Thus as mun ror book-length study of Royall Tyler (1757-1820), a distinguished Chief Justico of the Vermont Supreme Court and a writer who is gon-erally considered to be one of the most significant figures in American literature in the period just after the Revolution.

Tyler is best known for his play The Contrast (1787), the first American com-ody produced professionally, But his contribution to the literature of the young American republie was more extensive, for he wrote one of the carly novels to utilize native scenes (The Algerine Cap-tive, 1797), a book of essays skillfully depicting the characteristics of the English (The Yankey in London, 1809), a large number of poems, and several more plays. He may be taken, in fact, as a typical American man of letters of the time - for whom writing, of necessity, had to be a pastime, squeezed into the daily round of business. For Tyler, this business was the law.

In this volume the author makes extensive use of the Tyler Papers, which have only recently become available to scholars. He provides a fascinating sketch of Tyler's life and legal activities and takes up in turn his plays, his poems, his novel, and his essays, emphasizing their important contribution to a native American literature.

Mr. Tanselle is Associate Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin.