A = Benjamin Franklin B = Washington Irving C = James Fenimore Cooper D = Philip Freneau Who... ※ is the first important writer to be critical of his country. 72. ______ ※ advocated old beliefs in some eases. 73. ______ ※ lived 76 years. 74. ______ ※ unfolded an epic account of a frontiersman in his novels. 75. ______ ※ is remembered more for his poetry than his prose. 76. ______ ※ uses many long words, often from Latin, in his book. 77. ______ was once a sailor. 78. ______ ※ wrote a novel in 1826 as the second in the series. 79. ______ ※ got the idea for his most famous story from a German 80. ______ legend. ※ in his short stories, the incidents anti descriptive details 81. ______ usually have symbolic significance. Benjamin Franklin Franklin(1706-1790) was a universal genius who did not realize that his Autobiography would eventually become a classic of its kind. The part of it given here shows the beginnings of his personal, civic, anti political success, yet the account is uncolored by vanity. Franklin shows us that he is a human being as well as a successful man. Though his style of writing was clear anti even plain in his time, we now find it a bit hard to read. It has many long words, often from the Latin language, anti long sentences. But we must remember that he was writing two centuries ago. It is true that Franklin’s style is formal. The organization of much of what he says if not how he says it is informal, however. In his famous Autobiography, in particular, he talks first about one thing and then another with little attempt at connecting them. Of course, not all of his ideas were new. In some cases he simply became the most prominent advocate of old ones, especially the beliefs that we should work hard and that we should save our money. These principles had been current since Puritan times but Franklin spread them widely by putting them into a popular almanac or calendar called Poor Richard’s Almanac, which he himself printed. Washington Irving Irving (1783—1859) was America’s first man of letters, devoting much of Iris career to literature. In his short stories, he usually starts with standard characters-the lazy husbands, for instance, and the termagant wife. He is able, however, in his better stories to place them in a home-like situation and in surroundings that give the stories a kind of vitality. Irving’s choice of incidents and descriptive details adds a note of symbolism to the basic themes, creating an almost Gothic atmosphere. Irving got the idea for his most famous story, "Rip Van Winkle," from a German legend about a sleeping emperor, which he points out in a mock-scholarly note added at the end of the story. According to the note, the tale originated with Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old Dutch gentleman of New York, who is really a fictional character created by Irving. (The old gentleman’s name was later adopted by a group of New York writers of the period, among whom Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and William Cullen Bryant were the foremost Knickerbockers.) "Rip Van Winkle" is found in Irving’s longer work, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. , published serially in the United States from 1819 to 1820.James Fenimore Cooper Cooper (1789—1851 ) wrote both novels and social criticism. It is his fiction which has become famous, but it is worth remembering that he also wrote books criticizing the shortcomings of democracy in his own country. He is the first important writer to be critical of the United States but he will by no means be the last. His fiction is much more memorable, however. The Last of the Mohicans, written in 1826, is the second novel in Cooper’s Leatherstocking Series. Consisting of five novels, the series gets it title from one of the names applied to its frontiersman hero, Natty Bumppo, who is also called Deerslayer, Hawkeye, Pathfinder, and l,eatherstocking. Tile five novels tell the story of Bumppo from youth to old age. The creation of the character of Natty Bumppo is probably the most significant thing that happened in American literature during the first 50 years of its history. Like Sir Walter Scott and other romantic writers who dealt with historical or legendary characters, Cooper, in his tales about Bumppo, unfolded an epic account. Bumppo, a frontiersman whose actions were shaped by the forest in which he lived, seems to be related in some way to the deepest meaning of the American experience itself. Philip Freneau PHILIP FRENEAU was an ardent patriot who is still remembered as the "Poet of the American Revolution." While in college, he had already determined to become a poet. After his experience as a sailor in the Revolutionary War, he turned to newspaper and pamphlet writing. Today, however, Freneau is remembered more for is poetry than his prose. Two of his poems are reprinted below. The first, "The Wild Honey Suckle" was virtually unread in the poet’s lifetime, yet it deserves a place among major English and American works of poetry of that time. Much of the beauty of the poem lies in the sounds of the words and the effects created through changes in rhythm. The idea for the second poem, "The Indian Burying Ground, "was suggested by the fact that some Indian tribes buried their dead in a sitting, instead of a lying position. This poem, too, is marked by a regularity of rhythm and meter and by the use of "Reason" as an abstraction which is personified.