Charles Brockden Brown: Pioneer Voice of America [Hardcover]

David L. Clark (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Ams Pr Inc (June 1952)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0404015484
• ISBN-13: 978-0404015480
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,147,404 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brockden Brown, October 30, 2008

By 

Bomojaz (South Central PA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Charles Brockden Brown: Pioneer Voice of America (Hardcover)

I didn't know much about Brockden Brown before picking up this book, other than that he was America's first novelist and that his novels were "gothic" in nature and very strange (ventriloquism is featured in one novel and an instance of spontaneous combustion occurs in another). This biography added a lot more to my information base: that Brown was an advocate of women's equality, that he took great interest in all new scientific achievements and advancements especially if they had something to do with agriculture, that he was a strong advocate of a national literature and culture, and that he wrote a number of political articles and pamphlets regarding issues of his day (many of them anti-Jeffersonian).

Before writing this book Clark was given a large packet of unpublished material (letters, journals, etc.) written by Brown that then belonged to Brown's grandson, and much of this material appears in the book in full detail. Some editing was needed here; at least half of the book if not more is made up of these items, quoted in full. Fully 50 pages consist solely of the love letters Brown exchanged with a woman known only as Henrietta (she eventually broke off their engagement), and numerous other pages quote verbatim a pamphlet Brown wrote concerning Jefferson's Embargo Act. Each of these items reveals interesting things about Brown's views and personality, but much less direct quoting would reveal just as much. There is an excellent chapter, however, dealing strictly with brown's fiction, though even here the summaries of each work go on too long. I would recommend this book to anyone with more than just a passing interest in Brockden Brown.