A History of American Literature

This landmark 1919 survey represents one of the earliest attempts to codify American literature as a distinct tradition rather than a colonial offshoot of English letters. Boynton traces the development from colonial beginnings through the early twentieth century, illuminating how American writers forged a unique voice in response to the nation's distinctive social, political, and religious circumstances. The book pays particular attention to the foundational tension between Puritan spiritual questioning and the democratic, pragmatic impulses that would come to define American literature. Through careful analysis of major figures from Bradstreet and Edwards through Whitman, Twain, and the modernists, Boynton demonstrates how American letters reflect the nation's evolving character. As a period document from the era when the American canon was first being formally constructed, this work reveals which authors had achieved canonical status by the century's end and how early twentieth-century scholars understood the peculiar qualities of American literary tradition. It remains valuable both as literary history and as a window into the formation of American literary studies itself.