AMERICAN LITERARY ANNUALS & GIFT BOOKS 1825-1865.

By Ralph Thompson '25, H. W. Wilson Company, p. 183. $2.25.

Although less than a century has passed since Literary Annuals and Gift Books were at the height of their vogue, today the terms probably mean little or nothing to the ordinary person unless his curiosity has been stirred to the questioning point by finding titles such as Affection's Gift, or AHoliday Present, The Bouquet for 1847, and The Snow-drop, A Gift for a Friend, collecting dust on the shelves of secondhand bookstores. Literary Annuals and Gift Books originated in Europe as publications issued near Christmas, and intended to be given, not read, by their purchasers. Their distinguishing characteristics were that they contained a potpourri of essays, stories, and poems; that they had bindings more elaborate than those to be found on the usual run-of-the-press books; and that they contained many illustrations, at a time when the ordinary book was sparsely and often poorly illustrated. When American publishers adopted the Gift Book idea, an additional purpose was generally considered—namely, that American Gift Books should be a means of advancing American culture. To this end an effort was made to include in each volume a preponderance of pictures of American scenes by American artists, and to have most of the literary material represent the product of American writers.

Aside from affording a picture of the mental and social life of the times, the chief interest in these Gift Books today is the fact that among the scores of littleknown and now forgotten writers whose stories and poems appeared on their pages, there were also occasional contributions by such persons as Poe, Hawthorne, Longfellow, and Holmes—some of whose works first saw the light of day in this form. Toward the identification of such writers, since often the articles were unsigned, Mr. Thompson has made a valuable contribution, noting for some of the now "collected" authors examples of their work in Gift Books that have been overlooked by their special bibliographers.

Mr. Thompson's book starts with a study of just what is meant by the terms he uses in his title, advances through a discussion of the various publishers and their relations with their contributors, to a brief estimate of the conditions that gave rise to the popularity of these books and their probable cultural effect on American art and letters. Separate chapters are devoted to a thorough study of each of a few of the more important series of Gift Books, and an annotated Catalog of 855 volumes of Gift Books and Literary Annuals is provided. While Mr. Thompson's book is scholarly, it is not oppressively so. For the student there are footnotes bearing witness to an extensive and apparently careful use of widespread source material; and for the collector, the book-dealer, and the librarian, there is the invaluable Catalog. But the casual reader has not been forgotten, and the text itself, simply and clearly written and including appropriate and often amusing anecdotes, provides an interesting-sidelight into a little-known phase of Americana for all those who enjoy exploring the byways of literature and history.