Charles Brockden Brown

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Charles Brockden Brown

Charles Brockden Brown (born January 17, 1771 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † February 22, 1810 there ) was an American writer.

biography

Brown comes from a Philadelphia-based strict Quaker family who provided him with a legal education. However, Brown gave up his position as assistant to a lawyer after a short time in order to be able to concentrate completely on writing. His first work was published in Columbia Magazine . His first book "Alcuin: a Dialogue", published in 1798, dealt with the rights of women , influenced by William Godwin .

Wieland or the Metamorphosis , which appeared in the same year, was his most successful work. It describes how the main character, Theodore Wieland, a relative of the writer Christoph Martin Wieland in the novel , is driven mad by a ventriloquist and becomes a murderer.

In 1799 he became the editor of The Monthly Magazine and American Review . At the same time, he wrote other novels, but gave up writing fictional stories in 1803 when he founded The Literary Magazine and American Register and wanted to concentrate on it.

Brown married in 1804. However, he fell ill with tuberculosis , of which he died in 1810 at the age of 39.

effect

Brown is considered one of the most important American novelists before James Fenimore Cooper . Although, contrary to what early critics sometimes claim, he was not the first American novelist, the scope and complexity of his works show him a key role in understanding the early years of the American republic, not least because of the many genres that Brown used as a form of expression to.

bibliography

Novels
  • Wieland; Or the transformation. To American Tale. T. & J. Swords / H. Caritat, New York 1798.
    • German: Wieland or the metamorphosis . Translated by Friedrich Polakovics. With an afterword by Norbert Miller. Hanser, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-446-11782-2 .
  • Arthur Mervyn; Or, Memoirs of the Year 1793. Part 1: H. Maxwell, Philadelphia 1799. Part 2: George F. Hopkins, New York 1800.
    • German: Arthur Mervyn, or, the plague in Philadelphia: Memories from the year 1793. Christian Ernst Kollmann, Leipzig 1859. Editing of the anonymous German first translation by Jochen Reichel: Arthur Mervyn or the plague in Philadelphia . Edited and with an afterword by Frederik Burwick. Henssel, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-87329-143-6 .
  • Edgar Huntly; Or Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker. H. Maxwell, Philadelphia 1799.
    • German: Edgar Huntly or Der Nachtwandler . Christian Ernst Kollmann, Leipzig 1857.
  • Ormond; Or the Secret Witness. G. Forman / H. Caritat, New York 1799.
  • Memoirs of Stephen Calvert. Reprinted in The Monthly Magazine , June 1799 to June 1800.
  • Clara Howard; In a Series of Letters. Asbury Dickins, Philadelphia 1801.
  • Jane Talbot, A Novel. John Conrad, Philadelphia 1801.
Dialogues and essays
  • Alcuin: A Dialogue. T. & J. Swords, New York 1798.
  • An Address to the Government of the United States, on the Cession of Louisiana to the French. John Conrad, Philadelphia 1803.
  • Monroe's Embassy, ​​or, the Conduct of the Government, in Relation to Our Claims to the Navigation of the Missisippi [sic], Considered. John Conrad, Philadelphia 1803.
  • An Address to the Congress of the United States, on the Utility and Justice of Restrictions upon Foreign Commerce. C. & A. Conrad, Philadelphia 1809.
Collections
  • Literary Essays and Reviews. Edited by Alfred Weber and Wolfgang Schäfer. Peter Lang, Frankfurt 1992.
  • Somnambulism and Other Stories. Edited by Alfred Weber. Peter Lang, Frankfurt 1987.
  • The Rhapsodist and Other Uncollected Writings. Edited by Harry R. Warfel. Scholar's Facsimiles and Reprints, Delmar NY, 1977.
expenditure
  • The Novels and Related Works of Charles Brockden Brown. Bicentennial Edition. Edited by Sydney J. Krause and SW Reid. 6 volumes. Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 1977-1987.

literature

  • Steven Watts: The Romance of Real Life: Charles Brockden Brown and the Origins of American Culture. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1994, ISBN 0-8018-4686-2

Web links

Wikisource: Charles Brockden Brown  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Earlier publications are the "Adventures of Alonso" by Thomas Attwood Digges (London 1775) and "The Power of Sympathy" by William Hill Brown (1791).
personal data
SURNAME Brown, Charles Brockden
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 17, 1771
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1810
Place of death Philadelphia , Pennsylvania