The “Literary History of the United States,” which opens with the publication of this volume, reveals the genesis, formation and development of American national literature from its origins in the 17th century. to the present. The first volume of this multi-volume publication, “Literature of the Colonial Period and the Era of the Revolutionary Warriors. XVII-XVIII centuries”, dedicated to the earliest and longest stage of its development. The book traces the process of formation of a national literary tradition as a result of isolating literature itself from the total mass of aesthetically undifferentiated texts created in the colonies (sermons, chronicles, diaries, pioneer notes, etc.). Aesthetic phenomena are considered in close connection with the processes of nation and national formation consciousness. Particular attention is paid to the processes caused by the multi-ethnic nature of American society, the complex interaction of ethnic groups and races, which largely determined the national identity of American literature.