Beautiful gems from American writers and the lives and portraits of our favorite authors

Front matter

0'

REPRESENTATIVES OF AMERICAN LITERATURE.

BEAUTIPUl GEMS from AMERICAN WRITERS

PART 1. Great Poets of America, 33

" 2. Our Most Noted Novelists, 165

" 3. Famous Women Noveijsts, 218

** 4. Representative Women Poets of America, .... 252

" 5. Well-known Essayists, Critics and Sketch Writers, . . .271

" 6. Great American Historians and Biographers, . . . . 311

" 7. Our National Humorists, 345

" 8. Popular Writers for Young People, 380

" 9. Noted Journalists and Magazine Contributors, .... 401

" 10. Great Orators and Popular Lecturers, 433

" 11. Famous Women Orators and Reformers, 4G9

'* 12. Miscellaneous Masterpieces and Choice Gems, .... 499

" 13. The Ten Greatest Books of the World

Produced in the 19th Century, 547

*• 14 American Literature at the Close of the CKNTruv, . . . 557

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

Our obligation to the following publishers is respectfully and gratefully acknowledged, since, without the courtesies and assistance of these publishers and a number of the living authors, it would have been impossible to issue this volume.

Citpyright selections from the following authors are used by the permission of and special arrangement with MESSRS. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., their authorized publishers :— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry W. Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Taylor, Maurice Thompson, Colonel John Hay, Bret Harte, William Dean Howells, Edward Bellamy, Charles Egbert Craddock (Miss ^lurfree), Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (Ward), Octave Thanet (Miss French), Alice Cary, PhcTcbe Cary, Charles Dudley Warner, E. C. Stedman. James Parton, John Fiske and Sarah Jane Lippincott.

TO THE CENTURY CO., we are indel)ted for selections from Richard Watson Gilder, James Whitcomb Riley and Francis Richard Stockton.

TO CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, for extracts from Eugene Field.

TO HARPER d^ BROTHERS, for selections from Will Carleton, General Lew Wallace, W. D. Howells, Thomas Nelson Paue, John L. Motley, Charles Follen Adams and Lyman Abbott.

TO ROBERTS BROTHERS, for selections from Edward Everett Hale, Helen Hunt Jackson, Louise (liandler Moulton and Louisa M. Alcott.

TO ORANGE. JUDD <& CO., for extracts from Edward Ecgleston.

TO DODD, MEAD & CO., for selections from E. P. Roe, Marion Harland (Mrs. Terhune), Amelia E. Barr and Martha Finley.

TO D. APPLET ON & CO., for Wm. Cullen Bryant and John Bach McMaster.

TO MACMILLANA^. CO., for F. Marion Crawford.

10 HORACE L. TRAUBEL, Executor, for Walt Whitman.

TO ESTES & LAURIAT, for Gail Hamilton (Mary Abigail Dodge).

TO LITTLE, BROWN & CO., for Francis Parkman.

TO FUNK & W AGNAILS, for Josiah Allen's Wife (Miss Holley).

TO LEE & SHEPARD, for Yawcob Strauss (Charles Follen Adams), Oliver Optic (William T. ^dams) and Mary A. Livermore.

TO J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., for Bill Nye (Edgar Wilson Nye).

TO GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, for Uncle Remus (Joel C. Harris).

TO TICK NOR & CO., for Julian Hawthorne.

TO PORTER & CO ATE S, for Edward EUis and Horatio Alger.

TO WILLIAM F. GILL & CO., for Whitelaw Reid.

TO C H. HUD GINS & CO., for Henry W. Grady.

TO THE " COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE;' for Julian Hawthorne.

TO T. B. PETERSON & BROS., for Frances Hodgson Burnett.

TO J AS. R. OSGOOD & CO., for Jane Goodwin Austin.

TO GEO. R. SHEPARD, for Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

TO J. LEWIS STACK POLE, for John L. Motley. '"

Besides the above, we are under special obligation to a number of authors whc kindly furnished, m answer to our request, selections which they considered representative of their writings.

THE DISTINCTIVE PURPOSE AND PLAN OF THIS VOLUME.

HIS work has been designed an d prepared with a view to presenting an outline of American literati re in such a manner at to stinudate a love for good reading and especially to encourage the study of the lives and writings of our American authors. The plan of this work is unique and original, and possesses certain helpful and interesting features, which — so far as we are aware — have been contemplated by no other single volume.

The first and main purpose of the work is to present to our American homes a mass of wholesome, varied and well-selected reading matter. In this respect it is substantially a volume for the family. America is pre-eminently a country of homes. These homes are the schools of citizenship, and— next to the Bible, which is the foundation of our morals and laws — we need those books which at once entertain and instruct, and, at the same time, stinudate patriotism and pride for our

native land.

