LITERATURE, AMERICAN. IN 1894. 



405 



raphy, history, literary miscellany, and poetry. 

 One striking feature to be noted was the number 

 of books descriptive of Nature by American 

 writers. 



Biography. " .Recollections of Sixteen Presidents, 

 from Washington to Lincoln," by Hon. Richard W. 

 Thompson, wno personally knew them all with the 

 exception of Washington and John Adams, nil two 

 sumptuous volumes ; and again we have " The Pres- 

 idents of the United States, 1789-1894," portrayed by 

 John Fiske, Carl Schurz, William E. Russell, and 

 others, the whole being edited by James Grant Wil- 

 son. Gen. Bradley T. Johnson contributed the first 

 life of u General Washington " written from a purely 

 military standpoint, to the "Great Commanders' 

 Scries " ; William Spohn Baker reprinted 15 " Early 

 Sketches of George Washington," by as many differ- 

 ent persons, which appeared in various forms of pub- 

 lications from 1760 to 1795, and a new edition of the 

 "Maxims of Washington," compiled for use in 

 schools, libraries, and all American homes, was pub- 

 lished. " The Life of John Paterson, Major General 

 in the Revolutionary Army," by his great-grandson, 

 Thomas Egleston, belongs also to the early days of 

 our national existence, as do the " Correspondence 

 and Journals " of another soldier, Samuel Blatchley 

 Webb, collected and edited by Worthington C. Ford, 

 in an edition limited to 350 copies. Two of the 3 

 volumes which they fill were issued during the year. 

 Five volumes are destined to contain " The Life and 

 Correspondence of Rufus King," comprising his 

 private and official papers, made public for the first 

 time by his grandson, Charles R. King, M. D., the 

 first of which, covering the period 1755-'94, appeared 

 in 1894. " Selections from the Correspondence of 

 Thomas Barclay " were edited by George Lockhart 

 Kives. Charles Henry Lee offers "A Vindication of 

 Arthur Lee." " The Journal of Martha Pintard Bay- 

 ard, London, 1794-1797," edited by S. Bayard Dod, 

 pictures life as she saw it as the wife of Washington's 

 agent of the United States in the British Admiralty 

 courts under the Jay treaty, while "Extracts from 

 the Diary of Jacob" Hiltzheimer, of Philadelphia, 

 1765-1798," edited by his great-grandson, Jacob Cox 

 Parsons, possesses a more local interest. "Roger 

 Williams, the Pioneer of Religious Liberty," was 

 ably portrayed by Oscar S. Straus, ex-United States 

 minister to the Ottoman Empire, himself a Hebrew 

 by blood and religion ; and the true stories of " Three 

 Heroines of New England " (Priscilla Mullins, Agnes 

 Surriage, and Martha Hilton) were told by Harriet 

 Prescott Spofford, Louise Imogen Guiney, and Alice 

 Brown, to which Edmund H. Garrett added delight- 

 ful notes and "little picturings, authentic and fanci- 

 ful," of their homes. Margaret Vowell Smith passes 

 in review " The Governors of Virginia," as colony 

 and Commonwealth, and " Recollections of a Vir- 

 ginian in the Mexican, Indian, and Civil Wars," by 

 Gen. Dabney Herndon Maury, brings us to a more 

 recent period, of which the great factors were "Abra- 

 ham Lincoln and the Downfall of American Slavery," 

 which Noah Brooks treated of for the " Heroes of the 

 Nations Series." William Stoddard edited "The 

 Table Talk of Abraham Lincoln," and to Cols. John 

 G. Nicolay and John Hay we owe the "Complete 

 Works" of Lincoln, in 2 volumes, a valuable supple- 

 ment to their biography. D. D. Thompson's "Abra- 

 ham Lincoln, the First American," is made up largely 

 of _ characteristic anecdotes and incidents. A new 

 edition, limited to 750 copies, was issued of the 

 "Political Debates between Abraham Lincoln and 

 Stephen A. Douglas" in the campaign of 1858 in 

 Illinois. " The Sherman Letters " is the title given 

 to the correspondence between General and Senator 

 Sherman from 1837 to 1891, edited by Rachel Sher- 

 man Thorndike, the daughter of the former, which is 

 full of historic interest ;"and from Samuel G. Buck- 

 ingham, D. D., we have a " Life of William A. Buck- 

 ingham, the War Governor of Connecticut." Irving 

 B. Richman proffered "John Brown among the 



Quakers, and Other Sketches," which contains inter- 

 esting letters by Brown's men relative to the Harper's 

 Ferry expedition never before published, and Richard 

 J. Hinton devoted a volume to u John Brown and 

 his Men." In the "Great Commanders Series" 

 " General Hancock " was treated by Gen. Francis A. 

