Hartford Wits Critical Essay | Annie Russell Marble

Annie Russell Marble

SOURCE: "A Group of Hartford Wits," in Heralds of American Literature, The University of Chicago Press, 1907, pp. 149-89.

In the essay below, Marble surveys the major figures and literary output of the Connecticut Wits.

Classification is a common substitute for literary criticism. Often a relative convenience, it has sometimes only obscured the distinct traits of an author. Occasionally an individual daunts the cataloguer and stands in comparative isolation—like Dante, Carlyle, Thoreau, or Tolstoy. Classification is often based upon the governing motif of the writers—as the "Transcendentalists," the "Pre-Raphaelites," and the "Decadents." The more common allotment is by eras and localities; the "Augustan age," the "Elizabeth dramatists," the "Victorian novelists," are phrases as familiar as the "Oxford Movement," the "Lake Poets," the "Knickerbocker Group," or the "Hartford Wits."

After the middle of the eighteenth century the center of literary activity in America was transferred from the vicinity of Boston, where...
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