Sheppard Lee: Written by Himself Book

Philadelphia Gothic. Uses the framing device of metempsychosis, the main character can at the moment of death transmigrate into a different body if he chooses , to satirize philadelphia of the time through characters like a broke dandy rogue and a comfortable slave who reads an abolitionist pamphlet and freaks out, etc.. edgar allen poe wrote a review. it was very positive but correctly pointed out how much better it could have been had the main character maintained his own original personality even as he changed bodies.
bird's other novels include Nick Of the Woods. called the first serial killer thriller, or romance. a pascifist quaker preaches love during the day but at night murders native americans for what they did to his family. mark twayne said it was the horror highlight of his young reading.
obviously heavily indebted to charles brockden brown though he publicly denounced CBBs works.

i just read the first volume of Bird's Peter Pilgrim sketches which i liked and are based in cool early americanic folklore.like the hypnotic power of snakes, ancient races of tall cyclopian giants, and their big skeletons, pre columbo non european visitors to america, insanity, and more..
what else....
oh- Bird would have written poetry for local literary magazines. only, its just a hunch. and there isnt any way to know for sure. i just mention it because it was a pretty strong hunch.