Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-01-14
OUR BOOK TABLE.
HOLLANDS woRKs-rHE MENDELssoHN
FAMILY-JAs. T. FIELDs-GEoLoGY
schwatka's search-shakespeare for the
Yourg-spain and the Span
iards.

THIS MESDzLssoHs FAxILY-1729 -1s47. From let
tiers and journals BY Sebastian Heusel. With
portraits and drawings by wilhelm heusel. Trans
lated by Karl kHngeniann and an American col
laoorator. In two vols. Royal Svo. New York
Harper u Bros. San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft
& Co.
This translation into the English of work
SO familiar IN German was happy thought.
La this work Felix Mendelssohn is the CEN
trail figure We very heartily unite with
Mr.. Grove, wherein he says that there are
few persons whose intimate CORES pondeHce
can be laid bare to an extent to which his has
been without suffering from the process In
his case, however, the reverse is true aud Of
the many new letters by him here printed,
often of very private nature, there are few
that do not add some new trait of nobility,
goodness, tenderness or delicacy of feeling to
his portrait. For the history Of his works,
and of the development of his genius and
talent, the book is indeed invaluable. Felix's
letters, however, though the main feature of
the Mendelssohn Family, are by no mears
its own one. Not to speak of the early ard
more historical portion of thess volumes, to
the majority of readers Felix's father will be
q new and unexpected character. His letters
from Paris and London abound in humor,
shrewdness and amusing gossip of that now
remote date and those addressed to Fanny
on her confirmation and other occasions will
be read with respect and interest by many
who differ from him in religion. The mother,
too, is a new and very attractive personality.
The two sisters figure so largely in their let
tiers aud journals, that it is unnecessary TO do
more than allude to them. They are entirely
distinct, and each paints herself in unmistak-
able colors. Their journals are full of
observation and ability, and bring a
number of DISTINGUISHED persons, in va
rious walks of life, painters, statesmen,
musicians, princes. men of business,
favorably and Enthusiastically before u.s."
While these volumes are full of interest gen.
orally, the letters given are by far the most
attractive of the pages. There is sincerity,
depth of love, and profundity of respect
made manifest in these epistles, especially in
those between the brothsr Felix and his SIS
tiers, that is simply delightful for instance
these sentences: Dear Fanny: My best
love and congratulations ION the birth of her
son). Accept them as you accept all l can
give you, not thinking or the gift but of the
giver's heart l am with you in my thoughts,
as shall always be, come what may. Then
follows one of his songs without words, writ
ten for FANNY Oh, you darling
sisters, when you write such long letters, and
with such delightful confusion, and such a
lot of nonsense, certain countryman of
yours feels more deeply moved than ne would
by many tragedy-perhaps because he
knows you so well. =" The life of
Mendelssohn was eventful, and the two vol
umes before US present it in all its romance.
all its beauty, with all its lights and shades,
and delights and sorrows. Sebastian Heusel,
the author of these volumes. was the son of
Fanny, the sister of Felix MendelssohD, and
daughter of Abraham, the second son of
Moses Mendelssohn, the head of the family
of which this work treats.
JAMES T. FIELDS BIOGRAPHICAL NoTEs AND PER
soNAL SKETCHES Unpublished fragments and
tributes from men and women of letters. Boston
Houghton, Miffiin Co. Sacramento W. A &
e. S. Houghton. Royal Svo., uncut.
This volume opens with poem " in
memorism," by Whittier, wherein he pays
this tribute to Fields:
What is there to gloss or shun?
Save with kindly voices none
Speak thy name bentath the sun.
Every harsh and vexing thing
Al tue home fire lost its sting.
Where thou always spring.
Small respect for can't and whine
BigOt's zeal and hate malgn,
Had that sunny soul OF thine.
The volume thus appropriately opened is
roehen, in memory of Fields. We are given
in this interesting book rapid sketch Of the
boyhood of Mr.. Fields, revealing how early
his genius gave promise of the full manhood
of usefulness and brilliancy. In very few
pages we are hastened on over his youth and
up to his ripe maturity, his first disappoint-
ment, the death of Mary Willard, his trip to
Europe; and then we are fully launched
upon his diary entries and his letters, and
the events and results of his literary
career lhis business life as publisher.
His correspondence with Miss Milford is
given quite fully. His correspondence in the
sos embraced letters to and from, almost
without exception, all the men and women of
any literary note in America, as Hawthorne,
Willis, Anna Cora Mowatt, Halleck, Mar
gsres Fuller, Mrs. Kirkland, Miss Sedg-
wick, Sargent, Lewis Gaylord Clark, Brain
ard, Bayard Taylor. Sumner, Hirst, Morris
Read, DR.. Charming, and others. OF his
career as a publisher the volume is rich in
Renaissance, and the best of all the selec-
tions is that from George William Curtis,
who tells of the l'ttle corner bookstores
busy. crowded shop, with its curtained desk
in the corner. where the literary partner well
coined the famous men and women of the
day,
THAT curtained corner bookstore is remem-
bered by those who knew it in its great days, as
Beaumont recalled the reyes at the immortal tav
ern. What merry peals; what fun and
chaff and story. Not only poet broug hit his poem
there still glowing from his heart, but the lecturer
came from the train with his freshest touches Of
local humor 1t was the Exchange of wit; the
Rialto OF current good things the hub OF the hub
And it was the work of one man. Fields was the
geYaius loci. Fields with his gentle spirit his gen.
and ready sympathy, his love of letters and of
literary men, his fine taste, his delightful humor
his business tact and skill, drew as magnet draws
ind of fha Shr and tha
elusive as well the gay men OF the world and the
selt-possessed favorites of the people.
The correspondence and diary entries of
later years Introduce Agassiz, Bryant,
Holmes, Thoreau, Thomas Starr King, Pro-
lessor Ticknor. Howells. Aldrich. lowell.