William Austin: Gothic Short Stories

Synopsis

“It [the ‘Peter Rugg’ story] is absolutely of its time and place – a significant piece of myth-making about the effect of the American Revolution – and yet it has a considered artistry of tone and structure, and a haunting universality of theme (loss of place in the world), that looks forward (as Joyce Carol Oates has suggested) to Kafka’s metaphysically displaced protagonists. Like Irving’s ‘Rip Van Winkle’ and much of Hawthorne’s work, it combines history and Romance in a way that makes it at once an acute comment on its age, a founding story in the American short story tradition, and a work that stands independently of its context.” Martin Scofield, The Cambridge Introduction to the American Short Story (2006) William Austin (1778 – 1841) was born to a prominent Massachusetts family at the beginning of the American Revolution. He graduated from Harvard in 1798. In 1799 he was appointed chaplain and schoolmaster in the U.S. Navy; it was here where he met Alexander Hamilton, who helped him get started on a law career. Austin studied law at Lincoln’s Inn in London. After eighteen months of training, Austin returned to Massachusetts and began his law career. On September 10, 1824, Austin published the first of his “Peter Rugg” stories in the New England Galaxy. When the story first appeared, neither Poe nor Hawthorne was known, and it was only five years after Irving, in his Sketch Book, had made the world acquainted with Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane. The “Peter Rugg” story became very popular during this time. Austin would go on to publish a sequel to the story, “Further Account of Peter Rugg,” on September 1, 1826, in the New England Galaxy.Austin published a total of six short stories, including the two “Peter Rugg” stories. All of which have been included in this edition of his Gothic short stories. Austin’s style is reminiscent of Nathaniel Hawthorne; all of his stories have a strong didactic element to them. This will be the first time, in a modern English edition, that all these stories and writings will be collected together. Included in this edition are several contextual pieces as well. First, an unpublished dialogue by William Austin, “Dialogue Between Hesiod and Homer,” as well as an unpublished Gothic poem, “Songs of Seven Children,” written to his children. Second, a ‘Biographical Sketch’ of William Austin written by his son, James Walker Austin. Third, the essay “William Austin: A Precursor of Hawthorne,” written by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. And fourth, illustrations included in the edition of William Austin’s “Peter Rugg” story, published in 1910. Also included in this edition are some pieces written in honor of the “Peter Rugg” stories by other authors. First, “Jonas Platt’s Peter Rugg” stories published in 1827. Second, a poem written by Louise Imogen Guiney “Peter Rugg Bostonian,” published in 1891. And finally, a prose poem, written by Amy Lowell, “Before the Storm: The Legend of Peter Rugg,” published in 1917. This collection will be useful for classes in early American literature, American Studies, or classes with a Supernatural or Fantasy focus.