ART. X.-AMERICAN AUTHORSHIP.

"American authors and what they have written," would have been, we think, a better title for Professor Hart's" Manual of American Literature," which contains a multitude of extremely interesting details, relating to authors and book-making in this country, without much criticism. This work will be found both entertaining and valuable—is compact, so that the volume is suitable for familiar perusal at the fireside-and will probably prove specially attractive to the general reader from the space given to cotemporary authors, and the literature of the last few years. The larger volumes of Mr. Griswold and the Messrs. Duyckinck, will no doubt remain the standard authority and retain their popularity both with students and others; but the "Prose Writers" and the "Poets and Poetry" of the former, and the "Cyclopædia of American Literature" of the latter, are portly octavos, rather useful for reference, than desirable for perusal in hours of leisure :—the "Manual," on the contrary, is of moderate size, the information contained in it is concisely presented, and the main facts, both as to the authors and their productions, are clearly given without amplification or verbiage. The reader is thus enabled to obtain at a glance precisely the information which he desires-the date of a writer's birth and death, the titles of his works, and even if he be still living, his present whereabouts, employment, his literary status, and the sales of his productions. These details, in many instances, are of the most private and familiar character; and we are not aware that any other volume contains just this sort of information, which, unimportant as it may seem to some readers, is certainly not devoid of interest. A thoughtful reader is apt to find food for reflection in the statement that this or that production, possessing in his own eyes but medium literary merit, has yet secured a sale of twenty, fifty or an hundred thousand copies in a single year, whilst other books, immensely more meritorious in the estimation of sound literary critics, have fallen unnoticed, well nigh, from the press. A sound, if not a very flattering opinion of the literary tastes of the reading community, is apt to recoil from such statements, and the likes and dislikes" of the average reader of books are shown. In

*A Manual of American Literature. A text book for schools and colleges. By John S. Hart, LL.D., Professor of Rhetoric, etc., in the College of New Jersey. Philadelphia, 1873.

other points, also, the details referred to are valuable and interesting; since a comparison may be made between the respective popular approval of works of fiction, of history, of criticism, of science, and in other departments. The large sales, for instance, of good works upon natural science, indicate that the "general reader," who only a few years since had recourse for amusement to the last new novel, almost exclusively, is now much more deeply interested in the last new view of Darwin, Tyndal, Huxley, or other writers upon subjects quite removed from the love adventures of the heroes and heroines of romance. This and other changes in the literary tastes of the age, are indicated by Professor Hart's Manual, and render it valuable.

The general subject of American Authors and authorship is an interesting one. The country can scarcely be said to be one hundred years old in literature; but in that space of time it has produced books which will take their places among the illustrations of English literature. It seems but the other day that Sidney Smith wrote in the Edinburgh Review, "Who reads an American book?"-and now the London Athenæum, and other not too friendly organs of English criticism, recommend their own authors to look to their laurels, especially in the departments of fiction, and of general science. We are not sure that this caution—as to fiction at least is needed; for George Eliot in the profound psychological novel, Reade and Collins in the "mystery" and "sensation " novel, and Bulwer-dead but alive in his last and yet unpublished works— fairly surpass, we think, their American rivals. But, going back one generation, the literature of America presents us with names which will probably live as long as the names of any of the writers mentioned, and in our opinion will live longer. Since the time of Goldsmith, England has produced no writer with a natural humor, and pathetic grace, surpassing those of Washington Irving; with a rough vigor and abounding life in the delineation of character and incident superior to those of Cooper; with a subtle and weird insight into the world of shadow, even equal to Hawthorne's—and it may be doubted, if a greater successor of Scott in the historical novel has appeared than William Gilmore Simms, who did for South Carolina what Scott did for Scotland, and remains one of the most illustrious lights of our literature. These famous names are quite sufficient in our opinion to redeem American letters in the past half century from the charge of barrenness; and their productions will take a permanent place in English literature, both as works of art, meritorious and valuable for their grace, humor, and invention, and as vivid delineations of a state of society, and of modes of life quite different from those of the old world-a life filled with incident, with change, with startling contrast, and the best elements of the epic.

Between these masters of the earlier years of the present century, and the "multitude of clever writers"-to use Washington Irving's phrase-of to-day, a sort of hiatus stretched; a period of comparative literary barrenness. In the opinion of some critics, this barrenness still continues; but we think the "Manual" of Professor Hart shows that our literature, if not exhibiting the grace and finish of that in older countries, affords at least encouragement to hope that it is tracing out a new path for itself, and exploring new regions. Doubtless, the "great American Novel" is yet to be written, and the critics sigh in vain for this long looked for epic of American social life, in which a virgin continent and a new people are to be reflected. But the pathway to this, or some other literature, quite new, and unborrowed, seems about to be "blazed" out. The rough sketches of Mr. Harte and other writers of the new school who cast behind them old subjects and old methods, to scrawl their vivid outlines of what they have actually seen in the rude transitionary life of the extreme frontier, are at least new writing. They are not imitators of Scott, or of Dickens, or of Thackeray. They are unclassic in style perhaps, shock the refined reader in his drawing room: impress the old world of convention and "good society " with a sensation of being introduced to a social system succinctly summed up and described as "half horse, half alligator;" but, in these pages, rough and unkempt as they are, filled with solecisms of language, faults of taste, and the results of democracy in its last analysis, there is evidence, we think, of unquestionable vigor and "realistic" strength, which will work their way to something new in literature, when the turbid liquid has had time to settle and become clear. Grate as these books may on the reader enamored of "convention," they will make their path in literature. Delineations of the complex and elegant societies of the old world, of boudoirs, courts, calm domestic interiors, and the charming resorts of art, belles lettres and refinement will continue to interest; but a large class of readers, a little weary of old pictures, and seeking the new, will greet these rough charcoal sketches with delight-willing to pardon the faults in the drawing, and the untaught execution, in consideration of the newness of the figures, and the vivid ideas aroused by the bold contrasts. Mr. Cincinnatus Heine Miller, called "Joaquin " Miller, was, as Professor Hart tells us, born in a "log cabin in a wilderness in the Wabash district of Indiana," travelled across the plains to Oregon, was a farmer's boy, ran off to California, lived the "wildest life there, imaginable," went to Europe, settled down in obscure lodgings in London, wrote his poems there, nearly starved, obtained a publisher at last by accident, and "created at once a sensation which has hardly been equalled since the time of Byron." Mr.

