It is hard to define exactly what makes a writer distinctively American. The most obvious way is for the author to write only about American subjects such as American history, American politics, or America's social problems. The first writings considered "American" were religious writings done by the Puritans. Since that time, American writers often assume that reader's have some knowledge of important events in U.S. history, culture, politics or religion.
More broadly, an American writer is one who writes from a unique perspective. American writers tend to write what they enjoy writing about, not what their editor, or publisher or agent thought they should write. American writers would seem to have a unique tolerance for cultural diversity, and when they write they tend to extol the importance of diversity, while acknowledging a hidden unity among most Americans. American writers tend to praise virtues including self-reliance, self-confidence, a bias for action, and impatience with the status quo, and individuality. Lastly, American writers often incorporate American dialects into their writing to give a sense of American culture.
James Tracy in Independent School (2004) notes that Ralph Waldo Emerson was unique among writers. In Emerson's writings, development of the self was a major theme. Emerson stressed that self-awareness was the primary method for self development. However, Emerson's concept of "self" implied all Americans or every human being. Therefore, individuals would have a moral duty to reform social inequalities and relieve human suffering because they were damaging the "self" which was reflected in society. Tracy adds that Emerson made a speech in 1837 in which he called to his generation of American scholars not merely to produce great literature worthy of an emerging world power but to create a literature that embraced both American exceptionalism and rugged individualism (Tracy, 2004, 68).
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