More About the First American Novel

Abstract

FORMER accounts of the first American novel, William Hill Brown's The Power of Sympathy,' have not fully taken into account two peculiar dramatic pieces, Occurrences of the Times and The Better Sort, which have some connection with the novel. Both, it is true, have been briefly mentioned in relation to Brown; but it may be illuminating now to explore more thoroughly the known facts of their publication and the instances of their relevancy. The two pieces were issued in the fifth week following the appearance of the novel. Occurrences of the Times clears the previously unauthenticated story concerning the attempted suppression of the novel by the Perez Morton family; and The Better Sort, while providing no direct reference to the famous work, has patterns of similarity and would seem to have been written by Brown himself. The notorious portions of The Power of Sympathy are confined to Letters XXI-XXIII,2 in which are related the seduction of the unmarried Ophelia by her brother-in-law Martin, the subsequent outraged conduct of the father Shepherd, and finally the suicide of Ophelia. Brown drew the incident from a parallel case, the scandal of Boston at the time, in the influential Perez Morton household.3 Morton (Martin) had seduced Fanny Apthorp (Ophelia), the daughter of James Apthorp (Shepherd) and younger sister of Sarah Wentworth Morton (Mrs. Martin) and Charles Apthorp. The fame of Mrs. Morton as a writer and her connection with the scandal were responsible many years for attributing to her the authorship of the novel, though she would have been the last person to write it. After Fanny's suicide in August, 1788, both Mortons and Apthorps wished to silence public talk; but in the following January, Charles Apthorp arrived from London and challenged Morton to a duel.4