{"id":"01KG6YGZGHFR03ANW6C5JN3BR0","cid":"bafkreif4lglp2l2ehjqyuqztjhkhdz5545pjtoom5ztuc5asaitovymjfy","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1521,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:45.581Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 9","source_file":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","start_line":1469,"text":"given, in 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\npatronizes 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\r\nto the studied avoidance of all topics but smooth ones. But it is\r\nbetter to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has\r\nnever failed somewhere, that man cannot be great. Failure is the true\r\ntest of greatness. And if it be said, that continual success is a proof\r\nthat a man wisely knows his powers,--it is only to be added, that, in\r\nthat case, he knows them to be small. Let us believe it, then, once for\r\nall, that there is no hope for us in these smooth, pleasing writers\r\nthat know their powers. Without malice, but to speak the plain fact,\r\nthey but furnish an appendix to Goldsmith, and other English authors.\r\nAnd we want no American Goldsmiths, nay, we want no American Miltons.\r\nIt were the vilest thing you could say of a true American author, that\r\nhe were an American Tompkins. Call him an American and have done, for\r\nyou cannot say a nobler thing of him. But it is not meant that all\r\nAmerican writers should studiously cleave to nationality in their\r\nwritings; only this, no American writer should write like an Englishman\r\nor a Frenchman; let him write like a man, for then he will be sure\r\nto write like an American. Let us away with this leaven of literary\r\nflunkeyism towards England. If either must play the flunkey in this\r\nthing, let England do it, not us. While we are rapidly preparing for\r\nthat political supremacy among the nations which prophetically awaits\r\nus at the close of the present century, in a literary point of view,\r\nwe are deplorably unprepared for it; and we seem studious to remain\r\nso. Hitherto, reasons might have existed why this should be; but no\r\ngood reason exists now. And all that is requisite to amendment in this\r\nmatter, is simply this; that while fully acknowledging all excellence\r\neverywhere, we should refrain from unduly lauding foreign writers, and,\r\nat the same time, duty recognize the meritorious writers that are our\r\nown;--those writers who breathe that unshackled, democratic spirit of\r\nChristianity in all things, which now takes the practical lead in this\r\nworld, though at the same time led by ourselves--us Americans. Let\r\nus boldly condemn all imitation, though it comes to us graceful and\r\nfragrant as the morning; and foster all originality though at first it\r\nbe crabbed and ugly as our own pine knots. And if any of our authors\r\nfail, or seem to fail, then, in the words of my Carolina cousin, let\r\nus clap him on the shoulder and back him against all Europe for his\r\nsecond round. The truth is, that in one point of view this matter of\r\na national literature has come to pass with us, that in some sense we\r\nmust turn bullies, else the day is lost, or superiority so far beyond\r\nus, that we can hardly say it will ever be ours.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 9"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBGJFFWM00TFQS297SSV","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDD8GKW0DRD5H2MY1NRZ7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YGZGH0NMD20FSX8K0FWN4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YH01W9GXP7SGN92YWVQMA","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:46.385Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:53.019Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}