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Selected Bibliography Introduction John Adams and Abigail Adams Elizabeth Ashbridge H. H. Brackenridge Charles Brockden Brown William Hill Brown William Byrd The Connecticut Wits

St. Jean De Crevecoeur Jonathan Edwards Olaudah Equiano Hannah Webster Foster Benjamin Franklin Philip Freneau Jupiter Hammon Thomas Jefferson Sarah Kemble Knight

Judith Sargent Murray Samuel Occum Thomas Paine Francisco Palou Susanna Rowson Royall Tyler Mercy Otis Warren Phillis Wheatley John Woolman

SEA Members’ Favorite early American novels as of July 2019

Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Modern Chivalry (“important, if flawed”)
Charles Brockden Brown, Wieland (“crazy”), Arthur Mervyn (“global commerce” and “raced bodies,” pairs nicely with Wollstonecraft Mary and Maria and M. Shelley Matilda), and Edgar Huntly ( “Poe before Poe,” “so very clever”)
The Female American; Or, The Adventures of Unca Eliza Winkfield
Lydia Maria Child (“infinitely fascinating”), Hobomok and Romance of the Republic
James Fenimore Cooper, The Pioneers (“realism and romance,” “contemporary relevance”)
Hannah Webster Foster, The Coquette
Jesse L. Holman, The Prisoners of Niagara, or Errors of Education
Peter Markoe, The Algerine Spy in Pennsylvania (“global context”)
Susanna Rowson, Charlotte Temple (“dramatizes coercion and its aftermath”)
Rebecca Rush, Kelroy (“the villain[ess], of course!”)
Leonora Sansay, Secret History
Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Hope Leslie (“engaging,” “perfect segue to teaching William Apess’ A Son of the Forest”)
Tabitha Tenney, Female Quixotism (“progressive and uncompromising,” “so very funny”)
Royall Tyler, The Algerine Captive
Sukey Vickery, Emily Hamilton
Sally Wood, Amelia
 
And a few selections from after my (arbitrary and unstated) cut-off date of 1840: Arthur Gordon Pym, The Hidden Hand, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Moby-Dick, Gravity’s Rainbow, Beloved, Portrait of a Lady, and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party. Ana Schwartz made a great case for Edith Wharton.
 
Marion Rust
Editor, Early American Literature
https://english.as.uky.edu/eal-journal
Professor
Department of English
University of Kentucky