Fred Lewis Pattee: 4 books

Fred Lewis Pattee, long regarded as the father of American literary study, also wrote fiction. Originally published in 1905 by Henry Holt, The House of the Black Ring was Pattee’s second novel—a local-color romance set in the mountains of Central Pennsylvania. The book’s plot is driven by family...

This pioneering history, published in 1915, championed the study of American literature.  In its preface, Pattee boldly writes, "One can say of the period . . . that the great mass of its writings could have been produced nowhere else but in the United States." Mark Twain, Bret Harte, Walt Whitman, southern poets, and the main themes of American literature—all are deservedly mentioned here.

American literature in the larger sense of the term began with Irving, and, if we count The Sketch Book as the beginning, the centennial year of its birth is yet four years hence. It has been a custom, especially among the writers of text-books, to divide this century into periods, and all have agreed...

A History of American Literature Since 1870 It has been our object to determine this new period and to study its distinguishing characteristics. We have divided the literary history of the century into three periods, denominating them as the Knickerbocker Period, the New England Period, and...