John Neal

John Neal (1793-1876). Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

John Neal
Born	August 25, 1793(1793-Template:MONTHNUMBER-25) Falmouth (now Portland, Maine), U.S.
Died	June 20, 1876(1876-Template:MONTHNUMBER-20) (aged 82) Portland, Maine, U.S.
Occupation	Writer, Critic, Lawyer, Architect

John Neal (August 25, 1793 - June 20, 1876), was an American poet, prose author, and art/literary critic.

Life

Overview

Neal, born at Portland, Maine, was self-educated, kept a dry goods store, and was afterwards a lawyer. He wrote several novels, which show considerable native power, but little art, and are now almost forgotten. Among those which show the influence of Byron and Godwin are Keep Cool (1818), Logan (1822), and Seventy-six (1823). His poems have the same features of vigor and want of finish. In 1823 he visited England, and became known to Jeremy Bentham. He contributed some articles on American subjects to Blackwood's Magazine.

He was also an early women's rights advocate, prohibitionist, temperance advocate, opponent of dueling, accomplished lawyer, boxer, and architect.

Youth

Born in a yellow frame house on Free Street at the corner of South Street in Falmouth (now Portland, Maine) of Quaker parents, he attended school until the age of 12 whereupon he entered into business.

For 9 years he made a living as haberdasher, clerk, dry goods dealer, traveling penmanship tutor, and miniature artist, among other things, before entering law school in Baltimore, Maryland in 1815. Neal supported himself while in school by writing for local periodicals, and he helped found a literary society, The Delphian Club. Neal wrote for and eventually edited the journal the Delphians created—a short-lived but influential and admired monthly journal titled The Portico.

In short time, he turned to novels and poetry, publishing some 6 novels and 2 epic poems (under the pseudonymous 'clubicular' name, "Jehu O'Cataract," a nickname given to him by the Delphians because of his rapid production). He was proud of the speed with which he threw off his volumes, often taking only a week to finish an entire novel. He wrote during this stage in his life that, "I shall write, as others drink, for exhilaration." Neal left for England in late 1823.

In England

John Neal's time in London (1824–1827) was a mission: to win recognition in Europe of American literature and demystify the land of his birth in the eyes of the British literary elite. He attempted to fulfill this mission through his work for Blackwood's Magazine, and a novel, published in England: Brother Jonathan; or, The New Englanders. He wrote in his column for Blackwood's about American life and critiqued American authors. After a falling out with the editor of Blackwood's, Neal wrote for several other leading periodicals including the Westminster Review.

As part of a debating society, Neal met Jeremy Bentham, who invited Neal to live with him in London. After a short trip to Paris, Neal returned to Portland, Maine.

Return to Portland

File:Yankee Sept 1829 Neal Poe.jpg

The Yankee, September, 1829, containing an early review of Edgar Allan Poe's poetical works.

When Neal returned to Portland in 1827, he was rather ill-received, as some of his writing (perhaps Errata (1823) or "Keep Cool" (1817), a kiss and tell story about his experiences in Portland as a youngster) was found offensive by many locals.

Unbeknown to his denouncers, his return to Portland was planned as merely a visit, but faced with such opposition, he decided to stay. In his autobiography, Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life, he writes, “'Verily, verily,' said I, 'if they take that position, here I will stay, till I am both rooted and grounded – grounded in the graveyard, if nowhere else.'”

He spent the rest of his life in Portland, re-establishing his law practice and a short-lived literary periodical called The Yankee. He guided many an author or artist through critique and encouragement, among them Edgar Allan Poe, Benjamin Paul Akers, and Charles Codman.

In addition to his literary work, Neal also helped found several gymnasiums in Portland and throughout the state of Maine. He is often referred to as "The Father of Organized Maine Athletics." He maintained a solid physique into old age, which he demonstrated when he threw a stubborn cigar-smoker off a non-smoking street car at the age of 79.

Neal and Poe

Edgar Allan Poe’s earliest critical recognition took place in the Yankee and Boston Literary Gazette for September 1829, where Neal declared that “E.A.P. of Baltimore” “might make a beautiful and perhaps magnificent poem. There is a good deal here to justify such a hope.” In December, Neal suggested that, “with all their faults, if the remainder of Al Aaraaf and Tamerlane are as good as the body of the extracts here given . . ., he will deserve to stand high — very high — in the estimation of the shining brotherhood.” Neal also quoted at length from an extraordinary letter in which the fledgling poet calls Neal’s praise “the very first words of encouragement I ever remember to have heard.”

Reviewing Poems (1831), Neal called Poe “A fellow of fine genius” capable of “Pure poetry in one page — pure absurdity in another.” “To Helen” is reprinted as an example of pure poetry, the production of one who “has the gift, and betrays the presence ... that cannot be mistaken.”

Poe never forgot the critic who gave him “the first jog in my literary career” (as he put it in an 1840 letter to Neal). It was more than a sense of personal gratitude, however, that led Poe to praise his mentor on numerous occasions and — as late’ as 1849 — to rank John Neal “first, or at all events, second, among our men of indisputable genius."

