PAL: Perspectives in
American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide
Chapter 2: Early American
Literature 1700-1800 - The Connecticut Wits:
Joel Barlow (1754-1812), Timothy Dwight (1752-1817), and John
Trumbull (1750-1831)
The "Wicked Wits"
later called the "Connecticut Wits": Together with Barlow,
Dwight, and Trumbull, the other wits were David Humphreys, Noah
Webster, and Lemuel Hopkins. They collaborated on a mock-heroic
epic called The Anarchaid: A Poem on the restoration of Chaos
and Substantial Night (1886-87) - a protest against the
political chaos following the Revolutionary War.
The Prospect
of Peace, 1778 (poem); Poem, Spoken at the Public
Commencement at Yale College, 1781; The Conspiracy of
Kings, 1792 (poem); The Hasty-Pudding, 1793 (poem);
Advice to a Raven in Russia, 1812, pub. 1838, (poem);
The Vision of Columbus, 1787 (epic); The
Columbiad, 1807 (epic); Advice to the Privileged Orders
in the Several States of Europe, Resuming from the Necessity
and Propriety of a General Revolution in the Principle of
Government, 1792 (prose).
Timothy
Dwight
The Conquest
of Canaan, 1785 (epic); The Triumph of Infidelity,
1788 (verse satire); Greenfield Hill: A Poem in Seven
Parts, 1794; The Nature and Danger, of Infidel
Philosophy, 1798; Theology: Explained and Defended,
1818-19, (5 vols); Travels, in New-England and New-York,
1821-22, (posthumous).
The major poems of
Timothy Dwight, 1752-1817, with a dissertation on the history,
eloquence, and poetry of the Bible. With an introd. by
William J. McTaggart and William K. Bottorff. Gainesville,
Fla.: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1969. PS739
A17
The conquest of
Canaan; a poem, in eleven books. Westport, Conn: Greenwood
P, 1970. PS739 .C7
John
Trumbull
M'Fingal,
1782 (satire); The Anarchiad, 1786-87; The Echo,
1791-1805; The Poetical Works of John Trumbull, 2 vols,
1820 (contains "The Progress of Sulness.")
M'Fingal: an epic
poem. With introduction and notes by Benson J. Lossing. NY:
American Book Exchange, 1881. PS852 .M3
Satiric poems: The
progress of dulness and M'Fingal. With illus. from
engravings by E. Tisdale. Edited with a pref. and notes by
Edwin T. Bowden. Austin: U of Texas P, 1962. PS852 .P7
Arner, Robert D. "The Smooth
and Emblematic Song: Joel Barlow's The Hasty Pudding."
Early American Literature 7 (1972): 76-91.
- - -. Joel Barlow's
Poetics: 'Advice to a Raven in Russia'. Connecticut Review 5.2
(1972): 38-43.
- - -. "The Connecticut
Wits." American Literature, 1764 1789: The Revolutionary
Years. Ed. Everett Emerson. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1977.
233-52.
Bauer, Ralph. "Colonial
Discourse and Early American Literary History: Ercilla, The Inca
Garcilaso, and Joel Barlow's Conception of a New World Epic."
Early American Literature 30.3 (1995): 203-32.
Berk, Stephen E.
Calvinism versus democracy; Timothy Dwight and the origins of
American evangelical orthodoxy. Hamden, Conn: Archon Books, 1974.
BX7260.D84 B47
Bidwell, John. "The
Publication of Joel Barlow's The Columbiad." Proceedings of
the American Antiquarian Society 93.2 (1984): 337-80.
Briggs, Peter M. "Timothy
Dwight 'Composes' a Landscape for New England." American
Quarterly 40.3 (Sep 1988): 359-77.
Camfield, Gregg. "Joel
Barlow's Dialectic of Progress." Early American
Literature 21.2 (Fall 1986): 131-43.
Clark, Gregory. "The
Oratorical Poetic of Timothy Dwight." Oratorical Culture in
Nineteenth Century America: Transformations in the Theory and
Practice of Rhetoric. Eds. Gregory Clark and S. Michael Halloran.
Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1993. 55-77.
Dowling, William C. "Joel
Barlow and The Anarchiad." Early American Literature
25.1 (1990): 18-33.
- - -. Poetry and
Ideology in Revolutionary Connecticut. Athens: U of Georgia P,
1990.
