{"id":7078434,"date":"2026-10-06T18:43:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T18:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7078434"},"modified":"2026-10-06T18:43:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T18:43:21","slug":"americanstudies-january-7-2026-2026-anniversaries-published-in-1876","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7078434","title":{"rendered":"AmericanStudies: January 7, 2026: 2026 Anniversaries: Published in 1876"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

[The start
\nof a new year means my annual series on historic anniversaries. Leading up to a
\nweekend post on some of what I\u2019m planning for my Spring semester sabbatical!]<\/p>\n

For their
\n150th<\/sup> anniversary, five distinct but interconnected literary works
\npublished during the Centennial year. <\/span><\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Sidney
\nLanier\u2019s \u201cCentennial Cantata<\/a>\u201d: As I briefly highlighted in that hyperlinked
\npost, Lanier was a Confederate
\nveteran as well as a poet<\/a>, and the invitation to write the opening poem for
\nthe Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia was thus a
\nstriking and telling<\/a> one. But unlike the second text I\u2019ll highlight, Lanier\u2019s poem<\/a>
\ntook a decidedly unifying tone, from its hope that all Americans would \u201cToil,
\nand forgive, and kiss o\u2019er, and replight\u201d to its final image of the opening
\nceremony\u2019s \u201cmusic\u2026waving the world\u2019s best lover\u2019s welcome to the world.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>James
\nD. Lynch\u2019s \u201cRobert E. Lee, or Heroes of the South<\/a>\u201d: I included Lynch\u2019s poetry
\nin that weeklong blog series on Confederate memory because his works took and
\nreflect a very different tone from Lanier\u2019s Cantata. Before turning to poetry
\nthe Confederate veteran Lynch was a neo-Confederate
\nlawyer<\/a> in Reconstruction Mississippi, and his first published poem \u201cRobert E. Lee<\/a>\u201d
\nextended that work in particularly subtle and insidious ways, portraying the
\nConfederate general as an epic hero whom all Americans should admire and
\ncelebrate. <\/span><\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Herman
\nMelville\u2019s Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land<\/i><\/a>: Melville
\nwas no Confederate, as his excellent book of Civil War poetry Battle-Pieces
\nand Aspects of the War<\/a><\/i><\/span> (1866) makes very clear. And his complex
\nand multilayered epic poem Clarel<\/i> is mostly not about the U.S. at all,
\nfocusing on his titular character\u2019s literal and spiritual journey through the
\nMiddle East and his own faith. But the poem\u2019s fourth and final part, \u201cBethlehem,\u201d
\ndoes feature as an important supporting character Ungar, a mixed-race (white
\nand Native American) Confederate veteran exploring his own past and faith on
\nthe pilgrimage. Clarel is fascinated by Ungar, a small but significant reminder
\nof the appeal of such perspectives in 1876 America. <\/p>\n

4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Mark Twain\u2019s The
\nAdventures of Tom Sawyer<\/i><\/a>: Twain\u2019s first solo novel<\/a>
\n(he had co-written The Gilded Age<\/i> with Charles Dudley Warner) is set in
\nthe antebellum South, but unlike its sequel Adventures of
\nHuckleberry Finn<\/a><\/i> (1884) isn\u2019t particularly interested in historical or
\ncultural questions of region and race. But as those two hyperlinks to my Dad\u2019s Mark
\nTwain in His Times<\/i> website indicate, I\u2019m filially obligated to include
\nTwain\u2019s 1876 publication in this list. And in truth, no American author who
\ndominate the rest of the 19th<\/sup> century (and in many ways our
\ncollective conversations about American literature ever since) like Sam Clemens
\ndid. <\/span><\/p>\n

5)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Sarah
\nPiatt\u2019s That New World<\/i><\/a>: If I was filially obligated to include Twain\u2019s
\nnovel, I\u2019m personally obligated to feature a collection from my favorite
\nAmerican poet<\/a>. That New World<\/i> doesn\u2019t feature any of my favorite
\nindividual Piatt poems, but in every poem it illustrates her unique, dense, and
\ncompelling dialogic style, and how she uses it to capture so many layers to
\nparenting and family, marriage and relationships, identity, and more. And while
\nher titular poem doesn\u2019t specifically refer to America, I can\u2019t help but
\nimagine that for a Centennial-year publication Piatt was considering her still
\nyoung nation as part of her contexts at least. <\/span><\/p>\n

Next
\nhistoric anniversary tomorrow,<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben<\/span><\/p>\n

PS. What
\ndo you think? <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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