Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1889-05-02
A Chat about Books and Authors.

{
from admirers Of his book. in this countr,
through the American Treasurer. ). +
Russell of Boston.
President William DE Wit, HYDE of Bow
dom College contributes 10 the May rumbs
OF The Forum. thoughtful, scholarly an
sensible article on School examinations
which ne commend to careful reading ON III
part OF teachers and school officers.
Ii is said that Count Lyof Tolroi, tn
Russian novelist, has been so deeply int,
ested in little book recently published i
Boston, that he is 10 have It translated an
published in Russian The Interesting thin
about this to US, is that the book-wbich is en-
Titled Jesus and the men about Him'-ra
written by a Maine man. Rev Charlie
Fletcher Dole, q native of Norriigewock
and now pastor Of the Unitarian church a
jana ia Plain, Mass. This transla ion vii
| probably be made by his brother, Nathai
Haskell Dole, who i. one of the finest Rus
.lan scholars in the country, author of
History OF Russia. and translator OF man,
Russian works into English.
The public library of Saco possesses a rar,
volume which is associated with The literar-
career of our New England romano. writer
Hawthorne. The volume is a copy of Cottor
Mather's history of New England, in folio
and formerly belonged to the old Essex
Mass, public library from which it was oh
tanned by exchange. 1t was the identica
copy studied by Hawthorne aud from whicl
he obiaine the facts " hich he has woven int,
many of his romances of New England his
tory, especially The House of the Sever
Gables and THE Scarlet Letter" Tbs
old volume contains many of Hawthorne,
interhneTt tons and marginal votes attestins
the care with which he read and studied.
New books announced by Houghton
Mitfin & Co, Boston in some of which our
readers may be interested are : Henry Cabot
Lodges life of Washington. in two volume
Emerson in Concord, sketch of the pri-
vate and dome site life of Ralph Waldo Emer-
son, by his son. Edward W. Emerson; new
edition of Thackerys works in twenty two
volumes, and the new story-"The Open
Door by Blanche Willis Howard, author
of lone Summer" And while pen is in
haud on this item We may mention that this
firm has lately purchased the copy rights OF
all the books be longing TO the firm of Ticknor
g. Co which has been dissolved This trans
fer brings 10 the Houghton house many i'm.
portant works which will now appear in new
editions, and adds many noted names to then
already famous list OF American authors
Mr.. George F Godfrey of Bangor, a member
of the Arm of 1ickuor & Co, retires from
the publishing business.
And speaking of portraits, we are remind
ed how poor they are. or in other words how
generally unsatisfactory. An old frie nd
of ours would not see Dickens
when he was in this country. or hear
him read. although Dickens was his favorlte
author. and it would have been an easy thing
for him to have both seen and heard him.
But he preferred TO be content with his ideal
of the man. fearing that this ideal would be
DESTROYED if the real man was to take its
place. Some feeling akin 10 this forms it.
self about the portrait of favorite author.
This same number of the Book Buyer con-
tains portraits of Mrs Ellen Olaey Kirk,
author of Margaret Kent" and of Sally
Pratt Mclean author of Cape Cod FCiks, "
both of which show 20 evidence of the indi-
vidual, not to say strong, characteristlcs of
those works. Is not the same true of recent
portraits of Mrs Mary Ward, Octave Thanet
and Margaret Deland, especially the latter?
Their portraits fail utterly to impress one
with strength genius or ability.
Forty years ago Browning posed great po-
etical gifts, and his devoted readers had
him at his best in BELLS and Pome
grauates," "Pippa Passes and "A Souls
Tragedy" But the o5scurity and bcwiller-
mont which characterises his later work is
evident from the presence of the various so
cieties in England and our own country
whose object is the elucidation and eIplana-
ton of his verse. Upon these societies and
their work Mr.. Richard Henry StoddarI in the
Mail and Express makes most just and sensi-
bic criticism when lie remarks IF Browning
had joined the choir of the immortsls as long
ago as Shakespeare and Milton, we
might, perhaps. sympathze with the es-
abiishment of institutions in his behalf, but
living as he does in our own time, and writ
ing for the understanding of his contempora-
RES. we rather resent the supposed necessity
for this roundabout way Of reaching his
meaning. A poet of the nineteenth century,
We say, ought to be Ineligible to his readers
in the same century" To this we think there
will be few dissenting opinions among gen
eral readers or students of literature OF our
own day.
The receipt of the May number of the
Book Buyer, containing as a frontispieee a
late and what may be regarded as a good por-
trait of America, great historian Gerge Ban
croft, shows how aged this until lately, vigor-
Gus author has become But do we remember
the years which he counts; and that the date
of his birth carries US back eighty-nine years
The present generotion of readers remembers
him chiefly as the historian of our country,
the first volume of his monumental work
having been published fifty four years ago,
but we are liable to overlook his
public and political career and
the distinguished services he has rem
dered the nation. Mr.. Bancroft has been
Secretary of the Navy, L S. Minister to
England, and also Minister to the German
Empire. was the originator of the Naval
Academy ard NAV almost be said to have
been the father of the National Observatory
But he will he best and longest rene bered
as the Historian of the United States, and
his great work on this subject can never be
displaced. The best portrait OF Mr.. Ban
croft, we think. is that in the first volume of
Appleton's Cyclopedia of American BIZ
ogrsphy
Ar5 .n.,kino of this old volume asso-
o;.,sd Win Hawthorne. brings to mind an
o,ar,nIs of living associate with this grea,
.n,ho, in ON, own eity Those who have
- ii. ,.Twics Told T.les- will rome mher
,h.t ono entitled Little Annie. Ramble. "
IN xb;cb Hawthorne describes himself a.
wandering about the streets of Boston, lead.
;na nt,l.. girl bv tho hand telling how he