The American political and cultural construct that was at first primarily an ‘idea’ intended to improve the material prosperity of its citizens later looked beyond the dollar to the written word to express and promote its national self-confidence. If America were to challenge the intellectual ‘snobbery’ of England, then American citizens would have to match or exceed European artistic and literary creativity. To achieve this end, the plays of Shakespeare, now available in numerous American editions, were freely used to instruct and inspire American ‘scholars’ to better embody in print the essence of the American spirit.

THE INFLUENCE OF SHAKESPEARE ON THE GENESIS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE

Washington Irving is often described as America's first successful professional author and father of the literary sketch or short story. Irving wrote his Sketch Book while living in England in 1820, but, as indicated in his preface, it was primarily intended for an American readership. Despite or, more correctly, because of this fact, Shakespeare was a key element in its reflections on language, authors, literature and culture. ‘The Mutability of Literature’ is a sketch that highlights Irving's use of Shakespeare. Irving's narrator, after reflecting that old books and authors must make way for the new, is asked by an imaginary voice from Elizabethan England whatever became of a ‘half educated varlet … I think his name was Shakspeare. I presume he sunk into oblivion.’