Poesquian

When the United States begun its literary production, American authors “were thinking of the social status of literature and authorship in terms of British aristocratic tradition, which was partly myth” (Charvat 6). They viewed literature as “a class commodity, produced and consumed by the elite and by those on lower social levels who identified themselves with the elite and depended upon them for support” (Charvat 6). They also connected literature with learning and study, which they in turn connected to leisure. This leisurely gentleman never wrote for money, never put his name on what he wrote, and rarely chose to publish his writings. His literary works were addressed to a small audience of equals.

In contrast to this, according to William Charvat, “the terms of professional writing are these: that it provides a living for the author, like any other job; that it is a main and prolonged, rather than intermittent or sporadic, resource for the writer; that it is produced with the hope of extended sale in the open market, like any article of commerce; and that it is written with reference to buyers’ tastes and reading habits” (Charvat 3). Prior to 1820, professional authorship was virtually impossible in the United States. “The absence of a predictable market, an efficient system of distribution, and the transportation necessary for a national market” (Charvat 8) meant that publishing literary works was very risky business that very few people had sufficient means to attempt. In order for authorship to become a profession, several requirements needed to be fulfilled: transportation and printing technologies needed to develop, population needed to grow (and, of course, be literate) and copyright laws needed to come into effect, for in the absence of such laws, literary works could just be reprinted with the author receiving no monetary compensation for their trouble. This, of course, does not mean that no one attempted to become a professional author before 1820, but, prior to Washington Irving, there had been no successful professional authors in America.

Rapid technological advancement and soaring population growth in the nineteenth century “transformed the United States into a market society” and made “the American romantic period the era of the marketplace” (Gilmore 1). Improvements in manufacture, distribution, and promotion helped transform literature into a marketable commodity and the idle “gentleman scribbler” slowly gave way to a professional writer, creating literary works meant to be consumed by a faceless mass audience, whose preference was expressed solely through their purchasing actions.

Several factors made the emergence of the market society possible. Earlier, poor transportation facilities hampered the distribution of goods. Furthermore, there were not enough people to whom these goods could be sold, even if transportation hadn’t been an issue. But, after 1815, existing land routes were improved upon, and canals and railroads were constructed, both of which significantly reduced transportation cost and time (Gilmore 2). And from 1820 to 1860, the population of the US grew from about 10 million to almost 32 million, due to the high native birth-rate and the constant influx of immigrants (ibid). The population at large was also given better educational opportunities, which as its consequence had the creation of a society with a great number of people who could read. By 1850, over 90 percent of the people in the US were literate (Gilmore 4), thus creating a mass market for the distribution of literary goods. Furthermore, the population of Americans who lived in the cities rose by 800 percent in the same period, thereby ensuring the emergence of large, concentrated consumer markets (Gilmore 2).

Prior to 1820, books were expensive to manufacture, as well. But, technological advancements, such as the cylinder press, and the innovation of cloth bindings and improved ways of producing paper, made the production of books faster and cheaper than ever before (Gilmore 3).

These changes sparked the emergence of aggressive, highly competitive publishing houses, and “authors lost most of their earlier control over publication” (Gilmore 4). This meant that the author was now no longer producing work for his like-minded peers, but instead had to produce for the mass audience, in order to not only make profit, but ensure the publishing of his literary work in the first place. But, what this also meant was that authorship was now becoming a profession, one which could enable the artist to support himself through his writing. At least in theory. And, with that, “publishing had become an industry, and the writer a producer of commodities for the literary marketplace” (Gilmore 4).