Brown, Charles Brockden (1771-1810), was the first major American novelist. He also was the first American to earn a living as an author.
Brown wrote Gothic novels, a type of horror story that emphasizes mystery, terror, and the supernatural. Wieland (1798) tells of a man who goes insane and murders his family. In Ormond (1799), the heroine stabs to death a wealthy scoundrel who tries to rape her. English Gothic writers influenced Brown’s style, but he placed his stories in American settings. For example, Edgar Huntly (1799) occurs in a forest inhabited by Native Americans.
Most modern readers consider Brown’s writing awkward and far-fetched. But his emotional intensity and early use of American settings influenced such great writers as James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe.
Brown was born on Jan. 17, 1771, in Philadelphia. During his boyhood, he spent much of his spare time reading English horror tales. Brown died on Feb. 22, 1810.
