The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-10 00:00:00

American Literature and Art.

The most ambitious effort before us is 4‘ Thomas
a Becket," a metrical tragedy by G. W. Hollister.
This is an acting play, the copyright of which
belongs to Edwin Booth ; it is also well worth
reading as a poem, the leading characters being
sketched with a good degree of truth and power.
It is laid in the reign of Henry Second of England,
whose futile because premature struggles with the
Papal power, together with his amours with the
fair Rosamond, form the principal incidents of the
play. The great defect of this tragedy is its harsh-
ness. The characters are all hard, men and women
alike, with the single exception of Rosamond ;
there is not enough of softness, purity, and piety
to relieve the pride, passion, and rapacity of the
prominent actors. Those were doubtless stern
times, but they must have had their touches of
tenderness and beauty, as flowers bloom on the
verge of the glacier, and vineyards climb almost
to the crater's edge.

" Grondalla " is a rhymed fiction who'se history
we learn with indignant pain. It was written by
a New England woman, full of the purest impulses,
but with more aspiration than genius. She sent
the MS, to the late Park Benjamin, who, as is
well known, kept a sort of literary intelligence
office in New York, and gave his critical opinion of
the works of unpractised authors for a consideration.
He pronounced the work equal to " Enoch Arden,"
predicted its success if published, and expressed a
hope that such a gem of poesy might not be with-
held from the light. Sustained by this encourage-
ment in spite of the rebuffs of unappreciative
publishers, who, as we all know, do not always
welcome the genius for which the public is waiting,
the too confiding writer printed the work at an ex-
pense she could ill afford, and which will never be
remunerated by its sale. There is not a word in
the poem to her discredit ; it is merely wanting in
those positive merits, which the critic had assured
her it possessed.
There was wonderful vitality as well as efficiency
in Sherman's march through the South, else it
would be fairly done to death by successive books.
Its history has been given by more than one mem-
ber of the general's staff, and we now have an ex-
tended narrative by Daniel P. Conyngham, a war
correspondent of the New York Herald, and
dedicated to the proprietor of that sheet.
Mr. Conyngham joined Sherman in March,
1864, attended him as volunteer aid-de-camp in
all the subsequent movements, and was thus an
eye-witness of the scenes he describes. He assures
us that his sketches are impartial and faithful, and
a casual glance at his pages will show the reader
that they are lively and entertaining ; indeed we
have no doubt they will afford vivid pictures of
many scenes in this memorable march.
The recent number of the American Journal of
Education is peculiarly rich in biographies and por-
traits of men of eminent service in' behalf of
schools. It gives brief memoirs and spirited like-
nesses of David N. Camp of Connecticut, Hiram
Orcutt of Vermont, Ira Mayhew and John M.
Gregory of Michigan, and J. P. Wickersham, J. F.
Stoddard, Charles R. Coburn, F. A. Allen, and
Samuel P. Bates of Pennyslvania. To this wealth
of portraiture are prefixed fine likenesses of Charles
Davis and Theron Baldwin. This valuable quarterly
not only gives full reports of the educational sys-
tems of the principal States of the Union, but
contains much information with regard to schools
abroad.

Walker, Fuller, and Co., of Boston are about to
publish "Massachusetts in the Rebellion," a work
which will give the history of all that the old Bay
State has done in the recent war ; the troops and
treasures she has furnished, the high officials, civil
and military, that owe nurture to her soil, and the
brave fellows that have died in its defence. It will
be a royal octavo of six hundred pages, with three
steel engravings, containing portraits of soldiers
and civilians, living and dead. The materials are
in the hands of Rev. P. C. badly, and the pub-
lishers will spare neither pains nor expense to make
the work worthy of the subject treated.
Meretzek's opera troupe, under the leadership of
Mr. Grover, began a brief season at Boston, on
January 15th, with " Lucrezia Borgia." The perform-
ance was marked by unusual excellence, and the
season promises great success. Miss Kellogg made
her first appearance on the 16th, in " Puritani."—
Gran's opero season, at Chicago, was a pecuniary
failure. Ile has an engagement with Maretzek, by
which the latter will not enter Grau's western field.
—A harp accompanies the choir of the church of
the Holy Trinity at Brooklyn, and the effect is
especially pleasing and gives great satisfaction.—
W. Eugene Thayer, the organist, formerly of Wor-
cester and lately of Boston, is receiving honours in
Germany. lie is hard at work upon his first sym-
phony, the andante of which is shortly to be played
by the Royal orchestra of Berlin.
Art is reported dull in Boston ; pictures slow of
sale; and two of them,
de
very busy,
to Paris. But the Art
Ved painters
and er i
Club is revived with new enthusiasm ; T. D. John-
son
has a large number of pupils in his class of
instruction ; and Gerry and Griggs are occupied
with Vermont Scenery, for which they have orders.