Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Realistic Presentation of American Characters in Native American Plays Prior to Eighteen Seventy Research in the field of American letters would hardly seem to require an apology. It is a well-known fact that native litera ture contains many important problems which up to the present have failed to receive scientific treatment. This circumstance alone seems to justify investigation such as is here undertaken. My subject, chosen from our lesser American literature, is The Realistic Presentation of American Characters in Native American Plays Prior to Eighteen Seventy. This means that I am to examine all significant dramatic pieces, written by authors either American-born or closely identified with American inter ests, with the object of determining to what extent, in what man ner, and with what fidelity these playwrights have drawn their characters from distinctive American life, just as it actually was, during the different historical periods prior to 1870. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.