Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v4.djvu/129

Competition with English Books 54^ begin to accumulate in our publishing life of the awakening of an American nationality. For instance, the reason why the president of Harvard and two of his professors, together with a governor, recommended Nicholas Pike's Complete System of Arithmetic in 1786, is that it is "Wholly American" in both "Work and Execution" and will keep much money in this country. Moreover, though to most Americans the works of Noah Webster^ have even yet a dim aura of classicism, they little reaUze how he had to fight to overcome the conservatism and the pro-British tendencies of his public. In 1807 he writes : But there is another evil resulting from this dependence [upon Great Britain] which is little considered; this is, that it checks im- provement. No one man in a thousand — not even the violent political opposers of Great Britain — reflects upon this influence. Our people look to English books as the standard of truth on all subjects, and this confidence in English opinions puts an end to inquiry. . . . We have opposed to us [in introducing American books] the publishers of most of the popular periodical works in our large towns. ^ Webster further says that the educated men of the smaller towns and the professors of the Northern colleges generally are favourable to American publications, but that the large cities are strongholds of British subserviency. Thus American scholarship began to assert itself during the opening decades of the nineteenth century with more real vigour than did American beUes-lettres, for against the popu- larity of Mackenzie, Mrs. Radcliffe, Mrs. Roche, Hannah More, Jane Porter, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Chapone, Miss Williams, Mrs. Rowson^ (in part, however, to be claimed as American), and later of Scott, 500,000 volumes of whose novels were issued from the American press in the nine years ending with 1823, the struggle was desperate. There were no restraints, either legal or ethical, at this period to prohibit the publication of these authors ; and the pubHshers issued them in large numbers, sometimes in chap-books as low as five cents. Moreover, ' See Book III, Chaps, xxiii and xxv. ^ Todd, C. B., Life and Letters of Joel Barlow, p. 247. The entire letter, pp. 247-252, is worthy the careful study of the student of our early literature. 3 See Book II, Chap. vi.