The state of American literature....

Writing in the 1820s, novelist James Fenimore Cooper made these comments about American writers and readers:

"The second obstacle against which American literature has to contend [after the lack of an international copyright law] is in the poverty of materials. There is scarcely an ore which contributes to the wealth of the author, that is found, here, in veins as rich as in Europe. There are no annals for the historian; no follies (beyond the most vulgar and common place) for the satirist; no manners for the dramatist, no obscure fictions for the writer of romance; no gross and hardy offences against decorum for the moralist; nor any of the rich artificial auxiliaries of poetry. The weakest hand can extract a spark from the flint, but it would baffle the strength of a giant to attempt kindling a flame with a pudding stone."

YOUR TURN: If what Cooper said was true (you may wish to debate him here!), where do you think American writers could have turned for their materials? How might his observations apply to Brown's _Edgar Huntley_?