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These advances in travel and communication all ripened conditions for American writers to connect and to get more of their work published. Nevertheless, serious writers found it almost impossible to make a living by their pen alone. American publishers much preferred English writers— not for content but business reasons. Differing copyright laws between the two countries meant that U.S. publishers could profit more by “pirating” and printing the work of English writers as opposed to paying royalties to American authors.
Transcendentalism
Another significant development in the 19th century was the movement known as Transcendentalism. Foundational to the Transcendentalism philosophy was the belief that wisdom came from within, that there was something that transcended external experience. Its adherents—writers and philosophers such as Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Margaret Fuller— were free-thinking individualists, with an affinity for nature and a credo of self-sufficiency.
As a reaction to the idea of Rationalism that was prevalent in the 18th century, the ideals of Transcendentalism hinged on individualism, and many Transcendentalists saw themselves as outsiders.Their desire for unity between the soul, God, and the natural world led some Transcendentalists to live modest lives in communities with like-minded individuals. Concord, Massachusetts, was one such community; its residents included Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Fuller.Whether they chose to live in communities with one another, many Transcendentalists were also abolitionists, whose eloquent denunciations of slavery helped to hasten its end.
Writers Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville shared the Transcendentalists’ concern that America, a country founded on the ideals of freedom and justice, should not engage in slavery and genocide against African Americans and Native Americans. Melville was particularly horrified by slavery, calling it “man’s foulest crime.” By the end of this period, the Mexican- American War (1846–1848) and the Civil War (1861–1865) would further challenge America’s idealistic heritage.
4 Finding an American Voice Unit One