{"id":"01KG6GMPGSFK2PE04AZR92473P","cid":"bafkreibdjjkr6vhfyyhadkedkzdwaq7arsfpdwo5arm7ao2opvrfr5hw2q","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4098,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:03.879Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 6","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":4040,"text":"her own authors, I say, have the priority of appreciation. I was much\r\npleased with a hot-headed Carolina cousin of mine, who once said,--‘If\r\nthere were no other American to stand by, in literature, why, then, I\r\nwould stand by Pop Emmons and his _Fredoniad_, and till a better epic\r\ncame along, swear it was not very far behind the _Iliad_.’ Take away the\r\nwords, and in spirit he was sound.\r\n\r\nNot that American genius needs patronage in order to expand. For that\r\nexplosive sort of stuff will expand though screwed up in a vice, and\r\nburst it, though it were triple steel. It is for the nation’s sake, and\r\nnot for her authors’ sake, that I would have America be heedful of the\r\nincreasing greatness among her writers. For how great the shame, if\r\nother nations should be before her, in crowning her heroes of the pen!\r\nBut this is almost the case now. American authors have received more\r\njust and discriminating praise (however loftily and ridiculously given,\r\nin certain cases) even from some Englishmen, than from their own\r\ncountrymen. There are hardly five critics in America; and several of\r\nthem are asleep. As for patronage, it is the American author who now\r\npatronises his country, and not his country him. And if at times some\r\namong them appeal to the people for more recognition, it is not always\r\nwith selfish motives, but patriotic ones.\r\n\r\nIt is true, that but few of them as yet have evinced that decided\r\noriginality which merits great praise. But that graceful writer, who\r\nperhaps of all Americans has received the most plaudits from his own\r\ncountry for his productions,--that very popular and amiable writer,\r\nhowever good and self-reliant in many things, perhaps owes his chief\r\nreputation to the self-acknowledged imitation of a foreign model, and to\r\nthe studied avoidance of all topics but smooth ones. But it is better to\r\nfail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has never\r\nfailed somewhere, that man cannot be great. Failure is the true test of\r\ngreatness. And if it be said, that continual success is a proof that a\r\nman wisely knows his powers,--it is only to be added, that, in that\r\ncase, he knows them to be small. Let us believe it, then, once for all,\r\nthat there is no hope for us in these smooth, pleasing writers that know\r\ntheir powers. Without malice, but to speak the plain fact, they but\r\nfurnish an appendix to Goldsmith, and other English authors. And we want\r\nno American Goldsmiths, nay, we want no American Miltons. It were the\r\nvilest thing you could say of a true American author, that he were an\r\nAmerican Tompkins. Call him an American and have done, for you cannot\r\nsay a nobler thing of him. But it is not meant that all American writers\r\nshould studiously cleave to nationality in their writings; only this, no\r\nAmerican writer should write like an Englishman or a Frenchman; let him\r\nwrite like a man, for then he will be sure to write like an American.\r\nLet us away with this leaven of literary flunkeyism toward England. If\r\neither must play the flunkey in this thing, let England do it, not us.\r\nWhile we are rapidly preparing for that political supremacy among the\r\nnations which prophetically awaits us at the close of the present\r\ncentury, in a literary point of view, we are deplorably unprepared for\r\nit; and we seem studious to remain so. Hitherto, reasons might have\r\nexisted why this should be; but no good reason exists now. And all that\r\nis requisite to amendment in this matter, is simply this: that while\r\nfully acknowledging all excellence everywhere, we should refrain from\r\nunduly lauding foreign writers, and, at the same time, duly recognise\r\nthe meritorious writers that are our own; those writers who breathe that\r\nunshackled, democratic spirit of Christianity in all things, which now\r\ntakes the practical lead in this world, though at the same time led by\r\nourselves--us Americans. Let us boldly condemn all imitation, though it\r\ncomes to us graceful and fragrant as the morning; and foster all\r","title":"Chunk 6"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6GKYHSPTY1FRSQBD1DWF45","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6GMPGV4R6E8E654ENAP47Z","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6GMPGQ69424MSN9EJN5K1H","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:08.185Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:55:16.040Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}