Reconciliation and the Northern Novelist, 1865-1880

RECONCILIATION AND THE NORTHERN NOVELIST, 1865-1880 Joyce Appleby The stillness at Appomattox proved short-lived indeed. No sooner had die gunfire stopped dian die printing presses began to roar. Three months after Lee's surrender, Publishers' Circular added die subhead "War Literature" to its columns of book notices. Civil War novels have been a staple of American fiction ever since. The popularity of the Civil War dieme is well known. What has been obscured by the awesome mass of war literature is the distinctive nature of the first batch of novels produced by Northern writers. Most studies of Civil War literature have lumped Northern and Soudiern authors togetiier.1 Northern autiiors have been neglected in favor of Soutiiem writers whose creative vigor in die postwar period has monopolized die attention of literary scholars. Historians working die field have tended to rehearse a narrow field of selections. Paul H. Buck, for example , cites only three novels written by Northerners in die fifteenyear aftermath of the war, relying almost solely upon Southern fiction for his study of sectional reconciliation.2 Robert A. Lively, in providing die most comprehensive study of Civil War fiction, does much better by the Northerners; yet die collection widi which he worked included only twenty-five—or less dian half—of die adult war novels now extant which were written by Northerners and published between 1865 and 1880.3 While students of literature may be excused if diey concentrate upon the few instead of die many, this difference in numbers is critical for die historian. Fiction, as raw material for historical research, is important for die information it yields about opinions, attitudes, and conceptions , and diese gain dieir significance according to dieir pervasive1 Emest E. Leky, The American Historical Novel (Norman, 1950); Rebecca Washington Smith, The Civil War and its Aftermath in American Fiction, 18611899 (Chicago, 1937). 2 The Road to Reunion, 1865-1900 (Boston, 1938), especially pp. 196-236. 3 Fiction Fights the Civil War: An Unfinished Chapter in the Literary History of the American People (Chapel Hill, 1957). Pertinent novels not included in Lively's analysis are to be found at the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif., where the present study was made. 117 118CI V IL WAR HIS TOR Y ness. "Generalizations," Lively himself remarks, "if they are valid, require the discovery of some standard quality in plot or characterization which appears widi enough regularity to invite comment. . . ."* The more comprehensive die selection, dierefore, die more apparent the common denominators on which we may base judgments. Seeking insights on the question of Northern opinion toward die Soudi at die conclusion of die war, I undertook to examine all of die novels produced by Northerners in the fifteen years after Appomattox. The plan of attack on this unwieldy mass will best describe the comprehensiveness of the result. An index was made of every fictional writer not born in the Soudi who wrote novels in diis period.5 It included some two hundred audiors and led to an examination of over four hundred fictional works. Of diese four hundred tides, sixty-four made some reference to die Civil War and its aftermath. The majority, fifty-two, were novels in which the war was used in the plot; die remaining twelve were laid in die 1865-1880 period but referred to die conflict in flashbacks or dialogues. Togedier, diey represent die writing of fifty-five novelists, two of whom remained anonymous bodi to their public and to posterity. War veterans, professional romancers, and writers of the single novel, tiiey defy categorization except tiiat they were Northern-born adults producing novels for adults about events contemporary with their lives. As literature, this fiction deserves the neglect it has received. With few exceptions, the quality of the writing is inferior. No sense of artistic integrity stayed the hand of an audior. Opinions, observations, and reflections totally unrelated to plot or character are inserted at will. The omnipotent audior is like a brooding hen clucking over her characters . Marriage proposal scenes—and every book is good for at least one—extend for pages, while the principals exchange views on Freemasonry , women's rights, and die causes of die...