aside foreign influence and has found inspiration in American
traditions and institutions, the extent and richness of its literary
material have been made manifest.

The earliest examples of fiction in the United States were tentative
and lacking in originality. At the close of the eighteenth century,
Charles Brockden Brown began the career of the first American novelist
with "Wieland." His pecuniary necessities and the slight encouragement
offered at that time to American authors made it impossible for him to
afford the time and care essential to artistic finish. His novels are
of an imaginative and psychological character, often interesting in
parts from the intense mental excitement which they describe. They were
much admired by the English novelist Godwin, whose works they resemble
in intensity of conception and faultiness of execution. A novel called
"Charlotte Temple," by Susanna Rowson, obtained a wide circulation in
the beginning of the present century, due much more to its foundation
on a notorious scandal than to its own literary merit. "Modern
Chivalry; or the Adventures of Captain Farrago and Teague O'Reagan,
his Servant"--a poor imitation of "Don Quixote"--as a satire directed
against the Democratic party by H.H. Brackenridge. R.H. Dana's "Tom
Thornton" and "Paul Felton" have little claim to attention beyond the
excitement of their rather sensational stories.

But with the publication of "The Spy," Cooper opened a thoroughly
national vein, and began a literary career which showed how little
native genius need rely on foreign influence or on foreign subjects. He
described the stirring events and the moral heroism of the American
Revolution with patriotic sympathy and original literary power. He
touched the romantic chords of that great struggle with a delicacy
which met with a world-wide response. Not only did Americans feel that