A History of American Literature Since 1870

by FRED LEWIS PATTEE, A.M. '88. The Century Company, 1915.

Professor Pattee's new "History of American Literature since 1870," which has already attracted widespread attention, and has elicited much favorable comment, bears the following dedication: "To Dartmouth College, and the Dartmouth men of the eighties, students and professors, among whom I first awoke to the meaning of literature and life, this book is inscribed with full heart." How wide and deep has been the interest in American literature thus aroused in Professor Pattee while still an undergraduate, the pages of this volume testify. To their making has gone the constant reading and study of thirty years, not alone in the field of the writings of well established authors, but also in the by-paths of uncounted ephemeral productions. Moreover, Professor Pattee has had to blaze his own trail, for this is the first book of its kind to appear; previous histories of American literature have not even attempted in individual chapters to treat as a unit the literary output of this recent period.

In the volume an attempt is made to deal with all the important literary figures of the country who have won recognition since 1870 and before 1892. The choice of the first date is based on the belief of Professor Pattee that this marks the beginning of a truly national period in our literature, when lines of distinction between east and west, north and south, melted away, and when prose and poetry alike began to express the spirit and temper of our country as a whole. The latter date, 1892, was evidently selected more as a matter of convenience, but certain disadvantages result from this choice; we could wish to have had included many of the writers of the nineties who belong, after all, to the same group as those of the eighties. It was necessary, however, to find a stopping-point somewhere, and that not too close to the present day.

The book is interesting, stimulating, and sane. Biographical and critical material are woven together in readable fashion; neither is allowed to obscure

the other. A few big figures are considered in separate chapters; in general, however, the method followed has been that of dealing with groups of writers whose work is closest allied in subject matter and treatment. To each chapter are appended excellent bibliographical notes. These notes represent the expenditure of much labor and care on the part of the compiler, and, because they have heretofore been inaccessible in convenient form, will prove invaluable to the general student.

Many of the chapters are of especial worth because in them for the first time we have an adequate critical treatment of the works of men who have at last won their secure and rightful positions in the history of American letters. Such are the excellent discussions of Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and W. D. Howells, who in previous literary histories have been scantily treated. The chapter on Whitman also is complete and carefully judicial, and the study of the humorists of the period is particularly illuminating. Consideration is given to a surprisingly large number of minor writers in poetry, fiction, and the essay, and the essential contributions of each to our great mass of modern literature are carefully analyzed and appreciated.

Of course, no critic in dealing with the work of men so close to his own time, can hope to be infallible in his estimates. Professor Pattee's errors of judgment seem, however, to be astonishingly few. Not many student will approve the sense of proportionate values which allots in a volume of this size a chapter of seventeen pages to the eccentric and bombastic work of Joaquin Miller, and which at the same time dismisses the poems of Emily Dickinson with nine sentences ending with the opinion that "they should have been allowed to perish as their author intended." Nor can one quite understand why Thoreau, who died in 1862, should be brought over into this period simply because he is "thoroughly of American soil;" one might adduce arguments to prove a similar statement about Ralph Waldo Emerson or even Cotton Mather. The reader feels, too, in many places, that Professor Pattee's desire to emphasize the national characteristics of the period has led him to over-rate certain minor writers of the South and to under-estimate the work of men and women whose modes of thinking were fashioned by the school of the previous half century.

The book then, as a whole, is most commendable. It. fills a place in the field of literary history that has long been vacant, and will undoubtedly stand as an authoritative work for many years to come. The facts here given are accurate, and most of the critical judgments expressed will need modification only when sufficient time has passed for succeeding periods of literature to have placed the writings of this period in a new perspective.

Rev. Albert Weston Moore, D.D. '64, contributes "Why the Raising of Lazarus is not Reported by the Synoptists," in the Bibliotheca Sacra for January.

Little, Brown & Company have just published "The Influence of Joy," by George Van Ness Dearborn '90. This book will be reviewed in a later issue of the magazine. Mr. Dearborn is the author of "Economy in Study," in issues of the Scientific American Supplement for April 15, and April 29.

Edwin W. Sanborn '78, is the author of "Discovery of Lake Nipigon," in the April number of Outing, and of "The Greater Nipigon" in the June number of the same magazine.

Allan L. Priddy '15, is the author of "A History of the Russian Debt," in Moody's Magazine for April, 1916.

"The Coming Election," by Chas. D. Hazen '89, appears in the issue of Harper's Weekly for April 29.

Kendall Banning '02, is the author of "Six Brothers Find Success Out of Failure," in the January-February number of System.

Fred O. Copeland 'OB has recently been appointed Trapshooting Editor of Forest and Stream, and conducts four pages each month in the magazine. Copeland is the author of "Trying Out the 20," in the May Outing, and "Goings-On at the Uncle Lisha Gun Club," in the April issue of Forest and Stream.

Harry O. Sandberg '10, is the author of "Central America of Today," a series of articles published in the Bulletinof the Pan American Union for January, February, and March.

"Great Pan American Opportunity," by John Barrett '89, appears in the March Engineering Magazine.

Edward K. Robinson '04, has edited for school purposes, Irving's "The Alhambra," and Swift's "Gulliver's Travels." Both are published by Ginn & Company. "The Alhambra," illustrated by Norman Irving Black, has been revised and rearranged, and some papers originally omitted have been added by the editor. The "Gulliver's Travels," containing "A Voyage to Lilliput, and a Voyage to Brobdingnag," have been kept by the editor as much like the original edition as practicable. Both books have prefaces and notes by Mr. Robinson, and should prove of value for school work.

Lippincott & Company have just issued a new and revised edition of "Birds in Their Relation to Man; a Manual of Economic Ornithology for the U. S. and Canada," by Clarence M. Weed, and Ned Dearborn '91.

"The Shoe Industry," by F. J. Allen '89, published by the Vocation Bureau of Boston, will be reviewed in a later issue of the magazine.

L. B. Evans' "Life of Samuel W. McCall," '74, published by Houghton, Mifflin Company, will be reviewed later.