William Hill Brown
William Hill Brown was an American author, recognized for being one of the early figures in American literature and for writing what is considered the first American novel, "The Power of Sympathy: Or, the Triumph of Nature," published in 1789. Born to an English clockmaker in Boston, he engaged in writing under various pseudonyms, addressing political themes and societal issues through his work. Notably, his poem "Yankee Song," which celebrated Massachusetts's ratification of the federal Constitution, evolved into one of the many versions of the well-known marching song "Yankee Doodle."
Brown's literary career included a focus on themes of forbidden love, as exemplified in his epistolary novel, which features a tragic relationship between siblings unaware of their blood connection. His life was cut short in 1793, likely due to malaria, while he was studying law in North Carolina. Following his death, several of his works were published posthumously, further establishing his contributions to American literature. Although many of his poems remained uncollected until the 20th century, they have since been recognized, contributing to the understanding of his literary legacy.
On this Page
Subject Terms
William Hill Brown
Novelist
- Born: November 1, 1765
- Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
- Died: September 2, 1793
- Place of death: Murfreesboro, North Carolina
Biography
William Hill Brown was the son of Gawen Brown, an English-born clockmaker, and his third wife, Elizabeth Hill Adams. Brown attended a Boston grammar school and worked in his father’s shop. His writing was published under his initials or under pen names, such as Columbus and Pollio. His first publications were witty treatments of political subjects. In 1787 he published “Shays to Shattuck,” a rueful verse letter from Shays to the imprisoned Shattuck regretting their participation in the 1786 uprising against taxation in western Massachusetts. He wrote “Yankee Song” to celebrate Massachusetts’s ratification of the federal Constitution, a poem that first appeared in the Pennsylvania Mercury on February 21, 1788, and was later reprinted in the Massachusetts Centinel and Worcester Magazine. The song was then printed, along with three other songs, in a pamphlet entitled Four Excellent Songs. This version was renamed “Yankee Doodle” and established itself as one of the many versions of the popular marching song. Brown is credited with having written the first American novel, The Power of Sympathy: Or, the Triumph of Nature (1789), edited along with a biography of Brown by William S. Kable (1969). Brown’s epistolary novel dramatizes forbidden love; it portays a rake’s pursuit of a young woman who turns out to be his sister. They are initially unaware of their relationship but feel drawn to each other. When their relationship is revealed, the young woman pines away, and the rake kills himself. He leaves a suicide note next to a copy of Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774; The Sorrows of Young Werther, 1779). In 1793 he went to North Carolina to visit his younger sister Eliza and her husband at their plantation home near Murfreesboro. Brown stayed on in the nearby town of Halifax to study law under General William Richardson Davie. A month later, Brown died, possibly of malaria, when an epidemic struck that region. After his death, a number of his works left in manuscript were published, and his authorship of earlier works became publicly known. His West Point Preserved: Or, the Treason of Arnold, an Historical Tragedy in Five Acts was performed professionally at Boston ’s Haymarket Theatre in 1797, but the text, supposedly printed, has been lost. His second novel Ira and Isabella: Or, the Natural Children, a Novel Founded in Fiction was published posthumously in 1807. This novel returns to the theme of forbidden incestuous love, but this time the siblings, who are the illegitimate offspring of their fathers’ illicit affairs, are allowed to marry. Brown’s poems were not collected and printed until the twentieth century. In 1982, Richard Walser published a selection of about half of the poems attributed to Brown in William Hill Brown: Selected Poems and Verse Fables, 1784-1793.