Brown, Charles Brockden

Chiefly known as father of the American novel, is famous for Wieland; or, The Transformation (1798), a gothic saga in an American setting. He gave up law to pursue a literary career. He was a founder of a literary society. Brown wrote Ormond (1799), Edgar Huntly (1799), and Arthur Mervyn (1799-1800), as well as a number of less well known novels and a book on women rights. ;

Novelist, historian and editor of a magazine, Brown is one of the earliest American literary figures. The breadth and complexity of his achievement as a writer in multiple genres is remarkable.;