418 



LITERATURE, AMERICAN, IN 1899. 



studies In the Acadian Land; while from Ernest 

 Seton Thompson was welcomed another oi his 

 exquisite studies of animal life and Nature, en- 

 titled The Trail of the Sandhill Stag, in connec- 

 tion with which may be here mentioned Bob: 

 The Story of our Mocking-bird, by Sidney Lanier, 

 made into book form, with 10 illustrations in 

 color, and a new edition of Diomed, by John Ser- 

 geant Wise, with 100 illustrations by J. Linton 

 Chapman. A collection of descriptive and his- 

 torical essays by Sidney Lanier was also pub- 

 lished under the title of Retrospects and Pros- 

 pects. What is Good English? and Other Essays, 

 came from Prof. Harry Thurston Peck: American 

 Lands and Letters: Leather Stocking to Poe's 

 Raven, by Donald Grant Mitchell (Ik Marvel), 

 included some of the most eminent men and 

 women of American letters: A Group of Old Au- 

 thors were selected by Clyde Furst for his theme; 

 while Great Books as Life's Teachers were the 

 theme of lectures delivered by Newell Dwight 

 Hillis in Plymouth Church as studies of charac- 

 ter, real and ideal, and from the same author we 

 had Right Living as a Fine Art, a study of Chan- 

 ning's Symphony as an outline of the ideal life 

 and character. Browning, Poet and Man; A 

 Survey, by Elizabeth Luther Gary, was a com- 

 panion volume to her Tennyson of last year, and 

 one of the choicest books of the holiday season, 

 while Lilian Whiting made A Study of Elizabeth 

 Barrett Browning. The Mind and Art of Poe's 

 Poetry was explored by John Phelps Fruit, and 

 Joel Benton published In the Poe Circle, with 

 some account of the Poe-Chivers controversy and 

 other Poe memorabilia, a new issue being also 

 made of his work on Emerson as a Poet. Vol. I 

 of Pioneers of Southern Literature was sent out 

 by Samuel Albert Ling. Dante interpreted, by 

 Epiphanius Wilson, contained a brief summary of 

 the life, times, and character of Dante, with an 

 analysis of the Divine Comedy and original trans- 

 lations in the Spenserian stanza. In re Shakes- 

 peare's Legal Acquirements; Notes by an Unbe- 

 liever therein, by William C. Devecmon, formed No. 

 12 of the publications of the Shakespeare Society 

 of New York, and Testimony of the Sonnets as 

 to the Authorship of the Shakespearean Plays 

 and Poems was advanced by Jesse Johnson. 

 Series 2 of How to Study Shakespeare, by William 

 H. Fleming, had an introduction by W. J. Rolfe, 

 and William Winter edited The Shakespearean 

 Plays of Edwin Booth, in two volumes, in addi- 

 tion to The Miscellaneous Plays of the same 

 actor. An Introduction to the Works of John Mil- 

 ton came from Hiram Corson, and Milton's Short- 

 er Poems and Sonnets, were arranged in chrono- 

 logical order and edited with an introduction and 

 notes by Frederick Day Nichols in Appletons' 

 series of Twentieth Century Text-books, and to 

 John Lesslie Hall we were indebted for Old Eng- 

 lish Idyls. English Meditative Lyrics were studied 

 by Theodore Whitefield Hunt. Masque and Mum- 

 mers was the title of essays on the theater of 

 here and now, by Charles F. Nirdlinger, and Wo- 

 tan, Siegfried, and Brunhilde were sympathetical- 

 ly studied by Anna Alice Chapin. W. B. Parker 

 exploited The Religion of Mr. Kipling. Stories 

 of Great National Songs were told by Nicholas 

 Smith. Dionysos and Immortality, by Benjamin 

 Ide Wheeler, was the theme of the third Ingersoll 

 lecture delivered at Harvard University, follow- 

 ing those of Dr. Gordon and Prof. James, respec- 

 tively upon Immortality and the New Theodicy 

 and Human Immortality, and dwelt upon Greek 

 faith in immortality as affected by the rise of in- 

 lividualism. Bluebeard, by Thomas Wilson, of 

 the United States National Museum, was a con- 



tribution at once to history and folklore, being 

 the history of Gilles de Retz, of Brittany, France, 

 executed at Nantes in 1440 A. D., who was the 

 original of Bluebeard in the tales of Mother 

 Goose. Charles M. Skinner related Myths and 

 Legends of our New Possessions and Protectorate, 

 and also sent out Flowers in the Pave. Fireside 

 Fancies of Beulah C. Garrison ranged over a. 

