George Lippard (April 10, 1822February 9, 1854) was a 19th-century American novelist, journalist, playwright, social activist, and labor organizer. He was a popular author in antebellum America.
A friend of
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
, Lippard advocated a socialist political philosophy and sought justice for the working class in his writings. He founded a secret benevolent society, Brotherhood of the Union, investing in it all the trappings of a religion; the society, a precursor to labor organizations, survived until 1994. He authored two principal kinds of stories:
Gothic tales about the immorality, horror, vice, and debauchery of large cities, such as ''The Monks of Monk Hall'' (1844), reprinted as ''
The Quaker City'' (1844); and
historical fiction
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...
of a type called romances, such as ''Blanche of Brandywine'' (1846), ''Legends of Mexico'' (1847), and the popular ''Legends of the Revolution'' (1847). Both kinds of stories, sensational and immensely popular when written, are mostly forgotten today. Lippard died at the age of 31 in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
on February 9, 1854.
Life and work
Early life
George Lippard was born on April 10, 1822, near Yellow Springs, in
West Nantmeal Township, Pennsylvania
West Nantmeal Township is a township in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The population was 2,170 at the 2010 census. It and East Nantmeal Township were originally part of a single Nantmeal Township, which was divided in 1739.
History
Nantmeal wa ...
, on the farm of his father, Daniel B. Lippard. The family moved to Philadelphia two years later, shortly after his father was injured in a farming accident. Young Lippard grew up in Philadelphia, in
Germantown Germantown or German Town may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Germantown, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region
United States
* Germantown, California, the former name of Artois, a census-designated place in Glenn County
* Ge ...
(presently part of the city of Philadelphia), and
Rhinebeck, New York
Rhinebeck is a village (New York), village in the Rhinebeck (town), New York, town of Rhinebeck in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 2,657 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie, New York, Poughkeepsie– ...
(where he attended the Classical Academy). After considering a career in the
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
religious ministry and rejecting it because of a "contradiction between theory and practice" of Christianity, he began the study of law, which he also abandoned, as it was incompatible with his beliefs about human justice. Following the death of his father in 1837, Lippard spent some time living like a homeless bohemian, working odd jobs and living in abandoned buildings and studios. Life on Philadelphia's streets gave him firsthand knowledge of the effects the
Panic of 1837
The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major depression, which lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down, westward expansion was stalled, unemployment went up, and pessimism abound ...
had on the urban poor. Distressed by the misery he witnessed, "Lippard decided to become a writer for the masses."
Early writing career
![GLippard-young](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/GLippard-young.jpg)
Lippard then commenced employment with the Philadelphia daily
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...
''
Spirit of the Times
The ''Spirit of the Times: A Chronicle of the Turf, Agriculture, Field Sports, Literature and the Stage'' was an American weekly newspaper published in New York City. The paper aimed for an upper-class readership made up largely of sportsmen. ...
''. His lively sketches and police court reporting drew readers and increased the paper's circulation. He was but twenty when ''
The Saturday Evening Post
''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...
'' published his first story, a "legend" called "Philippe de Agramont."
Lippard wrote what he called "historical fictions and legends", which he defined as "history in its details and delicate tints, with the bloom and dew yet fresh upon it, yet told to us, in the language of passion, of poetry, of home!"
[Pfitzer, Gregory M. ''Popular History and the Literary Marketplace, 1840–1920''. ]University of Massachusetts Press
The University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The press was founded in 1963, publishing scholarly books and non-fiction. The press imprint is overseen by an interdisciplinar ...
, 2008: 43. These works, then, were not so much about what happened, as what Lippard believed ought to have happened. Some of his legendary romances include: ''The Ladye Annabel'' (1842); Bel of Prairie Eden'' (1848); ''Blanche of Brandywine'' (1846); ''The Nazarene'' (1846); ''Legends of Mexico'' (1847); and ''Legends of the Revolution'' (1847). One of the particular ''Legends of the Revolution'' was called "The Fourth of July, 1776," though it has come down to us under the nam
"Ring, Grandfather, Ring" The story was first published on January 2, 1847, in the Philadelphia ''Saturday Courier'' before being collected in ''Washington and His Generals''. The story introduced "a tall slender man... dressed in a dark robe", left unidentified, whose stirring speech inspired the faint-hearted members of the
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress was a late-18th-century meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolutionary War. The Congress was creating a new country it first named "United Colonies" and in 1 ...
to sign the
Declaration of Independence
A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the ...
