During his short literary career, George Lippard published some of the most popular American sensational novels of the nineteenth century. His journalism and his longer fictional works generally feature at least one of two key themes: the celebration of the egalitarian ideals of the American Revolution, and the revelation of the corruption and degradation of those principles in the contemporary United States. Much of his writing focuses on the latter, and utilises sensational forms and gothic tropes to expose exploitation, particularly in American cities. He identified his writing with that of Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810), an earlier American gothic novelist, and dedicated his most popular novel,
The Quaker City, to him. Lippard was also a friend of Edgar Allen Poe (1809-49), and…
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Citation: Deshpande, Tara. "George Lippard". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2753, accessed 23 November 2024.]