Aboriginal American Authors

Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison), 1837-1899Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.1

Word count: 125K words
Chapters: 13

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Aboriginal American Authors by Daniel G. BrintonAuthor: Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison), 1837-1899,Language: English, Class: PM: Language and Literatures: Indigenous American and Artificial Languages, Release Date: Oct 1, 2005

Editor's review

This book is an early documentary work that systematically surveys Native American authors and their works. Brinton, its author, long focused on Indigenous languages and cultures; the book preserves related bibliographic information and historical context, and is valuable for studying the genealogy of Native American literature, early ethnographic writing, and the ways the English-speaking world organized Indigenous texts. As a public-domain e-book, its main text is in English, and the reading difficulty comes mainly from historical background and proper names rather than theoretical depth. It is better suited as a reference book or entry point for specialized research than as a literary anthology for continuous reading; readers can use it to understand how nineteenth-century scholars defined “Native American authors” and to trace original texts from there. For course preparation or organizing sources for a paper, it is advisable to read it alongside modern and contemporary scholarship on Native American literature in order to develop a critical approach.

Who it's for

A good fit for

University faculty and students studying Native American literature and early ethnographic writing
Scholars organizing sources who need bibliographic leads on early Native American authors
Readers interested in the history of Native American studies in nineteenth-century English-language scholarship
Readers of history and literature with English reading ability who prefer reference-style reading

Not a good fit for

General readers hoping to read Native American myths or selected literary works
Beginning readers who struggle with English and need a Chinese translation
Readers expecting systematic theoretical analysis or contemporary Native American literary criticism

Reading tips

Begin with the table of contents and introductory passages to clarify the author’s scope and classification criteria, then decide which chapters to read closely.
Keep a notebook of the author names and work titles mentioned in the book so you can later trace the original texts.
Read alongside contemporary scholarship on Native American literature and note the differences between the nineteenth-century perspective and present-day research.
If using the book only for reference, skim relevant entries via the index rather than reading from cover to cover.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book an anthology of Native American literature?

No. It is closer to a documentary survey and discussion of Native American authors and their works, focusing on bibliographic information and historical context rather than offering complete literary selections. To read the works themselves, you need to use it to trace the original texts.

What language background is needed to read this book?

The main text is in English and involves nineteenth-century academic writing conventions and numerous proper names, so good English reading comprehension is recommended. Chinese readers can read it alongside relevant Chinese-language scholarship to lower the background barrier.

Is this book suitable for writing a paper?

It can serve as a starting point for a literature review and source leads, especially for understanding how early scholars organized Native American authors. But it should not be the sole basis; combine it with contemporary scholarship and original texts, and be mindful of its historical limitations.

Comments

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About the author

Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison), 1837-1899 Author

Daniel G. Brinton (1837–1899) was an American scholar of the languages and cultures of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. The library holds 24 of his works, covering linguistics, mythology, and the decipherment of ancient scripts. His representative works include The Myths of the New World, a survey of New World mythologies; A Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphics and The Ancient Phonetic Alphabet of Yucatan, which examine Maya writing and Yucatec phonetic signs; and Ancient Nahuatl Poetry, a collection and translation of ancient Mexican Nahuatl poems. He also wrote The Lenâpé and Their Legends and The Books of Chilan Balam, dealing with Delaware traditions and Maya documents. Grounded in primary sources, his writing emphasizes the organization and comparison of linguistic materials, offering useful texts and descriptions for early research on the Indigenous Americas.