 Walker ; " General Scott," by Gen. Marcus J. Wright ; 

 and " General Lee," by Fitzhugh Lee. " The Story 

 of Garfield " appeared in the " Splendid Lives Series,*" 

 by W. G. Rutherford; Molly Elliot Seawell contrib- 

 uted " Decatur and Somers " to the " Young Heroes 

 of Our Navy Series." Two handsome volumes were 

 devoted severally to " Officers of the Army and 

 Navy," regular and volunteer, who served in the 

 civil war, containing about 500 sketches and portraits 

 each, and another combined both into an album of 

 950 portraits. " Commemorative Addresses," by Parke 

 Godwin, of George William Curtis, Edwin Booth, 

 Kossuth, Audubon, and William Cullen Bryant were 

 collected into a volume. Lauren E. Crane edited, 

 with an introduction and notes, the speeches and ad- 

 dresses of " Newton Booth of California," and Joseph 

 B. Gilder contributed a biographical sketch to the 

 " Life and Later Speeches of Chauncey M. Depew." 

 " American Writers of To-day," by Henry C. Vedder, 

 brings us to literary biography, the most important 

 contributions to which were the " Life and Letters of 

 John Greenleaf Whittier," in 2 volumes, the ma- 

 terials for which were confided to Samuel T. Pickard 

 by the poet himself, in anticipation of the demand 

 for a work of the kind, and the " Familiar Letters of 

 Henry David Thoreau," edited with an introduction 

 and notes by F. B. Sanborn, which exhibit their 

 author in a new and more attractive light, personally, 

 than the more formal collection published hitherto. 

 "In Ee Walt Whitman" was edited by his literary 

 executors, Horace L. Traubel, Richard Maurice Bucke, 

 and Thomas B. Harned. Mrs. H. M. Plunkett de- 

 scribed for us " Josiah Gilbert Holland " as known to 

 her through a long and intimate friendship, and Ed- 

 ward Gary contributed " George William Curtis "to 

 the series of "American Men of Letters." Vols. II 

 and III of the " Orations and Addresses of George 

 William Curtis," edited by Charles Eliot Norton, 

 were published during the year, the one containing 

 addresses and reports on the reform of the civil- 

 service of the United States, and the other historical 

 and memorial addresses. " Edward Livingston You- 

 mans, Interpreter of Science for the People," found 

 a biographer in John Fiske, who included selections 

 from his published works and extracts from his cor- 

 respondence with Spencer, Huxley, Tyndall, and 

 other scientists, while " The Life and Inventions of 

 Thomas Alva Edison," by W. K. L. and Antonia 

 Dickson, fill a large and profusely illustrated volume 

 which includes the latest marvel of the kinetograph. 

 " In Memoriam John Larkin Lincoln, 1817-1891," 

 edited by his son, is designed rather as a memorial 

 than a memoir of the professor for forty -five years of 

 Brown U niversity, and George Sumner Weaver wrote 

 a sketch of the life and work of " James Henry 

 Chapin." Two volumes contain the "Letters of 

 Emily Dickinson," edited, with an introduction, by 

 Mabel Loomis Todd, and to Rev. Daniel Dulany 

 Addison we are indebted for " Lucy Larcoui's Life, 

 Letters, and Diary." "Miss Havergal's Secret " was 

 revealed by Giles F. Bushnell. " Threescore and 

 Ten Years : 1820-1890 " contains the interesting " Rec- 

 ollections " of W. J. Linton, the well-known English 

 illustrator and engraver, who has made his home in 

 America since 1867, and who has many reminis- 

 cences of illustrious persons to relate. George P. A. 

 Healy gave " Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter," 

 and Frederick Saunders vouchsafed also " Character 

 Studies ; with Some Personal Recollections " of Eng- 

 lish and American writers and thinkers. " Memoirs 

 of Anne C. L. Botta," written by her friends, a hand- 

 some limited edition, portrays a woman known for 

 over half a century in New York literary circles as 

 a teacher, author, and artist. Annie L. Page was 

 the author of a brief sketch of " Froebel, the Man and 



