The Bread and Cheese Club was a
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
-based intellectual group.
History
The club was founded by author
James Fenimore Cooper in 1824 and lasted at least until 1827. Also called "the Lunch" or "the Lunch Club", its membership of about 35 individuals consisted of American writers, editors, and artists, as well as scholars, educators, art patrons, merchants, lawyers, politicians, and other professionals who dabbled in the arts.
The literary part of the group derived from the
Knickerbocker Group, named after
Washington Irving
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
's ''
Knickerbocker
A Knickerbocker is a person from Manhattan (New York City, before 1898). A modern synonym is “New Yorker”.
Knickerbocker or Knickerbockers may also refer to:
People
* Knickerbocker (surname), including a list of people with the surname, and ...
’s
A History of New York __NOTOC__
''A History of New York'', subtitled ''From the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty'', is an 1809 literary parody on the history of New York City by Washington Irving. Originally published under the pseudonym Diedrich ...
'' (1809).
The club did not survive Coopers departure to Europe, but created enough solidarity among the members to go into conflict with
John Trumbulls
American Academy of the Fine Arts The American Academy of the Fine Arts was an art institution founded in 1802 in New York City, to encourage appreciation and teaching of the classical style. It exhibited copies of classical works and encouraged artists to emulate the classical in t ...
and found a rivalling Sketch Club that later turned into the
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...
.
[Edwin G. Burrows, Mike Wallace: Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, 469-470.]
See also
*
James Fenimore Cooper
*
Washington Irving
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
References
Notes
{{reflist
Sources
* Nelson F. Adkins: "James Fenimore Cooper and the Bread and Cheese Club," Modern Language Notes, Vol. 47, No. 2 (Feb., 1932): 71-79.
* Albert H. Marckwardt: "The Chronology and Personnel of the Bread and Cheese Club," American Literature, Vol. 6, No. 4 (January 1935): 389-399.
* The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica: Bread and Cheese Club
Bread and Cheese Club , American intellectual group* Edwin G. Burrows, Mike Wallace: Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898.
American artist groups and collectives
Clubs and societies in the United States