The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-31
FORGOTTEN BOOKS.
Once Popular Novels That Are Sinking
 Into Oblivion.
Dealer.

! NhCNdI tiy aTllCle OH Disappearing 1 Authors has well nigh subsided. Nat. l urally many exceptions were taken tc 1 MT McCarthy's enumeration of authors l who are disappearing, and any at- l tempt to name the books that have
 wholly disappeared would probably be 1 met with like criticism. By forgotten | books I mean, of course, not the name less army of literary offspring which died at birth, but the books that at one
 period not only possessed life, but the l names of which were on everybody s | lips.' says Joseph Dana Miller in the Era.
 When We come to consider it the
 number is really quite surprising. Yes
 terday we were all reading 'Trilby,' the day before that Robert Elsmere;' to- day who reads them or even recom-
 mends them to, the newer generation
 But if we go beyond these dates we are
 among the literary catacombs indeed!
 "A short time ago we were reminded
 by the advent of new book by Robert
 Seeley that the author of 'Ecco Homo
 is still living. But what of 'Ecco Homo, work that created a remarkable sen-
 sation in its day? What of Caleb Will
 liams,' 'Horne's Orion, the poetry of
 Alexander Smith and Sydney Dobbell? :?
 Where Is dear, sweet Hannah Moore
 of whose poetry, Marion Harland tells us
 in her recent volume. Garrick was ac-
 customed to read in way that drew
 tears from the eyes of his hearers?
 Where is Mrs. Gaskell, whose Cram
 ford we ought to take up again, even
 If We ignore everything else that she
 wrote? Where is pr. Bird, of Phila-
 delphia, the author of the lusty drama,
 Spartacus and some Aztec romances
 which won the praise of Prescott?
 There were few more popular books in
 the forties than Margaret by Sylves-
 ter Judd. It was thought by compe-
 tent critics-competent at least for their
 time-to be the most perfect of Ameri- can novels. Lydia Maria Child is known for her anti-slavery work, but who re-
 members her for her novels? But what could exceed the one-time vogue of the 'Greyslaer, by Charles Fenno Hoffman,
 whose name will be remembered for the tragic pathos of his closing years. But greater than all of these was the popu- larity of Herman Melville's 'Typee' and 'Omoo works which delighted Flaw thorne. In an introduction of later edition of Typee' the writer says: T do not believe "Typee" will ever lose it's position as q classic of American literature.' But 1t has, nevertheless, though 1t is not at all unlikely that these South Sea romances influenced Stevenson. Certainly, outside of Ste vensons work in the same line they have no rivals. Their exubenance of dction Is probably their chief defect. popularity began to decline long before his death.
 "Tuppers proverbial Philosophy might be allowed to repose undisturb- edy Robert Montgomery, whom Macau- lay so mercilessly pilloried, might also sleep. Yet the popularity of Robert poetry was greater in Its day than of many works which have survived it-greater even than the won- derful poetry of Coleridge, Macaulay tells us. With Robert, too, might be 1 allowed to repose that other Montgom- cry, whose first name was James, but | whose verse, intolerably dull, was once greatly admired Bryant valued 1t highly and knew some of the poems by heart; so did Southey, who, not much | If poet himself, was forever descry- | ng poetry in others. With the two | let Pollok's Course of Time be inferred.
 But shall not good word be said | 'or Coltons 'Lacon,' even though Poe declared that 1t contained not single that might not be traced to Seneca, Plutarch, Bolingbroke and 7ochefoucauld? Less than 50 years ago read the Lamplighter.' It Is lot bad story, though weak in plot md characterization. It was tfanslat- d into many languages, About the anne time appeared 'Queechy'; that, oo was variously translated, and had great vogue, as did The Wide, Wide World by the same author. The few 'oung girls who ask for these works at he circulating libraries do so because hey have heard their mothers speak of hem in terms of extravagant praise. both are ignored by the reat mass of novel-readers Once ev- rybody read The Prince of the House f David'; how many among hundred f the best informed bookmen could tell ven the authors name? Yet it was he forerunner and antetype of Ben iur.'
 But the most remarkably circulated york in American literary history is Ida May by Mrs. Mary H. Pike, of mich 60,000 copies were sold in IS 1onths. As this was In 1854 it is doubt ul, when we reflect that our population ras much less than half of what 1t is { D. day, if the record of any subsequent ook very mcuh surpasses it. Ida May ! as the forerunner of Uncle Tom's Ii abin' Mrs. Pike published a number f other novels under the pen name of ydney A. Story, but none of them had ( nything like the same success. Among other American authors of l reat popularity in the past was Theo- l ore s. Fay, who in 1853 was our min ter to Switzerland. The number of his ovels was large; he was poet too, nd an essayist. In 1882 he published ' Is Dreams and Reveries of Quiet .an, and in 1889 his Three Germanys 6 a record of literary longevity which I ands almost alone. r "It would be interesting to examine . le literary pension list of England. [ ne would suppose that anyone so hon. | ed would have done something mem- t able in literary. It is, for the most T lrt, list of literary melodies. It [ ould not be wholly accurate so to Il