4 o AMERICAN MEN OF LETTERS [40 



The statistics in Tables I and II thus show that the liter- 

 ary activity of the American people has been far from uni- 

 form in amount. This fact requires explanation. It is 

 apparently best explained, in accordance with the thesis 

 maintained in this study, in terms of the social environ- 

 ment, the first of the nine environmental conditions which 

 are to be considered. Authors of the first rank disappeared 

 after the Civil War because their work seems to have been 

 no longer appreciated. 1 In other words, the social environ- 

 ment had become relatively unfavorable to literary activity. 

 The reason for this change seems to be as follows. During 

 the Reconstruction period the temper of the American peo- 

 ple was profoundly altered. It is true that before the War 

 the spirit of commercialism was strong, but many people 

 still had leisure which they devoted to serious reading. 

 Later, when all values seemed to be expressed in terms of 

 money, the nation had less time to devote to a seemingly 

 impractical subject like literature. Professor Cooley ad- 

 mirably summarizes the argument for this theory when he 

 says: 



The real cause of literary and artistic weakness (in so far as it 



white population of the United States at the end of that decade. Each 

 white person in the United States was counted in the population of 

 each decade at the end of which he was alive. To obtain comparable 

 results the same procedure was adopted for the period prior to 1771. 

 The population for each decade was estimated, and the number of 

 literati born in the period was recorded. Since these figures were too 

 small to be significant, it seemed best to combine the estimates for 

 the entire colonial period. The number of literati born in the period 

 before 1771 was of course found by adding the numbers born in each 

 decade of the period. Likewise the estimated population for each 

 decade was summed, to give a comparable population figure for the 

 period. Only thus could significant figures be obtained. 



1 The marked fall in the birth rate of literati took place perhaps fifty 

 years before the corresponding decline in literature. It began after 

 1820, and continued till the close of the period studied. 



