"the Great American Novel" 1852

[Shapiro, Fred]

I had exactly the same reaction that Jon did.

Fred Shapiro



________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2014 9:34 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "the Great American Novel" 1852

Good find, but it seems to mean something quite different from later usage.

_UTC_ in 1852 is "the American novel of stature that you've probably heard
about"

It isn't "the greatest, most all-encompassing novel of American life
possible."

Which is how I interpret the lexicalized phrase.

JL


On Sat, May 24, 2014 at 8:32 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Subject:      "the Great American Novel" 1852
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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,
> G=F6ttingen,=
>  10th mo. 17, 1852
>
> ....In England...."Uncle Tom's Cabin"....At the bookstore you see large
> pla=
> cards announcing "the Great American Novel," as it is called....
>
>
> Stephen Goranson
>
> http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/
>
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