The Origins of American Literature
Am governmental system and the basic principles of republican theory. Jefferson also
wrote the Declaration of Independence (1776), which identifies the moment in which
the nation was born, and in stirring language explains the reasons for its birth.
In the post-Revolution period the search began for a characteristic Am lit. The most
important writers of the early 19th cent were Washington Irving (1783-1859), James
Fennimore Cooper (1789-1851) and Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849).
Irving's first venture into lit was a collaboration with his brother and a friend on the
Salmagundi Papers (1807-1808), a serial publication, later reissued as a book, which
depicted life in New York in the first decade of the cent. This was followed by A History
of New York (1809), a satirical attack on the upper class old Dutch families of New York.
Irving's early works were very heavily influenced by neo-classical satirists such as
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