Published by Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in five installments between September 1824 and February 1825, it is recognized by scholars as the first history of American literature and the first substantial work of criticism concerning US authors.

With no notes or books for reference, Neal made multiple factually inaccurate claims and provided coverage of many authors that modern scholars criticize as disproportionate to their role in American literature.

Scholars nevertheless praise the staying power of Neal's opinions, many of which are reflected by other critics decades later, notably "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" by Mark Twain.

Theories of poetry and prose in American Writers foreshadowed and likely influenced later works by Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman.

Having moved there from Baltimore, his goals were to establish himself as America's leading literary figure, encourage the development of a uniquely American writing style, and reverse British disdain for literature from the US.

It conversely drew considerable ire from US journalists, none more severe than William Lloyd Garrison, who warned Neal to be on guard should he return to his home country.

The first postmortem republication of a substantial work by Neal was 1937, when Fred Lewis Pattee collected American Writers for the first time into one publication.

[3] A "man of grievances" according to English scholar George L. Nesbitt,[4] Neal envisioned those journals as a "blazing rocket-battery" he could turn to fire upon the readership of "swarming whipper-snappers" in Great Britain.

Capitalizing on Europeans' interest in US politics sparked by recent news of the Monroe Doctrine, he wrote an article on the five US presidents and current presidential candidates and submitted it to Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine.

"[8] Biographer Donald A. Sears says "the situation was desperate" when Neal received a response from Scottish publisher William Blackwood:[7] "You are exactly the correspondent that we want".

[16] The editors of a six-volume 2016 academic collection of Blackwood's articles called it "the most brilliant, troubling, acerbic and imaginative periodical of the post-Napoleonic age".

[17] Literature scholar Fritz Fleischmann described the magazine as subscribing to an "aesthetic belief in original thoughts expressed in bold and forceful language".

[23] Neal was one of many new contributors adopted by Blackwood in the early 1820s; alongside Eyre Evans Crowe, he was one of two to exhibit the publisher's desired style notably well.

[24] Neal's article in the May 1824 issue was the first by an American to appear in any British literary journal,[25] and it was soon republished by the New European in multiple languages throughout mainland Europe.

[31] Neal's presence in its pages was substantial enough that literary historian Fred Lewis Pattee called it a "complete surrender" on the part of "Blackwood's to the swashbuckling young American".

[39] Before publishing the second installment, Blackwood requested some changes, particularly that Neal tone down his attack on John Elihu Hall and refrain from calling him a blackguard.

"[56] In his last piece for Blackwood's, published after the final installment of American Writers, Neal proclaimed his true nationality and signed it with his last initial.

"[70] Neal also advised literary critics to give US writers more attention, but to avoid undeserved praise, for fear it would stifle creative growth.

[85] American Writers exerted influence over British periodicals and the way they treated literature from the US;[86] many used quotes from the series to substantiate their own work,[87] including multiple instances of misinformation unwittingly copied from Neal.

[88] The British Critic in April 1826 said Neal's novels were too extreme, but praised American Writers, saying it "shows him to be well worth the trouble of breaking in".

[91] Blackwood's contributor David Macbeth Moir called American Writers the best assessment of US literature yet published, praising "its knowledge of a subject concerning which we sit in darkness.

[97] American readers were generally offended by Neal's sharp criticism,[98] particularly because he wrote and published it in a country with which they had been at war twice in the previous half century.

[104] Hall in the Port Folio called Neal a "slimy reptile" and "impudent scribbler", suggesting controversy drove him from Baltimore to London "where he earns his crust by defaming his native land", such that he "should be spit upon or cowskinned".

[112] He said: "We cannot express sufficiently, our Indignation at this renegade's base attempt to assassinate the reputation of this country",[113] warning Neal to be on guard should he return to the US, "or you may reap that reward for your vile labors, which you so richly merit.

[115] Neal left England and returned to his hometown of Portland, Maine, in July 1827,[116] probably expecting the ire sparked by his British publications to have died down and for a warm welcome to be in its place.

[99] Along with Neal's essays on drama in The Yankee and the preface to his poem The Battle of Niagara (1818), American Writers was likely a primary influence on Edgar Allan Poe's theory of poetry.

[129] Neal's pleas not to stifle US literature by fluffing undeserving American writers likely influenced Poe's critical essays, which contained similar language.

[130] Neal's criticism of Harriet Vaughan Cheney's A Peep at the Pilgrims in 1636 (1824) contended the book did a great job of presenting dry history while failing to communicate the spirit of the experience.

"[85] Literature scholar Alexander Cowie issued a similarly balanced assessment, concluding that American Writers is "generally rich in acute critical perceptions".

"[65] Richards contended a century after American Writers that scholars generally still agreed with Neal's assessment of many of the authors the piece considers, particularly Bryant and Irving.