530 AMERICAN LITERATURE. EDGAR ALLAN POE, author of that exquisite piece of mystery and music, The Raven, was born in 1811 at Baltimore. Annabel Lee, a tender lament for his dead wife, is one of the sweetest lyrics in the language. His prose tales are full of wild and absorbing interest. Reckless intemperance brought his short life to a close in 1849. Supplementary List. JOHN PIERPONT.-(1785)--Litchfield, Connecticut-Airs of Palestine; Lyrics. RICHARD DANA.-(1787)-Cambridge, Massachusetts-The Buccaneer; Thoughts on the Soul; also noted as an Essayist. CHARLES SPRAGUE.-(1791)-Boston-a bank cashier-Curiosity; The Brothers; JAMES GATES PERCIVAL.-(1785)—Kensington, Connecticut―Lyric Poems. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.-(1819)-Boston-author of many serious poems (Rhæcus, Prometheus, &c.), but better known for the Papers of Hosea Biglow, abounding in Yankee fun and shrewd sarcasm. Southey gave great praise to Zophiel, or the Bride of Seven, by MARIA BROOKS. CHARLES HOFFMAN, author of The Vigil of Faith; and JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER, a Quaker poet, may be added to this list. HISTORIANS. WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT, born in 1796, at Salem in Massachusetts, is the chief of American historians. An accident at college-the throwing of a crust-deprived him almost wholly of one eye. Thus situated, he began a career of literary toil which resulted in the production of four great historical works,-The Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, The Conquest of Mexico, The Conquest of Peru, and The History of Philip II.,—all of which have been remarkably successful. The sight of his single eye failing, he was for several years unable to read. He died of a paralytic stroke in 1859. GEORGE BANCROFT, born in 1800, at Worcester in Massachusetts, is the author of the principal existing History of the United States. He was for three years (1846-49), Minister for the States at the British Court. AMERICAN LITERATURE. 531 GEORGE TICKNOR, born in 1791 at Boston, preceded the poet Longfellow in the chair of Modern Literature at Harvard. A History of Spanish Literature from his pen ranks, for learning, sound criticism, and literary merit, with the very highest works of its class. JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY has won a high place among historians by his Dutch Republic and United Netherlands, on the latter of which he is at present engaged. He excels in vivid and pictorial description. Supplementary List. JOHN WINTHROP.-(1587-1649)—one of the Pilgrim Fathers-Governor of Massachusetts-Diary of Events in that colony down to 1644. COTTON MATHER. -(1663-1728)-a Puritan minister at Boston - Magnalia Among various local histories, containing much valuable material, we may name Maine, by WILLIAMSON; Virginia, by CAMPBELL; Georgia, by STEVENS; Kentucky, by MANN BUTLER ; and the Indian Tribes, by M'KENNEY and HALL. WRITERS OF FICTION. WASHINGTON IRVING, born in 1783 at New York, was the scion of an old Orkney family. His father was a merchant. The literary career of this Goldsmith of the States began in 1807, the year after his admission to the bar, by contributions to Salmagundi, a humorous serial of short life. Then came that queer, delightful burlesque of old Dutch and Swedish colonist life, called The History of New York, by Diedrich Knickerbocker. The management of a branch of Irving Brothers, in Liverpool, being confided to him, he crossed the Atlantic for the second time in 1815. But the house failed, and the young merchant turned author by profession. It was up-hill work at first; but Scott having pronounced a most favourable opinion upon The Sketch-book, which was s 532 AMERICAN LITERATURE. mitted to him, the road to fame and fortune was opened at once to Geoffrey Crayon, Gent"., as the author styled himself. A list of Washington Irving's works is subjoined: Whatever his subject an English manor-house, with bright fires and Christmas snow a drowsy Dutch farm-steading in Sleepy Hollow—a moonlit court in the Alhambra-the great Italian sailor -the sweet-souled Irish author-the simply noble American general -we are charmed by the poetic graces of his fancy and the liquid music of his style. For several years he resided at Madrid, collecting materials for his Spanish works. In 1830, while in England, he received one of two gold medals conferred by George the Fourth for historical eminence, Hallam receiving the other. His later life was spent at a pleasant seat-Sunnyside, by the Hudson. There he died in November 1859. JAMES FENIMORE COOPER, born in 1789, at Burlington in New Jersey, entered, after six years of naval life, upon his brilliant career as a writer of fiction, Residing on the borders of Otsego Lake, a district thick with game and then uncleared, he wrote his first novel, Precaution. In two walks he has been eminently successful-Indian novels and Naval novels. Among the former, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie, The Path-finder, and The Deer AMERICAN LITERATURE. 