The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-06

One gets taste of its peculiar and
unique flavor at the very beginning, and
it may be mentioned incidentally that
five per cent of the first half page is
made up OF the first personal pronoun,
singular. 1t is worth quoting in part:
II there was anyone in the world who had
his being more wholly in literature than | had
in 1850, | am sure | should not have known
where 70 find him. and | doubt ii he could have
been found the centres of literary activity
than then was, among those purely de-
voted to literature than myself | had been for
three years a writer of news paragraphs, book
notices. and political leaders daily paper in
an inland city. and | do not know that my life
differed outwardly from that Of any other young
journalist who had begun as | had in a country
printing Office. and might be supposed to be
looking forward to advancement in his profession
or IN public affairs. But inWardly it was alto
ecther different with me. Inwardly l a poet.
with no wish to be anything else, unless in a
moment of careless afflucnce | might far for
get myself as to be novelist.
Considering the fact that the author
has forgotten himself in the aforesaid
affluence quite frequently in the last
thirty years, this statement is of interest.
The public may have wondered, in an IDLE
hour, how such a piece of work as The
Silver Wedding Journey came to be writ
ten. The explanation seems TO be that the
author forgot himself in a moment Of
careless affuence.
The simplicity and single-heartedness
Of this half page is carried throughout the
book. The author never for a moment
forgets that it is his Impressions of Haw-
thorne and Holmes and the rest which
will interest the reader, not what they
themselves said or did, or were, and he
occasionally condescendS TO explain tEat
perhaps the unfavorable impression he
got of this, that. or the other great man
Al. on
was tired, or hungry, or had been collared
on the street. We have a picture of
Howells, as a young man, interviewing
Bayard Taylor. Taylor meanwhile mop
ping his brow with an exhausted air, and
we are informed that at that interview
the feelings of the budding author we're
somewhat hurt because Taylor did net
recognize his face on that occasion. They
had met once year previous. and at the
second interview Mr.. Howells was TOO
scared to give his name.
Thus the first Of the literary men or
whose acquaintance with Mr.. Howelis,
the book is destined to inform us. We are
subsequently told of the young Ohio man
lion hunt through the purlieus of Boston,
Cambridge, and New York and are Incl
dentally informed that though he had
firmly resolved to go to pan s, BE-
hemian resort on Broadway, of which he
had heard because he believed that lit
erary people went there, though he was
sure that the tobacco and beer which he
would be required to consume would
make him sick This little touch is one
of the most pastoral and delightful things
in the entire book.
Nest of the authors lion hunts appear
TO have been successful. The literary
man of the sixties was comparatively de-
fenceless. He was a lion in his den. and
could be cornered and moreover, the dens
were very near together. The coterle OF
congenial spirits who made Boston at one
time the centre of American literary &C
tiyity we're so closely related by the
bonds of friendship and old acquaintance
that it was comparatively simple mat
ter to know them all. Suffice 1t TO say
that Mr.. Howells did it. and that now he
has been and gene and told about it.
New York: Harper & Bros. S2.5OJ