Dwight, Timothy. The
major poems of Timothy Dwight, 1752 1817. PS739 .C7
Ford, Arthur L. Joel
Barlow. NY:Twayne Publishers,1971. PS705 .F6
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| Franklin, Benjamin, V. "The Published Commentary on the Minor
Connecticut Wits." Resources for American Literary Study 8
(1978): 157-67.
- - -. The Prose of the
Minor Connecticut Wits, I, II, III; Facsim. Reprods. Delmar, NY:
Scholars' Facsims. & Rpts., 1974.
Freimarck, Vincent. "Timothy
Dwight's Brief Lives in Travels in New England and New York."
Early American Literature 8 (1973): 44-58.
Gimmestad, Victor E. John
Trumbull. NY: Twayne, 1974. PS853 G5
- - -. "Joel Barlow's
Editing of John Trumbull's M'Fingal." American
Literature 47 (1975): 97-102.
Grasso, Christopher. "Print,
Poetry, and Politics: John Trumbull and the Transformation of Public
Discourse in Revolutionary America." Early American Literature
30.1 (1995): 5-31.
Griffith, John. "The
Columbiad and Greenfield Hill: History, Poetry, and
Ideology in the Late Eighteenth Century." Early American
Literature 10 (1975): 235-50.
Howard, Leon. The
Connecticut Wits. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1943.
Hardman, Keith. Issues in
American Christianity: primary sources with introductions. Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, c1993. BR514 .H37
Kafer, Peter. "The Making of
Timothy Dwight: A Connecticut Morality Tale." William and Mary
Quarterly 47.2 (Apr 1990): 189-209.
Kamensky, Jane. "'In These
Contrasted Climes, How Chang'd the Scene': Progress, Declension, and
Balance in the Landscapes of Timothy Dwight." New England
Quarterly 63.1 (Mar 1990): 80-108.
Leary, Lewis. "Joel Barlow:
The Man of Letters as Citizen." The Humanist as Citizen. Eds.
John Agresto and Peter Riesenberg. Chapel Hill: Nat. Humanities
Center, 1981. 37-56.
Lemay, J. A. Leo. "The
Contexts and Themes of 'The Hasty Pudding.'" Early American
Literature 17.1 (Sprg 1982): 3-23.
Martin, Terence. "Three
Columbiads, Three Visions of the Future." Early American
Literature 27.2 (1992): 128-34.
Parrington, Vernon L. The
Connecticut Wits. NY:: Harcourt, Brace, 1926 . PS548.C8 P3
Post, Constance J.
"Revolutionary Dialogics in American Mock Epic Poetry: Double Voicing
in M'Fingal, The Anarchiad, and The Hasty
Pudding." Studies in American Humor 6 (1988):
40-51.
Richardson, Robert D., Jr.
"The Enlightenment View of Myth and Joel Barlow's Vision of
Columbus." Early American Literature 13 (1978):
34-44.
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| Samuels, Shirley. "Infidelity and Contagion: The Rhetoric of
Revolution." Early American Literature 22.2 (Fall 1987):
183-191.
Sears, John F. "Timothy
Dwight and the American Landscape: The Composing Eye in Dwight's
Travels in New England and New York." Early American
Literature 11 (1976-77): 311-21.
Spears, Timothy B. "Common
Observations: Timothy Dwight's Travels in New England and New
York." American Studies 30.1 (Sprg 1989): 35-52.
Stillinger, Jack. "Dwight's
Triumph of Infidelity: Text and Interpretation." Studies in
Bibliography 15 (1962): 259-66.
Sutton, Walter. "Apocalyptic
History and the American Epic: Cotton Mather and Joel Barlow."
Toward a New American Literary History: Essays in Honor of Arlin
Turner. Eds. Louis J. Budd, Edwin H. Cady, and Carl L. Anderson.
Durham: Duke UP, 1980. 69-83.
Van Dover, J. K. "The Design
of Anarchy: The Anarchiad, 1786-1787." Early American
Literature 24.3 (1989): 237-47.
Woodress, James L. A
Yankee's odyssey; the life of Joel Barlow. Philadelphia:
Lippincott 1958. PS705 .W6
Zafar, Rafia. "The Proof of
the Pudding: Of Haggis, Hasty Pudding, and Transatlantic Influence."
Early American Literature 31.2 (1996): 133-49.
Zunder, Theodore A. The
early days of Joel Barlow, a Connecticut wit. Hamden, Conn:
Archon Books, 1969. PS705 Z8
MLA Style
Citation of this Web Page:
Reuben, Paul P.
"Chapter 2: Early American Literature: 1700-1800 - The Connecticut
Wits." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and
Reference Guide. URL:
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