The bibliography of American writer John Neal (1793–1876) spans more than sixty years from the War of 1812 through Reconstruction and includes novels, short stories, poetry, articles, plays, lectures, and translations published in newspapers, magazines, literary journals, gift books, pamphlets, and books. Favorite topics included women's rights, feminism, gender, race, slavery, children, education, law, politics, art, architecture, literature, drama, religion, gymnastics, civics, American history, science, phrenology, travel, language, political economy, and temperance.
Between 1817 and 1835, Neal became the first American published in British literary journals, author of the first history of American literature, the first American art critic, a children's literature pioneer, a forerunner of the American Renaissance, and one of the first American male advocates of women's rights. As the first American author to use natural diction and one of the first to write characters with regional American accents, Neal's fiction aligns with the literary nationalist and regionalist movements. A pioneer of colloquialism, Neal is the first to use the phrase son-of-a-bitch in an American work of fiction. His fiction explores the romantic and gothic genres.
Neal was a prolific contributor to periodicals, particularly in the second half of the 1830s. His critiques of literature, art, and drama anticipated future movements and contributed to the careers of many authors whose careers historically eclipsed Neal's. As a critic and political commentator, his essays and journalism showed distrust of institutions and an affinity for self-examination and self-reliance. Many of Neal's pamphlets are lectures he delivered between 1829 and 1848, when he supplemented his income by traveling on the lyceum circuit. He also published many short stories, averaging one per year in this time period. Neal's tales helped shape the genre and early children's literature and challenged socio-political phenomena associated with Jacksonian democracy. As a translator he worked mostly on French compositions but was able to read and write to some degree in eleven languages other than his native English. The bulk of his novels were published between 1822 and 1828 though he continued writing novels until the last decade of his life. His last major work was an 1874 guidebook for his hometown of Portland, Maine. There are four posthumous collections of his writing, published between 1920 and 1978.
John Neal felt that novels represented the highest form of prose. As a novelist, he is recognized as "the first in America to be natural in his diction" and "the father of American subversive fiction" for developing a new "wild, rough, and defiant American style" to break with British standards then dominant in the US. A pioneer of American colloquialism and dialects in novels, Neal's novels are aligned with both the literary nationalist and regionalist movements and anticipate the American Renaissance.
| Title | Year | First publisher | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keep Cool, A Novel | 1817 | Baltimore: Joseph Cushing | Explores gender roles in relationships and expresses Neal's views against dueling; in two volumes; authorship ascribed as "Written in Hot Weather, by Somebody, M.D.C. &c. &c. &c.", in which "M.D.C." stands for "Member of the Delphian Club" | ||
| Logan, a Family History | 1822 | Philadelphia: H.C. Carey & I. Lea | A "gothic tapestry" that explores racial boundaries between White and Indigenous Americans; in two volumes; republished in London in 1823 in four volumes by A.K. Newman & Co.; republished as Logan, the Mingo Chief. A Family History "By the Author of Seventy-Six in London in 1840 by J. Cunningham | ||
| Seventy-Six | Baltimore: Joseph Robinson | First use of son-of-a-bitch in an American work of fiction; Neal's favorite of his own novels; in two volumes; published in London the same year in three volumes by Whittaker and Company; facsimile of Baltimore edition published in 1971; excerpted in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978); published before Randolph and Errata | |||
| Randolph, a Novel | "A story in the form of letters, giving an account of our celebrities, orators, writers, painters, &c., &c."; in two volumes; contains the earliest of Neal's significant art criticism; "By the Author of Logan — and Seventy-Six"; excerpted in American Writers: A Series of Papers Contributed to Blackwood's Magazine (1824–1825) (1937) and The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978); published after Seventy-Six and before Errata | ||||
| Errata; or, the Works of Will. Adams | New York: Published for the Proprietors | A semi-autobiographical account of Neal's life before 1823; excerpted in the New England Galaxy (October 17 and November 28, 1835) and The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978); in two volumes; "A Tale by the Author of Logan, Seventy-Six, and Randolph"; published after Seventy-Six and Randolph | |||
| Brother Jonathan: or, the New Englanders | 1825 | Edinburgh: William Blackwood | A story of the American Revolution depicting regional American folkways and dialect; in three volumes; excerpted in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978) | ||
| Rachel Dyer: A North American Story | 1828 | Portland, Maine: Shirley and Hyde | "Almost universally regarded as Neal's most successful fictional work"; first hardcover novel based on the Salem witch trials; an expansion of "New-England Witchcraft" likely written for but never published by Blackwood's Magazine in 1825, but published serially over five issues of The New-York Mirror (April 20 – May 18, 1839); republished by facsimile in 1964; excerpted in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978); "Unpublished Preface" republished in "Critical Essays and Stories by John Neal" (1962) | ||
| Authorship, a Tale | 1830 | Boston: Gray and Bowen | A "spritely spoof" about authors likely largely written during Neal's stay with Jeremy Bentham in London; "By a New Englander Over-Sea" | ||
| 1833 | New York: Harper & Brothers | Showcases regional variation in American character, dialect, and setting; Neal's "fullest expression" of "regional realism"; in two volumes; includes two short stories: "Bill Frazier—the Fur Trader" and "Robert Steele"; excerpted in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978) | |||
| Ruth Elder | 1843 | Brother Jonathan magazine | "A Down-East story of seduction"; a serial novella published over fifteen issues (June 17, July 29, August 12, August 19, September 2, September 9, September 30, October 7, October 14, October 21, November 4, November 11, November 25, December 2, and December 9, 1843); first three installments originally published in the New Mirror (June 3, June 10, and June 17, 1843) | ||
| True Womanhood: a Tale | 1859 | Boston: Ticknor and Fields | Defends the dignity of unmarried women; explores social life, business, and legal procedure in New York City; couched in an "abundant and all-pervasive" religious theme | ||
| 1863 | New York: Beadle and Company | The top-ranked dime novel when it was published; an adaptation of "The Switch-Tail Pacer. A Tale of Other Days" (1841) | |||
| 1864 | New York: Beadle and Company | A dime novel | |||
| Little Moccasin; or, Along the Madawaska | 1866 | New York: Beadle and Company | A dime novel; "A Story of Life and Love in the Lumber Region"; published in London the same year by George Routledge & Sons | ||
