ENGLISH 218: A Survey of American Literature, Beginnings to 1865
Here on the English 218 webpage you will find links to pages that will give you access to
historical and cultural backgrounds as well as texts for further reading. In every case I
have attempted to select the most readable and course-appropriate sources. Please help us by notifying me of any dead links, etc. at
t-scherman@neiu.edu.
The Heath Anthology has its own website
(click here to go there),
where you can find nearly all the writers and links to their various works. This site will
always be a great place to start, whether you want more information or if you want to re-read
the Heath introduction to any particular author (they're all reprinted on the site, but not
all the texts are available there). Bear in mind the Heath editors' selections are not always
the best or most current ones for our particular course.
Alvar de Vaca, Samuel de Champlain, John Smith, James Revel
John Winthrop, William Bradford, Ann Bradstreet, Thomas Morton, Edward Taylor, Mary Rowlandson
Cotton Mather, Elizabeth Ashbridge, John Woolman, Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin
John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Philip Freneau, Mercy Otis Warren
William Cullen Bryant, Edgar Allan Poe
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Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller
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Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Lydia Maria Child, John Greenleaf Whittier, William Lloyd Garrison
The Earliest Professionals
Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Herman Melville, Fanny Fern
Author: Timothy H. Scherman
t-scherman@neiu.edu
Northeastern Illinois University (last updated 8/28/05)