Chapter 44. Rays diverging from a focus
- Poor quality of literary works opened market for imports
- different emphasis of printed matter
- relevance
- utility
- reader-interest
- universality of appeal
- a "transparent" reading matter, calling attention to its object and not itself
- literature of Western Europe
- a literature of the dominant classes
- written in dead and alien classical language
- prestige and power to chase with education to read and understand it
- Ancient knowledge
- a man of refinement should know an esoteric literature in Greek or Latin before coming to his own language, a practice which America reversed
- never gained widespread prestige in colonies
- Centers for reading along Atlantic seaboard
- bookish culture an import
- Americans looked to London
- cities along coast were separate funnels for dispersion of book culture
- no one city established an undisputed cultural dominance over cultural life
- no American London or Paris
- In early life of city, books were a numerous and profitable commodity
- central commercial position gave it power over the literary taste and reading matter of neighboring colonies
- a marked dominance of religious matter
- most important libraries owned by clergy
- no respectable non-theological collection until the late 18th century
- ministers, through sermons, spread knowledge of books
- books brought to Boston for a purpose
- titles from cheap bookstores on London bridge not to be found
- books for titillation never seen
- In the 18th century, the strong practical and didactic predominance passed
- early Boston's bookish characteristics
- narrow practical spirit
- literary culture too bland
- kept from becoming a cultural capital
- could have given America intellectual life a different turn
- Williamsburg, center of government, remained a sleepy village
- books in Virginia
- acquired from London on special order
- followed example of English gentleman
- thoroughly practical emphasis
- reading habits
- limited to aristocracy due to widespread illiteracy
- leading men themselves not particularly bookish or widely-read
- law books
- often made up largest group of books
- lawyers in short supply
- fortunes rested in land holdings
- legal claims often disputed
- English legal tradition very cement of community and knowledge of it was a necessity
- Virginia remoteness
- southern hospitality actually veiled loneliness
- literary tastes remained remarkably singular
- the more remote they were, the more eager they were to cling to old English ways
- Virginia mind vs. Puritan New England mind
- less crabbed and perverse
- equally hard-headed, legalistic, and unpoetic
- Virginia unwilling to accept cultural leadership from New England
- Planters' tastes not strong enough to dominate colonies
- No place for a literary class
- a breadth and liberality to book culture (foreign to Va. and N.E.)
- intellectual life offered room for active minds to range
- less policed by orthodoxy than New England
- less confined by narrow practical and political concerns than Virginians
- less dominated by tastes of a literary aristocracy than Londoners
- tolerant atmosphere encouraged interchange of books and ideas on many subjects
- Book trade did not dominate colonies but grew and flourished like no other
- Competition among booksellers helped disseminate books and ideas
- first American business to advertise extensively
- first to use modern dramatic methods of merchandising
- Robert Bell
- most enterprising of American merchandisers
- developed book auction into major American institution
- wit and antics were a staple Philadelphia entertainment
- could not have flourished in the more stifling literary climates of New England and Virginia
- Social library
- first success here
- early example of American ideal of learning with self-improvement
- earliest one grew out of Franklin's "Junto" (1727)
- declared purpose similar to later service organizations
- Library Company of Philadelphia
- lack of a literary class
- rich variety and equal competition of American town life
- no center of things
- lasted into 19th century until appearance of Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper
- Poor written account left of Revolution War
- a nation too preoccupied with practical facts of life to write
- a nation with a borrowed literature
- Attempts to produce a polite American literature proved stiff, self-conscious, and sterile
- best writing of colonial period
- pamphlets
- sermons
- newspaper columns
- thousands of miscellaneous items
Related posts:
The Americans: The Colonial Experience by Daniel Boorstin, Book 1. The Vision and the Reality Part 1. A City Upon a Hill: The Puritans of Massachusetts. (12/8/2014)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Part 2. The Inward Plantation: The Quakers of Pennsylvania. (12/10/2014)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Part 3. Victims of Philanthropy: The Settlers of Georgia. (12/13/2014)
The Americans; The Colonial Experience, Part 4. Transplanters: The Virginians. (12/14/2014)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 2. Viewpoints and Institutions. Part 5: An American Frame of Mind. (12/17/2014)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 2. Viewpoints and Institutions. Part 6: Educating the Community
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 2. Viewpoints and Institutions. Part 7: The Learned Lose Their Monopolies. (12/24/2014)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 2. Viewpoints and Institutions. Part 8: New World Medicine. (12/31/2014)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 2. Viewpoints and Institutions. Part 9: The Limits of American Science
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 3. Language and the Printed Word. Part 10: The New Uniformity. (1/6/2015)
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