Building a National Literature

Summary

• Penny Papers changed the face of American newspapers. The were only a penny to begin with and then eventually two since they sold so quickly. They claimed the had "All the news of the day" in them so people were more likely to buy them. They were also the size of a sheet of paper so they were easy to fold up and carry with a person throughout the day versus the regular paper that was much larger. 
• It was cheaper for a while for Americans to have books imported to them from Britain and Ireland because our printing wasn't as up to date. Americans were accused of not having their own style of writing for a while as well. Foreign books used to get a new title, reprinted and rebound in order for people to sell them as their own. 
• The 19th Century is when American Literature began to take off and become something of its own and it was not longer being criticized as trying to hard to be like British literature. Writers like Fanny Fern, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne are the famous writers we read in classes like 19th Century American Lit at FSU because they were such influential writers of their time.

Comment

I think its interesting that American Literature kind of thrived from newspapers. Without newspapers and the stories that people put in them I don't think that American lit would have taken off so quickly because people were so focused on copying European literature. 

Question

For the longest time Europeans were complaining that America didn't have its own literature and that American writers were trying too hard to be something that they were not. Americans would reprint copies of European and British literature because they had no rights over their own work. What is your take on this? What does it mean to have your own style of writing and can you share writing style with someone else?