Foreigners have had American books translated
into all the leading languages of the world. It is now more than one
hundred years since Franklin, the great American philosopher of the
practical, died, and yet several European nations reprint nearly every year
some of his sayings, which continue to influence the masses. English
critics, like John Addington Symonds, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Edward
Dowden, have testified to the power of the democratic element in our
literature and have given the dictum that it cannot be neglected.
Some of the reasons why American literature developed along original lines
and thus conveyed a message of its own to the world are to be found in the
changed environment and the varying problems and ideals of American life.
Even more important than the changed ways of earning a living and the
difference in climate, animals, and scenery were the struggles leading to
the Revolutionary War, the formation and guidance of the Republic, and the
Civil War. All these combined to give individuality to American thought and
literature.
Taken as a whole, American literature has accomplished more than might
reasonably have been expected.
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