Seventeen ninety-eight marked the beginning of a prolific novel-writing period for Charles Brockden Brown, during which he published works that established him as a major voice of the Early National period in the United States. Though trained for the law, he ultimately focused his career on literature, journalism, and historical writing in Philadelphia.
Early Mercantile and Legal Background
Born in Philadelphia in 1771 to a Quaker merchant family, Brown was the fourth of five brothers. His father, Elijah Brown, worked primarily as a land-conveyancer. By the 1780s, his brothers were active in import-export ventures, and Brown served as a reluctant partner in the family firm, James Brown & Co., from 1800 until its dissolution in 1806. Before entering the literary sphere, he spent six years studying law at the office of Alexander Wilcocks, eventually abandoning those studies in 1793.
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During the 1790s, Brown became associated with the Friendly Club in New York, a group of young intellectuals that included William Dunlap and Dr. Elihu Hubbard Smith. This environment nurtured his development as a writer. His work was shaped by British radical-democratic thinkers such as William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, Thomas Holcroft, and Robert Bage. These intellectual currents informed the themes and complex narrative structures found within his novels, which later gained attention from figures like Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley.
The Evolution of Gothic Fiction
Brown is often associated with Gothic fiction, though his approach diverged from the conventions established by writers like Ann Radcliffe. His novels, including Wieland, Ormond, Edgar Huntly, and Arthur Mervyn, integrated Enlightenment-era medical knowledge and concepts of sleepwalking or religious mania with standard narrative forms. While early scholarship often separated his later, more conventional epistolary novels like Clara Howard and Jane Talbot from his earlier Gothic works, recent analysis views his seven surviving novels as a coherent, unified body of work.
Editorial and Political Contributions
Beyond his fiction, Brown maintained a career as an editor and journalist. He contributed to several periodicals, including The Monthly Magazine and American Review and The American Review and Literary Journal. Later in his life, he turned his focus toward political pamphlets, advocating for the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory and expressing opposition to the Embargo Act of 1807. He also served as the primary contributor to The Literary Magazine and American Register until his death in 1810 at the age of 39.
Fast facts
- Born: 1771, Philadelphia
- Died: 1810, Philadelphia
- Burial site: Arch Street Friends Meeting House Burial Ground
- Primary occupations: novelist, lawyer, historian, journalist, publisher
- Early publication: The Rhapsodist (1789)
- Noted works: Wieland, Edgar Huntly
- Language: English
- Citizenship: United States
Questions readers ask
Was Charles Brockden Brown the first American novelist?
No, although some early criticism suggested he was, scholarship identifies him as a crucial figure of the early republic rather than the first American novelist.
What subjects did Brown address in his political writing?
His political pamphlets covered the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory and argued against the Embargo Act of 1807.
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