John Neal bibliography

The bibliography of American writer John Neal spans more than sixty years from the War of 1812 through the Reconstruction era and includes novels, short stories, poetry, articles, plays, lectures, and translations published in newspapers, magazines, literary journals, gift books, pamphlets, and books. Favorite topics included 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.
Between 1817 and 1835, Neal became the first American published in British literary journals, author of the first history of American literature, the first American art critic, a children's literature pioneer, a forerunner of the American Renaissance, and one of the first American male advocates of women's rights. As the first American author to use natural diction and one of the first to write characters with regional American accents, Neal's fiction aligns with the literary nationalist and regionalist movements. A pioneer of colloquialism, Neal is the first to use the phrase son-of-a-bitch in an American work of fiction. His fiction explores the romantic and gothic genres.
Neal was a prolific contributor to periodicals, particularly in the second half of the 1830s. His critiques of literature, art, and drama anticipated future movements and contributed to the careers of many authors whose careers historically eclipsed Neal's. As a critic and political commentator, his essays and journalism showed distrust of institutions and an affinity for self-examination and self-reliance. Many of Neal's pamphlets are lectures he delivered between 1829 and 1848, when he supplemented his income by traveling on the lyceum movement circuit. He also published many short stories, averaging one per year in this time period. Neal's tales helped shape the genre and early children's literature and challenged socio-political phenomena associated with Jacksonian democracy. As a translator he worked mostly on French compositions but was able to read and write to some degree in eleven languages other than his native English. The bulk of his novels were published between 1822 and 1828 though he continued writing novels until the last decade of his life. His last major work was an 1874 guidebook for his hometown of Portland, Maine. There are four posthumous collections of his writing, published between 1920 and 1978.

Bound publications

Novels

felt that novels represented the highest form of prose. As a novelist, he is recognized as "the first in America to be natural in his diction" and "the father of American subversive fiction" for developing a new "wild, rough, and defiant American style" to break with British standards then dominant in the US. A pioneer of American colloquialism and dialects in novels, Neal's novels are aligned with both the literary nationalist and regionalist movements and anticipate the American Renaissance.

Title	Year	First publisher	Notes
Keep Cool, A Novel	1817	Baltimore: Joseph Cushing	Explores gender roles in relationships and expresses Neal's views against dueling; in two volumes; authorship ascribed as "Written in Hot Weather, by Somebody, M.D.C. &c. &c. &c.", in which "M.D.C." stands for "Member of the Delphian Club"; republished in 2024 with footnotes and a scholarly introduction
Logan, a Family History	1822	Philadelphia: H.C. Carey & I. Lea	A "gothic tapestry" that explores racial boundaries between White and Indigenous Americans; in two volumes; republished in London in 1823 in four volumes by A.K. Newman & Co.; republished as Logan, the Mingo Chief. A Family History "By the Author of Seventy-Six in London in 1840 by J. Cunningham
Seventy-Six		Baltimore: Joseph Robinson	First use of son-of-a-bitch in an American work of fiction; Neal's favorite of his own novels; in two volumes; published in London the same year in three volumes by Whittaker and Company; facsimile of Baltimore edition published in 1971; excerpted in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings ; published before Randolph and Errata
Randolph, a Novel			"A story in the form of letters, giving an account of our celebrities, orators, writers, painters, &c., &c."; in two volumes; contains the earliest of Neal's significant art criticism; "By the Author of Logan — and Seventy-Six"; excerpted in American Writers: A [Series of Papers Contributed to Blackwood's Magazine ] and The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings ; published after Seventy-Six and before Errata
Errata; or, the Works of Will. Adams		New York: Published for the Proprietors	A semi-autobiographical account of Neal's life before 1823; excerpted in the New England Galaxy and The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings ; in two volumes; "A Tale by the Author of Logan, Seventy-Six, and Randolph"; published after Seventy-Six and Randolph
Brother Jonathan: or, the New Englanders	1825	Edinburgh: William Blackwood	A story of the American Revolution depicting regional American folkways and dialect; in three volumes; excerpted in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings
Rachel Dyer: A North American Story	1828	Portland, Maine: Shirley and Hyde	"Almost universally regarded as Neal's most successful fictional work"; first hardcover novel based on the Salem witch trials; an expansion of "New-England Witchcraft" likely written for but never published by Blackwood's Magazine in 1825, but published serially over five issues of The New-York Mirror ; republished by facsimile in 1964; excerpted in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings ; "Unpublished Preface" republished in "Critical Essays and Stories by John Neal"
Authorship, a Tale	1830	Boston: Gray and Bowen	A "spritely spoof" about authors likely largely written during Neal's stay with Jeremy Bentham in London; "By a New Englander Over-Sea"
	1833	New York: Harper & Brothers	Showcases regional variation in American character, dialect, and setting; Neal's "fullest expression" of "regional realism"; in two volumes; includes two short stories: "Bill Frazier—the Fur Trader" and "Robert Steele"; excerpted in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings
Ruth Elder	1843	Brother Jonathan magazine	"A Down-East story of seduction"; a serial novella published over fifteen issues ; first three installments originally published in The New Mirror
True Womanhood: a Tale	1859	Boston: Ticknor and Fields	Defends the dignity of unmarried women; explores social life, business, and legal procedure in New York City; couched in an "abundant and all-pervasive" religious theme
	1863	New York: Beadle and Company	The top-ranked dime novel when it was published; an adaptation of "The Switch-Tail Pacer. A Tale of Other Days"
	1864	New York: Beadle and Company	A dime novel
Little Moccasin; or, Along the Madawaska	1866	New York: Beadle and Company	A dime novel; "A Story of Life and Love in the Lumber Region"; published in London the same year by George Routledge & Sons
Live Yankees; or, The Down Easters at Home	1867		A serial novella published over eight weekly installments; a reworking of the novel The Lumberman, rejected by Beadle and Company

