458 



LITERATURE, AMERICAN, IN 1880. 



The appropriations made by act of March 

 8, 1881, for the maintenance of the United 

 States Lighthouse Establishment for the year 

 ending June 30, 1882, amounted to $2,525,400, 

 of which $476,400 were appropriated for new 

 works, or for finishing those previously com- 

 menced and not then finished.* 



ARNOLD B. JOHNSON, 

 Chief Cleric Lighthouse Board. 



LITERATURE, AMERICAN, IN 1880. The 

 cheap republications of English books have so 

 diminished the trade of the respectable houses 

 which reprint by arrangements with the au- 

 thors or allow royalties, that as a consequence 

 American publishers have depended much 

 more upon American authors for their supply 

 of new works than heretofore. Of ninety 

 books published lately by the Harpers, exclu- 

 sive of the Franklin Square Library, fifty -four 

 were by American authors, and many of 

 these have been republished in England. Of 

 forty-nine of the publications of Charles Scrib- 

 ner's Sons, approximately covering the year 

 1880, forty were written by Americans, of 

 which twenty-eight were new works, and half 

 of this number were reproduced on the other 

 side. Of thirty books issued by G. P. Put- 

 nam's Sons, comprising their more important 

 publications in 1880, eighteen were of Ameri- 

 can authorship. And in the reproductions of 

 foreign books by American publishers not one 

 half are reprints of English books, a large pro- 

 portion being special translations made for the 

 publishers from the Continental literatures by 

 native writers. 



The entries in the " Publishers' Weekly " for 

 the year, comprising the lists of the more 

 prominent publishers of the country and the 

 more notable books published by others, added 

 together and classified, give the following ap- 

 proximate computation of the more respect- 

 able publications of 1880 : 



CLASS. 

 Fiction... 

 Juvenile books 

 Theology and religion 

 Biography, memoirs, etc 

 Education language 

 Description, travel etc 

 Medical science 

 Poetry and the drama 

 Literary history and miscellany 

 Political and social 

 History 

 Useful arts 

 Law 



Natural sciences 

 Fine arts and illustrated works 

 Domestic and rural 

 Amusements, sports, etc 

 Humor and satire 

 Music (chiefly church and school) 

 Mental and moral philosophy 



292 

 270 

 239 

 151 

 131 

 115 

 114 

 Ill 

 106 

 99 

 72 

 63 

 62 

 56 

 44 

 43 

 82 

 80 

 24 

 22 



Total books reported .................... 2,076 



* M. Allard, Inspecteur-G6neral des Ponts et Chauss6es [the 

 managing head of the French lighthouse establishment] 

 gives, in the " Annales des Ponts et Chaussdes" for October, 

 1880, some statements from which it appears that there are 

 1,550 nautical miles of coast lighted and buoyed bv the French 

 Bureau des Phares, at a cost during 1879 for maintenance, of 

 1,790.000 francs, or of 1,155 francs per nautical mile. Taking 

 the franc at 5-20 to the dollar, it seems that it cost France 



In Theology the publications of 1880 are re- 

 markable for their value and originality, though 

 not surpassing in number those of former years. 

 Matthew Pool's " Annotations upon the Holy 

 Bible " (New York, Carters) is a model com- 

 mentary for familiar use, being at the same 

 time faithful and learned in substance, and 

 popular and lucid in style. u The Life and 

 Writings of St. John," by the late Rev. Dr. 

 James M. Macdonald, is a fine example of the 

 studies of the religious nature and personality 

 of personages of the Scriptures which have 

 multiplied of recent years (Scribners). Fran- 

 cis H. Underwood's "The True Story of the 

 Exodus of Israel " gives the conclusions of 

 Brugsch-Bey, reached after his prolonged in- 

 vestigations of the monuments of Egypt, cor- 

 roborating the Scriptural account of the so- 

 journ in Egypt and escape of the Israelites 

 (Boston, Lee & Shepard). "Fifteen Sermons," 

 by William Rollinson Whittingham, are charac- 

 teristic discourses of the lately deceased vigor- 

 ous and earnest Bishop of Maryland. " Sabbath 

 Essays" are argumentative papers read at the 

 Sabbath Conventions in Massachusetts (Bos- 

 ton). " The Christian Preacher " (New York, 

 Randolph) is a reproduction of lectures in the 

 Yale Divinity School on the character and at- 

 tainments which befit a clergyman, by Rev. Dr. 

 Howard Crosby. "Faith and Character" 

 (New York, Scribners) is a collection of ser- 

 mons on the true type of healthy religious life, 

 by Rev. Dr. Marvin R. Vincent. " The Limi- 

 tations of Life, and other Sermons," is a vol- 

 ume of eloquent discourses on personal relig- 

 ion, by Rev. Dr. William Taylor (New York, 

 Armstrong). "The Influence of Jesus" is a 

 series of elegantly written and effective lec- 

 tures of similar purpose, by Rev. Phillips 

 Brooks. The " Sermons Preached on Various 

 Occasions by James de Koven, D. D.," con- 

 taining a memoir, by Rev. Dr. Morgan Dix, 

 is a collection of characteristic discourses by 

 one of the most ardent and devoted of Chris- 

 tian teachers, who clung tenaciously to the old 

 traditions and beliefs (published by D. Apple- 

 ton & Co., of New York, for the benefit of 

 Racine College). The translation of Dr. Giese- 

 ler's learned " Text-Book of Church History " 

 has been completed, since the death of Pro- 

 fessor Henry B. Smith, who translated the first 

 four volumes and a portion of the last, by 

 Miss Mary A. Robinson (New York, Harpers). 

 " The Congregationalism of the Last Three 

 Hundred Years," is a valuable contribution to 

 the history of Protestantism, by Henry Martyn 

 Dexter (New York, Harpers). The " Oriental 

 and Biblical Journal" is a new quarterly, de- 



$222.11 to the mile, while it cost the United States $171.57 

 per mile. 



But, then, France had that year twenty-five lighthouses 

 and fifty-three buoys to the hundred miles of coast, while 

 the United States had in that year but nine lighthouses and 

 forty-two buoys per hundred miles of coast. Then, again, 

 France had but four fog-signals, while the United States had 

 fifty-four; and France had no river lights worth mentioning, 

 according to M. Allard, while the United States maintained 

 737 during that year. 



