A Literary Legacy

New Englanders have generated whole libraries, from the earliest days of hellfire-and-brimstone Puritan sermons to Stephen King's horror novels set in fictional Maine villages.

Among the more enduring writings from New England's earliest days are the poems of Massachusetts Bay Colony resident Anne Bradstreet (ca. 1612-72) and the sermons and essays of Increase Mather (1639-1723) and his son, Cotton Mather (1663-1728).

After the American Revolution, Hartford dictionary writer Noah Webster (1758-1843) issued a call to American writers: "America must be as independent in literature as she is in politics, as famous for arts as for arms." He struck an early blow for pragmatism by taking the "u" out of British words like "labour" and "honour."

The tales of Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-64) captivated a public eager for a native literature. His most famous story, The Scarlet Letter, is a narrative about morality set in 17th-century Boston, but he wrote numerous other books that wrestled with themes of sin and guilt, often set in the emerging republic.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-82), the Portland poet who settled in Cambridge, caught the attention of the public with evocative narrative poems focusing on distinctly American subjects. His popular works included "The Courtship of Miles Standish," "Paul Revere's Ride," and "Hiawatha." Poetry in the mid-19th century was the equivalent of Hollywood movies today -- Longfellow could be considered his generation's Steven Spielberg (apologies to literary scholars).

The zenith of New England literature occurred in the mid- and late 19th century with the Transcendentalist movement. These writers and thinkers included Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82), Bronson Alcott (1799-1888), and Henry David Thoreau (1817-62). They fashioned a way of viewing nature and society that was uniquely American. They rejected the rigid doctrines of the Puritans, and found sustenance in self-examination, the glories of nature, and a celebration of individualism. Perhaps the best-known work to emerge from this period was Thoreau's Walden.

Among other regional writers who left a lasting mark on American literature was Emily Dickinson (1830-86), a native of Amherst, MA, whose precise and enigmatic poems placed her in the front rank of American poets. James Russell Lowell (1819-91), of Cambridge, was an influential poet, critic, and editor. Later poets were imagist Amy Lowell (1874-1925), from Brookline, MA, and Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), from Camden, ME.

The bestselling Uncle Tom's Cabin, the book Abraham Lincoln half-jokingly accused of starting the Civil War, was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-86) in Brunswick, ME. She lived much of her life as a neighbor of Mark Twain (himself an adopted New Englander) in Hartford, CT. Another bestseller was the children's book Little Women, written by Louisa May Alcott (1832-88), whose father, Bronson, was part of the Transcendentalist movement.

New England's later role in the literary tradition may best be symbolized by the poet Robert Frost (1874-1963). Though born in California, he lived his life in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. In the New England landscape and community, he found a lasting grace and rich metaphors for life. (Among his most famous lines: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.")

New England continues to attract writers drawn to the noted educational institutions and the privacy of rural life. Prominent contemporary writers and poets who live in the region at least part of the year include John Updike, Nicholson Baker, Christopher Buckley, P. J. O'Rourke, Bill Bryson, John Irving, and Donald Hall. Maine is also the home of Stephen King, who is considered not so much a novelist as Maine's leading industry.