JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. The New England Quarterly, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The New England Quarterly. FOR a nation that was still very young, America in the nineteenth century speedily acquired centers of tradition compelling the admiration and acquiescence of all countrymen. The Constitution was one of these centers, as was the galaxy of Revolutionary War heroes; a handful of New England writers-comprising Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier, and Holmes-was still another. As the Constitution defined the ideal of the State, so the literature of this group was thought to define, with the same degree of authority and perfection, the ideal of American literary achievement. There were dissenting opinions, of course, especially from the champions of Western and Southern literature. William Dean Howells, born in Ohio, sometimes argued that the new writers of the West were outstripping those of the East; but ultimately, in his mellow years, he was content to have his published reminiscences "mainly concern Cambridge and Boston, for most of the American literature worth speaking of has been written there."1 At the close of the century Howells could say, without offending even his conservative friends, that "Boston has distinctly waned in literature" and that "New England has ceased to be a nation in itself." Nevertheless, the past achievement of New England remained unequaled: "It will be long before our larger life interprets itself in such imagination as Hawthorne's, such wisdom as Emerson's, such poetry as Longfellow's, such prophecy as Whittier's, such wit and grace as Holmes's, such humor and humanity as Lowell's."2 These six New Englanders-with the addition of Irving, Cooper, and Bryant-were loved by their compatriots with a kind of affection for men of letters unique in the history of America. No group has ever held the center of the American 1 Mildred Howells, editor, Life in Letters of William Dean Howells (Garden City, 1928), II, 27. 2 Literary Friends and Acquaintance (New York, 190lgol), 116-117. 164 This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Mon, 5 Jan 2015 03:06:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE NEW ENGLAND HIERARCHYliterary scene over a longer period of time, has been more liberally preserved in the number and magnificence of collected works, or has had a greater place in the curriculum of public schools or a more influential role in shaping the national literary taste. The history of the New England school is generally divided into two periods: the flowering of New England literature from the 'thirties to the time of the Civil War, and the artificial extension of the influence of New England in the last q...