The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-12-21

and had reached the summit, he began to
edit the London "Cornhill Magazine, ;"
and it created much interest. Before he
began it was London talk, and around
the Kingdom besides. Readers were on
tiptoe. for thy knew the master He
drew to his support such an array of
real talent as probably never before or
since rallied to the upbuilding of any
purely literary enterprise. l give only
part of the list, but the names selected
show how strong, even brilliant the array
CT authors; Lord Tennyson, Lord Hough--
ton, Mrs. Stowe, Mrs. E. B. Browning,
George Augustus Sala, Mrs. Gaskell.
Mary Hewitt, Charles Lever, Frederick
Locker, Lawrence Oliphant, John Rus
kin, T. A. Trollope, Herman Melville,
Adelaide Proctor, Matthew Arnold, Lord
Lytton, the elder, Miss Anna Thackeray
(now Mrs. Richie, and highly gifted
and others not so we'll known to my
readers, but men of mark in letters. 1t
is no wonder that it was a great and i'm
mediate success. Thackeray built him.
self a fine new house but died within
two years. Like Dickens and Steven
son, he left an unfinished novel he called
Denis Duval." He was but 50, and the
cause of death was spasms, to which be
had been subject for some years. There
is a bust of him in Westminster Abbey.
He left an income for his two daughters,
who survived him, of $3.50 year. He
was born in Calcutta, India, July Is,
1911. He was educated in part at Cam
bridge University, spending less than
two years there. He had hard time of
it before he won fame and secured
money enough to live on. He married
Isabella, daughter of Col Matthew Shaw.
in 1887 She became hopelessly afflicted
ina few years and lived in perfec. Sc
clusion He was practically a wjdower
until his death on oath of December.
1863. He was considerably above six
feet high-some four inches. He had an
ample chest, broad fNehead, flowing
gray hair and broken nose. In addition
to being a novelist of the first rank, he
was much of a poet, and particularly
so as a comic poet. His Ballads" are
famous, and of the best. Thackeray was
great at imitation. He initiated Bulwer,
Disraeli, Lever and G. p. r. James and
most amusingly in burlesque. His imi-
tation of Bulwer is specially fine. The
imitation of Scott by the brothers Smith.
who wrote the famous book known ard
read still, called Rejected Addresses,
is regarded as superb, and is praised hy
critics. Anthony Trollope, in his biog-
raphy of Thackeray, says that Scott said
of it that he must have written 1T him
self. But Scott said more, which Troll
lope fails to give. The great Scotsman
said, as it is given in Lockhart's work,
that he never knew that he had writ
ten ANYTHING so bad" Let me mention
here that at no time was Thackeray bet
ter understood and appreciated more
heartily than at the present time. Within
two or three years several new editions
of his works have been published. Luz
none so costly and elegant as one in his
time, that sold for some $3.50 sst.
To talk about rehabiltating him rs pure
nonsense. Among educated men and wo-
men of middle age or older, he has been
a faVorite. His exalted qualities of
genius and style have been seen and
admired all alone. If any one novel Ill
English is greater than all other great
novels it is Henry Esmond," the su-
premist work of literary art of its au-
Their, and without parallel in any lam
x
nineteenth century, it is in the precise
style of the greatest writer's as to style of
the early part of the eighteenth century,
in the time of Queen Annette time
when Swift and Addison and Dick Steele
f1ourished.
am reminded here of the variableness
of the popularity of other great writer's.
There is an unaccountable reaction in
the fame or admiration of some authors
Byron has been under eclipse. George
Eliot is suffering in the same way, and
yet she is the greatest female novelist
of the English race, as Byron is surely
one of it's greatest poets since Spenser
Shakespeare and Milton. At one time so
delightful and great writer as
Macaulay passed under shadow, and
many critics sought to so detract from
his great qualities as TO render him less
a favorite than he had been. But there
is complete rehabilitating OF the rnost
fascinating essayist and historian OF all
who employ English as the vehicle OF
thought and expression. Matthew
Arnold, a great authority quarter of
century ago, gave Macaulay a very
"black eye" by an abSurdly sweeping
and dctracting criticism. His conden-
nation offended hosts of readers. for it
was seen that either want of taste or
an intense prejudice had misled this able
essayist and assailant. Now Maca Hay
is enthroned completely again. and with
hardly rival. What historian has so
charmed by his style, and so enthralled
by the presentation of historic events and
actors. Arnold predicted that Macaulay
would cease to reign. But here in an
other century English writers-Pros.
Jeff and Mr.. Macgregor-have roc
published lectures upon him, 1t is rally
Arid who has lost his grip upon the
reading world, and not the splendid his
torian and essayist, as we'll rs clever
poet. Read any other famous history by
an English author of repute. Stubbs,
Freeman, Froude. Gardiner. or any
others. unless we except John Richard
Green. and who has written what - SO
positively fascinating to read? who has
shown the consummate art-the precision,
the clearness, the most memorable effec-
tiveness of statement that Macaulay
shows all through and every where?
Northern writer some time ago, | do not
recall his name wrote of Macaulay, and
cited an instance of his great art. He