His first essay in this line was a large octavo, Shakespeare's Scholar, in 1862, being historical and critical studies of the text, characters, and commentators, with an examination of Mr. Collier's Folio of 1632. This volume gave the author at once a high standing as a Shakespeare critic. It was followed in 1859 by An Essay on the Authorship of the Three Parts of King Henry VI. These works were preliminary to a larger one, namely, A New and Independent Critical Edition of Shakespeare's Works. This appeared in 1857-1865, in 12 vols., 8vo. It is a noble monument of taste and scholarship, and contains all that any ordinary reader wants for studying and enjoying Shakespeare. In connection with this, but as an independent work, appeared A Life of Shakespeare, with an essay on his genius and on the rise of the English drama.

Duyckinek Brothers.

The brothers EVART A. and GEORGE L. DUYCKINCK have bestowed a lasting benefit upon American letters by their invaluable work, The Encyclopædia of American Literature. This work, in two large volumes, double-column octavo, is modelled after Chambers's Encyclopædia of English Literature, but for thoroughness and every other desirable quality is superior to Chambers's. The Duyekincks' work may be supplemented (the continual and rapid growth of our literature requires this), but it can never be superseded. It is the best, in fact the only, comprehensive and adequate exposition of American literature to the date of its publication, 1856. A new edition brings the work down to 1873.

Allibone.

has made the entire

Samuel Austin Allibone, LL. D., 1816 literary world his debtors by his great work, the Dictionary of Authors. This is in 3 vols., large 8vo, filling 3,140 closely printed pages, and containing over 46,000 authors, with 40 Indexes of subjects. The plan is to give a short life of each author, accompanied by a list of his publications, and extracts from the opinions of the best critics in regard to his standing and character. The work abounds also in literary anecdotes and curious information of an authentic character in regard to authors and authorship. As a mine of information on the subject of which it treats, it is unparalleled. By solitary and single-handed labor, protracted through twenty years, the author has achieved a work such as ordinarily is accomplished only by the joint effort of a large number of laborers working in concert; and the result is a monument of patient and productive industry which has few parallels in literary history.

James Wood Davidson.

Prof. James Wood Davidson, 1829 has done a signal service to letters by his exceedingly interesting and able work, The Living Writers of the South. This work, in its 635 well-filled pages, contains an amount and kind of information on the subject of which it treats that is nowhere else to be obtained.

III. MAGAZINISTS.

Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, M. D., 1809 like many others named in the present chapter, excels in several departments. He is by profession a medical lecturer, and ranks high as a writer on medical science, producing on one occasion three prize dissertations in two successive years. He has won great praise also as a poet. But his greatest and most enduring fame, undoubtedly, is that acquired as a writer of magazine articles. Were there a laureate for this line of art, as there is for poetry, Holmes beyond all question would wear the bays. No living magazinist, English or American, can equal him. His Autocrat at the Breakfast Table and its successors, are fully up to the Noctes Ambrosianæ of Blackwood when Wilson was in his prime. Holmes's other best known works are The Professor at the Breakfast Table, Elsie Venner, and The Guardian Angel.

James Parton.

James Parton, 1822 is a magazinist of the first order, although he has not the exuberant wit and fancy which in conjunction with the more solid qualities make Holmes supreme. Mr. Parton is, perhaps, the only American author who has made magazine-writing a profession. He has pursued it for a long series of years with continued and undivided devotion, and his success has been commensurate with his zeal.

No magazinist of the day writes more readable articles. His judg ment, however, is not always equal to his faculty of making a subject interesting, so that his opinions are received with some distrust, though he is always sure of an audience. He has a vigorous imagination, apprehends with wonderful clearness what he wants to say, and says it in such a way that it is difficult not to take his meaning; and withal he has an instinctive sagacity for knowing what points in any given subject are likely to interest the general reader. He usually writes

long articles, yet he is never dull; he makes even statistics entertaining.

Mr. Parton's separate volumes are mostly biographies, while his magazine articles are usually special studies of the current topics of the day. He has published extended Biographies of Horace Greeley, Aaron Burr, Andrew Jackson, Benjamin Franklin, John Jacob Astor, and Thomas Jefferson.

Mrs. Parton,-" Fanny Fern."

Mrs. Sarah Payson (Willis) Parton, 1811–1872, under the name of "Fanny Fern," acquired, and for a long series of years maintained, a reputation almost unique as a writer of short, spicy articles on topics of the day.

The first distinct recognition of her extraordinary merit came from Mr. Bonner, of the New York Ledger, who boldly engaged her to write a story for that paper at the extraordinary price of a hundred dollars a column, and was so well pleased with his bargain that he contracted with her to write for him, on the same terms, a weekly article, which she continued to do for eighteen years, without ever missing for a single week.

