Shepp's Literary world: containing the lives of our noted American and favorite English authors. Together with choice selections from their writings

Front matter

wo/nCH IN

\LJT€J^ATUI^^^f

Cliaj). Copyright No

PART 1. Great Poets of America, 33

2. Our Most Noted Novelists, 165

3. Famous Women Novelists, 218

4. Representative Women Poets of America, 252

5. AVell-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 Magazink Contributors, .... 401

10. Great Orators and Popular Lecturers, 433

11. Famous Women Orators and Reformers, 469

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

13. Seventeen of our Favorite English Authors, .... 549

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

Ow 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.

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

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

TO CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS, for extracts from Eugene Field.

TO HARPER & BROTHERS, for selections from Will Carleton, General Lew Wallace, W. D. Howells, Thomas Nelson Pase, John L. Motley, Charles FoUen Adams and Lyman Abbott.

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

TO ORANGE, JUDD & CO., for extracts from Edward Eggleston.

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

TO D. APR LET ON & CO., for Wm. Oullen Bryant and John Bach BIcMaster.

TO MACMILLAN& 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 AG N ALLS, for Josiah Allen's AVife (Miss Holley).

TO LEE & SHEPARD, for Yawcob Strauss (Charles FoUen Adams), OHver Optic (WUliam T. Adams) 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 TICKNOR & CO., for Julian Hawthorne.

TO PORTER & COATES, 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 <k BROS., for Frances Hodgson Burnett.

TO JAS. R. OSGOOD c& CO.. for Jane Goodwin Austin.

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

TO J. LEWIS STACKPOLE, for John L. Motley.

Besides the above, we are under special obligation to a number of authors who kindly furnished, in 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 and isrepared with a view to presenting an outline of American literature in such a manner as to stimulate 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 featui-es, 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 &r 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, stimulate patriotism and pride for our native land.

This 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 cojDied 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 constantly growing demand, however, for a work of this class has encouraged the jDublishers of this

8 THE DISTINCTIVE PURPOSE 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 courtesy and co-operation of these many publishers and authors that the production of this volume has 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 sejDarately, treating them both personally and as writers. Longfellow remarked in " Hyperion " — " If you once understand the character of an author the comjDrehension 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 patriarch 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 we 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 the selections which follow, established that necessary bond of sympathy and relationship which should exist in the mind of the reader between every author and his writings. Furthermore, under this arrangement the biography of each author and the selections from his works com230se a complete and indejjendent chapter in the volume, so that the writer may be taken uj) 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 j^laced selections of similar character together under the various heads of Narrative and Descriptive, Moral and Religious, Historical, etc. On the contrary, it has a2)peared to us the better plan in the construction 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 humor, his essays, his novels and his poetry. Where should they be placed ? Summing them up, we find their writings — whether written in stanzas of metred lines or all the way across the page, and whether they talked philosophy or indulged in humor — were predominated by the sjsirit of jjoetry. 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 pi'ose. 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., " Great 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 Avriters ; great American historians and biograj)hers ; 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 appropriately closes with a department of over one hundred and fifty pages of English literature, comprising the lives and best writings of the most famous English, Scotch and Irish authors, whose names and works are household words in America, and without which no volume of literature in the language would be complete. 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 rejjresentative 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 fact that the editor has been driven to the necessity of selecting, first, those whom he deemed pre-eminently prominent, and, after that, making room 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 drawings 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 as 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 had special designs made by artists for commemorative and historic pictures of famous authors. These drawings set forth in a pictorial form leading scenes in the life and labors of the author represented.

LIST OF PORTRAITS

MADE EXPRESSLY FOE, THIS VOLUME.

ARKANGBD ALPHABETICALLY.

Abbott, Lyman.

Adams, Charles FoUen (Yawcob Strauss).

Adams, William T. (Oliver Optic).

Alcott, A. Bronson.

Aleott, Louisa M.

Alger, Horatio, Jr.

Aldrioh, Thomas Bailey.

Anthony, Susan B.

Austin, Alfred.

Austin, Jane Goodwin.

Bancroft, George H.

Barr, Amelia E.

Beecher, Henry Ward.

Bellamy, Edward.

Bright, John.

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett.

Browning, Robert.

Bryant, William Cullen.

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward.

Burdette, Robert J.

Burnett, Frances Hodgson.

Burns, Robert.

Byron, George Gordon.

Cable, George W.

Carleton, Will

Carlyle, Thomas.

Gary, Alice.

Gary, Phoebe.

Chaucer, Geoffrej-.

Clay, Henry.

Clemens, Samuel L. (Mark Twain).

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor.

Cooper, James Fenimore.

Cowper, William.

Craddock, Charles Egbert (Mrs. Murfree).

Crawford, F. Marion.

Dana, Charles A.

Davis, Richard Harding.

Depew, Chaunoey M.

Dickens, Charles.

Dickinson, Anna.

Disraeli, Benjamin.

Drummond, Henry.

Eggleston, Edward.

Eliot, George (Marian Evans).

Ellis, Edward S.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo.

Everett, Edward.

Farrar, Frederick W.