. After the document was signed, Lippard claimed, independence was announced to the people by the ringing of the
Liberty Bell
The Liberty Bell, previously called the State House Bell or Old State House Bell, is an iconic symbol of American independence, located in Philadelphia. Originally placed in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House (now renamed Independence ...
on the 4th of July, causing its fabled crack, though this event did not happen. Another of Lippard's legends misrepresents somewhat the beliefs of
Johannes Kelpius
Johannes Kelpius (; 1667 – 1708) was a German Pietist, mystic, musician, and writer. He was also interested in the occult, botany, and astronomy. He came to believe with his followers – called the "Society of the Woman in the Wilderness" – ...
and his community of followers along the
Wissahickon Creek
Wissahickon Creek is a tributary of the Schuylkill River in Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties, Pennsylvania.
Wissahickon Creek rises in Montgomery County, runs approximately 23 miles (37 km) passing through and dividing Northwest ...
;
John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892) was an American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Frequently listed as one of the fireside poets, he was influenced by the Scottish poet ...
relied on Lippard's legend about Kelpius for his long poem ''
Pennsylvania Pilgrim''. Another of Lippard's legends, "The Dark Eagle," about
Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold ( Brandt (1994), p. 4June 14, 1801) was an American military officer who served during the Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of major general before defect ...
, was received uncritically by later readers, though few of its contemporary readers would have done the same. Many of the legends were republished in the ''Saturday Courier''; another edition ''Legends of the Revolution'' was published 22 years after his death in 1876.
''The Quaker City''
George Lippard's most notorious story, ''
The Quaker City, or The Monks of Monk Hall'' (1845) is a lurid and thickly plotted exposé of city life in antebellum Philadelphia. Highly anti-capitalistic in its message, Lippard aimed to expose the hypocrisy of the Philadelphia elite, as well as the darker underside of American capitalism and urbanization. Lippard's Philadelphia is populated with parsimonious bankers, foppish drunkards, adulterers, sadistic murderers, reverend rakes, and confidence men, all of whom the author depicts as potential threats to the Republic. Considered the first
muckraking
The muckrakers were reform-minded journalists, writers, and photographers in the Progressive Era in the United States (1890s–1920s) who claimed to expose corruption and wrongdoing in established institutions, often through sensationalist publ ...
novel,
[Ehrlich, Eugene and Gorton Carruth. ''The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to the United States''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982: 205. ] it was the best-selling novel in America before ''
Uncle Tom's Cabin
''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U. ...
''. When it appeared in print in 1845, it sold 60,000 copies in its first year and at least 10,000 copies throughout the next decade. Its success made Lippard one of the highest-paid American writers of the 1840s, earning $3,000 to $4,000 a year.
''The Quaker City'' is partly based on the March 1843 New Jersey trial of Singleton Mercer.
[Cleman, John. "Irresistible Impulses: Edgar Allan Poe and the Insanity Defense", collected in ''Bloom's BioCritiques: Edgar Allan Poe'', edited by Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2001: 67 ] Mercer was accused of the murder of Mahlon Hutchinson Heberton aboard the Philadelphia-Camden ferry vessel ''John Finch'' on February 10, 1843. Heberton had seduced (or raped - sources differ upon this point), Mercer's sixteen-year-old sister. Mercer entered a
plea of insanity
The insanity defense, also known as the mental disorder defense, is an affirmative defense by excuse in a criminal case, arguing that the defendant is not responsible for their actions due to an episodic psychiatric disease at the time of the ...
and was found not guilty. The trial took place only two months after
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
's short story "
The Tell-Tale Heart
"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1843. It is related by an unnamed narrator who endeavors to convince the reader of the narrator's sanity while simultaneously describing a murder the n ...
," a story based on other murder trials employing the insanity defense; Mercer's defense attorney openly acknowledged the "object of ridicule" which an insanity defense had become. Nonetheless, a verdict of not-guilty was rendered after less than an hour of jury deliberation, and the family and the lawyer of young Mercer were greeted by a cheering crowd while disembarking from the same Philadelphia-Camden ferry line on which the killing took place. Lippard employed the seduction aspect of the trial as a metaphor for the oppression of the helpless. ''The Monks of Monk Hall'' outraged some readers with its lingering descriptions of "heaving bosoms" but such descriptions also drew readers and he sold many books. A stage version was prepared but banned in Philadelphia for fear of riots.
