The bibliography of American writer John Neal (1793–1876) spans more than sixty years from the War of 1812 through the Reconstruction era and includes novels, short stories, poetry, articles, plays, lectures, and translations published in newspapers, magazines, literary journals, gift books, pamphlets, and books. Favorite topics included women's rights, feminism, gender, race, slavery, children, education, law, politics, art, architecture, literature, drama, religion, gymnastics, civics, American history, science, phrenology, travel, language, political economy, and temperance.
Between 1817 and 1835, Neal became the first American published in British literary journals, author of the first history of American literature, the first American art critic, a children's literature pioneer, a forerunner of the American Renaissance, and one of the first American male advocates of women's rights. As the first American author to use natural diction and one of the first to write characters with regional American accents, Neal's fiction aligns with the literary nationalist and regionalist movements. A pioneer of colloquialism, Neal is the first to use the phrase son-of-a-bitch in an American work of fiction. His fiction explores the romantic and gothic genres.
Neal was a prolific contributor to periodicals, particularly in the second half of the 1830s. His critiques of literature, art, and drama anticipated future movements and contributed to the careers of many authors whose careers historically eclipsed Neal's. As a critic and political commentator, his essays and journalism showed distrust of institutions and an affinity for self-examination and self-reliance. Many of Neal's pamphlets are lectures he delivered between 1829 and 1848, when he supplemented his income by traveling on the lyceum movement circuit. He also published many short stories, averaging one per year in this time period. Neal's tales helped shape the genre and early children's literature and challenged socio-political phenomena associated with Jacksonian democracy. As a translator he worked mostly on French compositions but was able to read and write to some degree in eleven languages other than his native English. The bulk of his novels were published between 1822 and 1828 though he continued writing novels until the last decade of his life. His last major work was an 1874 guidebook for his hometown of Portland, Maine. There are four posthumous collections of his writing, published between 1920 and 1978.
Bound publications Novels John Neal felt that novels represented the highest form of prose. As a novelist, he is recognized as "the first in America to be natural in his diction" and "the father of American subversive fiction" for developing a new "wild, rough, and defiant American style" to break with British standards then dominant in the US. A pioneer of American colloquialism and dialects in novels, Neal's novels are aligned with both the literary nationalist and regionalist movements and anticipate the American Renaissance.
+ Title Year First publisher Notes Keep Cool, A Novel 1817 Baltimore: Joseph Cushing Explores gender roles in relationships and expresses Neal's views against dueling; in two volumes; authorship ascribed as "Written in Hot Weather, by Somebody, M.D.C. &c. &c. &c.", in which "M.D.C." stands for "Member of the Delphian Club"; republished in 2024 with footnotes and a scholarly introduction Logan, a Family History 1822 Philadelphia: H.C. Carey & I. Lea A "gothic tapestry" that explores racial boundaries between White and Indigenous Americans; in two volumes; republished in London in 1823 in four volumes by A.K. Newman & Co.; republished as Logan, the Mingo Chief. A Family History "By the Author of Seventy-Six in London in 1840 by J. Cunningham Seventy-Six Baltimore: Joseph Robinson First use of son-of-a-bitch in an American work of fiction; Neal's favorite of his own novels; in two volumes; published in London the same year in three volumes by Whittaker and Company; facsimile of Baltimore edition published in 1971; excerpted in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978); published before Randolph and Errata Randolph, a Novel "A story in the form of letters, giving an account of our celebrities, orators, writers, painters, &c., &c."; in two volumes; contains the earliest of Neal's significant art criticism; "By the Author of Logan — and Seventy-Six"; excerpted in American Writers: A Series of Papers Contributed to Blackwood's Magazine (1824–1825) (1937) and The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978); published after Seventy-Six and before Errata Errata; or, the Works of Will. Adams New York: Published for the Proprietors A semi-autobiographical account of Neal's life before 1823; excerpted in the New England Galaxy (October 17 and November 28, 1835) and The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978); in two volumes; "A Tale by the Author of Logan, Seventy-Six, and Randolph"; published after Seventy-Six