[1] The gradual legitimization of the English language within American academia was accompanied by the introduction of a limited number of university courses devoted to the study of American literature.
The first university-level course in the subject was introduced at Princeton University in 1872 by John Seely Hart.
[3] The first graduate-level course in American literature was taught at the University of Virginia in 1891.
[3] In 1895, Dartmouth professor Charles Francis Richardson published a two-volume work on American Literature, 1607–1885, credited as the first attempt at a comprehensive history of American literature.
[4] The surge of nationalist fervor that accompanied United States involvement in World War I helped grow the study of American literature inside the United States.