by universality of knowledge and independence of judgment, and they are repositories of rich materials for the historian and political philosopher. Benton's (1783-1858) "Thirty Years' View" of the working of the American government is a succession of historical pictures which will increase in value as the scenes they portray become more distant. Edward Everett (1794-1865), as an orator, has few living equals, and his occasional addresses and orations have become permanent memorials of many important occasions of public interest. Of the numerous other orators, eminent as rhetoricians or debaters, a few only can be named; among them are Legaré, Randolph, Choate, Sumner, Phillips, Preston, and Prentiss.
3. FICTION.—Romantic fiction found its first national development in the writings of James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851), and through his works American literature first became widely known in Europe. His nautical and Indian tales; his delineations of the American mind in its adventurous character, and his vivid pictures of the aborigines, and of forest and frontier life, from their freshness, power, and novelty, attracted universal attention, and were translated into the principal European languages as soon as they appeared. "The Spy," "The Pioneers," "The Last of the Mohicans," and numerous other productions of Cooper, must hold a lasting place in English literature.
The genial and refined humor of Washington Irving (1783-1859), his lively fancy and poetic imagination, have made his name a favorite wherever the English language is known. He depicts a great variety of scenes and character with singular skill and felicity, and his style has all the ease and grace, the purity and charm, that distinguish that of Goldsmith, with whom he may justly be compared. "The Sketch-Book" and "Knickerbocker's History of New York" are among the most admired of his earlier writings, and his later works have more than sustained his early fame.
The tales and prose sketches of N.P. Willis are characterized by genial wit, and a delicate rather than a powerful imagination, while beneath his brilliant audacities of phrase there is a current of original thought and genuine feeling. Commanding all the resources of passion, while he is at the same time master of all the effects of manner, in the power of ingenious and subtle comment on passing events, of sketching the lights and shadows which flit over the surface of society, of playful and felicitous portraiture of individual traits, and of investing his descriptions with the glow of vitality, this writer is unsurpassed.
Hawthorne is remarkable for the delicacy of his psychological insight, his power of intense characterization, and for his mastery of the spiritual and the supernatural. His genius is most at home when delineating the darker passages of life and the enactions of guilt and pain. He does not feel the necessity of time or space to realize his spells, and the early history of New England and its stern people have found no more vivid illustration than his pages afford. The style of Hawthorne is the pure colorless medium of his thought; the plain current of his language is always equable, full and unvarying, whether in the company of playful children, among the ancestral associations of family or history, or in grappling with the mysteries and terrors of the supernatural world. "The Scarlet Letter" is a psychological romance, a study of character in which the human heart is anatomized with striking poetic and dramatic power. "The House of the Seven Gables" is a tale of retribution and expiation, dating from the time of the Salem witchcraft. "The Marble Faun" is the most elaborate and powerfully drawn of his later works.
Edgar A. Poe (1811-1849) acquired much reputation as a writer of tales and many of his productions exhibit extraordinary metaphysical acuteness, and an imagination that delights to dwell in the shadowy confines of human experience, among the abodes of crime and horror. A subtle power of analysis, a minuteness of detail, a refinement of reasoning in the anatomy of mystery, give to his most improbable inventions a wonderful reality.