Excerpt from Mathew Carey: Editor, Author and Publisher; A Study in American Literary Development Mathew Carey, the subject of this study, after a lapse of three quarters of a century, has survived in chronological outlines and literary histories as the author of a History of the Yellow Fever, The Olive Branch, and of numerous works on political economy and a bewildering variety of subjects that defy classification. As such he is not unworthy of study by the close student of American literature and history; but were he noteworthy as an author alone, an essay, rather than a monograph, would probably be his due. Carey's real claim to consideration is as a publisher, and, to a lesser extent, editor, and author. Our young civilization of a century ago, whether within the sound of the Atlantic or on that shifting belt known vaguely as the frontier needed a medium thru which literature could reach it in order that it might outgrow its provincialness and painful self consciousness. America itself was largely adequate, under proper stimulus, to produce a literature; and any omission could easily be filled from the mature literatures of Europe. Such a medium and such a stimulus Mathew Carey, better than any one else in this country, supplied for over half a century. At this formative period he was able to direct the taste of his public in a way not in the slightest degree possible for the publisher of today when the multiplicity of publishing houses, of authors, and of already developed tastes defies any attempt at control. 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.