One of the earliest American novelists who is sometimes called „the father of American novel“ was CHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN. He was influenced by William Goldwin and transplanted the European Gothic tradition into American fiction. He published four novels dealing with insanity, fear and paranoia: Wieland, or the Transformation, an American Tale (1798), Ormon, or The Secret Witness (1799), Arthur Mervyn, or Memoirs of the Year 1793 (1799) and Edgar Huntly, or memoirs of a Sleep-Walker (I799). As he remarked in the Introduction to his last mentioned novel: 

America has opened new views to the naturalist and politician, but has seldom furnished themes to the moral painter. That new springs of action and new motives to curiosity should operate; that the field of investigation opened to us by our own country should differ essentially from those which exist in Europe, may be readily conceived. The sources of amusement to the fancy and instruction to the heart that are peculiar to ourselves are equally numerous and inexhaustible. It is the purpose of this work to profit by some of these sources; to exhibit a series of adventures growing out of the condition of our country. (Brown, Huntly¸ 3). 

 Brown was thus inspired by the Gothic tradition but the novels are drawing on solely American resources. The tales are set mainly in America, where it is not only the wilderness anymore, which is dangerous and threatening but also the cities. The landscape is often internalized, Brown thus brought psychological development into American prose and his works significantly influenced E. A. Poe, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.  

 WASHINGTON IRVING (1783-1859) was a short story writer, essayist, travel book writer, biographer and columnist. He was the youngest of 11 children, born to a merchant family. Due to his poor health, he travelled to Britain, France and Germany, where he met Walter Scott and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In 1819–1820 he published The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., which is dedicated to his friend Walter Scott. It is a collection of stories that started the long tradition of American short stories. The individual stories were influenced by the German folktales, which were transplanted into the American context. The collection contains his two best-known stories, "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. In the Sketch Book, Irving transforms the Catskill Mountains along the Hudson River north of New York City into a magical region, establishing the American regionalist tradition. As the volume was very original, Irving was asking the readers to view this volume as an experiment. 

 JAMES FENIMORE COOPER (1789-1851) worked as a sailor on a merchant ship. Similarly to Irving, Cooper was also tracing the American past, namely the history of the American frontier. He was the founder of an American historical novel, depicting the changes in American society since the settling of the Wild West. While Irving was searching for inspiration in European legends, Cooper turned to truly American themes. In a series of novels called The Leatherstocking Tales Cooper depicted the changes of the boundaries and destruction of the wilderness. The novels follow the adventures and experiences of Natty Bumpo or Hawkeye, sometimes called the Leatherstocking and or Hawkeye, and his Indian companion Chingachgook from the Mohican tribe.

 The most famous novel is The Last of the Mohicans (1826), which is set in the Far West in 1757, during the French Indian War. Natty Bumpo, here called Hawkeye, and his Mohican friends Chingachgook and his son Uncas are taking two young ladies, Cora and Alice to their father. Unlike fragile Alice, Cora has dark hair and is of mixed race. They are betrayed by their Indian guide Magua and Uncas and Cora die. Hawkeye then avenges their deaths and kills Magua. The book has inspired several films. The silent version of 1920 focused on the love triangle between Uncas, Cora and Magua. In Michael Mann's version (1992) Cora is portrayed as white and the interracial relationship between Uncas and Alice is left undeveloped. Uncas and Chingachgook are for the first time played by Native American actors, Eric Schweig and Russell.