The Eclectic reviewed more American literature than any other English periodical of the time.Basker, 127–28. By 1806, it had an entire section dedicated to American literature. As Basker explains, "this continuing attention to American literature was far more than a condescending curiosity about the culture of the young republic. Rather remarkably, even as early as 1810, American authors were accorded the same serious treatment as the major authors in English and other European languages."Basker, 128. For example, in 1820 the Eclectic began reviewing Washington Irving's Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, writing that it was "the first purely literary production that has issued from the American press, which could claim to rank, in point of original talent and classic elegance of style, with the best English authors".Qtd. in Basker, 128.