Collections

Title	Editor	Year	First publisher	Notes
Battle of Niagara, a Poem, without Notes; and Goldau, or the Maniac Harper		1818	Baltimore: N. G. Maxwell	Recognized at the time as the best poetic description of Niagara Falls, though Neal did not see it until 1833; "By Jehu O'Cataract"
		1819	Baltimore: N. G. Maxwell
Great Mysteries and Little Plagues		1870	Boston: Roberts Brothers	A collection of stories and essays for and about children
		1920	Portland, Maine: A.J. Huston	A biography of Neal that includes Neal's "Rights of Women" speech, as well as excerpts from Randolph, Battle of Niagara, Errata, and "Sketches of the Five American Presidents, and of the Five Presidential Candidates, from the Memoranda of a Traveller"
American Writers: A Series of Papers Contributed to Blackwood's Magazine		1937	Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press	Criticism of 135 American authors originally published in Blackwood's Magazine; the earliest written history of American literature
Observations on American Art: Selections from the Writings of John Neal		1943	State College, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State College	"A full collection of Neal's most important art criticism"
		1978	Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press	Includes four short stories, excerpts from five novels, and eleven essays by Neal and notes and an introduction by the editors

Nonfiction books

Title	Year	First publisher	Notes
One Word More: Intended for the Reasoning and Thoughtful among Unbelievers	1854	Portland, Maine: Ira Berry	A religious tract that "rambles passionately for two hundred pages and closes with breathless metaphor"; also published the same year in Boston by Crocker & Brewster
Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life	1869	Boston: Roberts Brothers	An autobiography that "presents a showy embroidery of bombast and gasconade on a firm fabric of good sound sense"; excerpted in Maine: A Literary Chronicle and The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings
Portland Illustrated	1874	Portland, Maine: W.S. Jones	A Portland, Maine guidebook "so chaotic in arrangement as to diminish greatly its usefulness"

Pamphlets

Many of Neal's pamphlets are lectures he delivered between 1829 and 1848, when he supplemented his income by traveling on the lyceum movement circuit.

Title	Year	First publisher	Notes
Constitution of the Portland Gymnasium with the Rules and Regulations, and the Names of the Subscribers	1828	Portland, Maine: James Adams	Handbook for the gymnasium established by Neal in 1827; published in June
Address Delivered before the Portland Association for the Promotion of Temperance, February 11, 1829	1829	Portland, Maine: Day and Fraser	Address delivered at the First Parish Church; also published in The Yankee ; excerpted in the Ladies Miscellany August 18, 1829
City of Portland, Being a General Review of the Proceedings Heretofore Had, in the Town of Portland, on the Subject of a City Government	1829	Portland, Maine: Shirley & Hyde	A "pamphlet of about fifty octavo pages, with tables, petitions, on both sides, and statistics, giving undeniable statistics, where necessary" advocating municipal incorporation as a city
Our Country	1830	Portland, Maine: S. Colman	"An Address Delivered before the Alumni of Waterville-College, July 29, 1830"
	1831	Portland, Maine: Day and Fraser	Address delivered to the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association
Banks and Banking	1837	Portland, Maine: Orion Office	"A Letter to the Bank Directors of Portland"; "This communication accused banks of ungenerous response to the curtailment in public demand upon them. Neal, among others, had striven to secure leniency of demand upon the local banks in their critical hour, and he now accused the banks of failure to reciprocate with a proper leniency toward the public."
Oration: By John Neal, Portland, July 4, 1838		Portland, Maine: Arthur Shirley	Address delivered for a meeting of the Portland, Maine Whigs
Man		Providence: Knowles, Vose & Company	"A Discourse, before the United Brothers' Society of Brown University, September 4, 1838"
		Portland, Maine: Charles Day & Co	In First Exhibition and Fair of the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association
Appeal from the American Press to the American People, in Behalf of John Bratish Eliovich	1840	Portland, Maine: Argus Office	A collection of letters written for, but refused by The New World defending alleged con man John Bratish Eliovich from recent attacks in periodicals; disavowed by Neal in 1844
	1858	Portland, Maine: Brown Thurston	Concerning land development in Cairo, Illinois, in which Neal invested money; based largely on a trip to Cairo by Neal in 1858
Account of the Great Conflagration in Portland, July 4th & 5th, 1866	1866	Portland, Maine: Starbird & Twitchell	Concerning the 1866 great fire of Portland, Maine

