American Literature- The Colonial Period- The Romantic Period- The Realistic Period- The Modern Period The Colonial Period From the Settlement of America( the Early 17th century) To the End of the 18th century.There is now a critical commonplace that American literature did not begin until the Colonial Period, the period stretching toughly from the settlement of America in the early seventeenth century through the end of the eighteenth . The major topic here will be about American Puritanism, the which has exerted an enduring influence in American literature. The major figures to mention will be Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin, who represent the heritage of American Puritanism. Benjamin Franklin - An Outstanding CharacterBenjamin Franklin （1706-1790）was born in 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were Puritan religion. They left England and moved to the English colony of Massachusetts in order to escape persecution for their religion. In Boston, Franklin left school when he was 10 years old and worked for his father for two years. Then he went to work on his brothers newspaper. He became the editor of this paper when he was 16. Because he wanted to be independent, he went to Philadelphia. There he bought his own newspaper. He worked hard and saved his money. And by the age of 24 he was one of the most successful men in Philadelphia.In 1732 Franklin published a book Poor Richards Almanac. Most almanacs contained information for farmers, such as information about the days and weeks of the year and about the weather. To his almanac, Franklin added wise sayings, his observations about life. Some of the sayings are still famous today. For example: “Early to bed ,early to rise makes a man healthy, wealth and wise” “Waste not, want not,” “A penny saved is a penny earned.” In his later years, he wrote the Autobiography Franklin contributed a great deal to his city of Philadelphia. He helped to establish the Philadelphia Library to build the first hospital in Philadelphia. He was the founder of the Academy of Philadelphia which later became the University of Philadelphia. Two of his greatest interests were science and politics. He became famous as an inventor. In one year he invented a new kind of stove, bifocal glasses the lightening rod.He was also a member of the persons who drafted the Declaration of Independence When he was born there was no United States. As he grew so did his nation grow. When he died his country was ready to take its place among the nations of the world. Benjamin Franklin was, some have said, the first American.The Romantic Period -“The American Renaissance” From the end of the 18th Century to the Outbreak of the Civil War(1861)The Romantic Period, one of the most important periods in the history of American literature, started with Washington Irvings The Sketch Book and ended with Whitmans Leaves of Grass.The development of the American society nurtured “the literature of a great nation.” The young Republic was flourishing into a politically, economically and culturally independent country. Historically, it was the time of westward expansion. The west boundary had reached to the Pacific by 1860; the number of its states had increased from the original 13 at the time of its independence to 21 by the middle of the 19th century; its total population increased from 4 million in 1790 to 30 million in 1860. Economically, the whole nation was experiencing an industrial transformation, which affected the rural as well as the urban life. Industry was flourishing, as a result, the demand of a large employment, and the technological inventions and innovations all help restructure the economic life. In addition, the sudden influx of immigration gave a big push to the already booming industry.Politically, democracy and equality became the ideal of the new nation.With the founding of the American Independent Government, the nation felt an urge to have its own literary expression, to make known its new experience that other nations did not have: the early Puritan settlement, the confrontation with the Indians, the frontiersmens life, and the wild west. With a strong sense of optimism and the mood of “feeling good” of the whole nation, a spectacular outburst of romantic feeling was brought about in the first half of the 19th century. Foreign literary masters, especially the English counterparts exerted a stimulating impact on the writers of the new world. Born of one common cultural heritage, the American writers shared some common features with the English Romanticists. In most of the American writings in the period, there was a new emphasis upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature, which included a liking for the picturesque, th