4 g AMERICAN MEN OF LETTERS [48 



themselves. Calculations not given in the table show 

 further that in all but one subject New England produced 

 more literati, in proportion to population, than did any other 

 group of states. The lead was particularly marked in the 

 classes of patrons, librarians, publicists, and speculative 

 writers. The Middle Atlantic states produced in absolute 

 numbers more dramatists than all the other groups com- 

 bined, and relatively more than any other single group. 

 The absolute number of actors and narrators credited to 

 them was also larger than that of any other group, though 

 relatively New England had the lead. The South Atlantic 

 states showed their greatest relative strength in the class of 

 orators, where they ranked above the Middle Atlantic 

 states, though still far below New England. 1 



These differences are readily explained by the same prin- 

 ciple which explained the decline, in the country as a whole, 

 of all but three fields of letters. 2 No doubt the mark of 

 approbation or ban of disapproval set by a group upon any 

 particular form of literary activity has tremendous influ- 

 ence in stimulating or retarding activity of this sort. This 

 fact may well explain the predominance of New England 

 in the fields of patrons, librarians, publicists and specula- 

 tive writers, fields which seem more characteristic of the 

 Puritan than does the drama, in which the Middle Atlantic 

 states held the lead. 



Finally, in the seventh place, Table III shows a fact not 

 mentioned when the table was previously discussed, namely, 

 that the number of literary women increased fairly steadily 

 from colonial times to the end of the period studied. Ap- 



1 These facts were still further confirmed by a separate analysis in 

 which each litterateur was counted once for each field in which he 

 had achieved distinction. The general results were so similar to 

 those shown in Table VII that it seemed unnecessary to print them. 



2 Cf. supra, p. 40. 



