Brown, Charles Brockden, 1771–1810, American novelist and editor, b. Philadelphia, considered the first professional American novelist. After the publication of Alcuin: A Dialogue (1798), he wrote such novels as Edgar Huntly (1799), Arthur Mervyn (2 vol., 1799–1800), and Ormond (1799), in which he presented arguments for social reform. Wieland (1799) was by far his most popular work and foreshadowed the psychological novel. To support himself after 1800 he became a merchant but also edited successively three periodicals, wrote political pamphlets, and projected a compendium on geography.

Bibliography

See B. Rosenthal, ed., Critical Essays on Charles Brockden (1981); A. Axelrod, Charles Brockden Brown: An American Tale (1983).

Brown, Charles Brockden

(born Jan. 17, 1771, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died Feb. 22, 1810, Philadelphia) U.S. writer. Brown left his law studies to devote himself to writing. His gothic novels in American settings were the first in a tradition later adapted by Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Wieland (1798), his best-known work, shows the ease with which mental balance is lost when common sense is confronted with the uncanny. His writings reflect a thoughtful liberalism while exploiting horror and terror. He has been called the “father of the American novel.”

Brown, Charles Brockden (1771–1810) writer; born in Philadelphia. A Quaker and Philadelphia lawyer who moved to New York City to write (1796), he is regarded as the country's first professional author. His first publication, Alcuin: A Dialogue (1798), was on the rights of women. He wrote four groundbreaking American Gothic romances, including Wieland (1798) and Arthur Mervyn (2 vols. 1799–1800). As these did not earn him much money, he returned to Philadelphia (1801) and worked as a merchant, editor, and translator. He died of tuberculosis.