author
Cornelius Mathews
1817–1889
A lively figure in 19th-century American letters, this writer helped champion a bold, homegrown national literature. His novels, essays, poems, and plays capture the energy and ambition of literary New York in the 1840s and beyond.
2 Audiobooks
The Indian Fairy Book: From the Original Legends
by Cornelius Mathews
Chanticleer A Thanksgiving Story of the Peabody Family
by Cornelius Mathews
About the author
Born in Port Chester, New York, in 1817, Cornelius Mathews became an American author, editor, and critic who was closely associated with the literary movement known as Young America. He wrote across genres—fiction, poetry, drama, satire, and essays—and built a reputation as an energetic advocate for American writers at a time when the nation was still defining its own literary voice.
Mathews was especially active in New York’s literary circles and worked with fellow writers and editors including Evert Duyckinck and William Gilmore Simms. His books include Puffer Hopkins, Poems on Man in the Republic, Behemoth, and Wakondah, and the Library of Congress records a collected volume of his writings published by Harper & Brothers.
Although he is not as widely read now as some of his contemporaries, Mathews remains an interesting figure for readers curious about early American cultural life. His career shows how strongly some 19th-century authors believed that the United States needed not just great books, but a distinct literary identity of its own.