Francis Bret Harte was of Dutch origin, taught school, went to California at seventeen, thence to Sonora, became a miner, then a printer, then an editor, was mobbed for one of his editorials, had recourse to editing a magazine, and one day by accident wrote a jeu d'esprit called "The Heathen Chinee." Such are the details given by Professor Hart of the careers of two of the most popular of the new school of American writers; and the question presents itself, how did Mr. Miller create a sensation as great as that created by Lord Byron, and Mr. Harte succeed in so impressing several millions of people with his "Heathen Chinee," that they know it by heart, and have it constantly upon their lips? The only explanation of the phenomenon is that which has been suggested. Mr. Harte, Mr. Miller and their followers, are new, and present themselves as the mouth-pieces of a new society and a new phase in the social progress of the world.

We should be sorry to have it supposed that we have any admiration for the productions of the writers of this school, as works of art. Viewed in that light, we are constrained to say that they appear to us to possess but a very slight amount of merit, and for ourselves, personally, little or no interest. Indeed, were we to speak for ourselves, and express and imply our individual preferences, we should be compelled to declare that we would not exchange a page, or even a paragraph of Washington Irving's "Sketch Book," or a chapter of Cooper, Hawthorne, or Simms, for all the productions of the class of writers referred to. This is purely a personal and private preference, however, and does not touch the question of the originality of these volumes. It is due to them to say that they are unquestionably original; have undoubted merit for that reason; and seem to herald a remarkable revolution in literature, of which revolution, those American writers who succeed the present generation will reap the results, and be the great exponents.

The interesting volume of Professor Hart, which has given rise to these desultory comments upon the general aspect of American letters, will be found a most agreeable book to dip into, at the fireside, for familiar details upon the writers of this country, for amusement, as well as for information. In numerous instances the writers are permitted to speak for themselves, and the result is highly entertaining. Mr. Charles Barnard, the author of some popular "mimical novels," writes: “I do not think I have been very indolent for the last three years, and there seems no prospect of a let-up in the pressure. (Mr. B. refers to the demands of newspapers on his pen). All I can say for myself is, that I have endeavored to pick up facts of value, and tried to present them in an easy, natural way. I never make any pretence to style at fine

writing. I have neither. I merely talk. My aim is to so use the gift suddenly plumped down in my lap, (i. e. of writing) that none may complain, and all perhaps be made better. I go for the bright side of things, and have a solemn and enduring faith in fun.” Which we think is sound and excellent philosophy. Mr. H. W. Shaw, popularly known as "Josh Billings," writes: "I have been in every kind of business, but found none very profitable. I have been merchant, extensive farmer, drover, steamboat captain, auctioneer, etc. There is one thing perhaps a little peculiar. I never wrote a line for the public eye until after I was forty-five years old. I have been married thirty years, have two daughters; one lives in Venezuela and the other in New York. I have four grand children, who are my glory and strength. I am employed as a scribbler on the New York Weekly, for which I write exclusively, and receive from them $4,000 a year. I am offered $150 a night for ten nights, next October in Kansas. My lectures are on Milk, What I Know About Hotels, and the Cockroach and his Friends." These," says Mr. Billings, "are comic efforts. I enjoy life and love the funny side of all things." These details in reference to themselves, derived from the authors, under their own hands, are characteristic, and will probably be considered entertaining by Professor Hart's readers.

We shall notice one other point in relation to the cotemporary generation of American writers. They all, or nearly all, seemed to have reached the book-making department of literature, through the avenues of the daily or weekly newspapers and the monthly magazines—and to retain their fondness for these periodical forms of publication. The instances are almost innumerable in this long list of writers, where the daily journal has trained the future writer of books; taught him the use of his pen; conferred upon him that happy-or unhappy-facility which results in the prompt production of a book to order, upon any subject whatever-turning him loose, after his time of probation, a full armed "free lance" with spear in rest, upon the literary domain. This newspaper apprenticeship will probably account for the great fluency, readiness, and directness of style in many of the most popular productions of the times a very marked characteristic of a large number of works, and not an unpleasing characteristic when they are designed for amusement. It is said, with truth we believe, that the literature of the American monthly magazines, and literary "weeklies" is more agreeable for desultory reading than that of the English. If this be true, it probably results from the fact above stated-their journalistic experiences enable the writers of tales, sketches, and criticisms to present their ideas in a plain, direct, easy, and "effective" "manner.