The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-18
ELIJAH KELLOGG DEAD.
The Author of Boys Books PASSES
Away i'm New England.

! PORTLAND. Me, March 1.-THE Rev.
/ Elijah Kellogg, the weIl-known writer of
i Juvenile stories died today at Harpswell.
where he had been pastor OF the Harps-
wen Congregational Church for thirty
| years.
/ He was born in Portland in May. 1873.
son of the Rev. Elijah Kellogg. one of
/ Portlands early ministers, who died in
lSl2. aged eighty-one years.
| Owing TO the failure of his publishers.
his stories netted him very little. He
leaves a son and daughter
Mr.. Kellogg is known to every boy who
axes axe. any interest whatever in good
"hoiesome. stirring Juvenile stories, as
one OF the best writer's of books Tor boys
VINO ever lived, and there are thouss uds
OF men who well remember hearing his
Weli-SnoWn piece of elocution. 'SparJacrIs
TO the Giadiators at Capua." from the
lips or some ambitious young fellow in
front OF the teachers desk on graduation
day, or on some other show occasion
lie was born at Portland Me, on May
20 1915, and spent, so far as several Of
I his biographers know, all of his early
days near that city He was graduated
from BowdOin College in 1910 and then
went to the Andover Theological Semi
nary at Andover, Mass, from which he
was graduated in 1915. The next year he
was ordained pastor of the Congrega-
tional Church al Harpswell, Me. a small
I
Casco Bay. well known as a summer re-
sort region.
In 1855 he became chaplain of the Boston
/ Seaman's Friend Society and continued as
such until 1860. 1T was about this time
that Mr.. Kellogg began to lecture ana
also to write With few exceptions his
writing was for boys, and although be
had not written many of them In the
last twenty years, nearly every one of
two or three dozen is TO be found ia
many of the big city libraries. and almost
every town library in New England tSpe-
cially boasts of at least one of them.
Every one of these is almost invariably
well thumbed and worn, thus bearing the
best tribute it's readers could pay 10 its
excellence or absorbing interest.
The first series of books which he wrote
was called The Elm Island Stories. the
/ first of which was written about 1853.
They all had attractive titles such IS
Lion Ben of Elm Island. Charlie Bell.
the Wait of Elm Island The Ark Ct
! Elm Island" The Boy Farmers of
Elm Island and so on. Then came the
Forest Glen series, comprising Sowed
by the Wind 2" Wolf Run, and Brought
to the Front" The next series was the
Pleasant Cove" series After that came
est Glen series comprised The Mission
of Black Rife, or on the Trail, Forest
Glen, or the Mohawk'5 Friendship
'Burying the Ratchet. or the Young
Brave Of the Delawares. From 1871 To
1883 were published the books of the
Good Old Times series.
lures and haTdshiDs of young pioneers
and old pioneers. too-and their fights
with Indians while building houses in the
Wilderness. Throughout them all there
was nothing of the Dare Devil Dick-the-
daring lighter of-the-RockieS style. On
the other hand. no boy ever found in Mr..
kellogg's books an overabundance of
indiscriminate piety or ''gOody- gOOdy
stuff. That was what made them good
from the viewpoint of their boy readers.
They were full of action. No character
in them ever gave a lecture on the way
to roast a pig knuckle in lump of clay:
he went and roasted it while you looked
on. so to speak, and when the roast was
finished you smacked your lips. That
quality of the books was what made a
man who works in library say recently:
That man was a juvenile Fennimore
Cooper. And what a lot OF fun we have
had from reading his books and those OF
men who wrote like him-'OliVer Optic
and Horatio Algerl
Mr.. KeIlogg's "Spartacus TO the Gladi-
atOrs'' is a piece of elOquence which is
not heard often in the schools nowadays,
but IL can be found in EDes Sargent's
Standard Speaker. He who went 10
the district school" or even the city
member well the lines:
''Ye call me chief; and ye do well to call
him chief who for twelve long years has
met upon the arena every shape or man
or beast the broad empire of Rome could
furnish and who never yet lowered his
q rm. If there be any among you who can
say that ever in public fight or private
brawl my actions did belle my tongue, let
him stand up and say it. If there be
three in all your company dare face me I
on the bloody sands. let them come forth
And yet I was not always thus, and so
on
II seems that for some reason. Mr. kel-
logg did not enjoy many pecuniary fruits
from the popularity Of his books. The
failure of publishing house in which he
was interested has been mentioned as a
cause of this His recent. years were
passed in straitened circumstances