| Live Yankees; or, The Down Easters at Home | 1867 | A serial novella published over eight weekly installments; a reworking of the novel The Lumberman, rejected by Beadle and Company |
| Title | Editor | Year | First publisher | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battle of Niagara, a Poem, without Notes; and Goldau, or the Maniac Harper | 1818 | Baltimore: N. G. Maxwell | Recognized at the time as the best poetic description of Niagara Falls, though Neal did not see it until 1833; "By Jehu O'Cataract" | |||
| 1819 | Baltimore: N. G. Maxwell | |||||
| Great Mysteries and Little Plagues | 1870 | Boston: Roberts Brothers | A collection of stories and essays for and about children | |||
| 1920 | Portland, Maine: A.J. Huston | A biography of Neal that includes Neal's "Rights of Women" speech (originally published in Brother Jonathan magazine June 17, 1843), as well as excerpts from Randolph, Battle of Niagara, Errata, and "Sketches of the Five American Presidents, and of the Five Presidential Candidates, from the Memoranda of a Traveller" | ||||
| American Writers: A Series of Papers Contributed to Blackwood's Magazine (1824-1825) | 1937 | Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press | Criticism of 135 American authors originally published in Blackwood's Magazine; the earliest written history of American literature | |||
| Observations on American Art: Selections from the Writings of John Neal (1793-1876) | 1943 | State College, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State College | "A full collection of Neal's most important art criticism" | |||
| 1978 | Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press | Includes four short stories, excerpts from five novels, and eleven essays by Neal and notes and an introduction by the editors |
| Title | Year | First publisher | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One Word More: Intended for the Reasoning and Thoughtful among Unbelievers | 1854 | Portland, Maine: Ira Berry | A religious tract that "rambles passionately for two hundred pages and closes with breathless metaphor"; also published the same year in Boston by Crocker & Brewster | ||
| Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life | 1869 | Boston: Roberts Brothers | An autobiography that "presents a showy embroidery of bombast and gasconade on a firm fabric of good sound sense"; excerpted in Maine: A Literary Chronicle (1968) and The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978) | ||
| Portland Illustrated | 1874 | Portland, Maine: W.S. Jones | A Portland, Maine guidebook "so chaotic in arrangement as to diminish greatly its usefulness" |
Many of Neal's pamphlets are lectures he delivered between 1829 and 1848, when he supplemented his income by traveling on the lyceum circuit.
| Title | Year | First publisher | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Constitution of the Portland Gymnasium with the Rules and Regulations, and the Names of the Subscribers | 1828 | Portland, Maine: James Adams | Handbook for the gymnasium established by Neal in 1827; published in June | ||
| Address Delivered before the Portland Association for the Promotion of Temperance, February 11, 1829 | 1829 | Portland, Maine: Day and Fraser | Address delivered at the First Parish Church; also published in The Yankee (1829); excerpted in the Ladies Miscellany August 18, 1829 | ||
| City of Portland, Being a General Review of the Proceedings Heretofore Had, in the Town of Portland, on the Subject of a City Government | 1829 | Portland, Maine: Shirley & Hyde | A "pamphlet of about fifty octavo pages, with tables, petitions, on both sides, and statistics, giving undeniable statistics, where necessary" advocating municipal incorporation as a city | ||
| Our Country | 1830 | Portland, Maine: S. Colman | "An Address Delivered before the Alumni of Waterville-College, July 29, 1830" | ||
| 1831 | Portland, Maine: Day and Fraser | Address delivered to the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association | |||
| Banks and Banking | 1837 | Portland, Maine: Orion Office | "A Letter to the Bank Directors of Portland"; "This communication accused banks of ungenerous response to the curtailment in public demand upon them. Neal, among others, had striven to secure leniency of demand upon the local banks in their critical hour, and he now accused the banks of failure to reciprocate with a proper leniency toward the public." | ||
| Oration: By John Neal, Portland, July 4, 1838 | Portland, Maine: Arthur Shirley | Address delivered for a meeting of the Portland, Maine Whigs | |||
| Man | Providence: Knowles, Vose & Company | "A Discourse, before the United Brothers' Society of Brown University, September 4, 1838" | |||
| Portland, Maine: Charles Day & Co | In First Exhibition and Fair of the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association | ||||
| Appeal from the American Press to the American People, in Behalf of John Bratish Eliovich | 1840 | Portland, Maine: Argus Office | A collection of letters written for, but refused by The New World defending alleged con man John Bratish Eliovich from recent attacks in periodicals; disavowed by Neal in 1844 | ||
| 1858 | Portland, Maine: Brown Thurston | Concerning land development in Cairo, Illinois, in which Neal invested money; based largely on a trip to Cairo by Neal in 1858 | |||
| Account of the Great Conflagration in Portland, July 4th & 5th, 1866 | 1866 | Portland, Maine: Starbird & Twitchell | Concerning the 1866 great fire of Portland, Maine |
| Title | Year | First publisher | Neal's contribution | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Index to the First Twelve Volumes, or First Series, of Niles' Weekly Register | 1818 | Baltimore: Hezekiah Niles | The index | The product of sixteen hours of labor a day by Neal, seven days a week, for over four months; "the most laborious work of the kind that ever appeared in any country" | ||
| 1819 | Baltimore: John Hopkins | Vol. 1, pp. 253–592 and all of vol. 2 | Republished in Baltimore in 1822 by Franklin Betts; pp. 1–252 by Tobias Watkins; preface by Paul Allen | |||
| Second Report of the Geology of the State of Maine | 1838 | Augusta, Maine: State of Maine | Pp. 110–112 | Otherwise written by Charles T. Jackson | ||
| 1843 | New York: Wiley & Putnam | The preface: a biographical sketch of Elizabeth Oakes Smith and Seba Smith | Also published in Boston the same year by W.D. Ticknor | |||
| 1843 | Edinburgh: W. Tait | Vol. 9, pp. 660–662, 648 | Edited by John Bowring | |||
| 1852 | Syracuse: J. E. Masters | Pp. 24–28: A letter by Neal read at the 1852 National Woman's Rights Convention by Elizabeth Oakes Smith | Prompted the conference leadership to appoint Neal as the Maine representative to the central committee for organizing the next annual convention |
See main article: Articles by John Neal. John Neal was "perhaps the foremost critic of [his] era", commenting on literature, art, drama, politics, and a variety of social issues. As a critic and political commentator, his essays and journalism showed distrust of institutions and an affinity for self-examination and self-reliance. Compared to Neal's comparative lesser success at employing his literary theories in creative works, "his critical judgments have held. Where he condemned, time has almost without exception condemned also." Editors of newspapers, magazines, and annual publications sought contributions from Neal on a wide variety of topics, particularly in the second half of the 1830s. His early articles make him one of the first male advocates of women's rights and feminist causes in the US.
