The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-26
The Story Of Rescue Of c Literature
By JOHN wITHER SPOON Du BOSE


 travelled in remote places. He travelled
 with leisure, never in haste. He heard with attention and saw with profit. All kind of men were companions to him. Sir 1 Walter Scott never talked with one, so
 humble and so uninteresting to the aver age man that he failed to learn some
 thing. So with this embryo publisher | The welcome news spread rapidly that southern writers had found publisher The publisher wont among them and | sought them out and discovered them. l Still in pursuit of fixed purpose MT. | Neale made himself a recognized factor l in the society where he lived. He pub
 lished some books, without compensation that he knew would not sell; he published
 articles relating to public affairs without compensation; he gave valuable works of art to public institutions. The publishers s
 obligations to society, perhaps, has not
 been more seriously considered than by ] him.
 l In all this time examples were not wanting to prove the uncertainty of the l project to publish the literature of the south, or literature favorable to the l truth of southern conditions. The En- 1 glish historian, Percy Grey, wrote a his- | tory of the United States of admirable literary interest The plan included a
 
 | count of the genesis and the life of the southern Confectionery. Gen Wade Hamp-
 ton wrote for it introductory pages, con
 graduating the south and the cause of the south. An epitome of the book might well be used text in public
 schoofs, but very few individuals ever I heard of it. The book needed the publish
 er's facilities of marketing.
 1 The Neale Publishing company evident I ly stands toward the book publishing
 business in the world at large, in the at titude of an independent. To illustrate,
 Mir. Neaie's house knows neither race nor
 creed A distinguished author carried his
 manuscript to numerous houses in Flu | rope and in America, without success. l The manuscript criticized publishing l houses and their authors. The Neale | house published it. An eminent Russian l diplomat selects the house of Neale to l produce his intimate account of Japan at | the time that books of the kind were not 1 popular in this country. Even a negro found that he could present his side of | the race question through the house tha, was devoted to the production of books by the leading men and women of the south.
 My own reading of the books from the Neale house has been ample enough to suggest that selections may be made from the list to cover more of the history of the southern Confederacy than is prac- tcable otherwise. To mention briefly a | few of these books, letting their titles
 and their authors suggest their import | ance 'Morgan's Cavalry by Gen. Basil
 Duke; Hoods Texas Brigade" by Jud e J. B. Policy; Three Years in the Con- federate Horse Artillery" by George M.
 Neese of Chew's battery; Confederate Operations in Canada and New York" by Capt. John W. Headley; "Cleburne and His Command by Irving A. Buck, his djutant-general; "Mosbss Men," by
 John H. Alexander of Mosby's command; "Recollections of a Naval Life" by Capt.
 John Mcintosh Kel, executive officer of the Sumter and the Alabama; "A True Story of Andersonville Prison,' by Lieu tenant Page, Union officer confined
 there, who shows that Wirz was hero,
 not subject for the hangmans moose;
 "Recollections of Confederate Staff Of- ficer," by Gen. c. Moxley Sorrel; -Four Years Under Marse Robert" by Maj. Robert Stiles of the Richmond Howitz- CTS; "The Life and Services of John New land Maffit," by his wife. a thoroughly adequate biography of this distinguished
 naval officer. I might continue the list
 over the scores of books equally as inn portant that constitute great history of y. place-the Life of John M Mason, Unit ed States Senator from Virginia and Con- | federate Diplomat in Europe-".. . l It is not the purpose of this paper to refer in detail to the important work that this house has accomplished In the letters of the world, aside from the south's part therein. Probably the
 Neale output of books, distinctly south ern, does not amount to more than half nf thnt v,tlh A,W house. I did not intend to refer to any of the books other than those that re- late to the history of the southern con- federacy, but I yield to the temptation to mention a few of those that other wise affect southern literature. Here nearly all the great southern poets
 have found the means of expression. There are various studies in southern poetry. such as "A Study in Southern Poetry" by Prof. Henry Jerome Stock ard president of Peace institute and Masterpieces of Southern Poetry" MT Neale's own compilation and study; there are histories of southern litera- ture, such as "A History of Southern Literature" by Carl Holiday. who is at the head of the literary department of Vanderbilt university. There arc scores of books of fiction. Mir Neale's own novel might head the list. "The Be- trayal," to which I shall again refer
 Then, the southerners activity h writ ing books that do not relate to the south is represented in many of the Neale
 books of this nature. Thomas Watson, for instance, writes of Waterloo: here we find Greek drama, there study in government; here an intricate prob lem in theology is discussed there O book of travels. But I return to the
 books that relate to the history of the south.
 There is Headleys account of the part that he and his associates played | in the attempt to retaliate, in the west and in the east for the burning and saclxing of southern towns, villages ani farms by the invading armies. The evil dence there found of the extent of the | "copperhead" movement In the upper Mississippi valley, in 1S63-1s64 Is entirely | essential to a history of both sides of | the great war. It becomes startling to | contemplate to what imminence revolu- | tion in the states of the north and the west had approached when, in an evil hour for the confederate side, MT. Davis | destroyed the army of Tennessee by | placing a brave true, but incompetent | commander over 1t in the place of Jo- seph E. Johnston. MT. Davis delivered | an impassioned speech to the remnant of the army of Tennessee at Palmetto Sta | ton, near Atlanta, in September, 1864, | in which he declared the opinion that | Mcclellan would be elected over Lincoln at the November elections. and in that event the west would set him up as president over itself. leaving the east to Lincoln. The destruction of the army of Tennessee, however, resulted in a political situation the reverse of Mr. &tAr