Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1857-01-07

ASlcViAsbtllONS OF LIFELINE. by ). G.
Goodrich, peter Parley.) Auburn
Miller, Orton & Co. For sale in Nash
vile by w. T. Berry & Co.
The author of this work is a remarkable
instance of what perseverance and labor
can effect under circumstances of a charac-
ter SO adverse to literary pursuits as to
oyerwhelm any one but Milton or Pres
colt. He is the sixth child of family of
ten children; two Of these died in infancy.
but eight lived to be married and settled in
life or useful and influential citizens. His
father, Samuel Goodrich, brother of the
late Chauncey Goodrich, of Yale College.
was Minister of the First Congregational
Church of Ridgefeld, Conn, and for the
first twenty-five years of his ministry re-
ceived an average salary of only Rl2O, old
currency-that is, about four hundred dol
lars. He was wholly without patr.mony,
and yet by his prudent frugality, he not
only reared and educated his large family.
but died with an estate worth four thou.
sand dollars.
His son, the author of the book now be-
fore US, has led a diversified life; he has
been bookseller, publisher, the author
or editor Of one hundred and seventy
volumes, Of which about seven millions
have been sold, an extensive traveller,
and politician of no mean pretensions.
OF his numerous works, onehundred and
sixteen volumes bear the name of Peter
Farley; and, strange as it may appear, at
tempts hate been made in this country to
deprive him Of the authorship of all these
but sixteen.
Notwithstanding the amount of literary
work this author has performed, he has la
bored under an infrmity of the eyes, that
has constantly impeded aud frequently sus-
pended his labors for long periods of time.
Some of his works have been dictated to
his wife, who, acting as his amanuensis, sat
on the light side of dark screen while he
sat on the dark side with eyes too feeble to
bear the light.
Parley's Tales have been as popular
among the little folks of England as in our
own country. When Daniel Webster was
there, he says that wherever the children of
an English family made his acquaintance,
the second question they asked him was,
whether he knew Peter Farley. Mr.. Good
rich's success in writing for children has
been more complete than that Of any other
author now living, and it may be attributed
mainly to the simplicity and clearneSs Of
his style, the ability he has to treat the
dryest subject in an attractive manner, and
the fact that he has formed all his books
for children upon the plan of teaching them
through the senses rather than the imaGi-
nation.
The Recollections of such q man, reach
ing as they do both hemispheres for Pc
Rod of more than half a century, can not
be otherwise than interesting. His per-
sonal acquaintance with all the Hterati Of
this country and most Of those who, for
the last thirty years, have houriShed in
England, has been made a theme of mex
hauStble interest. We have never met
with an author whose pictures OF men are
so clearly and Enthusiastically drawn. So
remarkable is he in this particular, that
person of general intelligence on hearing of
one his graphic delineations read can at once
and without hesitation, say for whom it was
intended. We do not make this assertion
with any degree of hyperbOlcal exagera-
ton; we have tried the experiment, and
proved our assertion to be strictly true.
The accounts he gives of his interviews
with Lockhart, jeffrey and Sir Walter
Scott, transport the reader to the very
scenes of their meeting, and make him feel
as if he were present at the interviews.
Another characteristic Of the author is the
pointed effect with which he tells good an
ecdotes, and with these his Recollections
are spiced from beginning to end. Many
of them are so irresistibly humorous as to
make the grayest reader shake his sides.
Aside from these features, these Recollec.
tons contain great number of Biographi-
cal Sketches of men on both sides of the
Atlantic, a complete refutation of the trea-
e~nable charges brought against the men
who composed the Hartford Convention,
and a graphic account of the French Revo
luton of l84s, of which he was an eye wit,
Ira chapter q tRe statistics 81 the Book
Trade in the United States, Mr.. Goodrich
arrives at the following conclusions-That
the gross value of Books manufactured ant
sold in the United States
In the year 1920, was s2,S00,OOO
In 1880. $500, 900
In 1910. $500 600
In 1850. IL, 500 600
In 1856, l6,OOVOOO
This calculation shows an increase Of for
ty per cent. in the ten years elapsing be
tween 1920 and 1880; an increase Of abou
sixty per centEbetween 1880 and 1910
and an increase Of one hundred and TWEEN
ty-ive per cent between ls40 and 1850
The annual increase now is about mil
lion of dollars. In 1920 thirty per cent
of the works published was the production
4 "a