American literary nationalism was a literary movement in the United States in the early-to mid 19th century, which consisted of American authors working towards the development of a distinct American literature. Literary figures such as

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely tran ...

William Cullen Bryant William Cullen Bryant (November 3, 1794 – June 12, 1878) was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the ''New York Evening Post''. Born in Massachusetts, he started his career as a lawyer but showed an interest in poetry ...

and

William Ellery Channing William Ellery Channing (April 7, 1780 – October 2, 1842) was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton (1786–1853), one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. Chann ...

advocated the creation of a definitively American form of literature with emphasis "on spiritual values and social usefulness." Longfellow wrote that "when we say that the literature of a country is national, we mean that it bears upon it the stamp of national character." Many authors of the time also advocated tying the literature to religion. These demands were also couched in a perceived contrast between the English author as a "well-off amateur writer...who writes in his spare time for personal amusement" and the American as a "professional author, writing out of economic necessity." The predominant rhetoric of early post-

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

literary nationalists advocated more expansive treatment of American characters, settings, and events, but expressed with a morality and style that matched British conventions. Critic and author John Neal was unique in this early period for demanding and experimenting with natural

diction Diction ( la, dictionem (nom. ), "a saying, expression, word"), in its original meaning, is a writer's or speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression in a poem or story.Crannell (1997) ''Glossary'', p. 406 In its common meanin ...

and "ungenteel and sometimes bluntly profane" American colloquialism. The predominant early rhetoric is exemplified by James Fenimore Cooper, who in 1828 claimed that "the literature of England and that of America must be fashioned after the same models." A forerunner of later American voices, Neal expressed the same year that "to succeed... he American writermust ''resemble'' nobody... emust be unlike all that have gone before im and issue "another Declaration of Independence, in the great ''Republic of Letters''." ''

The Portico ''The Portico: A Repository of Science & Literature'' (1816–1818) was a short-lived Baltimore literary journal founded and edited by Stephen Simpson and Tobias Watkins. The monthly journal was formed to publish the members of a small Baltimore l ...

'' magazine under Stephen Simpson and

Tobias Watkins Tobias Watkins (December 12, 1780 – November 14, 1855) was an American physician, editor, writer, educator, and political appointee in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area. He played leading roles in early American literary institutions such a ...

played an important early role in promoting literary nationalist criticism by Neal and others during its two-year run 1816–1818. ''

The United States Magazine and Democratic Review ''The United States Magazine and Democratic Review'' was a periodical published from 1837 to 1859 by John L. O'Sullivan. Its motto, "The best government is that which governs least", was famously paraphrased by Henry David Thoreau in "Resistance ...

'' under

John L. O'Sullivan John Louis O'Sullivan (November 15, 1813 – March 24, 1895) was an American columnist, editor, and diplomat who used the term "manifest destiny" in 1845 to promote the annexation of Texas and the Oregon Country to the United States. O'Sullivan ...

was a highly successful journal in the 1830s that published many American authors. O'Sullivan wrote in the magazine's first issue that "we have no national literature ..the vital principal of an American national literature must be democracy." He continued to say that "the voice of America might be made to produce a powerful and beneficial effect on the development of truth." In 1847, ''The Literary World'' was founded. Devoted to reviewing American works, it soon became one of America's most influential literary magazines. By 1850, the movement had generally succeeded. The authors involved in developing an American literature would continue to shape it for "the next 100 years".

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