[ Though many were offended by the story's lurid elements, the book also prompted social and legal reform and may have led to New York's 1849 enactment of an anti-seduction law.
Lippard took advantage of the popularity of his novel ''The Quaker City'' to establish his own weekly periodical, also named ''The Quaker City''. He advertised it as "A Popular Journal, devoted to such matters of Literature and news as will interest the great mass of readers". Its first issue was published December 30, 1848.
]
Social reformer
In 1850 Lippard founded the Brotherhood of the Union (later the Brotherhood of America), a secret benevolent society aiming to eliminate poverty and crime by removing the social ills causing them. His own title in the organization was "Supreme Washington".[Bryan, William Alfred. ''George Washington in American Literature 1775–1865''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1952: 214.] His legend-like vision was that such an organization would establish a means for men to sincerely follow a living religion. The organization grew and achieved a membership of 30,000 by 1917, but declined some time thereafter, ceasing to exist in 1994.
He was a popular lecturer, journalist, and dramatist, renowned for both the stories he wrote and for his relentless advocacy of social justice. He was a participant in the National Reform Congress (1848) and the Eighth National Industrial Congress (1853), and in 1850 founded the Brotherhood of the Union. He was not, however, immune from some of the particular prejudices of his day. ''The Monks of Monk Hall'' (also published as ''Quaker City'') portrays a malevolent hump-backed Jewish character, Gabriel Van Gelt, one who forges, swindles, blackmails, and commits murder for money. Lippard's portrayal of blacks also reflects some of the stereotypes of his day; this is certainly hinted at in the lengthy full title of one of his sensational crime novels: ''The killers: A narrative of real life in Philadelphia: in which the deeds of the killers, and the great riot of election night, October 10, 1849, are minutely described : Also, the adventures of three notorious individuals, who took part in that riot, to wit: Cromwell D. Z. Hicks, the leader of the Killers; Don Jorge, one of the leaders of the Cuban expedition; and "The Bulgine," the celebrated Negro Desperado of Moyamensing''. A ''bulgine'' is a derisive term for a nautical steam engine or a small dockside locomotive; the term is recalled in several folk songs
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has be ...
, including the capstan shanty "Eliza Lee", also known as "Clear the Track, Let the Bulgine Run".
Unlike many labor reformers of his time, Lippard was an enthusiastic supporter of the Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...
. In an 1848 speech, he argued that Western expansion could provide working-class Americans with an opportunity to establish themselves as landholders, and thus to escape the oppressive conditions of urban factories. His novels ''Legends of Mexico: The Battles of Taylor'' (1847) and '' 'Bel of Prairie Eden'' (1848) used Gothic conventions to represent the war as a heroic fulfillment of the American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
's egalitarian promise. Later in his career, Lippard seemed to grow more ambivalent about the war, and in 1851 he published a sketch called "A Sequel to the Legends of Mexico" in which he expressed a concern that the way he depicted the conflict in his novels might "lead young hearts into an appetite for blood-shedding".
Literary life
Many of his stories dealt with the early leaders of the United States, including George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
and Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold ( Brandt (1994), p. 4June 14, 1801) was an American military officer who served during the Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of major general before defect ...
. Lippard particularly admired Washington and devoted more pages to him than any other writer of fiction up to that time, though his stories are often sensationalized and immersed in Gothic elements.[ In one of his later stories Lippard relates that George Washington rises from his tomb at ]Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States George Washington and his wife, Martha. The estate is on ...
to take pilgrimage of nineteenth-century America accompanied by an immortal Roman named Adonai. The pair travel to Valley Forge
Valley Forge functioned as the third of eight winter encampments for the Continental Army's main body, commanded by General George Washington, during the American Revolutionary War. In September 1777, Congress fled Philadelphia to escape the B ...
where they see a strange, huge building and hear chaotic, frightening noises. The building turns out to be a factory
A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...
.
George Lippard married Rose Newman on May 15, 1847. In an unconventional ceremony they were married outdoors in the evening of a new moon while standing on Mom Rinker's Rock Mom Rinker's Rock is a scenic outlook in Wissahickon Valley Park along the Wissahickon Creek in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located on a ridge on the eastern side of the park just a little north of the Walnut Lane Br ...
above the Wissahickon Creek
Wissahickon Creek is a tributary of the Schuylkill River in Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties, Pennsylvania.