Neal was the first American to be published in any British literary magazine and in that capacity wrote the first history of American literature and American painters. His early encouragement of writers John Greenleaf Whittier, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and many others, helped launch their careers. As an art critic Neal was the first in the US, and his essays from the 1820s are recognized as "prophetic". As an "early firebrand" in theatrical criticism, his "prophesy" for American drama was only partially realized sixty years later.
This list includes only articles that have received the most scholarly attention and/or that are noted in scholarly works as particularly important milestones in Neal's career and/or the histories of the topics they cover. Those omitted here are included in the larger list of articles by John Neal.
| Title | Date | Publication type | Publication name | Topic | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newspaper | Hallowell Gazette | Law and politics | Neal's first published work: a political essay published when Neal was living in Hallowell, Maine as a penmanship instructor | ||||
| Magazine | Literary criticism | A 150-page criticism of Lord Byron's works written in four days and published in four installments; Neal's first published literary criticism | |||||
| Magazine | Social criticism | "Describes dueling as a gendered performance, in which women play an enabling role and which they have an obligation to stop", similar to his subsequent novel, Keep Cool | |||||
| Magazine | Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine | Biography | Biographical sketches of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John C. Calhoun, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford, and Henry Clay; the first article by an American to appear in a British literary journal; republished in four languages by Alexander Walker in The European Review: or, Mind and its Productions, in Britain, France, Italy, Germany, &c. the same year | ||||
| Magazine | Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine | Art criticism | The first published history of American painting; excerpted in Observations on American Art: Selections from the Writings of John Neal (1793–1876) (1943); a critique of cultivation of fine arts in the US and a discussion of eleven American artists, including Benjamin West and John Trumbull; republished in the Columbian Observer (multiple issues beginning November 17, 1824) | ||||
| Magazine | Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine | Literary criticism | Criticism of 135 American authors in five installments; the earliest written history of American literature; reprinted as a collection in American Writers: A Series of Papers Contributed to Blackwood's Magazine (1824-1825) (1937); excerpted in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978) | ||||
| Magazine | Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine | Feminism and women's rights | An exploration of how women are unlike, but not inferior, to men | ||||
| Magazine | Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine | Multiple | Purportedly a review of A Summary View of America by Isaac Candler "literally buried beneath the grasping tendrils and riotous fruitage of Neal's birthright knowledge of his native country" in a "vast panorama" conveying Neal's views on slavery and other topics in thirty-six pages that "should be read by anyone interested in the America of 1825"; the longest article Blackwood's had yet published; includes Neal's first call for women's suffrage | ||||
| Magazine | Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine | Literary criticism | A review of North American Review and new American literature including Lionel Lincoln; predicts a new American revolution against "literary, not political bondage"; republished in American Writers: A Series of Papers Contributed to Blackwood's Magazine (1824-1825) (1937); excerpted in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978) | ||||
| Magazine | Westminster Review | Social criticism | A summary of Neal's views on the American militia system, slavery, legal system, and literary style | ||||
| Magazine | Travel | An account of Neal's departure from Baltimore, transatlantic journey, early impressions of England over late 1823 through early 1824, and contrasts between the UK and US; the most detailed account of Neal's reasons for leaving Baltimore and for relocating to London; published in three installments | |||||
| Magazine | Feminism and women's rights | Denounces "with considerable heat" Josiah Quincy III's decision to close the Boston High School for Girls and attacks the legal institution of coverture; includes "Neal's angriest and most assertive feminist claims" | |||||
| Magazine | Art criticism | Criticism of the current state of American art written "with a pungency rare in nineteenth century criticism"; republished in American Art 1700–1960 (1965) | |||||
| Magazine | Theatrical criticism | Published in five installments; Neal's most noteworthy work of theatrical criticism; calls for "a revolution that was still in progress sixty years later"; elaborates on points made in the prefaces to Otho (1819) and the second edition of The Battle of Niagara (1819); republished in "Critical Essays and Stories by John Neal" (1962) | |||||
| Magazine | Literary criticism | Neal's first criticism of Edgar Allan Poe; referred to by Poe as "the very first words of encouragement I ever remember to have heard" | |||||
