Brown, William Hill. The Power of Sympathy.

Boston: Isaiah Thomas and Company, 1789. The two-volume, 300-page book is considered the first novel by an American published and printed in the U.S. It is a thinly-disguised description of the affair involving Perez Morton, who seduces Fanny Apthorp, the sister of Morton’s wife, poet Sarah Wentworth (Apthorp) Morton. After giving birth to Morton’s child, Fanny Apthorp kills herself when the affair becomes public in 1788. Despite the scandal, the Mortons continue in their marriage. When the novel is published anonymously, it is suspected that Mrs. Morton is its true author.