and Randolph Brother Jonathan: or, the New Englanders 1825 Edinburgh: William Blackwood A story of the American Revolution depicting regional American folkways and dialect; in three volumes; excerpted in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978) Rachel Dyer: A North American Story 1828 Portland, Maine: Shirley and Hyde "Almost universally regarded as Neal's most successful fictional work"; first hardcover novel based on the Salem witch trials; an expansion of "New-England Witchcraft" likely written for but never published by Blackwood's Magazine in 1825, but published serially over five issues of The New-York Mirror (April 20 – May 18, 1839); republished by facsimile in 1964; excerpted in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978); "Unpublished Preface" republished in "Critical Essays and Stories by John Neal" (1962) Authorship, a Tale 1830 Boston: Gray and Bowen A "spritely spoof" about authors likely largely written during Neal's stay with Jeremy Bentham in London; "By a New Englander Over-Sea" 1833 New York: Harper & Brothers Showcases regional variation in American character, dialect, and setting; Neal's "fullest expression" of "regional realism"; in two volumes; includes two short stories: "Bill Frazier—the Fur Trader" and "Robert Steele"; excerpted in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978) Ruth Elder 1843 Brother Jonathan magazine "A Down-East story of seduction"; a serial novella published over fifteen issues (June 17, July 29, August 12, August 19, September 2, September 9, September 30, October 7, October 14, October 21, November 4, November 11, November 25, December 2, and December 9, 1843); first three installments originally published in The New Mirror (June 3, June 10, and June 17, 1843) True Womanhood: a Tale 1859 Boston: Ticknor and Fields Defends the dignity of unmarried women; explores social life, business, and legal procedure in New York City; couched in an "abundant and all-pervasive" religious theme 1863 New York: Beadle and Company The top-ranked dime novel when it was published; an adaptation of "The Switch-Tail Pacer. A Tale of Other Days" (1841) 1864 New York: Beadle and Company A dime novel Little Moccasin; or, Along the Madawaska 1866 New York: Beadle and Company A dime novel; "A Story of Life and Love in the Lumber Region"; published in London the same year by George Routledge & Sons Live Yankees; or, The Down Easters at Home 1867 A serial novella published over eight weekly installments; a reworking of the novel The Lumberman, rejected by Beadle and Company
Collections
+ Title Editor Year First publisher Notes Battle of Niagara, a Poem, without Notes; and Goldau, or the Maniac Harper 1818 Baltimore: N. G. Maxwell Recognized at the time as the best poetic description of Niagara Falls, though Neal did not see it until 1833; "By Jehu O'Cataract" 1819 Baltimore: N. G. Maxwell Great Mysteries and Little Plagues 1870 Boston: Roberts Brothers A collection of stories and essays for and about children 1920 Portland, Maine: A.J. Huston A biography of Neal that includes Neal's "Rights of Women" speech (originally published in Brother Jonathan magazine June 17, 1843), as well as excerpts from Randolph, Battle of Niagara, Errata, and "Sketches of the Five American Presidents, and of the Five Presidential Candidates, from the Memoranda of a Traveller" American Writers: A Series of Papers Contributed to Blackwood's Magazine (1824–1825) 1937 Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press Criticism of 135 American authors originally published in Blackwood's Magazine; the earliest written history of American literature Observations on American Art: Selections from the Writings of John Neal (1793-1876) 1943 State College, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State College "A full collection of Neal's most important art criticism" 1978 Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press Includes four short stories, excerpts from five novels, and eleven essays by Neal and notes and an introduction by the editors
Nonfiction books
+ Title Year First publisher Notes One Word More: Intended for the Reasoning and Thoughtful among Unbelievers 1854 Portland, Maine: Ira Berry A religious tract that "rambles passionately for two hundred pages and closes with breathless metaphor"; also published the same year in Boston by Crocker & Brewster Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life 1869 Boston: Roberts Brothers An autobiography that "presents a showy embroidery of bombast and gasconade on a firm fabric of good sound sense"; excerpted in Maine: A Literary Chronicle (1968) and The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978) Portland Illustrated 1874 Portland, Maine: W.S. Jones A Portland, Maine guidebook "so chaotic in arrangement as to diminish greatly its usefulness"
Pamphlets Many of Neal's pamphlets are lectures he delivered between 1829 and 1848, when he supplemented his income by traveling on the lyceum movement circuit.