Writing

Neal was a man of diverse talents and objectives, many of which were pioneering in his day. For example, he is credited as being the first American author to employ colloquialism in his writing, breaking with more formal traditions in literature. However, he was also undisciplined and often rambling, so despite its period significance, his literary work has drifted into obscurity.

Publications

Poetry

• Battle of Niagara: A poem, without notes; and Goldau, or, The maniac Harper Baltimore, MD: Portico Press, for N.G. Maxwell, 1818; enlarged, 1819.

Plays

• Otho: A Tragedy in Five Acts. Boston: J.H. Frost, for West, Richardson, & Lord, 1819.

Novels

• Keep Cool: A novel. Baltimore, MD: Joseph Cushing, 1817; Baltimore, MD: Wm. Woody, 1979.
• Logan: A family history. Philadelphia: H.C. Carey & I. Lea, 1822
  • also published as Logan, the Mingo Chief: A family history. London: J.V. Cunningham, 1845.
• Seventy-Six: 'Our country! Right or wrong.' (2 volumes), Baltimore, MD: 1823; London: G. & W.B. Whittaker, 1823; (facsimile edition), Bainbridge, NY: York Mail-Print, 1971.
• Randolph: A novel. Baltimore: 1823.
• Errata; or, The works of Will. Adams: A tale New York: 1823.
• Brother Jonathan; or, The New Englanders. (3 volumes), 1825; Edinburgh, 1825. Volume I), Volume II
• Rachel Dyer: An American story. Portland, ME: Shirley & Hyde, 1828; (facsimile edition), Gainesville, FL: Scholars Facsimiles & Reprints, 1964.
• Authorship: A tale. Boston: Gray & Bowen, 1830.
• The Down-Easters. (2 volumes), New York: Harper, 1833. Volume I), Volume II
• John Beedle's Sleighride, Courtship and Marriage. New York: 1841.
• The Mysterious Artist. 1843.
• True Womanhood: A tale. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1859.
• The White-Faced Pacer; or, Before and after the battle. New York: Beadle & Adams, 1863.
• The Moose-Hunter; or, Life in the Maine Woods. New York: Beadle, 1864.
• Little Moccasin; or, Along the Madawaska: A story of life and love in the lumber region. New York: Beadle, 1866.

Non-fiction

• Banks and Banking: A letter to the bank-directors of Portland. Portland, ME: Orion office, 1837.
• One Word More: Intended for the reasoning and thoughtful among unbelievers. Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1854.
• Account of the Great Conflagration in Portland, July 4th, & 5th, 1866. Portland, ME: Starbird & Twitchell, 1866.
• Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life: An autobiography. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1869.
• Great Mysteries and Little Plagues. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1870
• Portland Illustrated. Portland, ME: W.S. Jones, 1874.
• American Writers: A series of papers contributed to 'Blackwood's Magazine' (edited by Fred Lewis Pattee). Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1937.
• Observtions on Art: Selections (edited by Harold Edward Dickson). State College, PA: Pennsylvania State College Studies (12), 1943.

Collected editions

• Windsor Dagget, A Down-East Yankee from the District of Maine. Portland, ME: A.J. Huston, 1920; University of Chicago Press, 1972. ISBN 0-226-46969-7
• Life and Works (edited by Irving T. Richards). (4 volumes), Harvard University Press, 1933.
• Critical Essays and Stories (edited by Hans-Joachim Lang). Jahrbuch für Amerikastudien 7 (1962), 204-319.

Edited

• The Yankee. Portland, ME: James Adams, Jr., 1828.

Letters

• John Neal to Edgar A. Poe (edited by Edmund Clarence Stedman). ysleta, TX: Edmund Bliss Hill, 1942.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of U.S. poets
• List of literary critics

References

• Windsor Dagget; A Down-East Yankee From the District of Maine; A.J. Huston, Publisher; 1920
• Lease, Benjamin (1972). That Wild Fellow John Neal and the American Literary Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 229. ISBN 0-226-46969-7. 
• Goddu, Teresa A (1997). Gothic America: Narrative, History, and Nation. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 226. ISBN 0-231-10816-8. 
• Nelson, Dana D (1998). National Manhood: Capitalist Citizenship and the Imagined Fraternity of White Men. New Americanists. Durham: Duke University Press. p. 344. ISBN 0-8223-2130-0. 

External links

Poems

• John Neal in Specimens of American Poetry: "The Eagle," "Battle of Niagara," "Goldau," "The Birth of a Poet," "Ambition," "The Sleeper," "Ode to Peace"

Prose

• John Neal at Wikisource

Books

• John Neal at Amazon.com

About

• John Neal (1793-1876) at Perspectives in American Literature
• Neal, John at the House of Beadle & Adams,
• Critical and Biographical Notice in Specimens of English Poetry
• John Neal in the Cambridge History of English and American Literature
• John Neal and Edgar Allan Poe," Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore
• Photograph of John Neal from the Maine Memory Network