Excerpt from Literary Leaders of America: A Class-Book on American Literature The literature of a country is made up of the writings of those who have had the gift and skill to express them selves in such a way as to move and charm their readers. To be literature, in the best sense, a piece of writing, whether prose or verse, must have beauty of expression and inherent Worthiness of thought. While we cannot deny the name literature to some writing which has attraction of form, without importance of thought and ennobling emotions, we can affirm that the truly great literature, that which is likely to have permanence, will show artistic quality along with intellectual and moral significance.

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