| Magazine | Art criticism | An "early, unprecedented effort to define a canon of American art"; anticipates John Ruskin's Modern Painters by distinguishing between "things seen by the artist" and "things as they are"; a call for "straightforward realism... made at the height of the Romantic era"; republished in American Art 1700–1960 (1965) | |||||
| Magazine | Literary criticism | An analysis of ambiguous and inane qualities in common speech patterns; republished in "Critical Essays and Stories by John Neal" (1962) | |||||
| 1835 | Gift book | Children and education | An essay of "considerable popularity and a good deal of republication" and "a sensible, original inquiry into the nature of children"; "the best John Neal has ever written" according to the New-York Mirror; revised and republished in Portland Magazine (April 1, 1835), New England Galaxy (April 18, 1835), Godey's Lady's Book (March 1848 and November 1849), and The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978); excerpted in the New-York Mirror October 18, 1834; excerpted as "Rustic Civility, or Children—What Are They?" in The Ladies' Companion (July 1838); republished as "Children—What Are They Good For?" in Great Mysteries and Little Plagues (1870) | ||||
| Magazine | Multiple | A discussion of storytelling in paintings by John Wesley Jarvis; acting by James Henry Hackett, Charles Mathews, and George Handel Hill; and oral exchange among strangers aboard American stagecoaches and steamboats; excerpted in the New-York Mirror (April 6, 1839); republished in "Critical Essays and Stories by John Neal" (1962) | |||||
| Newspaper | New England Galaxy | Science | An account of Neal's role as the first lawyer to use psychiatric testimony and seek leniency in a US court on account of a defendant's alleged mental defect; published in five installments; reviewed in the Annals of Phrenology (November 1835) | ||||
| Magazine | Brother Jonathan | Feminism and women's rights | Neal's most influential statement on women's rights; lecture originally delivered January 24, 1843 before 3,000 attendees at the Broadway Tabernacle; "a scathing satire", according to the History of Woman Suffrage; republished in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978) | ||||
| Magazine | Brother Jonathan | Feminism and women's rights | Responds to arguments against women's suffrage by Eliza Farnham, prompted by Neal's "Rights of Women" speech on January 24 of that year; "Mrs. Farnham lived long enough to retrace her ground and accept the highest truth", according to the History of Woman Suffrage; republished in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978) | ||||
| Magazine | Brother Jonathan | Feminism and women's rights | Concluding remarks to Eliza Farnham's second essay prompted by Neal's "Rights of Women" speech on January 24 of that year; republished in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978) | ||||
| Newspaper | Portland Tribune | Slavery and race | "Neal's most significant pronouncement" on slavery; repeats arguments made in "A Summary View of America" (1824) and "United States" (1826); argues for gradual emancipation and colonization | ||||
| Magazine | Sartain's Union Magazine of Literature and Art | Literature | Asserts that all are poets though few recognize it in themselves; claims poetry as a necessary refinement and embellishment of the world; marks a departure from Neal's earlier opinion of poetry as "superficial adornment" and "deliberate falsification of fact"; republished in "Critical Essays and Stories by John Neal" (1962) | ||||
| Newspaper | Portland Daily Advertiser | Biography | A refutation of Rufus Wilmot Griswold's biography of Edgar Allan Poe in two installments; republished in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978) | ||||
| Magazine | Sartain's Union Magazine of Literature and Art | English language | Uplifts the value of natural diction in writing and expression of thought as it spontaneously occurs to the writer; includes an analysis of New England speech and character he saw as underrepresented in literature; republished in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978) | ||||
| Magazine | Feminism and women's rights | "One of the most interesting essays of his career"; "an incisive piece of feminist social criticism" disguised "as a conservative critique of current fashion"; "the beginning of the last phase of Neal's feminist journalism" | |||||
| Magazine | Atlantic Monthly | Art criticism | Republished in Observations on American Art: Selections from the Writings of John Neal (1793-1876) (1943); based on notes from his stay in London over forty years earlier; published in two installments | ||||
| Newspaper | Feminism and women's rights | A report of Portland, Maine's first women's suffrage meeting, organized by Neal; republished in History of Woman Suffrage volume 3 (1886) |
Called "the inventor of the American short story", John Neal's tales are "his highest literary achievement" and he published an average of one per year between 1828 and 1846. Many of them challenged American socio-political phenomena that grew in the period leading up to and including Andrew Jackson's terms as US president (1829–1837): manifest destiny, empire building, Indian removal, consolidation of federal power, racialized citizenship, and the Cult of Domesticity. His work helped shape the relatively new short story genre, particularly early children's literature.
