First Books: The Printed Word and Cultural Formation in Early Alabama

198 Pages·2012·13.91 MB·English

by  Philip D. Beidler

Books
~irst

rpirst Books
The Printed Word
and
Cultural Formation in Early Alabama
Philip D. Beidler
THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS
Tuscaloosa
Copyright © 1999
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Hardcover edition published 1999.
Paperback edition published 2012.
eBook edition published 2012.
Cover design: Shari DeGraw
The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Science-Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8173-5730-6
eBook ISBN: 978-0-8173-8640-5
A previous edition of this book has been catalogued by the Library of Congress as follows:
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beidler, Philip D.
First books: the printed word and cultural formation in early
Alabama I Philip D. Beidler.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 171) and index.
ISBN 0-8173-0985-3 (alk. paper)
1. American literature-Alabama-History and criticism. 2. American literature-19th century
History and criticism. 3. Literature and society-Alabama-History-19th century. 4. Literature
publishing-Alabama-History-19th century. 5. Printing-Alabama-History-19th century.
6. Alabama-Intellectual life. 7. Alabama-In literature. I. Title.
PS266.A5 B45 1999
810.9' 9761-dc21
99-6084
In Memory of o. B. Emerson

Contents
Acknowledgments
IX
Introduction
Literature and Culture in Early Alabama
1
1. Satire in the Territories
Literature and the Art of Political Payback in an Early Alabama Classic
14
2. First Book
Henry Hitchcock's Alabama Justice of the Peace
23
3. "The First Production of the Kind, in the South"
A Backwoods Literary Incognito and His Attempt
at the Great American Novel
32
4. Belles Lettres in a New Country
47
5. Antebellum Alabama History in the Planter Style
The Example of Albert J. Pickett
63
6. A. B. Meek's Great American Epic Poem of 1855; or,
the Curious Career of The Red Eagle
76
7. Historicizing Alabama's Southwestern Humorists; or, How the
Times Were Served by Johnson J. Hooper and Joseph G. Baldwin
87
8. Caroline Lee Hentz's Anti-Abolitionist Double Feature and Augusta
Jane Evans's New and Improved Novel of Female Education
102
vii
9. Alabama's Last First Book
The Example of Daniel Hundley
127
Notes
137
Works Cited
171
Index
177
viii ----' CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
I
gratefully acknowledge the help of the following people: Salli Davis, Dwight
Eddins, Bert Hitchcock, Fred Hobson, Jeff Jakeman, Malcolm MacDonald,
Robert Phillips, Diane Roberts, Johanna Nicol Shields, and Hugh Terry. I would
also like to thank especially the staff of The University of Alabama Special Col
lections Library for their expert bibliographic guidance and their wonderful
collegiality in giving me access to their resources.
A University of Alabama faculty member revered by generations of stu
dents and renowned for his generosity to new arrivals in the English Depart
ment, my late colleague o. B. Emerson extended me the further scholarly benefit
of sharing his vast knowledge of Alabama literature. He thereby awakened
twenty-five years ago a career-long interest that I hope I have continued to
honor in my scholarship. This book is dedicated in his memory.
Parts of this text have appeared in Southern Literary Journal 24, no. 2
(spring 1992): 106-24, and 30, no. 1 (fall 1997): 1-12; and Mississippi Quarterly 51,
no. 3 (spring 1998): 275-90. Reprinted with permission.
ix