Field, Eugene.

Finley, Martha.

French, Alice (Octave Thanet).

Fronde, James Anthony.

Fuller, Margaret.

Gibbon, Edward.

Gilder, Richard Watson.

Gladstone, William E.

Goldsmith, Oliver.

Gough, .John B.

Grady, Henry W.

Greeley, Horace.

Hale, Edward Everett.

Halstead. Murat.

Harris, Joel Chandler.

Harte, Bret.

LIST OF PORTRAITS MADE EXPRESSLY FOR THIS VOLUME,

Hawthorne, Nathaniel.

Hawthorne, Julian.

Hay, Col. John.

Hemans, Felicia.

Henry, Patrick.

Higginson, Thomas WentwortL

Holmes, Oliver Wendell.

Howells, William Dean.

Howe, Julia Ward.

Irving, Washington.

Jackson, Helen Hunt.

Johnson, Ben.

Larcom, Lucy.

Lippincott, Sara Jane (Grace Greenwood).

Livermore, Mary A.

Lockwood, Belva Ann.

Longfellow, Henry W.

Lowell, James Russell.

Mabie, Hamilton W.

Macaulay, Thomas Babington.

McMaster, John B.

Miller, Joaquin.

Milton, John.

Mitchell, Donald G. (Ik Marvel).

Moore, Thomas.

Motley, John L.

Moulton, Louise Chandler.

Nye, Edgar Wilson (BUI Nye).

Oliphant, Mrs. Margaret.

Page, Thomas Nelson.

Parton, James. ^

Phillips, Wendell.

Pitt, William.

Poe, Edgar A.

Pope, Alexander.

Prescott, Willam H.

Reid, Whitelaw.

Kiley, James Whitcomb.

Eoe, Edward Payson.

Buskin, John.

Scott, Sir Walter.

Shakespeare, William.

Shaw, Albert.

Shaw, Henry W. (Josh Billings).

Shelley, Percy Bysshe.

Southey, Robert.

Sigoumey, Lydia H.

Smith, Elizabeth Oakes.

Spencer, Edmund.

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon.

Stedman, Edmund Clarence.

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady.

Stockton, Frank.

Stoddard, Richard Henry.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher.

Tennyson, Alfred.

Terhune, Blary Virginia (Marion Harland).

Thackeray, William M.

Thoreau, Henry D.

Throllope, Anthony.

Wallace, General Lew.

Ward, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.

Ward, Mrs. Humphrey.

Warner, Chas. Dudley.

Watson, Rev. John (Ian McLaren).

Watterson, Henrj' W.

Webster, Daniel.

Whitman, Walt.

Whittier, John G.

Willard, Frances E.

Willis, Nathaniel P.

Wordsworth, William.

LIST OF ENGRAVINGS

MADE EXPRESSLY TO ILLUSTRATE THE TEXT IN THIS VOLUME.

American Authors

The Poets of New England

The Village Smithy

Corn-shucking in South Carolina

The City in the Sea

Helen . . :

The Raven

The Wayside Inn

" They Love to See the Flaming Forge "

Home of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord, Mass.

Home of James R. Lowell, Cambridge, Mass- • •

Thomas B. Aldrich's Study

Joaquin Miller's Study, Oakland, Cal

The Old Manse

Uncle Tom and His Baby

A Scene in Uncle Tom's Cabin

Miss Ophelia and Topsy

Sunnj'side, the Home of Washington Irving

' ' ' Pshaw ! ' said My Aunt Tabitha "

" Isaac, You are a Sad Fellow ! "

' ' My Aunt was Dozing "

"The Justice of the Peace "

"A Perfect Field of Chivalry "

"Tricked Out"

"There is After All But One Youth-time"

"Long, Weary Days of Confinement "

" Startling Another from a Doze "

"And Eat a Dinner in a Tavern "

"Away on a Visit in a Coach "

" It is Rather a Pretty Name to Write "

"The Doctor Lifts You in His Arms "

"Who Sometimes Makes You Stand Up To gether "

"Listening Attentively to Some Grievous Com plaint "

" Some of Bidlow's Boys "

"A Squire"

" Some Tidy Old Lady in Black "

