Articles by John Neal

The topics of these works reflect the Neal's broad interests, including women's rights, feminism, gender, race, slavery, children, education, law, politics, art, architecture, literature, drama, religion, gymnastics, civics, American history, science, phrenology, travel, language, political economy, and temperance.

[2] Compared to Neal's lesser success in creative works,[3] literary historian Fred Lewis Pattee found that "his critical judgments have held.

"[4] Editors of newspapers, magazines, and annual publications sought contributions from Neal on a wide variety of topics, particularly in the second half of the 1830s.

[9] His early encouragement of writers John Greenleaf Whittier, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and many others, helped launch their careers.

[12] As an early and outspoken theater critic, he drafted a future for American drama that was only partially realized sixty years later.