Tliis book seeks to meet this demand. Four-fifths of our space is devoted exclusively to American literature. Nearly all other volumes of selections are made up chiefly from foreign authors. The reason for this is obvious. Foreign publications until within the last few years have been free of copyright restrictions. Anything might be chosen and copied from them while American authors were protected by law from such outrages. Consequently, American material under forty-two years of age could not be used without the consent of the owner of the copyright. The expense and the difficulty of obtaining these permissions were too great^to warrant compilers and publishers in using American material. The const^intly growing demand, however, for a work of this class has encouraged the publishers of thk

J h THE DISTINCTIVE PUEPOSE AND PLAN OF THIS VOLUME.

volume to undertake the task. The publishers of the works from which these selections are made and many living authors represented have been corresponded with, and it is only through the joint coui'tesy and co-operation of these many publishers and authors that the production of this volume luis been made possible. Due acknowledgment will be found elsewhere. In a number of instances the selections have been made by the authors themselves, who have also rendered other valuable assistance in supplying data and photographs.

The second distinctive point of merit in the plan of the work is the biographical feature, which gives the story of each author's life separately, treating them both personally and as writers. Longfellow remarked in '* Hyperion " — " If you once understand the character of an author the comprehension of his writings becomes easy." He might have gone further and stated that when we have once read the life of an author his writings become the more interesting. Goethe assures us that " Every author portrays himself in his works even though it be against his will." The })atriarcli in the Scriptures had the same thought in his mind when he exclaimed " Oh ! that mine enemy had written a book." Human nature remains the same. Any book takes on a new phase of value and interest to us the moment w^e know the story of the writer, whether we agree with his statements and theories or not. These biographical sketches, which in every case are placed immediately before the selections from an author, give, in addition to the story of his life, a list of the principal books he has written, and the dates of publication, together with comments on his literary style and in many instances reviews of his best known works This, with tiie selections which follow^ established that necessary bond of sympathy and relationship which should exist in the mind of the reader between every jiuthor and his writings. Furthermore, under this arrangement the biography of each author and the selections from his w'orks compose a complete and independent chapter in the volume, so that the writer may be taken up and studied or read alone, or in connection with others in the particular class to which he belongs.

This brings us to the third point of classification. Other volumes of selections — where they have been classified at all — have usually 23laced selections of similar character together under the various heads of Narrative and Descriptive, Moral and Religious, Historical, etc. On the contrary, it has appeared to us the better plan in the consti'uction of this volume to classify the authors, rather than, by dividing their selections, scatter the children of one parent in many different quarters. There has been no small difficulty in doing this in the cases of some of our versatile writers. Emerson, for instance, with his poetry, philosophy and essays, and Holmes, with his wit and humoi', his essays, his novels and his poetry. Where should they be placed? Summing them up, we find their writings — whether w^ritten in stanzas of metred lines or all the way across the page, and whether they talked jihilosophy or indulged in humor — were jiredominated by the spirit of poetry. Therefore, with their varied brood, Emerson and Holmes were taken off to the " Poet's Corner," which is made all the richer and more enjoyable by the variety of their gems of prose. Hence our classifications and groupings are as Poets, Novelists, Historians, Journalists, Humorists, Essayists, Critics, Orators, etc., placing each author in the department to which he most belongs, enabling the reader to read and compare him in his best element with others of the same class.

THE DISTINCTIVE PURPOSE AND PLAN OF THIS VOLUME. 9

Part I. , '■'■Oreat Poets of America," comprises twenty of our most famous and popular writers of verse. The work necessarily begins with that immortal "Seven Stars" of poesy in the galaxy of our literary heavens — Bryant, Poe, Longfellow, Emerson, Whittier, Holmes and Lowell. Succeeding these are those of lesser magnitude, many of whom are still living and some who have won fame in other fields of literature which divides honors with their poetry.

The remaining twelve parts of the book treat in similar manner about ninety-five additional authors, embracing noted novelists, representative women poets of America; essayists, critics and sketch writers ; great American historians and biographers ; our national humorists; popular writers for young people; noted journalists and magazine contributors ; great orators and popular lecturers ; famous women orators and reformers, and miscellaneous masterpieces from many American authors whose fame rests largely upon one or two productions. The work appropi'iately closes with a department of over one hundred and fifty pages of English literature, coini)rising the lives and best writings of the most famous English, Scotch and Iiisli authors, whose names and works are household words in America, and without which no volume of literature in the language would be com})lete. Thus, it will be seen that in this volume the whole field of American letters, with the best from the greatest of British authors, has been gleaned to make the work the best and most representative of our literature possible within the scope of a single volume.

In making a list of authors in whom the public were sufficiently interested to entitle them to a place in a work like this, naturally they were found to be entirely too numerous to be all included in one book. The absence of many good names from the volume is, therefore, explained by the fiict that the editor has been driven to the necessity of selecting, first, those whom he deemed pre-eminently prominent, and, after that, making loom for those who best represent a certain class or particular phase of our literature.

To those authors who have so kindly responded to our requests for courtesies, and whose names do not appear, the above explanation is offered. The omission was imperative in order that those treated might be allowed sufficient space to make the work as complete and representative as might be reasonably expected.