| Title | Date | Publication type | Publication name | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newspaper | A "narrative fragment"; originally prepared for recitation at the Wanderer Club of Baltimore; published in volume I, pp. 394–395 | |||||
| Magazine | Neal's only contribution to the magazine's regular "Club-Room" department, supervised by the fictitious "Horace De Monde, Esquire" that detailed happenings at real and fictitious clubs; attributed to the pseudonym "Jamie"; "shows a good grasp of character" | |||||
| Magazine | A satirical letter from a fictitious author to a fictitious recipient outlining the peculiarities of Boston; possibly a precursor to Neal's novel Randolph | |||||
| Magazine | A series of five character sketches (four women and one man) published over five issues; a study of human nature that contributed to Neal's first novel, Keep Cool | |||||
| Magazine | A satirical letter from a fictitious author to a fictitious recipient discussing a fictitious "Miss Olivia Teaseabit", possibly based on a real "Miss Olivia T.", on whom Neal had developed a crush after encountering her in Exeter, New Hampshire and Waterville, Maine over the winter of 1813–1814 | |||||
| Magazine | A character sketch "more penetrating and expository" than his "Sketches from Nature — By a club of Painters" series, likely based on himself | |||||
| Magazine | A dual sketch contrasting two characters; likely used later by Neal as the basis for the Oadley brothers in his novel Seventy-Six | |||||
| Newspaper | Federal Republican and Baltimore Telegraph | A series of narrative sketches with distinct subtitles: "More Dogs", "Fact", "Cats", and "Joe Miller" | ||||
| 1828–1829 | Magazine | "Fragmentary and unsatisfactory" fictional segments likely drawn from an early draft of Brother Jonathan (1825); published in eleven installments | ||||
| 1829 | Gift book | Along with "David Whicher" (1832), one of Neal's best short stories; republished in Stories of American Life; By American Writers edited by Mary Russell Mitford (1830), "Critical Essays and Stories by John Neal" (1962), and The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978); excerpted as "Ruins of North America" in The Literary Gazette of Concord, New Hampshire (March 6, 1835) | ||||
| 1829 | Magazine | A narrative comical sketch of a criminal trial; likely written while Neal lived in London; republished in The Ladies' Companion as "The Prisoner at the Old Bailey" (May 1838) | ||||
| Magazine | A fictional fragment likely from an early draft of Brother Jonathan (1825) that muses about the differences between men and women in a way similar to "Men and Women; Brief Hypothesis concerning the Difference in their Genius" (October 1824) | |||||
| 1829 | Magazine | A fictional fragment of "meaningless nonsense" likely drawn from an early draft of Brother Jonathan (1825) | ||||
| 1829 | Magazine | A fictional fragment of "meaningless nonsense" likely drawn from an early draft of Brother Jonathan (1825) | ||||
| 1829 | Magazine | A fictional fragment of "meaningless nonsense" likely drawn from an early draft of Brother Jonathan (1825) | ||||
| 1829 | Magazine | A fictional fragment of "meaningless nonsense" likely drawn from an early draft of Brother Jonathan (1825) | ||||
| 1829 | Magazine | A fictional fragment of "meaningless nonsense" likely drawn from an early draft of Brother Jonathan (1825) | ||||
| Magazine | A winter recreation scene along the Kennebec River in Maine during the winter of 1815–1816 followed by an exchange between an American and an Englishman in England in 1827 involving counterfeit money; likely semi-autobiographical; "the only piece of pure, unified, prose fiction Neal published in the Yankee"; published in two installments | |||||
| Magazine | "Though too slight for special commendation, it is not ungracefully done"; republished as "The Old Bachelor" in The Ladies' Companion (February 1838), Boston Pearl and Galaxy (February 17, 1838), and the Portland Transcript (July 1, 1848) | |||||
| 1830 | Gift book | Reprinted serially in The Free Enquirer on January 15 and January 22, 1831 | ||||
| 1831 | Gift book | A fictionalized story of the life of John Dunn Hunter based mostly on knowledge gained during cohabitation at a rooming house in London in the mid 1820s | ||||
| Newspaper | Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer | A comic tall tale from an "unconsciously ludicrous Down-Easter" | ||||
| 1832 | Gift book | The first work of fiction to utilize psychotherapy | ||||
| 1832 | Gift book | Along with "Otter-Bag, the Oneida Chief" (1832), one of Neal's best short stories; published anonymously and not attributed to Neal until the 1960s; republished in "Critical Essays and Stories by John Neal" (1962) and The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978) | ||||
| 1833 | Novel | Along with "Robert Steele", one of two stories included with The Downeasters to take up space at the request of the publisher | ||||
| 1833 | Novel | Republished in Mrs. Stephens' Illustrated New Monthly (February 1857); along with "Bill Frazier—the Fur Trader", one of two stories included with The Downeasters to take up space at the request of the publisher | ||||
| Magazine | "Ostensibly a string of three stories to illustrate the quick destructive power of the Maine forest fire; republished in the New England Galaxy (February 7, 1835), The Literary Gazette of Concord, New Hampshire (February 13, 1835), and The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978) | |||||
| Magazine | A story about young William Shakespeare | |||||
| Newspaper | New England Galaxy | About an Englishman in Virginia who claims his head is so beautifully shaped he wears hats and wigs to hide it from phrenologists like Neal and John Elliotson who want to examine him to no end, though he contemplated offering his head for dissection by Johann Spurzheim for examination by John Pierpont; "aside from the evidence it affords of Neal's ability to laugh at what he took most seriously, this piece has little or no significance" | ||||
| Newspaper | New England Galaxy | A series of six fictional sketches illustrating New England dialect and character | ||||
| Newspaper | New England Galaxy | Based on Neal's travels in England; similar to the novel Authorship; published serially in five installments | ||||
| Newspaper | New England Galaxy | Illustrates Neal's opposition to dueling | ||||
| Newspaper | New England Galaxy | A children's story concerning a cat who protects her noisy kittens from a human child; prefaced by a statement that Neal intends "to furnish a series of the best little books for children that ever appeared" | ||||