Collaborative works

Title	Year	First publisher	Neal's contribution	Notes
General Index to the First Twelve Volumes, or First Series, of Niles' Weekly Register	1818	Baltimore: Hezekiah Niles	The index	The product of sixteen hours of labor a day by Neal, seven days a week, for over four months; "the most laborious work of the kind that ever appeared in any country"
	1819	Baltimore: John Hopkins	Vol. 1, pp. 253–592 and all of vol. 2	Republished in Baltimore in 1822 by Franklin Betts; pp. 1–252 by Tobias Watkins; preface by Paul Allen
Second Report of the Geology of the State of Maine	1838	Augusta, Maine: State of Maine	Pp. 110–112	Otherwise written by Charles T. Jackson
	1843	New York: Wiley & Putnam	The preface: a biographical sketch of Elizabeth Oakes Smith and Seba Smith	Also published in Boston the same year by W.D. Ticknor
	1843	Edinburgh: W. Tait	Vol. 9, pp. 660–662, 648	Edited by John Bowring
	1852	Syracuse: J. E. Masters	Pp. 24–28: A letter by Neal read at the 1852 National Woman's Rights Convention by Elizabeth Oakes Smith	Prompted the conference leadership to appoint Neal as the Maine representative to the central committee for organizing the next annual convention

Selected articles

John Neal was "perhaps the foremost critic of era", commenting on literature, art, drama, politics, and a variety of social issues. As a critic and political commentator, his essays and journalism showed distrust of institutions and an affinity for self-examination and self-reliance. Compared to Neal's comparative lesser success at employing his literary theories in creative works, "his critical judgments have held. Where he condemned, time has almost without exception condemned also." 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. His early articles make him one of the first male advocates of women's rights and feminist causes in the US.
Neal was the first American to be published in any British literary magazine and in that capacity wrote the first history of American literature and American painters. 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. As an art critic Neal was the first in the US, and his essays from the 1820s are recognized as "prophetic". As an "early firebrand" in theatrical criticism, his "prophesy" for American drama was only partially realized sixty years later.
This list includes only articles that have received the most scholarly attention and/or that are noted in scholarly works as particularly important milestones in Neal's career and/or the histories of the topics they cover. Those omitted here are included in the larger list of articles by John Neal.

