American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography

was the first such periodical in its field. Launched by Jay B. Hubbell in 1929, it ap-peared at a time when the national literature was widely regarded as no more than a minor branch of British letters. In the "Foreword ~ that opened the journal's first issue, founder Hubbell declared that "until recent years our scholars were slow to study the national letters or their relation to European literatures and to American life and thought. American Literature has been so continually overpraised in certain quarters and so neglected in others that we may well say ofit-as Schopenhauer said of life- that it needs neither to be wept over nor to be laughed at but to be under-stood. " Elsewhere in the introductory issue, Henry Seidel Canby seconded the call for a thorough, scholarly approach to native authors and their writings: It was only day before yesterday that Whitman came into his own; but yesterday when Melville was acknowledged as one of the great novelists of the nineteenth century. Emerson had his due, but lost it, and is only now regaining the reputation he deserves. Thoreau has not yet reached the peak of his fame. Cooper went into eclipse, but is likely to shine again, though with diminished glory. Irving has sunk to a glow, but it is a serene and steady light. Longfello