AMERICAN MEN OF LETTERS 



[78 



half of all American men of letters, and eleven occupations 

 more than three-fourths. It also appears that the groups 

 which furnished large delegations of literary persons were 

 those whose members were on the whole well educated, and 

 of high social rank in the community. 



A study by decades of the more important occupations 

 pursued by the literati also gives interesting results (Table 

 XXII). 



TABLE XXII 



OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF AMERICAN MALE LITERATI, CLASSIFIED 

 BY PERIOD OF BIRTH 



This table (XXII) shows that the clergy, a group larger 

 than that of the professional authors themselves, and more 

 prominent than any other three groups combined, declined 

 in relative numbers after 1820. Publicists lost in relative 



1 In this table whenever a man of letters had two occupations of im- 

 portance, an entry of .5 was made for each occupation. 



