The Project Gutenberg EBook of Why a National Literature Cannot Flourish
in the United States of North America, by Joseph Rocchietti

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Why a National Literature Cannot Flourish in the United States of North America

Author: Joseph Rocchietti

Release Date: March 25, 2010 [EBook #31777]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NATIONAL LITERATURE CANNOT FLOURISH ***

Produced by Ralph Janke and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This book was
produced from scanned images of public domain material
from the Google Print project.)

WHY
A NATIONAL LITERATURE
CANNOT FLOURISH
IN THE
UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA

BY
JOSEPH ROCCHIETTI

_Celui qui n' a egard en ecrivant qu' au gout de son siecle,
songe plus a sa personne qu' a ses ecrits. Il faut toujours
tendre a la perfection; et alors cette justice
qui nous est quelquefois refusee par nos contemporains,
la posterite sait nous la rendre._

La Bruyere.

NEW YORK
PRINTED BY J. W. KELLEY, 424 BROADWAY
1845.

AMERICAN GENIUSES.

For your welfare, may your country listen to my feeble voice, prosper with
your prosperity, and the eagle of liberty spread throughout the world.

JOSEPH ROCCHIETTI.

NEW YORK, the first of 1845.

WHY
A NATIONAL LITERATURE
CANNOT FLOURISH
IN THE
UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA.

CHAPTER I.

THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES IS NOT A NEW PEOPLE.

Many americans, and a few foreigners, think that America is yet too young
a country for possessing a National Literature. If they intend to say,
that the number of classical writers of America, cannot yet compete with
the number of classical writers of any old country, of course, it cannot
be otherwise. But, that the living present americans cannot have an equal
number of writers, as the living old nations, for no other reason, but
because this nation is a new one, is what I deny.

Were America a nation of indians beginning now their civilization,
independently of any other already civilized nation, to reproach them
because they have not a competent literat