peculiar interest to the student of the literature produced in
the United States. Is this literature "American," or is it
"English literature in America," as Professor Wendell and other
scholars have preferred to call it? I should be one of the last
to minimize the enormous influence of England upon the mind and
the writing of all the English-speaking countries of the globe.
Yet it will be one of the purposes of the present book to
indicate the existence here, even in colonial times, of a point
of view differing from that of the mother country, and destined
to differ increasingly with the lapse of time. Since the
formation of our Federal Union, in particular, the books produced
in the United States have tended to exhibit certain
characteristics which differentiate them from the books produced
in other English speaking countries. We must beware, of course,
of what the late Charles Francis Adams once called the
"filiopietistic" fallacy. The "American" qualities of our
literature must be judged in connection with its conformity to
universal standards of excellence. Tested by any universal
standard, "The Scarlet Letter" is a notable romance. It has won a
secure place among the literature written by men of English blood
and speech. Yet to overlook the peculiarly local or provincial
characteristics of this remarkable story is to miss the secret of
its inspiration. It could have been written only by a New
Englander, in the atmosphere of a certain epoch.

Our task, then, in this rapid review of the chief interpreters of
the American spirit in literature, is a twofold one. We are
primarily concerned with a procession of men, each of whom is
interesting as an individual and as a writer. But we cannot watch
the individuals long without perceiving the general direction of