 wide field of subjects, and from Prof. George 

 Edward Woodberry we had a volume of essays 

 entitled Heart of Man. Things as they are, by 

 Bolton Hall, the author of Even as You and I, 

 had an introduction by George D. Heron; Rob- 

 ert Grant made public Search-light Letters; and 

 Character and Conduct were the theme of talks 

 to young people by George McEndree Steele. Out- 

 looks and Insights in Behalf of Larger and More 

 Hppeful Views of Life were proffered by Hum- 

 phrey S. Desmond. Modern Daughters were en- 

 gaging subjects of Alexander Black's pen and 

 camera, and a new issue was made of Mrs. Julia, 

 Ward Howe's query, Is Polite Society polite? 

 with which other essays were incorporated. VoL 

 II of Some Colonial Mansions and those who 

 Lived in Them, edited by Thomas Allen Glenn, 

 continued that entertaining work, and from Mrs. 

 Mary V. H. Terhune (Marion Harland) we had 

 More Colonial Homesteads and their Stories, with 

 80 illustrations. Salons Colonial and Republican 

 were reproduced in Anne H. Wharton's new book, 

 exquisitely illustrated. Child Life in Colonial 

 Days was admirably handled by Mrs. Alice Morse 

 Earle, Ezra Hoyt Byington discoursed of The 

 Puritan as a Colonist and Reformer, and The 

 Quaker Colony was penned and pictured for the 

 series of Colonial Monographs by Blanche Mc- 

 Manus. Useful handbooks of the literary art 

 published during the year included an Introduc- 

 tion to Rhetoric, by Prof. William B. Cairns; A 

 Course of Expository Writing and A Course of 

 Argumentative Writing, by Gertrude Buck, who 

 also contributed The^ Metaphor, a study in the 

 psychology of rhetoric, to the Contributions to- 

 Rhetorical Theory; A Critique of some Recent 

 Subjunctive Theories, by Charles Edwin Bennett, 

 in the Cornell Studies in Classical Philology ; and 

 Principles of Public Speaking, laid down by Guy 

 Carleton Lee. The Free Library : Its History and 

 Present Condition, by John J. Ogle, appeared in 

 the Library Series, and to John Cotton Dana we 

 were indebted for A Library Primer, while Library 

 Construction, Architecture, Fittings, and Furni- 

 ture, by Frank J. Burgoyne, apparently exhausted 

 the subject of libraries in their externals. A 

 General Index to the Library .Journal, the of- 

 ficial organ of the American Library Association, 

 chiefly devoted to library economy and bibli- 

 ography, covered Vols. I-XXII (September, 1876, 

 to December, 1897), and to William I. Fletcher 

 and Richard Rogers Bowker we owed, as usual, 

 The Annual L ; ferary Index, 1898. A Provisional 

 List of the Publications of American Scientific, 

 Literary, and Other Societies from their Organiza- 

 tion " was compiled under the editorial direction 

 of R. R. Bowker, covering more than 1,0"00 socie- 

 ties issuing publications, and Vol. V appeared of 

 American Book Prices Current, by Luther S. Liv- 

 ingston, in a limited edition. 



In the What is Worth While Series of book- 

 lets we had The Artistic Ordering of Life, by 

 Albert Stanburrough Cook ; Character, the Grand- 

 est Thing in the World and Cheerfulness as a 

 Life Power, by Orison Swett Marden; To whom 

 Much is Given, by Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead ; Every 

 Living Creature, by Ralph Waldo Trine; and 

 Opportunities for Culture, by Jeannette M. 

 Dougherty. 



