With the publication of The Embargo; or, Sketches of the Times; A Satire; by a Youth of Thirteen (1808) William Cullen Bryant began his remarkable career as an important figure in American politics, literature, and journalism. A satire directed at Thomas Jefferson for the 1807 passage of the Embargo Act, the poem drew much attention from critics who doubted it had actually been written by one so young. Bryant's first writing captured the nation's imagination, and American readers continued to view Bryant as a political commentator for the rest of his life. Recognized by his contemporaries most often for his longtime editorship of the New York Evening Post and his poetry, Bryant in his mid fifties added travel writing to his already impressive achievements.

At the urging of his friend Richard Henry Dana Sr., an editor of The North American Review, and publisher George Palmer Putnam, Bryant compiled a book...