AMERICAN LITERATURE. 533 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 v—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 Pathfinder, and The Deer 531 AMERICAN LITERATURE. 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 latterly resided in England, where he died in 1865. He also wrote an Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, born about 1807, at Salem in Massachusetts, was 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 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 for some time he held the American Consulship at Liverpool. He died in 1864. 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. AMERICAN LITERATURE. 535 Supplementary List. CHARLES BROCKDEN 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 medicineCalavar 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; 536 AMERICAN LITERATURE. and his last public utterance was upon the emancipation of British slaves in the West Indies. He died of typhus fever in 1842. EDWARD EVERETT, born in 1794, at Dorchester near Boston, originally a Unitarian minister, became Governor of Massachusetts, American minister in London (1841-46), and Secretary of State for the United States. His literary fame rested on his Orations and Speeches. He wrote largely for the North American Review, which he edited for four years (1820-24). Everett died in 1865. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, born in 1803 at Boston, became, after studying at Harvard, minister of a Unitarian church. nection soon ceasing, he buried himself at Concord, to study and to write. He has spoken to the public principally through lectures, afterwards collected and published. His chief work is Representative Men, embracing strikingly eloquent estimates of Montaigne, Goëthe, Plato, Swedenborg, Shakspere, and Napoleon. Supplementary List. ALEXANDER HAMILTON.-(1757-1804)-island of Nevis-a lawyer and statesman of the Revolution-The Federalist, to which Madison and Jay also contributed. ALEXANDER EVERETT.-(1790-1847)-Boston-elder brother of the oratordiplomatist-Europe; New Ideas on Population; America; Essays. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.-(born 1809)-Cambridge, Massachusetts-Professor of Anatomy at Cambridge-lives now at Boston-Poems; Autocrat at the Breakfast-Table (essays). MARGARET FULLER.-(1810-1850)- Cambridge, Massachusetts - Marchesa D'Ossoli-Woman in the Nineteenth Century; Summer on the Lakes. HENRY THEODORE TUCKERMAN.-(born 1813)-Thoughts on the Poets; Characteristics of Literature; Diary of a Dreamer; New England Philosophy. RUFUS GRISWOLD.-(1815-1857)-Benson, Vermont-Baptist minister-Curio sities of American Literature; Poets and Prose- Writers of America. The Lectures of HENRY REED (drowned in the wreck of the Arctic) upon Eng lish Literature, and of EDWIN WHIPPLE, upon Subjects connected with Litera ture and Life, are fine specimens of eloquent and accurate criticism. THEODORE PARKER, a Unitarian minister, has written Essays upon German Literature, Labour, and the Labouring Classes. DANIEL WEBSTER (1782-1852), HENRY CLAY (1777-1852), and JOHN CALHOUN (1782-1850), are the leading names in American oratory. NOAH WEBSTER'S English Dictionary, and ANTHON'S Edi tions of the Classics belong to this section. AMERICAN LITERATURE. 537 SCIENTIFIC WRITERS. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, born in 1706 at Boston, began life as a printer's boy. Steadily he rose by native genius, conjoined with industry and prudence, to a foremost place among his countrymen. Poor Richard's Almanac, a repertory of Proverbial Philosophy for the poor, begun in 1732, lasted for twenty-five years. This collection is otherwise known as The Way to Wealth. He won great fame by his scientific researches, especially into the laws of Electricity, the results of which are embodied in various letters and papers. He wrote also numerous Essays, Historical, Political, and Commercial, and an Autobiography of great value. His Letters, too, have been published. In all the great political movements of the Revolution he took a leading share; but the crown of his statesmanship was won when, as Minister Plenipotentiary at the court of France, whither he went in 1776, he secured the aid of French bayonets and cannon for the struggling Americans. He died in 1790. Supplementary List. JOHN JAMES AUDUBON.-(1780-1851)-son of a French admiral settled in Louisiana-travelled much-Birds of America. HENRY CAREY.-(born 1793)-Philadelphia-a publisher-The Credit System; Past, Present, and Future; Harmony of Interests; The Slave Trade. ORVILLE DEWEY.-(born 1794)-Sheffield, Massachusetts-Unitarian ministerMoral Views of Commerce, Society, and Politics; The Old World and the New. MATTHEW F. MAURY.—(born 1806)—Virginia-captain in United States NavyPhysical Geography of the Sea. THEOLOGIANS AND SCHOLARS. JONATHAN EDWARDS, born in 1703, at East Windsor in Connecticut, ranks highest among American divines. He was licensed as a Congregationalist minister in 1722. The honourable office of President in the College of New Jersey, Princeton, was conferred on him in 1757, but in the following year he died of small pox. His principal work, The Freedom of the Will, is a master-piece of |