533 slayer, are the best; among the latter, The Pilot, with its noble character of Long Tom Coffin, stands first. Of his tales founded on the history of the American War, The Spy is most popular. Cooper died in 1851. THOMAS CHANDLER HALIBURTON, a Nova Scotian judge, born about 1800, is well known as the author of the papers signed Sam Slick, illustrative of Yankee life and humour. The Clockmaker, The Attaché, The Old Judge, Letter-Bag of the Great Western, and The Season-Ticket, are his chief works. Judge Haliburton now resides in England. He has also written an Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, born about 1807, at Salem in Massachusetts, is one of the finest American novelists. His first acknowledged work was Twice-Told Tales (1837). Then came Mosses from an Old Manse (1846); The Scarlet Letter (1850); The House of the Seven Gables (1851), his best novel; and The Blithedale Romance (1852). His taste for psychology has deeply tinged his works, the chief of which belong somewhat to the Weird school of fiction. The beauty of his language and the rich quaintness of his humour possess irresistible attractions. For a year Mr. Hawthorne was Surveyor of Customs at Salem; and since 1853 he has held the American Consulship at Liverpool. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, the world-renowned authoress of Uncle Tom's Cabin, was born at Litchfield in Connecticut, the daughter of Lyman Beecher, an eminent Congregationalist minister. The Mayflower was one of her earlier works. "Uncle Tom" appeared in 1850, in the columns of a weekly paper, The Washington National Era. Its astonishing success was owing partly to its subject, but not a little to its graphic power. A Key followed the work, supplying ample evidence of its truthfulness. Mrs. Stowe then visited Europe,-recollections of her tour appearing in Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands. None of her later works-Dred, The Minister's Wooing, The Pearl of Orr's Island-have come up to "Uncle Tom" in power or popularity. Agnes of Sorrento (in the "Cornhill") is said to be from her pen. 534 AMERICAN LITERATURE. CHARLES BROCKDEN Supplementary List. BROWN.-(1771-1810)-Philadelphia-Wieland; Ormond; Arthur Mervyn; Edgar Huntly. JAMES KIRKE PAULDING.-(born 1779)-associated with Irving in Salmagundi -John Bull and Brother Jonathan; The Dutchman's Fireside; Westward Ho! JAMES HALL.-(born 1793)-Philadelphia-a judge in Illinois-Letters from the West; Wilderness and War-Path. JOHN P. KENNEDY.-(born 1795)—Virginia (?)—follower of Irving-Swallow Barn; Horse-Shoe Robinson. WILLIAM WARE.-(born 1797)-Massachusetts-Unitarian clergyman-Fall of Palmyra; Probus, or Rome in the Third Century. ROBERT M. BIRD.—(1803–1854)—Newcastle, Delaware-a doctor of medicine— Calavar and The Infidel (Mexican romances); Nick of the Woods; Hawks of Hawk Hollow. WILLIAM SIMMs.—(born 1807)—planter of South Carolina-Guy Rivers; Beauchamp; Wigwam and Cabin. T. B. THORPE.-(born 1815)-Westfield, Massachusetts-Mysteries of the Backwoods; Big Bear of Arkansas. Our list must close with the names of Miss SEDGWICK (Hope Leslie); Miss LOTHROP (Dollars and Cents); Miss WARNER (The Wide Wide World and Queechy); Mrs. KIRKLAND (New Home and Forest Life); and SAMUEL GOODRICH (Peter Parley), author of an immense number of tales and educational works. ESSAYISTS, CRITICS, AND ORATORS. WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING, born in 1780, at Newport in Rhode Island, though ranking high amongst theologians, finds a fitter place among the most eloquent American Essayists. After a distinguished career at Harvard College, he lived for a while as a tutor in Virginia, and in 1803 was ordained minister of a Unitarian church in Boston. National Literature, Milton, Napoleon, Fenelon, Self-Culture, The Elevation of the Labouring Classes, are among the subjects he has written and lectured upon. Brilliant and original thoughts, clothed in language of rare fire and beauty, characterize all the works of this eminent man. Discourses on the Evidences of Revealed Religion form his chief theological work. One of his strongest feelings was hatred of the Slave-Trade; |