LITERATURE, AMERICAN, IN 1884. (BIOGRAPHY.) 



439 



decessors, but it is rather a work for young 

 people, and those who need a strong spice of 

 amusement added to information, than a serious 

 addition to literature. 



Biography. The additions to this fascinating 

 branch of literature were numerous and nota- 

 ble in 1884. u The Life and Letters of Bayard 

 Taylor," edited by his wife, was a work that 

 aroused deserved interest and attention. The 

 subject of the biography, though not ranking 

 among the foremost men of genius, yet, by 

 his great versatility, industry, ambition, and 

 talent, secured a high place in American letters. 

 He was greatly beloved as a man, and the rec- 

 ord of his career has a distinct value as an ad- 

 mirable account of steady activity as poet, nov- 

 elist, journalist, and traveler. His diplomatic 

 experience was too brief to enter very largely 

 into the important features of his life. The book 

 in this department which, on the whole, attract- 

 ed the greatest attention, and that not altogether 

 from favorable causes, was Julian Hawthorne's 

 " Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Wife." A good 

 deal of hostile comment was called out by the 

 bad taste of the writer in quoting his father's 

 opinions concerning several well-known liter- 

 ary personages, especially Margaret Fuller. It 

 was thought that the occasional bitterness of 

 the elder Hawthorne's judgment was not neces- 

 sary to be made known in order that the pub- 

 lic should be able to understand what is really 

 worth knowing about him. In other respects, 

 the biography was noticeably good in plan 

 and execution. Two excellent legal biogra- 

 phies of more than ordinary value and inter- 

 est were contributed in Nielson's " Memoirs 

 of Rufus Choate," and Shields's " Sergeant S. 

 Prentiss," both records of extraordinarily brill- 

 iant men and able lawyers, who occupied a 

 large share of public attention about the same 

 time one in the North, the other in the South. 

 The " Life of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus," writ- 

 ten for the first time in a spirit of real scholar- 

 ly research, drew to the author, Paul Barren 

 Watson, a young man recently graduated, a 

 distinct share of approval from literary judges, 

 and may be considered altogether an unusual 

 " first " book in a line of serious writing. The 

 additions to the "American Men of Letters 

 Series " were two, both of them important. 

 Oliver Wendell Holmes, as an intimate friend 

 of Emerson, was admirably equipped to be his 

 biographer, and brought to his work a genial 

 and loving yet critical spirit. While he dis- 

 appointed many of Emerson's worshipers, he 

 has probably given the most truthful and ju- 

 dicial estimate yet taken of his place and in- 

 fluence as writer and thinker. Thomas Went- 

 worth Higginson' s " Margaret Fuller Ossoli," 

 in the same series, is an interesting though 

 somewhat exaggerated estimate of a woman 

 who, in her time, filled a highly prominent 

 place in the minds of literary and other think- 

 ing people. The " American Statesmen Se- 

 ries" was increased with "James Madison," by 

 Sidney Howard Gay, and " John Adams," by 



John T. Morse, Jr. Both are sound and well- 

 considered books, interesting alike from the 

 characters of the men themselves, and from 

 their relations to the important events and 

 times in which they lived and moved. In the 

 series, "Lives of American Worthies," John 

 Habberton produced a humorous "Life of 

 George Washington," which was cleverly exe- 

 cuted, in a comic vein, without too much 

 trenching on the reverence which it is the 

 birthright of every properly constituted Ameri- 

 can to feel for the " Father of his Country." 

 Dr. Marion Sims's " Story of my Life " was 

 the record of a great career, simply and mod- 

 estly told, and made interesting, not only to 

 professional men, but to the general reader. 

 Probably few fully understand how great a 

 benefactor to the human race this remarkably 

 gifted inventive surgeon was, unless they have 

 read this autobiography. Gen. E. D. Towns- 

 end, First Assistant Adjutant-General during 

 the war, was the author of " Anecdotes of the 

 Civil War," an exceedingly readable collection 

 of incidents, descriptions, sketches, and stories, 

 many of them very fresh, concerning the trou- 

 bled times, 1861-1865. A book, in a some- 

 what similar vein, though treated more elabo- 

 rately, was " Fifty Years' Observations of Men 

 and Events," by Gen. Erasmus D. Keyes, a very 

 large portion of which related to the civil war. 

 One of the great men, of whom people never 

 tire of hearing and reading, was again made 

 the subject of a biography in W. 0. Stoddard's 

 " Life of Abraham Lincoln," a book worthy to 

 rank among the best accounts of the character 

 and career of, perhaps, the most unique and 

 picturesque personage in American history. 

 Two readable additions to colonial and border 

 history were made in " The Diary and Letters 

 of Thomas Hutchinson," and Durrett's "John 

 Filson." Lives of James and Lucretia Mott, 

 and of Eliza P. Gurney, distinguished as phi- 

 lanthropists, were written by relatives. A 

 brilliant young litterateur, who died a sol- 

 dier's death in the late war, all too young for 

 his own fame and the good of American let- 

 ters, had his memory perpetuated in "A Life 

 of Theodore Winthrop," written by his sister. 

 J. Derby, an old New York publisher, gave a 

 series of pleasant memories of authors and 

 publishers in his " Fifty Years " ; and Rev. Dr. 

 Hatfield, under the title of "Poets of the 

 Church," paid biographical tribute to the most 

 distinguished bymnologists. Col. C. Chaill6 

 Long, in his " Three Prophets," gave graphic 

 sketches of Arabi Bey, El Maahdi, and Gor- 

 don Pasha, the three most important figures 

 in the recent events in Egypt. Biographies of 

 Martin Luther, by Mead and Seiss, attracted 

 some attention. Under the title of " Captains 

 of Industry," James Parton collected a group 

 of those telling and readable sketches, origi- 

 nally published in the periodicals, of which he 

 is such a master. To the above must be added 

 the ephemeral biographies which always flour- 

 ish so rankly during presidential-election years. 



