William Hill Brown

The Power of Sympathy by William Hill Brown (1789), title page

William Hill Brown (November 1765 – September 2, 1793) was an American novelist, the author of what is usually considered the first American novel, The Power of Sympathy (1789), and "Harriot, or the Domestic Reconciliation",^[1] as well as the serial essay "The Reformer", published in Isaiah Thomas' Massachusetts Magazine. In both, Brown proves an extensive knowledge of European literature, for example of Clarissa by Samuel Richardson, but tries to lift the American literature from the British corpus by choice of an American setting.

References

^ Originally published in January 1789 in The Massachusetts Magazine. Carla Mulford (ed.) (2002): Early American Writing. Oxford University Press. New York. p. 1084ff.

[1] Originally published in January 1789 in The Massachusetts Magazine. Carla Mulford (ed.) (2002): Early American Writing. Oxford University Press. New York. p. 1084ff.

[1]