Title	Date	Publication type	Publication name	Topic	Notes
		Newspaper	Hallowell Gazette	Law and politics	Neal's first published work: a political essay published when Neal was living in Hallowell, Maine, as a penmanship instructor
		Magazine		Literary criticism	A 150-page criticism of Lord Byron's works written in four days and published in four installments; Neal's first published literary criticism
		Magazine		Social criticism	"Describes dueling as a gendered performance, in which women play an enabling role and which they have an obligation to stop", similar to his subsequent novel, Keep Cool
		Magazine	Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine	Biography	Biographical sketches of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John C. Calhoun, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford, and Henry Clay; the first article by an American to appear in a British literary journal; republished in four languages by Alexander Walker in The European Review: or, Mind and its Productions, in Britain, France, Italy, Germany, &c. the same year
		Magazine	Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine	Art criticism	The first published history of American painting; excerpted in Observations on American Art: Selections from the Writings of John Neal ; a critique of cultivation of fine arts in the US and a discussion of eleven American artists, including Benjamin West and John Trumbull; republished in the Columbian Observer
		Magazine	Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine	Literary criticism	Criticism of 135 American authors in five installments; the earliest written history of American literature; reprinted as a collection in American Writers: A Series of Papers Contributed to Blackwood's Magazine ; excerpted in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings
		Magazine	Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine	Feminism and women's rights	An exploration of how women are unlike, but not inferior, to men
		Magazine	Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine	Multiple	Purportedly a review of A Summary View of America by Isaac Candler "literally buried beneath the grasping tendrils and riotous fruitage of Neal's birthright knowledge of his native country" in a "vast panorama" conveying Neal's views on slavery and other topics in thirty-six pages that "should be read by anyone interested in the America of 1825"; the longest article Blackwood's had yet published; includes Neal's first call for women's suffrage
		Magazine	Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine	Literary criticism	A review of North American Review and new American literature including Lionel Lincoln; predicts a new American revolution against "literary, not political bondage"; republished in American Writers: A Series of Papers Contributed to Blackwood's Magazine ; excerpted in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings
		Magazine	Westminster Review	Social criticism	A summary of Neal's views on the American militia system, slavery, legal system, and literary style
		Magazine		Travel	An account of Neal's departure from Baltimore, transatlantic journey, early impressions of England over late 1823 through early 1824, and contrasts between the UK and US; the most detailed account of Neal's reasons for leaving Baltimore and for relocating to London; published in three installments
		Magazine		Feminism and women's rights	Denounces "with considerable heat" Josiah Quincy III's decision to close the Boston High School for Girls and attacks the legal institution of coverture; includes "Neal's angriest and most assertive feminist claims"
		Magazine		Art criticism	Criticism of the current state of American art written "with a pungency rare in nineteenth century criticism"; republished in American Art 1700–1960
		Magazine		Theatrical criticism	Published in five installments; Neal's most noteworthy work of theatrical criticism; calls for "a revolution that was still in progress sixty years later"; elaborates on points made in the prefaces to Otho and the second edition of The Battle of Niagara ; republished in "Critical Essays and Stories by John Neal"
		Magazine		Literary criticism	Neal's first criticism of Edgar Allan Poe; referred to by Poe as "the very first words of encouragement I ever remember to have heard"
		Magazine		Art criticism	An "early, unprecedented effort to define a canon of American art"; anticipates John Ruskin's Modern Painters by distinguishing between "things seen by the artist" and "things as they are"; a call for "straightforward realism... made at the height of the Romantic era"; republished in American Art 1700–1960
		Magazine		Literary criticism	An analysis of ambiguous and inane qualities in common speech patterns; republished in "Critical Essays and Stories by John Neal"
	1835	Gift book		Children and education	An essay of "considerable popularity and a good deal of republication" and "a sensible, original inquiry into the nature of children"; "the best John Neal has ever written" according to the New-York Mirror; revised and republished in Portland Magazine, New England Galaxy, Godey's Lady's Book, and The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings ; excerpted in the New-York Mirror October 18, 1834; excerpted as "Rustic Civility, or Children—What Are They?" in The Ladies' Companion ; republished as "Children—What Are They Good For?" in Great Mysteries and Little Plagues
		Magazine		Multiple	A discussion of storytelling in paintings by John Wesley Jarvis; acting by James Henry Hackett, Charles Mathews, and George Handel Hill; and oral exchange among strangers aboard American stagecoaches and steamboats; excerpted in the New-York Mirror ; republished in "Critical Essays and Stories by John Neal"
		Newspaper	New England Galaxy	Science	An account of Neal's role as the first lawyer to use psychiatric testimony and seek leniency in a US court on account of a defendant's alleged mental defect; published in five installments; reviewed in the Annals of Phrenology
		Magazine	Brother Jonathan	Feminism and women's rights	Neal's most influential statement on women's rights; lecture originally delivered January 24, 1843 before 3,000 attendees at the Broadway Tabernacle; "a scathing satire", according to the History of Woman Suffrage; republished in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings
		Magazine	Brother Jonathan	Feminism and women's rights	Responds to arguments against women's suffrage by Eliza Farnham, prompted by Neal's "Rights of Women" speech on January 24 of that year; "Mrs. Farnham lived long enough to retrace her ground and accept the highest truth", according to the History of Woman Suffrage; republished in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings
		Magazine	Brother Jonathan	Feminism and women's rights	Concluding remarks to Eliza Farnham's second essay prompted by Neal's "Rights of Women" speech on January 24 of that year; republished in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings
		Newspaper	Portland Tribune	Slavery and race	"Neal's most significant pronouncement" on slavery; repeats arguments made in "A Summary View of America" and "United States" ; argues for gradual emancipation and colonization
		Magazine	Sartain's Union Magazine of Literature and Art	Literature	Asserts that all are poets though few recognize it in themselves; claims poetry as a necessary refinement and embellishment of the world; marks a departure from Neal's earlier opinion of poetry as "superficial adornment" and "deliberate falsification of fact"; republished in "Critical Essays and Stories by John Neal"
		Newspaper	Portland Daily Advertiser	Biography	A refutation of Rufus Wilmot Griswold's biography of Edgar Allan Poe in two installments; republished in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings
		Magazine	Sartain's Union Magazine of Literature and Art	English language	Uplifts the value of natural diction in writing and expression of thought as it spontaneously occurs to the writer; includes an analysis of New England speech and character he saw as underrepresented in literature; republished in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings
		Magazine		Feminism and women's rights	"One of the most interesting essays of his career"; "an incisive piece of feminist social criticism" disguised "as a conservative critique of current fashion"; "the beginning of the last phase of Neal's feminist journalism"
		Magazine	Atlantic Monthly	Art criticism	Republished in Observations on American Art: Selections from the Writings of John Neal ; based on notes from his stay in London over forty years earlier; published in two installments
		Newspaper		Feminism and women's rights	A report of Portland, Maine's first women's suffrage meeting, organized by Neal; republished in History of Woman Suffrage volume 3

Short stories and fictional sketches

Called "the inventor of the American short story", John Neal's tales are "his highest literary achievement" and he published an average of one per year between 1828 and 1846. Many of them challenged American socio-political phenomena that grew in the period leading up to and including Andrew Jackson's terms as US president : manifest destiny, empire building, Indian removal, consolidation of federal power, racialized citizenship, and the Cult of Domesticity. His work helped shape the relatively new short story genre, particularly early children's literature.

