Rhode Island
Click an author to read a biographical essay prepared by a local student.
|
By Susan Huetteman
Why are Rhode Islanders so passionate about their state? After all it is the smallest in the nation. Is it their love of their ocean, bays, and ponds, or their belief in the rights of the individual? Both are staunchly practiced and protected.
It is difficult to know who is really a "Rhody"—there are native-born, year-rounders, and residents who, year after year, summer on the shore. Our journey on the Ocean State's literary map begins as a young man hastily says "goodbye" to his wife and children and flees to the head of Narragansett Bay.
Freedom's Choice
When
Roger Williams was threatened with deportation from the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1636) for his concepts of Indian rights and separation of Church and State, he fled to friendly Narragansett Indian Territory. Because Williams and his followers established plantations in Providence and Newport, he is honored as Rhode Island's founder. But Williams considered himself a guest of an established native culture. Williams dedicated his life to religious freedom and personal tolerance—setting a tone for Rhode Island that resounds today throughout our world.With his sensitive and thoughtful A Key into the Language of America, Roger Williams became Rhode Island's first author. The next the century would see a Rhode Island native sign the Declaration of Independence: Stephen Hopkins, signer and colonial author.
An Aquidneck Millennium
With King Philip's War (1675-91), Williams saw his beloved Providence destroyed. Newport Island was spared and continued the legacy of religious freedom, welcoming Quakers, Jews, and Baptists. The Aquidneck oak forests and bountiful waters would draw some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers.
James Fenimore Cooper frequented Newport, as did Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Fort Adams became a major military stronghold and would later count 19th-century playwright Thornton Wilder among its ranks. Great maritime authors were associated with Newport. Native-born Admiral Matthew Calbraith Perry's Japanese expeditions are celebrated annually in Newport's Black Ship Festival. Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison would become his 20th-century biographer.
The face of the Ocean State was changing. Portuguese and African seamen worked the fishing fleets as French Canadian and Italian craftsmen expanded inland. Nineteenth century Newport had become a lavish playground for the international wealthy. For example, the Astors and Belmonts built mansions high on the cliffs overlooking Narragansett Bay. Hebrew language professor and author of The Night Before Christmas, Clement Clarke Moore, built the Cedars. The haunting presence of the mansions inspired the unusual writings of H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft, considered by many to be the first science fiction writer, was a devoted fan of Edgar Allan Poe—who lived briefly in Providence, during his courtship of poet Sarah Helen Whitman.
The Writers' Colony
The Newport islands drew the wealthy leisure class of Boston, New York and Europe to its cool summers. At the center of the famous were literary families—the Jameses, Hazards, Howes, and LaFarges.
The Hazard name continues to dot the landscape and is etched on edifices throughout Rhode Island: Oliver Hazard Perry, naval hero and brother of Admiral Perry, essayist Rowland Gibson Hazard, and historian Caroline Hazard. Thomas Robinson Hazard published Jonny-Cake Papers. Jonny-Cake, a corn pancake developed by native Narragansett Indians, continues to be celebrated in festivals and is as common to Rhode Island as Quahog (clam) chowder.
The end of the Victorian era was a time of social change and the emergence of activism. Authors delved into the human psyche and explored unconventional thought, led by theologian
Henry James and his sons, novelist Henry James and philosopher William James.Women assumed an activist role.
Edith Wharton was counted among Henry James' Newport and Parisian friends. Antislavery activist and author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" Julia Warde Howe wrote of human rights. Hers was a family of authors: F. Marion Crawford and Henry Marion Hall. Her daughter Maude Howe Elliott subsequently chronicled the family and Newport. Newport continued to draw the famous: poet Henry Van Dyke, novelist Edward Everett Hale , educational reformer Horace Mann, and Herman Melville, who sailed the waters south of Fort Adams in search of Moby Dick.When James Franklin, Benjamin's brother, introduced the printing press to Newport, he established the first Rhode Island newspaper in 1726. It was followed the same year by William Goddard's Providence Gazette and Country Journal. They were the forerunners of the dynamic role of the Providence Journal would play in establishing the prominence of the non-fiction writer.
The 20th Century Express
Literary centers were expanding inland. Writers were drawn to Providence, Brown University, and the many collegiate faculties. Authors were no longer summering, but living and working in Rhode Island.
The explosion of 20th-century technology created new writing genres. S.J. Perelman penned Marx Brother's movies, Thornton Wilder revolutionized the play, and poet Ogden Nash made us laugh. George M. Cohan sang "Over There," but was born here in Rhode Island. The literary map was expanding and new roads were explored.
As the 21st century arrives, Rhode Island's contemporary writers perpetuate social honesty and independent thinking, but with an intimate touch. We enter the homes of French Canadian immigrants with David LaPlante. We scrub for the operating rooms with
G.Wayne Miller. Teddy Roosevelt is a family man in Edward J. Renehan's The Lion's Pride.Ann Hood explores relationships, Thomas Briody's Michael Carolina solves Providence mysteries, and Adrian Cronauer calls, Good Morning, Vietnam. The brothers Farrelley, Bobby and Peter, make Rhode Island not so Dumb and Dumber. Julio Ortega and Jose Brites map a multi-lingual route and with a South Shore dialect and Don Bosquet pokes fun at Rhode Island provincialism. Award winning
Chris Van Allsburg , David Macaulay, and Faith McNulty prove juvenile books are not-just-for-kids, as a host of nature and travel writers explore by-paths and trails. C.D. Wright takes readers on poetic journeys and interactive Reader's maps. It is with tribal historian Ammerman and the friendly humor of poet John Christian Hopkins that Rhode Island returns full circle to the Narragansett Indians.The Road to Y2K
When Giovanni da Verrazano wrote Hakluyt's Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America (1582), he wrote the first description of Narragansett Bay. When we travel the literary map of Rhode Island, we are humbled by five creative centuries of Rhode Island authors.
It's wonderfully diverse group, isn't it? But what would you expect, after all, from members of that most independent-minded profession in the home of the Independent Man? (Riggs).
Sources
Riggs, Doug, ed. Providence Journal Archives. "Rhody's Century of Books and Authors," p. 8.
Resources
This alphabetical listing of Rhode Island authors is a good place to start your research:
A – D E – H I – M N – T U – Z
For information on how to obtain information on the Ocean State's authors, go to the Rhode Island Literary Sources
document. This essay was written by Susan Huetteman, a retired teacher in Rhode Island.