Special attention has been given to illustrations. We have inserted portraits of all the authors whose photographs we could obtain, and have, also, given views of the homes and studies of many. A large number of special di-awings have also been made to illustrate the text of selections. The whole number of portraits and other illustrations amount to over three hundred, all of which are strictly illustrative of the authors or their writings. None are put in bs mere ornaments. We have, furthermore, taken particular care to arrange a number of special groups, placing those authors which belong in one class or division of a class together on a page. One group on a page represents our greatest poets; another, well-known western poets; another, famous historians; another, writers for young people; another, American humorists, etc. These groups are all arranged by artists in various designs of ornamental setting. In many cases we have also iiad special deigns made by artists for commemorative and historic pictures of famous autlioi-s. These drawings set forth in a pictorial form leading scenes in the life and labors of the author represented.

LIST OF PORTRAITS

MADE EXPRESSLY FOR THIS VOLUME.

AURANGED ALPHABETICALLY.

Abbott, Lyman.

Adams, Ciiarles Follen (Yawcob Strauss).

Adams, William T. (Oliver Optic).

Alcott, A. Bronson.

Alcott, Louisa M.

Alger, Horatio, Jr.

Aldrich, Thomas Bailey.

Anthoti}', Susan B.

Austin, Alfred.

Austin, Jane Goodwin.

Bancroft, George H.

Barr, Amelia E.

Beecher, Henry Ward.

Bellamy, Edward.

Bryant, William Cullen.

Burdette, Robert J.

Burnett, Francis Hodgson.

Cable, George W.

Carleton, Will.

Cary, Alice.

Cary, Plioebe.

Clay, Henry.

Clemens, Samuel L. (Mark Twain).

Cooper, James Fenimore.

Craddock, Charles Egbert (Mrs. Murfree).

Cr;iwford, F. Marion.

Dana, Charles A.

Davis, Richard Harding.

Depew, Chauncey M.

Dickinson, Anna.

Eggleston, Edward.

Ellis, Edward S.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo.

Everett, Edward.

Field, Eugene.

Finley, Martha.

French, Alice (Octave Thanet).

Fuller, Margaret.

Gildei-, Richard Watson.

Gough, John B.

Grady, Henry W.

Greeley, Horace.

Hale, Edward Everett.

Halstead, Murat.

Harris, Joel Chandler.

Harte, Bret.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel.

Hawthorne, Julian.

Hay, Col. John.

Henry, Patrick.

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth.

H( limes, Oliver Wendell.

Howells. William Dean.

Howe, Julia Ward.

Irving, Washington.

Jackson, Helen Hunt.

Larcom, Lucy.

Lippiiicott, Sara Jane (Grace Greenwood).

Livermore, Mary A.

Lockwood, Belva Ann.

Longfellow, Menry W.

Lowell, James Russell.

LIST OF PORTRAITS MADE EXPRESSLY FOR THIS VOLUME.

Mcibie, Ilannlton W.

McMaster, John 13.

Miller, Joaquin.

Mitchell, Donald G. (Ik :\rarvel).

Motley, John L.

Moulton, Louise Chapdlc.-.

Nye, Edgar Wilson (Bill Nye).

Page, Thomas Nelson.

Parton, James.

Phillips, Wendell.

Pitt, William.

Poe, Edgar A.

Prescott, William H.

Reid, Whitelaw.

Riley, James Whitcomb.

Roe, Edward Payson.

Shaw, Albert.

Shaw, Henry W. (Josh Billings).

Sigourney, Jjydia 11.

Smith, Elizabeth Oakes.

Stedmaii, Edinuiid Clarence.

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady.

Stockton, Frank.

Stoddard, Richard Ilenrj'.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher.

Terhunc, Mary Virginia (i\Iarion llarland).

Thoreau, Henry D.

Wallace, General Lew.

Ward, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.

Warner, Chas. Dudley.

Watterson. Henry \V

Webster, Daniei.

Whitman, Walt.

Whittier. John G

Wilkird, Francis E

Willis, Nathaniel \\

FULL-PAGE GROUPS

AND SPECIAL DESIGNS.

Edgar Allan Poe — His Home, Monument, etc.

Interior of Longfellow's Home, Cambridge, Mass.

Ralph Waldo Emerson — His Brook Farm Friends, etc.

John G. Whittier — His Home and Birthplace.

Oliver Wendell Holmes — His Birthplace and Study.

James Russell Lowell in His Study.

Nathaniel Hawthorne — His Birthplace, Wayside Inn, Exa

The New Congressional Library.

Six Great American Poets.

Well-known American Poets.

Well-known Western Poets.

Six Typical American Novelists.

Popular American Novelists.

Noted Women Novelists.

Women Poets op America.

Distinguished Essayists and Literary Critics.

Great American Historians and Biogr.^phers.

Our National Humorists.

Popular Writers for Young People.

Noted American Journalists and Magazine Contributors.

Great American Orators and Popular Lecturers.

Famous Women Orators and Reformers.

Distinguished Authors of the Greatest Books op the Nineteenth Century.

Great American Writers at the Close op the Nineteenth Century.

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Table Of Contents

PAGE

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

An Author at Fourteen 33