Wissahickon Creek rises in Montgomery County, runs approximately 23 miles (37 km) passing through and dividing Northwest ...
. That year, Lippard moved to 965 North Sixth Street, a home in which Poe had used as his final home in Philadelphia before moving to New York.[
His friendship with ]Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
is notable. Poe gave Lippard credit for rescuing him from the streets on several occasions. He was more reserved about Lippard's artistic merits; possibly Poe's own artistic standards were too high to admit praise of Lippard's writing. This is ironic, because everything we generally associate with Poe was even more intense in Lippard's style. Lippard wrote an effusive obituary after Poe's death.
Final years
George Lippard's wife died on May 21, 1851 shortly after the March death of their infant son. Their daughter had died in 1850 at the age of 18 months. In 1852, Lippard spoke in Philadelphia on the 115th birthday of Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
, attempting to redeem his political legacy and reputation, which had faltered somewhat due to his book ''The Age of Reason
''The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology'' is a work by English and American political activist Thomas Paine, arguing for the philosophical position of deism. It follows in the tradition of 18th-century Briti ...
''. In his version of Paine's life, Paine was responsible for convincing John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
, Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Rush (April 19, 1813) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father of the United States who signed the United States Declaration of Independence, and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, ...
, and Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...
to seek American independence. He was also caught in a controversy with Philadelphia publisher, who incorrectly claimed that Lippard had agreed to publish exclusively with him. Other distributors suffered as a result and Lippard referred to Peterson as a "mercenary creature" who had "made his thousands of dollars off of me".
Death
Always frail, Lippard suffered from tuberculosis for the last years of his life. Confined to his house with the disease, Lippard spent the final months of his life writing a newspaper story protesting against the Fugitive Slave Law. He died on February 9, 1854, at his home, then 1509 Lawrence Street,[ shortly before attaining the age of 32. His last words were to his physician: "Is this death?" He was buried at Odd Fellows Cemetery at 24th and Diamond Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but his remains and an impressiv]
burial monument
were years later removed along with many other graves from this cemetery to Lawnview Memorial Park
Lawnview Memorial Park, also referred to as Lawnview Cemetery, is a cemetery located at 500 Huntingdon Pike in Rockledge, Pennsylvania. It is 82 acres in size and is managed by the Odd Fellows Cemetery Company of Philadelphia. It contains the reb ...
, an Odd Fellows Cemetery in Rockledge, Pennsylvania
Rockledge is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,638 as of the 2020 census. Rockledge is surrounded by Abington Township, and Philadelphia, and shares a ZIP Code with Jenkintown.
Geography
Accordin ...
, just outside Northeast Philadelphia. His current monument was added by the Brotherhood of the Union.[
]
Writing style and response
Lippard achieved substantial commercial success in his lifetime by purposely targeting a young working-class readership by using sensationalism, violence, and social criticism. Lippard acknowledged the influence of Charles Brockden Brown
Charles Brockden Brown (January 17, 1771 – February 22, 1810) was an American novelist, historian, and editor of the Early National period. He is generally regarded by scholars as the most important American novelist before James Fenimore C ...
(1771–1810) on his writing and dedicated several books to him.
Lippard's writing has occasional glimmers of style, but his words are more memorable for quantity than for quality, and his writing for its financial success than for its literary style. He proved that one could make a living by wordsmithing. If he is remembered at all today, it is more for his social thinking, which was progressive, than for his language and literary style. One contemporary reviewer noted Lippard's efforts as a social critic: "It was ''his'' business to attack social wrongs, to drag away purple garments, and expose to our shivering gaze the rottenness of vice—to take tyranny by the throat and strangle it to death."[
Nonetheless, the year before Lippard's death, ]Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
mentioned him in a letter to home. During the short time Twain spent in Philadelphia working for ''The Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...
'', he wrote: "Unlike New York, I like this Philadelphia amazingly, and the people in it . . . . I saw small steamboats, with their signs up--'For Wissahickon and Manayunk 25 cents.' Geo. Lippard, in his Legends of Washington and his Generals, has rendered the Wissahickon sacred in my eyes, and I shall make that trip, as well as one to Germantown, soon . . . ."
Many of Lippard's fictions were received as historical fact. Probably the most famous person to quote a historical ''romance'' by George Lippard as though it were actual history is the late President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
, in a commencement address at Eureka College
Eureka College is a private liberal arts college in Eureka, Illinois, that is related by covenant to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Enrollment in 2018 was approximately 567 students.
