The Mentor
“A Wise and Faithful Guide and Friend”
| Vol. 1 | No. 25 |
AMERICAN NOVELISTS
HENRY JAMES WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS THOMAS NELSON PAGE | JAMES LANE ALLEN WINSTON CHURCHILL OWEN WISTER |
By HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE
This group of distinguished novelists may be divided into four smaller groups, not only in time, but in selection and treatment of subjects. Mr. James and Mr. Howells are now the senior members of the literary fraternity in this country, and have not only American but European reputations. Only three novelists before them attained this distinction. The earliest of these, Cooper, is still read in many parts of the world, and in little German villages boys call themselves “Cooper Indians,” and play at oldtime savage warfare. The author of the “Leatherstocking Tales” wrote the first original American novel, and Hawthorne wrote the first American romance. The first described the manners and customs of a people whom he knew at first hand, but whom Europe knew only by hearsay; the second analyzed the motives and described the workings of the Puritan spirit, and showed how the consciousness of sin worked itself out in the Puritan character. The theme was new, and the manner of treating it was both effective and beautiful—and Hawthorne remains the most artistic writer this country has produced.