By the same Author. Price 25., boards; cloth gilt, 2s. 6d. ELSIE VENNER: A Novel. London: WARD, Lock & Co., Salisbury Square, E.C. THE AUTOCRAT'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. THE interruption referred to in the first sentence of the first of these papers was just a quarter of a century in duration. Two articles entitled "The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table" will be found in "The New England Magazine," formerly published in Boston by J. T. and E. Buckingham. The date of the first of these articles is November, 1831, and that of the second, February, 1832. When "The Atlantic Monthly" was begun, twentyfive years afterwards, and the author was asked to write for it, the recollection of these crude products of his uncombed literary boyhood suggested the thought that it would be a curious experiment to shake the same bough again, and see if the ripe fruit were better or worse than the early windfalls. So began this series of papers, which naturally brings those earlier attempts to my own notice and that of some few friends who were idle enough to read them at the time of their publication. The man is father to the boy that was, and I am my own son, as it seems to me, in those papers of "The New England Magazine." If I find it hard to pardon the boy's faults, others would find it harder. They will not, therefore, be reprinted here, nor, as I hope, anywhere. But a sentence or two from them will perhaps bear re |