 Prose Writers of America , published in 1847 , was prepared specifically to compete with a similar anthology by Cornelius Mathews and Evert Augustus Duyckinck . The prose collection earned Griswold a rivalry with the two men , which Griswold expected . As it was being published , Griswold wrote to Boston publisher James Thomas Fields that " Young America will be rabid " . In preparing his anthologies , Griswold would write to the living authors whose work he was including to ask their suggestions on which poems to include , as well as to gather information for a biographical sketch . 
