SOURCE: McDowell, Tremaine. “The First American Novel.” American Review 2, no. 1 (November 1933): 73-81.

In the following essay, McDowell contends that one of the main reasons Brown's The Power of Sympathy was suppressed when it was first issued was because the book offended American sensibilities in general and the community of Dorchester, Massachusetts in particular.

On the 21st day of January in the year 1789, loyal citizens of Massachusetts had unique cause for gratification. At last, they were informed, a novel had been written and published in book form in the United States. Under the challenging heading, FIRST AMERICAN NOVEL, they found in Boston journals this advertisement: “This day published, price 9s. bound and lettered, and 6s. 8d. stitched in blue paper, THE POWER OF SYMPATHY: Or, the TRIUMPH OF NATURE. A NOVEL founded in truth.” Observant Bostonians knew that, during the decades prior to the Revolutionary War, lack of leisure...