The Choir

PAGE

292 292 293 293 294

FACE

"Fat Old Ladies in Iron Spectacles " 294

The Deacon 295

" In Tones of Tender Admonition " 295

" The Old Men Gather on the Sunny Side of the

Building " 295

"The Firelight Glimmers Upon the Walls of

Your Home " 296

On the Farm in Canada 300

The Old Well-curb 301

Immigrant Women Hoeing Potatoes 301

Waiting for Milking-time 302

After Work 302

A Winter Evening on the Farm 303

Sunday Afternoon 303

Churning in the Barn 304

A Sunny Play-ground 304

The Old Mill 304

After a Wet Snow-storm 305

Maple-sugar Time 305

The Black Sheep 306

Noon in the Sheep-lot 306

The Mill Pond 306

Feeding the Chickens 307

Picking Daisies 307

Making Friends 307

Mr. Prescott's House at Pepperett, Mass 327

Henry Hudson Offering the Indians Liquor 370

A Cottonfield in Louisiana 422

Daniel Webster's Home, Marshfield, Mass 441

"The Stockings Were Hung by the Chimney

with Care " 503

"A Miniature Sleigh and Eight Reindeer " 504

"Down the Chimney came St. Nicholas " 504

The Tourist 524

At the Lunch Stand 524

The Street to the Sea 524

The Oiler 525

In Wait 525

Expecting a Caller 525

ENGRAVINGS MADE EXPRESSLY FOR THIS VOLUME,

A Veteran of the Ranks 526

A Wide-reaching Affair 526

"Who's That Coming ? " 526

Leisure 526

McClellan's Saddle 527

' ' Gracious Goodness ! " 527

Shooting the Steam Arrow 527

On Wings of Hoofs 527

Miniature Men and Women 528

Waiting Orders 528

Bon Voyage 528

A Follower of the Hounds 531

Confidences 532

A Tgte-^-tete 532

Argument 533

An American Girl 533

Le Nez Parisien 534

Problems 535

In the Park 536

A World's Fair Group 536

"A Cosy Sit Down over Oysters and Champagne" 537 "Madge," she says, " is sitting by me with her

Work " 538

"Digging Sturdily at his Tasks " 538

" Upon the Grassy Bank of a Stream " 539

"He Wears his Honor at the Public Tables " . . 539

" The MoonHt WaJks Upon the Hills " 540

"We are Quite Alone, iS'ow, My Boy " 540

" Death— It is a Terrible Word " 540

" Plump and Thriving " 541

"Read It Again " 541

' ' You Put Your Hands in Your Pockets and

Look Out Upou the Tossing Sea " 541

" Blue-eyed Madge " 542

" The Old Clergyman Sleeps Beneath a Brown-stone Slab" 542

" You Love Those Flowers " . . . ^. 543

' ' And You Have Worn This, Maggie ?" 543

"A Father ! " 544

Your Country Home 544

" The Time of Power is Past " 545

" Madge, Madge, Must It Be ?" 545

That is it, Maggie, the Old Home 546

A New Betrothal 546

" It is Getting Dark, Maggie " 546

Celebrated English Poets 547

Souvenir of Shakespeare 549

Ann Hathaway's Cottage 550

PAQE

Garrick and Shakespeare's Bust 551

Fountain and Clock Tower Erected by George W.

Childs at Stratford-on-Avon 552

Shakespeare's House, Stratford-on-Avon 554

" In a Cowslip's Bell I Lie " 556

" Come Apace, Good Audrey; I will Fetch up

Your Goats, Audrey " 558

"There is a Willow Grows Aslant a Brook "... 560

Othello's Wooing 564

" From Betwixt Two Aged Oakes "—L' Allegro. 569 Gray's Monument in the Churchyard at Stoke

Pogis 573

Souvenir of Burns 575

" The De'il Cam Fiddlin' Thro' the Town " . ... 576

' ' Wilt Thou be My Dearie ? " 577

Blan was Made to Mourn 578

" The Smith and Thee Got Roarin' Fon " 579

" The Sire Turns O'er Wi' Patriarchal Grace " . 581

The Ancient Blariner 585

"He Cannot Chuse but Hear " 586

"A Speck, A Mist, A Shape, I Wist ! " 588

The Mariner Is Gone 590

" Oil, God ! That Bread Should be so Dear "... 593

" Take Her Up Tenderly, Lift Her With Care " 595

The Tomb of Wordsworth 597

' ' Out Flew the Web, and Floated Wide " 604

' 'An Arm Rose Up from Out the Bosom of the

Lake" 606

" The Splendor Falls on Castle Walls " 607

Souvenir of Scott 614

Scott's Study at Abbottsford 615

Melrose Abbey 617

Kenilworth Castle 619

Souvenir of Dickens 625

Birthplace of Dickens, Portsmouth, England. . . 626

Gadshill, the Home of Charles Dickens 627

' ' Mr. Pickwick was the Personification of Kindness and Humanity " 629

Captain Cuttle 631

Dicken's " Old Curiosity Shop " 633

Mr. Micawber 634

Sam Weller 636

Major Pendennis 639

Becky Sharp 644

Colonel Newcome ■ 645

Gladstone's Study 663

Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone, their Children and

Grandchildren 665

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. "VVhittier — His Home and Birthplace.

Oliver Wendell Holmes — His Birthplace and Study.

James Russell Lowell in His Study.

Nathaniel Hawthorne — His Birthplace, Wayside Inn, etc. 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 of America.

Distinguished Essayists and Literary Critics.

Great American Historians and Biographers.

Our National Humorists.

Popular Writers for Young People.

Noted American Journalists and BIagazine Contributors. Great American Orators and Popular Lecturers.

Famous Women Orators and Reformers.

The Great Poets of England.

William Shakespeare, Special Design.

Robert Burns, Special Design.

The Great Poets of England.

The Great Poets of England.

Great English Historians and Prose Writers.

Famous English Novelists.

English Statesmen in Literature.

Writers op Religious Classics.

Noted English women in Literature.