"the Great American Novel" 1852

[Stephen Goranson]

Lawrence Buell, The Dream of the Great American Novel (Harvard UP 2014) 23, 471 traces the phrase to 1866.


Nov. 18, 1852, Pennsylvania Freeman [Phil.] v.IX iss. 47 page 187 col. 2, [America's Hist. N.] Foreign Correspondence of the Pa. Freeman, Göttingen, 10th mo. 17, 1852

....In England...."Uncle Tom's Cabin"....At the bookstore you see large placards announcing "the Great American Novel," as it is called....


Stephen Goranson

http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/

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