 "A Fable for Critics" satirized many of the most important figures in American literature at the time, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and James Fenimore Cooper.Many of his harshest judgments were aimed at names that have not survived in posterity, including Nathaniel Parker Willis, Cornelius Mathews, Fitz-Greene Halleck, and John Neal.He gave ample praise to Charles Frederick Briggs and Lydia Maria Child, though he was friends with both and likely allowed his friendship to inflate his assessment of their talents.