In retrospect I can imagine someone saying, "Okay, he sounds like a fairly important figure in the development of American literature, but that doesn't make him that significant in the culture as a whole." Wait! No. I can't. That's too ignorant. If I wrote the essay refuting that, the person who said it wouldn't be able to read or comprehend it. Anyway, my point here is that I majored in English at a college in Maine where most of the English department faculty were American Lit specialists, and no one ever mentioned John Neal. There's more to his influence than that: John Neal Part Three: Art Criticism Though Neal earned money as a miniature portraitist and watercolor instructor in his teens, he later denied any artistic ability. Those early experiences may have contributed to his appreciation of portrait painters trained in sign painting and applied arts. He began to write art criticism in his Baltimore days and i...
Since it's four years later, some things have changed. Not with John Neal; he's still dead and underappreciated. Dugan Murphy, identified back then as a contra dance caller, owns his own history walking tour business in Portland: https://www.portlandbythefoot.com/guid e. John Neal Part Two: Literary Influence Given Neal’s background and childhood, it is amazing he even survived to adulthood. He’d be considered a man of great accomplishment if he’d done none of the things I wrote of in the last paragraph, but had only done half of the other things he did in his life. Neal’s father died only a month after John and his twin sister Rachel were born. His mother Rachel supported the family by opening her own school and taking in boarders. With the assistance of their Quaker community, the Neal family lived in “genteel poverty.” At age 12 Neal left school and home for full-time employment. He began his business career as a haberdasher and dry goods sal...