A widely respected educator, editor, critic, and scholar in his day, Fred Lewis Pattee, writes a reviewer in Choice (December 1973), "is today remembered (if at all) as one of the first professors of American literature and one of the first writers to attempt a comprehensive examination of our literary heritage. Hence, he occupies a small place in the literary histories for having been a 'pioneer.'" The published author of well over a hundred poems, a handful of short stories, and three novels-all of which have been forgotten-Pattee's literary reputation must rest solely on critical and scholarly work which has largely been superseded by later work. Yet he was one of the most influential figures in the decline of English literary colonialism and the subsequent declaration of American literary independence in the early years of the twentieth century. Without the foundations laid by Pattee the history of American...