부산대학교 도서관

Whatever metaphor is used to describe the ethnic makeup of the country—symphony, salad bowl, or patchwork quilt—the United States has been a nation of immigrants since its founding, and immigration has been a constant subject and theme of its literature. The very first works of American literature—such as John Smith’s The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (which was first published in 1624 and included the story of Pocahontas) or William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation (1630)—were accounts of immigration and settlement in the New World.