| Newspaper | New England Galaxy | A children's story concerning a homeless orphan reunited with his grandfather who is rewarded for honesty and courage; published serially in four installments | ||||
| Newspaper | New England Galaxy | Two reworked extracts from Errata | ||||
| Newspaper | New England Galaxy | Likely portions of "The Adventurer" rejected by The Token | ||||
| 1836 | Gift book | Republished in The New England Galaxy October 3, 1835, in Atkinson's Casket in 1838, and in Emerson's United States Magazine and Putnam's Monthly September 1857 | ||||
| 1836 | Book | Portland Sketch Book | Included in a book edited by Ann S. Stephens featuring Portland, Maine authors | |||
| Newspaper | Published serially over six installments; a study of female development from adolescence to womanhood; includes a character who becomes magnetized | |||||
| Newspaper | A children's story written for Neal's daughter, Margaret Neal; republished in Ballou's Monthly Magazine in 1866, Great Mysteries and Little Plagues (book) by Neal in 1870, and Little Classics (book) edited by Rossiter Johnson in 1875 | |||||
| Newspaper | Published serially over five issues; likely written for but never published by Blackwood's Magazine in 1825 and later expanded into Rachel Dyer (1828) | |||||
| Magazine | "A highly artificial, melodramatic sketch, cast so exclusively into dialogue as to be almost dramatic in effect"; first of three works in the "Sketches by Lamp-Light" series for The Ladies' Companion | |||||
| Magazine | Based on Neal's family life; third of three works in the "Sketches by Lamp-Light" series for The Ladies' Companion | |||||
| Magazine | Godey's Lady's Book | Based on Neal's experience living with Jeremy Bentham in London in August 1826 | ||||
| 1840 | Book | Written for a collection of anti-slavery prose and poetry edited by Frances Harriet Whipple Green McDougall and published by the Juvenile Emancipation Society; republished in the Portland Tribune circa 1841; republished in The Star of Bethlehem (1845) | ||||
| Newspaper | The New World | "A countryman's farcical account... of his appearance at his first ball"; republished in The Evergreen: A Monthly Magazine of New and Popular Tales and Poetry February 1840 | ||||
| Newspaper | The New World | Intended to be titled "The Self-educated Man" by Neal, but retitled by editor Park Benjamin Sr.; roughly based on Neal's travels in the UK "woven in a bizarre plot involving disastrous elopement and a suicide"; republished in The New World (February 24, 1840) and The Evergreen: A Monthly Magazine of New and Popular Tales and Poetry (March 1840) | ||||
| Magazine | Brother Jonathan | "A preposterous bit of tomfoolery" written to accompany an illustration | ||||
| Magazine | An "expression of contempt for politics" based on Neal's involvement in the Benjamin Harrison's 1840 presidential campaign and subsequent failed attempt at securing a political appointment | |||||
| Magazine | "Shows a lively crispness that contrasts with the lumbering involutions of Neal's usual long, closely packed, rambling sentences"; three sketches of disparate scenes in Austria-Hungary "bound together by explanatory threads"; published in three installments | |||||
| Newspaper | Portland Tribune | A New Englander's visit to the French theatre; "shows Neal's usual facility in Yankee dialect and Yankee psychology" | ||||
| Magazine | Brother Jonathan | The story of Nathan Hale "with many variations and considerable subordination of historical fact"; published serially over three installments | ||||
| Magazine | Takes its title from Lord Byron's The Deformed Transformed; "advances the notion... that a beautiful soul may inhabit an unlovely body"; "a careless, perfunctory performance" | |||||
| Magazine | Brother Jonathan | A children's story, "quite meaningless in its haphazard shiftings", about a young sailor addicted to tobacco and alcohol who experiences a drunken hallucination while shipwrecked; includes an illustration by David Claypoole Johnston published serially in two installments | ||||
| Newspaper | Portland Tribune | "A slapdash attempt to represent New England character without plot — with a mere string of meaningless, illogical incidents" about a schoolmaster correcting mispronunciations of a family he visits | ||||
| Magazine | Brother Jonathan | "Rhapsodic, deep-dyed, unrelieved Gothicism as he had not perpetrated since Logan"; published serially over six installments | ||||
| Magazine | New Mirror | About a young wife's attachment to family heirlooms; "slight in its conception" and "gives every evidence of a careless preciptancy [sic] in execution" | ||||
| Magazine | Brother Jonathan | "A tale about the madness of patriarchy"; published serially over two installments; republished in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings (1978) | ||||
| Magazine | A "pseudo-narrative" that portrays lotteries as an objectionable industry that dupes customers into wasting money | |||||
| Magazine | Pierian: or, Youth's Fountain of Literature and Knowledge | A sketch of a family with children, likely based on Neal's own, followed by a moral statement about when and when not to give up; republished in the Portland Tribune (September 9, 1843) | ||||
| Magazine | Brother Jonathan | A "strangely autobiographic" short narrative about an abandoned family with a plot "too complicated for the space allotted it" | ||||
| Magazine | Columbian Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine | "Warns against over-confidence in human powers" | ||||
| Magazine | Columbian Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine | A feminist defense of unmarried women | ||||
| Magazine | Godey's Lady's Book | A study of female development from adolescence to womanhood | ||||
| Magazine | Columbian Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine | Illustrates the value of purchasing life insurance and concludes "P.S. Go thou and do likewise" | ||||
| Newspaper | Portland Transcript | A sequel to the novella Ruth Elder | ||||
| Magazine | Godey's Lady's Book | "A queer hybrid narrative... with one of Neal's delightful family sketches... as a symbol of the vanity of life" and a "story of an absurd faith in buried treasures"; republished in the Portland Transcript (December 14, 1850) | ||||
| Magazine | Beadle's Monthly, a Magazine of To-day | Three story fragments illustrating New England speech and social phenomena based on accompanying engravings: "The Memorial Quilt", "The Apple-Bee", and "The Sewing-Circle" |
The bulk of Neal's poetry was published in The Portico while studying law in Baltimore in the late 1810s. By 1830 he had "acquired quite a reputation, especially as a poet", having been recognized in multiple poetry collections. Rufus Wilmot Griswold considered Neal one of the best poets of his age.