Title	Date	Publication type	Publication name	Notes
		Newspaper		A "narrative fragment"; originally prepared for recitation at the Wanderer Club of Baltimore; published in volume I, pp. 394–395
		Magazine		Neal's only contribution to the magazine's regular "Club-Room" department, supervised by the fictitious "Horace De Monde, Esquire" that detailed happenings at real and fictitious clubs; attributed to the pseudonym "Jamie"; "shows a good grasp of character"
		Magazine		A satirical letter from a fictitious author to a fictitious recipient outlining the peculiarities of Boston; possibly a precursor to Neal's novel Randolph
		Magazine		A series of five character sketches published over five issues; a study of human nature that contributed to Neal's first novel, Keep Cool
		Magazine		A satirical letter from a fictitious author to a fictitious recipient discussing a fictitious "Miss Olivia Teaseabit", possibly based on a real "Miss Olivia T.", with whom Neal had become infatuated after encountering her in Exeter, New Hampshire, and Waterville, Maine, over the winter of 1813–1814
		Magazine		A character sketch "more penetrating and expository" than his "Sketches from Nature — By a club of Painters" series, likely based on himself
		Magazine		A dual sketch contrasting two characters; likely used later by Neal as the basis for the Oadley brothers in his novel Seventy-Six
		Newspaper	Federal Republican and Baltimore Telegraph	A series of narrative sketches with distinct subtitles: "More Dogs", "Fact", "Cats", and "Joe Miller"
	1828–1829	Magazine		"Fragmentary and unsatisfactory" fictional segments likely drawn from an early draft of Brother Jonathan ; published in eleven installments
	1829	Gift book		Along with "David Whicher", one of Neal's best short stories; republished in Stories of American Life; By American Writers edited by Mary Russell Mitford, "Critical Essays and Stories by John Neal", and The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings ; excerpted as "Ruins of North America" in The Literary Gazette of Concord, New Hampshire
	1829	Magazine		A narrative comical sketch of a criminal trial; likely written while Neal lived in London; republished in The Ladies' Companion as "The Prisoner at the Old Bailey"
		Magazine		A fictional fragment likely from an early draft of Brother Jonathan that muses about the differences between men and women in a way similar to "Men and Women; Brief Hypothesis concerning the Difference in their Genius"
	1829	Magazine		A fictional fragment of "meaningless nonsense" likely drawn from an early draft of Brother Jonathan
	1829	Magazine		A fictional fragment of "meaningless nonsense" likely drawn from an early draft of Brother Jonathan
	1829	Magazine		A fictional fragment of "meaningless nonsense" likely drawn from an early draft of Brother Jonathan
	1829	Magazine		A fictional fragment of "meaningless nonsense" likely drawn from an early draft of Brother Jonathan
	1829	Magazine		A fictional fragment of "meaningless nonsense" likely drawn from an early draft of Brother Jonathan
		Magazine		A winter recreation scene along the Kennebec River in Maine during the winter of 1815–1816 followed by an exchange between an American and an Englishman in England in 1827 involving counterfeit money; likely semi-autobiographical; "the only piece of pure, unified, prose fiction Neal published in the Yankee"; published in two installments
		Magazine		"Though too slight for special commendation, it is not ungracefully done"; republished as "The Old Bachelor" in The Ladies' Companion, Boston Pearl and Galaxy, and the Portland Transcript
	1830	Gift book		Reprinted serially in The Free Enquirer on January 15 and January 22, 1831
	1831	Gift book		A fictionalized story of the life of John Dunn Hunter based mostly on knowledge gained during cohabitation at a rooming house in London in the mid 1820s
		Newspaper	Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer	A comic tall tale from an "unconsciously ludicrous Down Easter"
	1832	Gift book		The first work of fiction to utilize psychotherapy
	1832	Gift book		Along with "Otter-Bag, the Oneida Chief", one of Neal's best short stories; published anonymously and not attributed to Neal until the 1960s; republished in "Critical Essays and Stories by John Neal" and The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings
	1833	Novel		Along with "Robert Steele", one of two stories included with The Downeasters to take up space at the request of the publisher
	1833	Novel		Republished in Mrs. Stephens' Illustrated New Monthly ; along with "Bill Frazier—the Fur Trader", one of two stories included with The Downeasters to take up space at the request of the publisher
		Magazine		"Ostensibly a string of three stories to illustrate the quick destructive power of the Maine forest fire; republished in the New England Galaxy, The Literary Gazette of Concord, New Hampshire, and The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings
		Magazine		A story about young William Shakespeare
		Newspaper	New England Galaxy	About an Englishman in Virginia who claims his head is so beautifully shaped he wears hats and wigs to hide it from phrenologists like Neal and John Elliotson who want to examine him to no end, though he contemplated offering his head for dissection by Johann Spurzheim for examination by John Pierpont; "aside from the evidence it affords of Neal's ability to laugh at what he took most seriously, this piece has little or no significance"
		Newspaper	New England Galaxy	A series of six fictional sketches illustrating New England dialect and character
		Newspaper	New England Galaxy	Based on Neal's travels in England; similar to the novel Authorship; published serially in five installments
		Newspaper	New England Galaxy	Illustrates Neal's opposition to dueling
		Newspaper	New England Galaxy	A children's story concerning a cat who protects her noisy kittens from a human child; prefaced by a statement that Neal intends "to furnish a series of the best little books for children that ever appeared"
