ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a methodology for unearthing, identifying, and analyzing romance novels written from the very beginning of the American novel, and it offers an account of novels published in America from that beginning to just after the Second World War. The mistreatment of the romance novel in mainstream American literary criticism of the novel, along with a correction to that mistreatment, is also offered. Authors whose work is discussed include Vickery, Sedgwick, Child, Southworth, Alcott, E.W. Harper, Watanna, Webster, Norris, Delmar, and Highsmith.