| Title | Date | Publication type | Publication name | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newspaper | Originally prepared for recitation at the Wanderer Club of Baltimore; published in volume I, pp. 174–175 | |||||
| Newspaper | Originally prepared for recitation at the Wanderer Club of Baltimore; published in volume I, pp. 221–222 | |||||
| Magazine | Shows influence of Lord Byron; republished in Keep Cool (1817) | |||||
| Magazine | Shows influence of Lord Byron; written while Neal was still engaged in dry goods business, at the suggestion of John Pierpont | |||||
| Magazine | ||||||
| Magazine | ||||||
| Magazine | Shows influence of Lord Byron; republished in The Battle of Niagara: Second Edition — Enlarged: with Other Poems (1819) and in the Portland Tribune (circa 1842) | |||||
| Magazine | Shows influence of Lord Byron; republished in the Portland Tribune (circa 1841) | |||||
| Magazine | ||||||
| Magazine | Republished in Randolph (1823), The Yankee (1828), and the Portland Tribune (circa 1841) | |||||
| Magazine | Shows influence of Lord Byron; republished in The Yankee (1828) and the Portland Tribune (circa 1841) | |||||
| Magazine | Republished in the Portland Tribune (circa 1842) | |||||
| Magazine | ||||||
| Magazine | Republished in the Portland Tribune (circa 1842); to the tune of "Meeting of the Waters" | |||||
| Magazine | ||||||
| Magazine | Republished in the Portland Tribune (circa 1841) | |||||
| Magazine | Republished in the Portland Tribune (circa 1842) | |||||
| Magazine | ||||||
| Magazine | ||||||
| Magazine | ||||||
| Magazine | Originally published in The Portico as "Song"; republished in The Battle of Niagara: Second Edition — Enlarged: with Other Poems (1819); revised and republished as "Ambition" in Randolph (1823), Atkinson's Casket (1834), Brother Jonathan (May 2, 1840), The Poet's Gift: Illustrated by One of Her Painters edited by John Keese (1845), and Songs of Three Centuries edited by John Greenleaf Whittier (1877); excerpted in Seventy-Six (1823) and The Gift Book of Gems (1856) | |||||
| Magazine | To the tune of "Go Where Glory Waits Thee" | |||||
| Magazine | ||||||
| Magazine | Republished in the Portland Tribune (circa 1842) | |||||
| Magazine | Republished in Keep Cool (1817) | |||||
| Magazine | Republished in the Portland Tribune (circa 1841) | |||||
| Magazine | "Given special prominence" at the end of volume 3 of The Portico; republished in the Portland Tribune (circa 1842) | |||||
| Magazine | ||||||
| Magazine | Republished in The Battle of Niagara: Second Edition — Enlarged: with Other Poems (1819); | |||||
| Magazine | ||||||
| Magazine | ||||||
| Magazine | ||||||
| Magazine | Republished in the Portland Tribune (circa 1842) | |||||
| Magazine | Republished in the Portland Tribune (circa 1841) | |||||
| Magazine | ||||||
| Battle of Niagara | 1818 | Book | Battle of Niagara, a Poem, without Notes; and Goldau, or the Maniac Harper | Recognized at the time as the best poetic description of Niagara Falls; inspired Charles Naylor as a boy; used by Edward Dickinson Baker in political campaigns; revised and republished in The Battle of Niagara: Second Edition — Enlarged: with Other Poems (1819); excerpted in Lady's Amaranth (December 8, 1838), Brother Jonathan (July 4, 1840), Portland Tribune (circa 1842), The Gift Book of Gems (1856), and A Down-East Yankee from the District of Maine (1920) | ||
| Goldau | 1818 | Book | Battle of Niagara, a Poem, without Notes; and Goldau, or the Maniac Harper | An epic poem in English verse about the destruction of an Alpine village; revised and republished in The Battle of Niagara: Second Edition — Enlarged: with Other Poems (1819); excerpted in Lady's Amaranth (January 5, 1839) and Portland Tribune (circa 1842) | ||
| 1819 | Book | Originally written for a Delphian Club meeting (December 26, 1818) as "Ode, alias Poem, on the Anniversary of His Ludships Elevation to the Tripod" | ||||
| 1819 | Book | A fragmented experiment in blank verse | ||||
| 1819 | Book | Written for the ordination of John Pierpont | ||||
| Newspaper | Federal Republican and Baltimore Telegraph | Republished in The Battle of Niagara: Second Edition — Enlarged: with Other Poems (1819) | ||||
| 1823 | Book | Randolph, A Novel | Represented as the work of a fictional character in the novel | |||
| 1823 | Book | Randolph, A Novel | Represented as the work of a fictional character in the novel | |||
| 1823 | Book | Randolph, A Novel | Represented as the work of a fictional character in the novel | |||
| 1823 | Book | Randolph, A Novel | Represented as the work of a fictional character in the novel | |||
| 1823 | Book | Randolph, A Novel | Represented as the work of a fictional character in the novel | |||
| 1823 | Book | Randolph, A Novel | Represented as the work of a fictional character in the novel | |||
| 1823 | Book | Randolph, A Novel | Represented as the work of a fictional character in the novel | |||
| Magazine | Republished in The Edinburgh Literary Journal: or, Weekly Register of Criticism and Belles Lettres (May 16, 1829), Specimens of American Poetry, with Critical and Biographical Notices edited by Samuel Kettell (1829), The Poets of America: Illustrated by One of Her Painters edited by John Keese (1840), The Poets and Poetry of America (1842), The Gift Book of Gems (1856), and Cyclopedia of American Literature (1875) | |||||
| Magazine | Republished as "The Indian Girl" in The Ladies' Companion (January 1838) and the Portland Tribune (circa 1841) | |||||
| Book | Republished in Specimens of American Poetry, with Critical and Biographical Notices edited by Samuel Kettell (1829) | |||||
| Magazine | ||||||
| 1829 | Magazine | Republished in Specimens of American Poetry, with Critical and Biographical Notices edited by Samuel Kettell (1829), the Portland Tribune (circa 1842), and Brother Jonathan (October 7, 1843) | ||||
| 1829 | Magazine | |||||
| 1829 | Book | Specimens of American Poetry, with Critical and Biographical Notices | Poetry collection edited by Samuel Kettell | |||
| Magazine | Republished in the Portland Tribune (circa 1841) | |||||
| Magazine | Republished in The Portland Sketch Book (1836); republished as "War Song of Other Days" in the Evening Signal (April 3, 1840), The New World (April 4, 1840), The Evergreen: A Monthly Magazine of New and Popular Tales and Poetry (May 1840) | |||||