		Newspaper	New England Galaxy	A children's story concerning a homeless orphan reunited with his grandfather who is rewarded for honesty and courage; published serially in four installments
		Newspaper	New England Galaxy	Two reworked extracts from Errata
		Newspaper	New England Galaxy	Likely portions of "The Adventurer" rejected by The Token
	1836	Gift book		Republished in The New England Galaxy October 3, 1835, in Atkinson's Casket in 1838, and in Emerson's United States Magazine and Putnam's Monthly September 1857
	1836	Book	Portland Sketch Book	Included in a book edited by Ann S. Stephens featuring Portland, Maine authors
		Newspaper		Published serially over six installments; a study of female development from adolescence to womanhood; includes a character who becomes magnetized
		Newspaper		A children's story written for Neal's daughter, Margaret Neal; republished in Ballou's Monthly Magazine in 1866, Great Mysteries and Little Plagues by Neal in 1870, and Little Classics edited by Rossiter Johnson in 1875
		Newspaper		Published serially over five issues; likely written for but never published by Blackwood's Magazine in 1825 and later expanded into Rachel Dyer
		Magazine		"A highly artificial, melodramatic sketch, cast so exclusively into dialogue as to be almost dramatic in effect"; first of three works in the "Sketches by Lamp-Light" series for The Ladies' Companion
		Magazine		Based on Neal's family life; third of three works in the "Sketches by Lamp-Light" series for The Ladies' Companion
		Magazine	Godey's Lady's Book	Based on Neal's experience living with Jeremy Bentham in London in August 1826
	1840	Book		Written for a collection of anti-slavery prose and poetry edited by Frances Harriet Whipple Green McDougall and published by the Juvenile Emancipation Society; republished in the Portland Tribune circa 1841; republished in The Star of Bethlehem
		Newspaper	The New World	"A countryman's farcical account... of his appearance at his first ball"; republished in The Evergreen: A Monthly Magazine of New and Popular Tales and Poetry February 1840
		Newspaper	The New World	Intended to be titled "The Self-educated Man" by Neal, but retitled by editor Park Benjamin Sr.; roughly based on Neal's travels in the UK "woven in a bizarre plot involving disastrous elopement and a suicide"; republished in The New World and The Evergreen: A Monthly Magazine of New and Popular Tales and Poetry
		Magazine	Brother Jonathan	"A preposterous bit of tomfoolery" written to accompany an illustration
		Magazine		An "expression of contempt for politics" based on Neal's involvement in the Benjamin Harrison's 1840 presidential campaign and subsequent failed attempt at securing a political appointment
		Magazine		"Shows a lively crispness that contrasts with the lumbering involutions of Neal's usual long, closely packed, rambling sentences"; three sketches of disparate scenes in Austria-Hungary "bound together by explanatory threads"; published in three installments
		Newspaper	Portland Tribune	A New Englander's visit to the French theatre; "shows Neal's usual facility in Yankee dialect and Yankee psychology"
		Magazine	Brother Jonathan	The story of Nathan Hale "with many variations and considerable subordination of historical fact"; published serially over three installments
		Magazine		Takes its title from Lord Byron's The Deformed Transformed; "advances the notion... that a beautiful soul may inhabit an unlovely body"; "a careless, perfunctory performance"
		Magazine	Brother Jonathan	A children's story, "quite meaningless in its haphazard shiftings", about a young sailor addicted to tobacco and alcohol who experiences a drunken hallucination while shipwrecked; includes an illustration by David Claypoole Johnston published serially in two installments
		Newspaper	Portland Tribune	"A slapdash attempt to represent New England character without plot — with a mere string of meaningless, illogical incidents" about a schoolmaster correcting mispronunciations of a family he visits
		Magazine	Brother Jonathan	"Rhapsodic, deep-dyed, unrelieved Gothicism as he had not perpetrated since Logan"; published serially over six installments
		Magazine		About a young wife's attachment to family heirlooms; "slight in its conception" and "gives every evidence of a careless preciptancy in execution"
		Magazine	Brother Jonathan	"A tale about the madness of patriarchy"; published serially over two installments; republished in The Genius of John Neal: Selections from His Writings
		Magazine		A "pseudo-narrative" that portrays lotteries as an objectionable industry that dupes customers into wasting money
		Magazine	Pierian: or, Youth's Fountain of Literature and Knowledge	A sketch of a family with children, likely based on Neal's own, followed by a moral statement about when and when not to give up; republished in the Portland Tribune
		Magazine	Brother Jonathan	A "strangely autobiographic" short narrative about an abandoned family with a plot "too complicated for the space allotted it"
		Magazine	Columbian Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine	"Warns against over-confidence in human powers"
		Magazine	Columbian Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine	A feminist defense of unmarried women
		Magazine	Godey's Lady's Book	A study of female development from adolescence to womanhood
		Magazine	Columbian Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine	Illustrates the value of purchasing life insurance and concludes "P.S. Go thou and do likewise"
		Newspaper	Portland Transcript	A sequel to the novella Ruth Elder
		Magazine	Godey's Lady's Book	"A queer hybrid narrative... with one of Neal's delightful family sketches... as a symbol of the vanity of life" and a "story of an absurd faith in buried treasures"; republished in the Portland Transcript
		Magazine	Beadle's Monthly, a Magazine of To-day	Three story fragments illustrating New England speech and social phenomena based on accompanying engravings: "The Memorial Quilt", "The Apple-Bee", and "The Sewing-Circle"

