28 AMERICAN MEN OF LETTERS [ 2 8 



A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British 

 and American Authors, S. Austin Allibone (Phila- 

 delphia, 1882). 



Apple ton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New 

 York, 1887). 



A Supplement to Allibone's Critical Dictionary of 

 English Literature and British and American 

 Authors, John Foster Kirk (Philadelphia, 1891). 



Lamb's Biographical Dictionary of the United States 

 (Boston, 1900). 



The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography 

 (New York, 1898). 



These five works were selected as constituting the most 

 recent and exhaustive compilations concerning American 

 letters and biography. The volumes of Allibone and Kirk 

 contained practically no biographical notices, but simply 

 the names of authors, titles of books written, and the num- 

 ber of editions and translations of each. These works were 

 especially useful in determining the diffusion of a work 

 in time and space. The other three encyclopedias were 

 typical biographical dictionaries. Their use was essential 

 in determining the importance of literati who did not write, 

 as well as in estimating the popularity of authors who 

 wrote after 1891, when Kirk's volumes appeared. 



It soon became apparent that the different sources were 

 not equally reliable. The works of Appleton and Lamb 

 seemed satisfactory in every way. Their articles were dig- 

 nified and moderate in tone, and their statements were ap- 

 parently always justified by the sources on which they were 

 based. On the other hand, the National Encyclopedia often 

 seemed extravagant in its praise of an author, devoting 

 more space to writers of doubtful merit than to other men 

 of established reputation. Consequently it was frequently 