| Magazine | Republished in Brother Jonathan (August 5, 1843) | |||||
| 1835 | Book | Practical Grammar of the English Language | Republished in the Portland Tribune (circa 1841) and One Word More (1854) | |||
| Magazine | A "once-popular" poem with "vigor and rhetorical apostrophe... but none of the freshness of diction or image that mark fine poetry"; originally published without a title; republished in the Gift Book of Gems (1856) | |||||
| Magazine | "Marred by graveyard sentimentality" with "at least one effective stanza" that anticipates the "later macabre effects of Poe" | |||||
| Magazine | A ballad about a hotel by that name Neal owned in Cape Elizabeth, Maine; republished in the Portland Tribune (circa 1842) and The New World (January 14, 1843), | |||||
| Newspaper | Republished in The Evergreen: A Monthly Magazine of New and Popular Tales and Poetry (May 1840), the Portland Tribune (circa 1842), and Brother Jonathan (June 24, 1843) | |||||
| Magazine | ||||||
| Newspaper | Portland Tribune | |||||
| Newspaper | Portland Tribune | |||||
| Newspaper | Portland Tribune | |||||
| Newspaper | Portland Tribune | Republished in Alexander's Whig Messenger (November 9, 1842) | ||||
| Newspaper | Portland Tribune | |||||
| Newspaper | Portland Tribune | |||||
| Magazine | Republished in Emerson's United States Magazine December 1856 | |||||
| Magazine | Republished in Brother Jonathan magazine April 30, 1842 | |||||
| Magazine | Brother Jonathan | |||||
| Magazine | Brother Jonathan | |||||
| 1847 | Gift book | Inspired by the death of Neal's infant daughter Eleanor in 1845. | ||||
| 1851 | Book | Printed in the front of a memorial book in honor of Frances Sargent Osgood | ||||
| Magazine | Graham's Magazine | Republished in the Portland Tribune (circa 1842) | ||||
| 1854 | Book | One Word More: Intended for the Reasoning and Thoughtful among Unbelievers | ||||
| Newspaper | ||||||
| Magazine | Harper's Magazine | Inspired by the Civil War; appears with the date "Nov. 9, 1863" | ||||
| Magazine | Inspired by the Civil War; appears with the date "January 28, 1864" | |||||
| Magazine | Inspired by the Civil War | |||||
| Magazine | Beadle's Monthly, a Magazine of To-day | Blank verse; about the return of Jews to Jerusalem |
Neither of Neal's two fully conceived plays, nor his theatrical sketch, were ever produced for the stage.
| Title | Date | Publication type | First publisher | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Otho: A Tragedy, in Five Acts | 1819 | Book | Boston: West, Richardson and Lord | Written in blank verse poetry; entirely rewritten and republished serially in thirteen installments in The Yankee (1828) | ||
| Sketch for a Fifth Act | 1829 | Magazine | A theatrical fragment of a tragedy about a duel; all three characters die | |||
| Our Ephraim, or The New Englanders, A What-d'ye-call-it?–in three Acts | Magazine | New England Galaxy | Published serially over five issues of Brother Jonathan; the "fullest detailing of Yankee dialect" of any work by Neal |
Neal was fluent in French and able to easily converse and write in Spanish, Italian, and German. In addition, he "could manage... pretty well" writing and reading Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and Old Saxon. He learned to read Chinese shortly before his death.
| Title | Author | Date | Publication type | First publisher | Original language | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magazine | French | A work on utilitarianism by Jeremy Bentham; published in eighteen installments | ||||||
| Magazine | French | A work on utilitarianism by Jeremy Bentham | ||||||
| Principles of Legislation: from the MS of Jeremy Bentham | 1830 | Book | French | A translation of the first part of the first volume of Traités de Législation; originally produced under promise of payment from John Bowring, but published elsewhere when Bowring's funding failed to materialize; much of the content originally published in The Yankee (1828–1829); includes short biographies by Neal of Jeremy Bentham and Étienne Dumont | ||||
| Manuscript | Never published | Spanish | An unpublished play El Gaytero Errante by a Spanish instructor from Spain Neal met in Portland, Maine; Thomas Barry, manager of the Tremont Theatre in Boston, committed to producing it but never did; Barry claimed to have returned the manuscript to Cortes and Neal claimed Barry kept it | |||||
| Newspaper | New England Galaxy | French | A translation of the first part of the second volume of Traites de Legislation; published in thirteen installments | |||||
| Koenig Yngurd | Newspaper | New England Galaxy | German | Excerpts from a poem | ||||
| Magazine | Brother Jonathan | French | A translation of a portion of the fifteenth chapter of Traités de Législation |
Neal started writing for newspapers as a law apprentice, publishing legal papers on capital punishment, lotteries, insolvency law, imprisonment for debt, and Sturges v. Crowninshield. These early works put him in the public eye nationally for the first time. Throughout his life he was widely recognized as a journalist and he continued publishing in newspapers until near the end of his life.
This list includes newspapers not listed elsewhere in this bibliography.
| Title | Located | Period | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hallowell Gazette | Hallowell, Maine | |||
| Columbian Centinel | Boston | |||
| Federal Republican and Baltimore Telegraph | Baltimore | 1817–1822 | ||
| Morning Chronicle | Baltimore | 1819–1822 | ||
| Federal Gazette and Baltimore Daily Advertiser | Baltimore | 1820–1823 | ||
| American and Commercial Daily Advertiser | Baltimore | 1822 | ||
| Baltimore Patriot and Mercantile Advertiser | Baltimore | 1822 | ||
| Columbian Observer | Philadelphia | 1822–1823 | ||
| National Journal | Washington, D.C. | 1823 | ||
| London | ||||
| Morning Herald | London | 1827 | ||
| Portland Daily Advertiser | Portland, Maine | 1829–1876 | ||
| Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer | New York City | 1831–1838 | ||
| New York City | ||||
| National Intelligencer | Washington, D.C. | |||
| New York City | ||||
| Eastern Argus | Portland, Maine | |||
| Portland Tribune | Portland, Maine | 1841–1845 | ||
| Public Ledger | Philadelphia | |||
| Portland Transcript | Portland, Maine | 1848–1876 | ||
| Portland, Maine | 1853–1855 | |||
| Portland Daily Press | Portland, Maine |