Poems

The bulk of Neal's poetry was published in The Portico while studying law in Baltimore in the late 1810s. By 1830 he had "acquired quite a reputation, especially as a poet", having been recognized in multiple poetry collections. Rufus Wilmot Griswold considered Neal one of the best poets of his age.

Title	Date	Publication type	Publication name	Notes
		Newspaper		Originally prepared for recitation at the Wanderer Club of Baltimore; published in volume I, pp. 174–175
		Newspaper		Originally prepared for recitation at the Wanderer Club of Baltimore; published in volume I, pp. 221–222
		Magazine		Shows influence of Lord Byron; republished in Keep Cool
		Magazine		Shows influence of Lord Byron; written while Neal was still engaged in dry goods business, at the suggestion of John Pierpont
		Magazine
		Magazine
		Magazine		Shows influence of Lord Byron; republished in The Battle of Niagara: Second Edition — Enlarged: with Other Poems and in the Portland Tribune
		Magazine		Shows influence of Lord Byron; republished in the Portland Tribune
		Magazine
		Magazine		Republished in Randolph, The Yankee, and the Portland Tribune
		Magazine		Shows influence of Lord Byron; republished in The Yankee and the Portland Tribune
		Magazine		Republished in the Portland Tribune
		Magazine
		Magazine		Republished in the Portland Tribune ; to the tune of "Meeting of the Waters"
		Magazine
		Magazine		Republished in the Portland Tribune
		Magazine		Republished in the Portland Tribune
		Magazine
		Magazine
		Magazine
		Magazine		Originally published in The Portico as "Song"; republished in The Battle of Niagara: Second Edition — Enlarged: with Other Poems ; revised and republished as "Ambition" in Randolph, Atkinson's Casket, Brother Jonathan, The Poet's Gift: Illustrated by One of Her Painters edited by John Keese, and Songs of Three Centuries edited by John Greenleaf Whittier ; excerpted in Seventy-Six and The Gift Book of Gems
		Magazine		To the tune of "Go Where Glory Waits Thee"
		Magazine
		Magazine		Republished in the Portland Tribune
		Magazine		Republished in Keep Cool
		Magazine		Republished in the Portland Tribune
		Magazine		"Given special prominence" at the end of volume 3 of The Portico; republished in the Portland Tribune
		Magazine
		Magazine		Republished in The Battle of Niagara: Second Edition — Enlarged: with Other Poems ;
		Magazine
		Magazine
		Magazine
		Magazine		Republished in the Portland Tribune
		Magazine		Republished in the Portland Tribune
		Magazine
Battle of Niagara	1818	Book	Battle of Niagara, a Poem, without Notes; and Goldau, or the Maniac Harper	Recognized at the time as the best poetic description of Niagara Falls; inspired Charles Naylor as a boy; used by Edward Dickinson Baker in political campaigns; revised and republished in The Battle of Niagara: Second Edition — Enlarged: with Other Poems ; excerpted in Lady's Amaranth, Brother Jonathan, Portland Tribune, The Gift Book of Gems, and A Down-East Yankee from the District of Maine
Goldau	1818	Book	Battle of Niagara, a Poem, without Notes; and Goldau, or the Maniac Harper	An epic poem in English verse about the destruction of an Alpine village; revised and republished in The Battle of Niagara: Second Edition — Enlarged: with Other Poems ; excerpted in Lady's Amaranth and Portland Tribune
	1819	Book		Originally written for a Delphian Club meeting as "Ode, alias Poem, on the Anniversary of His Ludships Elevation to the Tripod"
	1819	Book		A fragmented experiment in blank verse
	1819	Book		Written for the ordination of John Pierpont
		Newspaper	Federal Republican and Baltimore Telegraph	Republished in The Battle of Niagara: Second Edition — Enlarged: with Other Poems
	1823	Book	Randolph, A Novel	Represented as the work of a fictional character in the novel
	1823	Book	Randolph, A Novel	Represented as the work of a fictional character in the novel
	1823	Book	Randolph, A Novel	Represented as the work of a fictional character in the novel
	1823	Book	Randolph, A Novel	Represented as the work of a fictional character in the novel
	1823	Book	Randolph, A Novel	Represented as the work of a fictional character in the novel
	1823	Book	Randolph, A Novel	Represented as the work of a fictional character in the novel
	1823	Book	Randolph, A Novel	Represented as the work of a fictional character in the novel
		Magazine		Republished in The Edinburgh Literary Journal: or, Weekly Register of Criticism and Belles Lettres, Specimens of American Poetry, with Critical and Biographical Notices edited by Samuel Kettell, The Poets of America: Illustrated by One of Her Painters edited by John Keese, The Poets and Poetry of America, The Gift Book of Gems, and Cyclopedia of American Literature
		Magazine		Republished as "The Indian Girl" in The Ladies' Companion and the Portland Tribune
		Book		Republished in Specimens of American Poetry, with Critical and Biographical Notices edited by Samuel Kettell
		Magazine
	1829	Magazine		Republished in Specimens of American Poetry, with Critical and Biographical Notices edited by Samuel Kettell, the Portland Tribune, and Brother Jonathan
	1829	Magazine
	1829	Book	Specimens of American Poetry, with Critical and Biographical Notices	Poetry collection edited by Samuel Kettell
		Magazine		Republished in the Portland Tribune
		Magazine		Republished in The Portland Sketch Book ; republished as "War Song of Other Days" in the Evening Signal, The New World, The Evergreen: A Monthly Magazine of New and Popular Tales and Poetry
		Magazine		Republished in Brother Jonathan
	1835	Book	Practical Grammar of the English Language	Republished in the Portland Tribune and One Word More
		Magazine		A "once-popular" poem with "vigor and rhetorical apostrophe... but none of the freshness of diction or image that mark fine poetry"; originally published without a title; republished in the Gift Book of Gems
		Magazine		"Marred by graveyard sentimentality" with "at least one effective stanza" that anticipates the "later macabre effects of Poe"
		Magazine		A ballad about a hotel by that name Neal owned in Cape Elizabeth, Maine; republished in the Portland Tribune and The New World,
		Newspaper		Republished in The Evergreen: A Monthly Magazine of New and Popular Tales and Poetry, the Portland Tribune, and Brother Jonathan
		Magazine
		Newspaper	Portland Tribune
		Newspaper	Portland Tribune
		Newspaper	Portland Tribune
		Newspaper	Portland Tribune	Republished in Alexander's Whig Messenger
		Newspaper	Portland Tribune
		Newspaper	Portland Tribune
		Magazine		Republished in Emerson's United States Magazine December 1856
		Magazine		Republished in Brother Jonathan magazine April 30, 1842
		Magazine	Brother Jonathan
		Magazine	Brother Jonathan
	1847	Gift book		Inspired by the death of Neal's infant daughter Eleanor in 1845.
	1851	Book		Printed in the front of a memorial book in honor of Frances Sargent Osgood
		Magazine	Graham's Magazine	Republished in the Portland Tribune
	1854	Book	One Word More: Intended for the Reasoning and Thoughtful among Unbelievers
		Newspaper
		Magazine	Harper's Magazine	Inspired by the Civil War; appears with the date "Nov. 9, 1863"
		Magazine		Inspired by the Civil War; appears with the date "January 28, 1864"
		Magazine		Inspired by the Civil War
		Magazine	Beadle's Monthly, a Magazine of To-day	Blank verse; about the return of Jews to Jerusalem

