The record-union., 1894-12-24
EDGAR L. WAKEMANS WORK.
Short Review of Remarkable Lit
erary Career.

Short Review of a Remarkable Lit
erary Career.
Readers of the RECORD UNION have
been furnished every week for several
years with the result of the labors of Ed
gar l.. Wakeman, the Dickens of
America" whom DR.. Oliver Wendell
Holmes pronounced the most perfect and
powerful fictional writer of the century.
They will regret, as we do, that Mr..
Wakemau has retired from the field of
newspaper work and entered upon "a
broader literary field. Other special
features will take the place of Mr.. Wake
mans work i'll the RECORD UNION.
Edgar l.. Wakeman's nine years con-
tinuous contribution to the literary sup
plements of American and European
Journals, Is, for various reasons, more
than ordinary achievement and one en-
titling him to very high rank in the an
nails of current English literature.
Although for eight years his WORK ap-
peared as special weekly articles for news
paper use, 1t is still notable that every
one of this more than four hundred con-
tributions has been complete, symmet-
ric, scholarly and Enthusiastically orig
inal literary composition.
AT the outset he was already journalist.
editor, traveller. polished writer and
brilliant poet, and he at once brought to
this work such fund of experience and
reminiscence, broad acquaintance with
men and things and, more than all, such
a keenneSS OF dlScernment, comprehen-
siveness OF judgment and sympathetic in
sight into human conditions and outreach-
lngs, that the entire product OF his nine
years OF literary service cannot but be re-
garded as an invaluable addition to the
historic, descriptive, reference and gen.
eral literature OF the English tongue.
hnvhnn1 hax
friend and close student of the gypsy
race; and. the literature upon this mys-
terious and ancient people being meRger
and for the most part unreliable such
were his earnestnesS and persistence in
this field OF research that the published
results of his wanderlngS with an An
cient Race which will be eagerly well
coined in book foIm, clearly entilIe him
TO rank as the highest living authority on
the origin, language, history, traditions
and everyday life OF the gypsies.
His,articles of travel in Cuba, where.
on foot and for the most part alone, he
made thorough and exhaustive study
ofthe island, its inhabitants. its resources
advantages and fascinating natural beau
ties comprise the most valua bic and en-
tertaining material yet available on that
country and people. Then came year
of literary work III Ireland. His notable
series, tAfoot in Ireland" was the result
through actual trampings across every
county and into almost every parish
with its humbIest and highest folk, its
every natural beauty, historic signiii-
canoe, race relationship and wonderful
antiquities; and the series unquestiona-
bly, stands at the head OF that descriptive
literature upon Ireland which may be
worthily regarded as genuinely inform
ing, sympathetic and just.
His later literary travels were again
wanderings on foot through the Mediter-
ranean countries of Europe, Northern
Africa and the Azores, over England and
Scotland repeatedly, through the Isle Of
Man and Norway, and even into the
frozen northland OF the Lapps and Firms.
Ali OF these countries and their people
were brought to his almost numberless
audience so clearly, SO closely and so
friendly that, as thousands have volun-
farily testified, the reader ever seemed to
walk beside the author and with alert
ayes and heart be drawn into the self