John Neal bibliography

The bibliography of American writer John Neal (1793–1876) spans more than sixty years from the War of 1812 through Reconstruction and includes novels, short stories, poetry, articles, plays, lectures, and translations published in newspapers, magazines, literary journals, gift books, pamphlets, and books. Favorite topics included women's rights, feminism, gender, race, slavery, children, education, law, politics, art, architecture, literature, drama, religion, gymnastics, civics, American history, science, phrenology, travel, language, political economy, and temperance.
Between 1817 and 1835 Neal became the first American published in British literary journals, author of the first history of American literature, America's first art critic, a children's literature pioneer, a forerunner of the American Renaissance, and one of the first American male advocates of women's rights. His fiction explores the romantic and gothic genres and aligns with the literary nationalist and regionalist movements. The first American author to use natural diction and a pioneer of colloquialism, John Neal is the first to use the phrase "son-of-a-bitch" in an American work of fiction.
Bound publications.
Novels.
As a novelist, John Neal is recognized as "the first in America to be natural in his diction" and "the father of American subversive fiction" for developing a new "wild, rough, and defiant American style" to break with British standards then dominant in the US. A pioneer of American colloquialism and dialects in novels, Neal's novels are aligned with both the literary nationalist and regionalist movements. They also anticipate the characteristics of the American Renaissance.
Pamphlets.
Many of Neal's pamphlets are lectures he delivered between 1829 and 1848, when he supplemented his income by traveling on the lyceum circuit.
Selected articles.
John Neal was "perhaps the foremost critic of [his] era," commenting on literature, art, drama, politics, and a variety of social issues. As a critic and political commentator, his essays and journalism showed distrust of institutions and an affinity for self-examination and self-reliance. Compared to Neal's comparative lesser success at employing his literary theories in creative works, "his critical judgments have held. Where he condemned, time has almost without exception condemned also." Editors of newspapers, magazines, and annual publications sought contributions from Neal on a wide variety of topics, particularly in the second half of the 1830s. His early articles make him one of the first male advocates of women's rights and feminist causes in the US.
Neal was the first American to be published in any British literary magazine and in that capacity wrote the first history of American literature. His early encouragement of writers John Greenleaf Whittier, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and many others, helped launch their careers.
As an art critic Neal was the first in the US, and his essays from the 1820s are recognized as "prophetic." As an "early firebrand" in theatrical criticism, his "prophesy" for American drama was only partially realized sixty years later.
This list includes only articles that have received the most scholarly attention and/or that are noted in scholarly works as particularly important milestones in Neal's career and/or the histories of the topics they cover. Those omitted here are included in the larger list of articles by John Neal.
Short stories and fictional sketches.
John Neal's short stories are "his highest literary achievement" and he published an average of one tale per year between 1828 and 1846. Many of these challenged American socio-political phenomena that grew in the period leading up to and including Andrew Jackson's terms as US president (1829–1837): manifest destiny, empire building, Indian removal, consolidation of federal power, racialized citizenship, and the Cult of Domesticity. His work helped shape the relatively new short story genre, particularly early children's literature.
Poems.
The bulk of Neal's poetry was published in "The Portico" while studying law in Baltimore in the late 1810s. By 1830 he had "acquired quite a reputation, especially as a poet," having been recognized in multiple poetry collections.
Other.
Drama.
Neither of Neal's two fully conceived plays, nor his theatrical sketch, were ever produced for the stage.
Translations.
Neal was fluent in French and able to easily converse and write in Spanish, Italian, and German. In addition, he "could manage... pretty well" writing and reading Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and Old Saxon. He learned to read Chinese shortly before his death.
Newspapers for which Neal wrote.
This list includes newspapers not listed elsewhere in this bibliography.