Other

Drama

Neither of Neal's two fully conceived plays, nor his theatrical sketch, were ever produced for the stage.

Title	Date	Publication type	First publisher	Notes
Otho: A Tragedy, in Five Acts	1819	Book	Boston: West, Richardson and Lord	Written in blank verse poetry; entirely rewritten and republished serially in thirteen installments in The Yankee
Sketch for a Fifth Act	1829	Magazine		A theatrical fragment of a tragedy about a duel; all three characters die
Our Ephraim, or The New Englanders, A What-d'ye-call-it?–in three Acts		Magazine	New England Galaxy	Published serially over five issues of New England Galaxy; the "fullest detailing of Yankee dialect" of any work by Neal

Translations

Neal was fluent in French and able to easily converse and write in Spanish, Italian, and German. In addition, he "could manage... pretty well" writing and reading Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and Old Saxon. He learned to read Chinese shortly before his death.

Title	Author	Date	Publication type	First publisher	Original language	Notes
			Magazine		French	A work on utilitarianism by Jeremy Bentham; published in eighteen installments
			Magazine		French	A work on utilitarianism by Jeremy Bentham
Principles of Legislation: from the MS of Jeremy Bentham		1830	Book		French	A translation of the first part of the first volume of Traités de Législation; originally produced under promise of payment from John Bowring, but published elsewhere when Bowring's funding failed to materialize; much of the content originally published in The Yankee ; includes short biographies by Neal of Jeremy Bentham and Étienne Dumont
			Manuscript	Never published	Spanish	An unpublished play El Gaytero Errante by a Spanish instructor from Spain Neal met in Portland, Maine; Thomas Barry, manager of the Tremont Theatre in Boston, committed to producing it but never did; Barry claimed to have returned the manuscript to Cortes and Neal claimed Barry kept it
			Newspaper	New England Galaxy	French	A translation of the first part of the second volume of Traites de Legislation; published in thirteen installments
Koenig Yngurd			Newspaper	New England Galaxy	German	Excerpts from a poem
			Magazine	Brother Jonathan	French	A translation of a portion of the fifteenth chapter of Traités de Législation

Newspapers for which Neal wrote

Neal started writing for newspapers as a law apprentice, publishing legal papers on capital punishment, lotteries, insolvency law, imprisonment for debt, and Sturges v. Crowninshield. These early works put him in the public eye nationally for the first time. Throughout his life he was widely recognized as a journalist and he continued publishing in newspapers until near the end of his life.
This list includes newspapers not listed elsewhere in this bibliography.

Title	Located	Period
Hallowell Gazette	Hallowell, Maine
Columbian Centinel	Boston
Federal Republican and Baltimore Telegraph	Baltimore	1817–1822
Morning Chronicle	Baltimore	1819–1822
Federal Gazette and Baltimore Daily Advertiser	Baltimore	1820–1823
American and Commercial Daily Advertiser	Baltimore	1822
Baltimore Patriot and Mercantile Advertiser	Baltimore	1822
Columbian Observer	Philadelphia	1822–1823
National Journal	Washington, D.C.	1823
	London
Morning Herald	London	1827
Portland Daily Advertiser	Portland, Maine	1829–1876
Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer	New York City	1831–1838
	New York City
National Intelligencer	Washington, D.C.
	New York City
Eastern Argus	Portland, Maine
Portland Tribune	Portland, Maine	1841–1845
Public Ledger	Philadelphia
Portland Transcript	Portland, Maine	1848–1876
	Portland, Maine	1853–1855
Portland Daily Press	Portland, Maine