These sprightly essays were worked up, from time to time, into volumes with fancy names, and had a large sale in this separate form, besides the enormous circulation which they had in the Ledger. The names of these books are Fern Leaves, First and Second Series; Fresh Leaves; Little Ferns for Fanny's Little Friends; The Play Book; Folly as it Flies; and Ginger Snaps.

About the time of her engagement with Mr. Bonner, she published, in quick succession, two novels, Ruth Hall, and Rosa Clark, which made a great sensation, and sold largely. It was thought at that time that she would become a regular novelist. But the short, pithy essay was evidently her forte, and she wisely adhered to it.

Mary Abigail Dodge, "Gail Hamilton."

Mary Abigail Dodge, 1838 known as Gail Hamilton," is one of the most brilliant contributors to current literature. Her contributions usually appear first in the weekly or monthly magazines, and afterwards are collected into volumes. The best known of these are Gala Days; Country Living; Skirmishes and Sketches; Red Letter Days; Wool Gathering; Woman's Worth and Worthlessness.

George W. Curtis.

George William Curtis, 1824 is known all over the land, and for that matter pretty much all over the world, or at least wherever the English language is spoken, by his writings in the three great magazines published by the Harpers. He is the political editor of the Weekly, fills the Easy Chair of the Monthly, and writes Manners upon the Road for the Bazar. His writings in these periodicals, as any one may see by a glance at the annual table of contents, would fill at least a score of volumes.

Mr. Curtis's separate publications have been the following: Nile Notes of a Howadji; The Howadji in Syria; Lotus-Eating; The Potiphar Papers; Prue and I; Trumps.

W. D. Howells.

William Deane Howells, 1837 editor of the Atlantic Monthly, like a good many others of the craft, began his career as a practical printer, and has worked his way up to his present distinguished position by dint of labor and brains.

Mr. Howells's publications thus far are the following: Poems of Two Friends (W. D. Howells and J. J. Piatt); No Love Lost, a Romance of Travel, in hexameter verse; Life of Abraham Lincoln; Venetian Life; Italian Journeys; and Suburban Sketches.

Col. T. W. Higginson.

Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1823

has been a fa

vorite contributor to the Atlantic Monthly. His volumes, Out-Door Papers, Malbone an Oldport Romance, and others, made up of magazine articles, are held in high esteem.

J. T. Trowbridge.

John Townsend Trowbridge, 1827 a favorite contributor to the Atlantic Monthly and the Young Folks, and at present editor of the latter magazine, is known also as the author of the popular poem called The Vagabonds, and of numerous popular tales and novels.

The following are some of his best known publications: The Brighthope Series; Martin Merivale, His Mark; Neighbor Jackwood; Cudjoe's Cave Coupon Bonds; The Vagabonds, and other Poems.

24

Gen. Hill.

Gen. Daniel Harvey Hill, 1824, a distinguished officer in the Confederate army during the war, has acquired almost equal distinction since the war as a magazinist. His magazine, The Land We Love, is said to be the most successful, as it is the ablest, monthly published in the South.

Gen. Hill has published the following works: Essays from the Quarterly Review; Essays from the Southern Presbyterian Review; Algebra. His chief literary work, however, has been done in the magazine already mentioned, The Land We Love.

IV. JOURNALISTS.

James Gordon Bennett.

James Gordon Bennett, 1800-1872, the founder of the New York Herald, initiated a new era in journalism. He was followed, indeed, in close succession by Mr. Greeley, and at a somewhat later interval by Mr. Raymond. But to Mr. Bennett clearly belongs the honor of making the first movement in this direction. After having embarked in the enterprise, he made it his one, undivided ambition, to achieve success as a journalist, and he realized, in this respect, the full extent of his ambition.

Horace Greeley.

Horace Greeley, 1811-1872, divides with Mr. Bennett the credit of initiating the new type of journalism which was introduced in the last generation. Mr. Greeley had other ambitions. But the main work of his life was the founding of the New York Tribune.

Besides his work as a journalist, or rather in connection with it, and as its legitimate offshoots, Mr. Greeley published several valuable works, and did much as a popular lecturer. The following is a list of his principal separate publications: Hints towards Reforms; Glances at Europe; Art and Industry, as represented in the Exhibition of the Crystal Palace; Association Discussed; What I Know of Farming; History of the Struggle for Slavery Extension; The American Conflict; Recollections of a Busy Life, etc.

Henry J. Raymond.

Henry Jarvis Raymond, LL.D., 1820-1869, acquired great and deserved celebrity as the founder and editor of the New York Times.