Publisher's Synopsis
Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810), America's first professional man of letters, is remembered in literary history primarily for his novels. He wrote Gothic romances set in America, and they constitute the beginning of a tradition later taken up by such well-known American authors as Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is curious that one of Brown's novels, the Memoirs of Stephen Calvert, has consistently been neglected as part of his novelistic oeuvre, both by the editors of his writings and by the critics. This edition represents the first modern as well as the first separate publication of the Memoirs of Stephen Calvert. It is a novel typical of Brown's literary preoccupations, and therefore deserves attention within the framework of current Brown criticism. By supplying a text closest to Brown's intentions, an introductory essay, and textual notes, this new edition is meant to lay the groundwork for a fresh evaluation of the Memoirs of Stephen Calvert.