Eureka College was the third college in the Unite ...
on June 7, 1957. Reagan quoted from George Lippard's "Speech of the Unknown" in ''Washington and His Generals: or, Legends of the Revolution'' (1847), which relates how a speech by an anonymous delegate was the final motivation that spurred delegates to sign the Declaration of Independence
A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the ...
in 1776.
After Lippard became successful as a novelist, he tried to use popular literature as a vehicle for social reform.[Streeby, Shelley. ''American Sensations: Class, Empire, and the Production of Popular Culture''. University of California Press, 2002: 42. ]
Works
*''Philippe de Agramont'' (1842 July in ''Saturday Evening Post'')
*''Adrian, the Neophyte'' (1843)
*''The Battle-Day of Germantown'' (1843)
*''Herbert Tracy; or, The Legend of the Black Rangers. A Romance of the Battle-field of Germantown'' (1844)
*''The Ladye Annabel; or, The Doom of the Poisoner. A Romance by an Unknown Author'' (1844)
*''The Quaker City; or, The Monks of Monk Hall'' (anon., 1844)
full text page images
a
openlibrary.org
*''Blanche of Brandywine'' (1846)
on-line text
at Google Book Search
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
)
*''The Nazarene; or, The Last of Washington'' (1846)
*''The Rose of Wissahikon; or, The Fourth of July, 1776. A Romance, Embracing the Secret History of the Declaration of Independence'' (1847)
*''Washington and His Generals; or, Legends of the Revolution'' (1847)
on-line text
at Google Book Search
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
)
*''Legends of Mexico'' (1847)
*''Bel of Prairie Eden: A Romance of Mexico'' (1848)
*''Paul Ardenheim, the Monk of Wissahikon'' (1848)
*''Memoirs of a Preacher: A Revelation of the Church and the Home'' (1849)
*''The Man with the Mask: A Sequel to the Memoirs of a Preacher. A Revelation of the Church and the Home'' (1849)
*''Washington and His Men: A New Series of Legends of the Revolution'' (1850)
*''The Killers: A Narrative of Real Life in Philadelphia By a Member of the Philadelphia Bar'' (1850)
*''The Author Hero of the American Revolution'' (n.d.)
*''The Bank Director's Son'' (1851)
*''Adonai, the Pilgrim of Eternity'' (1851)
*''Mysteries of the Pulpit; or, A Revelation of the Church and the Home'' (1851)
*''Thomas Paine, Author-Soldier of the American Revolution'' (1852)
*''The Midnight Queen; or Leaves from New York Life'' (1853)
online page images
a
Wright American Fiction
*''The Empire City; or, New York by night'' (1853)
*''New York: Its Upper Ten and Lower Million'' (1854)
online page images
a
Wright American Fiction
on-line text
at Google Book Search
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
)
*''Eleanor; or, Slave catching in Philadelphia'' (1854)
*''The Life and Choice Writings of George Lippard'' (1855)
*''The Legends of the American Revolution “1776”'' (1876)
Works
"Rider of the Black Horse"
by George Lippard
"A Case of Starvation""> "A Case of Starvation"
by George Lippard in ''The Gallows, the Prison, and the Poor-house: A Plea for Humanity'' by George Washington Quinby at Google Book Search
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
See also
* Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...
* Plantation era
In the history of the Southern United States, the Antebellum Period (from la, ante bellum, lit= before the war) spanned the end of the War of 1812 to the start of the American Civil War in 1861. The Antebellum South was characterized by the ...
References
External links
George Lippard at Literary Gothic
*
Open Library e-facsimile
of ''Quaker City''
*
of ''Quaker City''
"Monks, Devils and Quakers The lurid life and times of George Lippard, Philadelphia's original bestselling novelist"
by Edward Pettit in the Philadelphia ''City Paper'', March 22, 2007.
*
by Emilio De Grazia in ''Poe Studies'', June 1973
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lippard, George
1822 births
1854 deaths
19th-century American novelists
American male novelists
American socialists
19th-century deaths from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis deaths in Pennsylvania
People from Chester County, Pennsylvania
Romanticism
Writers from Philadelphia
19th-century American dramatists and playwrights
19th-century American journalists
American male journalists
American male dramatists and playwrights
Burials at Lawnview Memorial Park
Novelists from Pennsylvania