State

North Carolina’s Literary Firsts A Stale’s first book, in any cate¬ gory. is always, of course, a literary landmark, and receives special atten¬ tion because of its first-ncss. In a re¬ view of North Carolina’s literary firsts, it is remarkable how many of them engage the reader’s interest aside from their significance in literary history. Remarkable, too. is the fact that seven of the ten here chosen for discussion are available today in good editions suitable for the library of the private collector and reader. Exploration of History The first book written in English by one who had been resident of the New World happens also to be North Carolina's first book of any kind. Thomas Hariot, mathematician and scientist, accompanied Governor John White to Roanoke Island in 1585. Dur¬ ing his eleven months on and around the island, he gathered notes about the Indians and their agriculture, about the flora and the fauna of the area. Back in England, he wrote a little book of 48 pages describing those resources which would attract settlers to Raleigh’s colony. Hariot’s A briefe and true report was published in London in 1588. To¬ day there is available no separate edi¬ tion of Hariot’s intriguing account, though its text is included in many books of early exploration, like Da¬ vid B. Quinn’s The Roanoke Voyages (1955). Perhaps we can say that the first history is John Lawson’s History of North Carolina, though it is. as read¬ ers quickly discover, not a history at all in the strict sense of the word (sec Statf.. March 15. 1965), but a travel journal of an explorer in the unknown backcountry of North Carolina in 1701. Like Hariot. Lawson comments on the aborigines, the plants and the animals. And indeed there arc some historical facts, for which we are grate¬ ful. But what makes Lawson's book such a delight is his sprightlincss of style and a bubbling sense of humor which will charm even the most de¬ manding reader. Lawson's History is unquestionably one of the gems of Americana. It was published in London in 1709 By It 1C НА 1Ш MALSFII as A New Voyage to Carolina, but in the second edition of 1714 acquired the word History, by which it has been known ever since. A reader's edition is available from Garrett & Massic, 1901 Roane Street, Richmond, $4. First Printed Books North Carolina was without a print¬ er till 1749. when James Davis arrived in New Bern with his type and press. On commission from the Assembly, he later that year issued The Journal of the House of Burgesses, the very first book to be published in the Colony. The only known copy of this 14-page title is in the Public Record Office, London, a facsimile of which, with a detailed introduction by William S. Powell, has been published by the North Carolina Department of Ar¬ chives and History. Box 1881. Ra¬ leigh. SI. Mr. Powell has also prepared a handsome facsimile edition of another James Davis product, the first non- lcgal work printed in North Carolina. Clement Hall's A Collection of Many Christian Experiences, Sentences, and Several Places of Scripture Improved (1753), Department of Archives and History, $2. is a pleasant little religious book, some twenty pages of which are devoted to nimble aphorisms in the eighteenth-century manner. Such a one is ‘‘Live not only to the Eye, /Sin is Sin. though none be by." Clement Hall, a native of England, was an Edenton clergyman at the time his book came out. Drama Both the first American dramatist and the first American novelist, though natives of Philadelphia and Boston respectively, died in North Carolina. The Pennsylvanian. Thomas Godfrey, completed The Prince of Parthia, America's first professional play, in 1759 at Wilmington, where he had settled as a mercantile agent. He died in Wilmington four years later and was buried there. Godfrey’s gruesome tragedy, written in blank verse mod¬ eled on Shakespeare's, takes place in ancient Persia, and has no connec¬ tion with North Carolina except for the fact of its composition. Though not available as a separate title, it can be found in an occasional anthology of American drama. The first play written by a native North Carolinian and the first one using North Carolina characters and scene is Blackheard (1824) by Cam¬ den County’s Lemuel Sawyer, author of a number of other literary efforts. Not about the famous Blackboard him¬ self. Sawyer's amusing contemporary comedy concerns, in one of its plots, a set of Currituck County bumpkins who run into trouble trying to recover pirate treasure. Though the farce has acting potential, it seems never to have been produced on the stage. A care¬ fully reproduced facsimile, with intro¬ duction. has been published by the De¬ partment of Archives and History. SI. Fiction America's first novelist. William Hill Brown, after publishing The Power of Sympathy ( 1 789 ) in his native Boston, traveled to North Carolina to visit his sister in Murfreesboro and to study law in Halifax. He died in Murfrees¬ boro of a fever in 1793 at the age of 28. Though his novel of Boston events has been reissued many times, there is no edition now on the market. Novels having to do with Europe were printed in New Bern and Ra¬ leigh long before the first genuine North Carolina novel appeared in 1839. This was Eonaguski, or The Cherokee Chief by Senator Robert Strange of Fayetteville. Strange had been a judge in our western counties, and his two-volume work of over 400 pages is a historical romance of Indian lore, legend, and history in the James Fenimorc Cooper manner. Its narrative makes full use of notes which Strange gathered during his mountain visits. Many of the characters, like Eoncguski (Chief Yonaguska), were living at the time the novel was writ¬ ten; other portraits, most unflattering, were based on actual mountain peo¬ ple well known in that day. The two volumes of this novel have been rc- ( Continued on page 20) THE STATE. October 1. 1965 1 5