LITERATURE AND LITERARY PROGRESS IN 1869. 



385 



book-trade is not without its compensations, 

 for it cannot be but that the appetite for books 

 is stimulated in many cases by the same means 

 that dulls it in others. The increasing ten- 

 dency on the part of book-publishers to have 

 each one or more periodical organs of com- 

 munication with the public seems to imply on 

 their part no dread of injury by one branch 

 of their business to another. 



The diminished product of books may be 

 due in part also to the draft made on themen- 

 tal energies of the American people by the im- 

 portant public and social questions demanding 

 attention. It is a very common complaint that 

 many of our best men are apathetic on our most 

 pressing public interests. Yet it must be that 

 a large amount of study and thought is given 

 to matters of this sort. To the pressing politi- 

 cal problems bequeathed by the civil war, which 

 are nearly concluded, have succeeded those 

 of revenue and taxation, of protection and 

 free trade, of woman's suffrage and other as- 

 sumed rights of the sex, and the semi-political, 

 semi-ecclesiastical issue respecting common- 

 schools. The difficulty is not that important 

 matters are neglected, but that the best thought 

 of the community is brought only so indirectly 

 into relation with its governing forces. What 

 thinking is done on this class of subjects finds 

 expression for the most part in periodical 

 publications or on the platform, and leaves less 

 indices in our record of authorship than it is 

 entitled to by its intrinsic weight. 



The absence of an international copyright, 

 besides its effect on the higher order of literary 

 productiveness, introduces an element of uncer- 

 tainty into the publishing-business. The defect 

 of the law has been partially remedied by the 

 courtesy of the trade, according to which pri- 

 ority of announcement by any house secured 

 to that house an exclusive right to republish 

 the book announced. This right was strength- 

 ened by an agreement with the foreign author 

 for a share of profits. It is true that this 

 principle was never quite strong enough to 

 prevent competition for the profits of any book 

 sure of a very large sale. Some pretext could 

 always be found, as, for example (to refer to a 

 well-known incident), virtuous indignation at 

 liberties taken with Lord Macaulay's spelling, 

 a wrong which was expiated by an edition of 

 his History that deviated from Macaulay's 

 system of orthography as often as that system 

 differed from the standard of Worcester's Dic- 

 tionary. During the past year there have been 

 several instances of misunderstanding' between 

 leading publishing-houses on their respective 

 rights in the works of popular English authors. 

 The result has been to multiply editions, to 

 reduce prices, and to stimulate sales of their 

 works, thus giving additional effect to a mis- 

 taken copyright policy, in subjecting Ameri- 

 can authors to an unequal competition. The 

 effect of such rivalries on the interests and 

 morals of the trade, it would scarcely be in 

 place here to discuss. 

 VOL. ix. 25. A 



Our first and chief attention in this review 

 will be given, for obvious reasons, to the con- 

 sideration of works that are the product of 

 American authors. Other books published 

 here, however valuable and improving to their 

 readers, are no part of American literature, 

 to the progress of which they contribute only 

 indirectly. And, beginning with a depart- 

 ment of writing in which our country early 

 gained an honorable distinction 



I. HISTOEICAL WOEKS. We find the field 

 still cultivated with success. In the class of 

 works on the colonial and earlier history of 

 America, a prominent place is due to Mr. Fran- 

 cis Parkman's "Discovery of the Great West." 

 The part played by France in American dis- 

 covery and colonization was a happily-chosen 

 theme, which Mr. Parkman has treated with 

 admirable diligence, against discouragements 

 and with much well-deserved applause. "The 

 New England Tragedies in Prose," by R. H. 

 Allen, apologetically reviews the relation of 

 the government of Massachusetts to the early 

 Quakers and to the witchcraft delusion. These 

 and other related matters are ably treated in 

 " Lectures on the Early History of Massachu- 

 setts, delivered before the Lowell Institute." 

 "The Spanish Conquest of New Mexico," by 

 W. W. H. Davis, comes within this division of 

 the subject, as does also the first volume of 

 "The Documentary History of Maine," contain- 

 ing " History of the Discovery of Maine," by J. 

 G. Kohl ; as also some reprints of old works, 

 for example, " A Plain History of the Pequot 

 War, by John Mason, with Introduction and 

 Notes, by Thomas Prince," "The Sailing Di- 

 rections of Henry Hudson," and " Laws and 

 Ordinances of New Netherlands," by E. B. 

 O'Callaghan. Among the records of our 

 Revolutionary history, the " Memoirs of the 

 War in the Southern Department of the 

 United States," by General Henry Lee, -has 

 deservedly held a high place, but of late 

 years has been out of print. A new edition, 

 edited, with a Life of the Author, by his son 

 that General Lee whose abilities made the 

 victory of the Union cause in our late struggle 

 to be dearly purchased restores to circulation 

 a book that we "would not willingly let die." 

 Lossing's "Pictoral Field Book of the War of 

 1812 " has the unique combination of history, 

 topography, etc., which gave such deserved 

 popularity to his previous books. The third 

 volume of "The Life and Times of James 

 Madison," by William 0. Rives, completed a 

 biography which is equally a history, the inter- 

 est of which includes the period of the Revo- 

 lution, the forming of the Constitution, and 

 twenty-five years of the Government of the 

 United States. " Mexico and the United 

 States," by G. D. Abbott, contributes to more 

 recent history. Materials for the history of our 

 civil war continue to accumulate, as they must 

 continue doing for some time before the history 

 that posterity will accept can be written. Of 

 this class, Mr. Benson J. Lossing's third volume 



