USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume Five > Part 4
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drama," is the author of "Modern Poet-Prophets : Essays, Critical and Interpretative."
That most stimulating of all provocatives to literary commentary and controversy, the Shakespearean drama, has furnished a theme for more than one Ohio publica- tion. Whatever may be thought of the merits of the Shakespeare-Bacon discussion, the bibliographer notes with some suprise that the first gun in that strange battle was fired by a young woman of Tallmadge, Ohio, in the County of Summit, Miss Delia Salter Bacon (1811-59), whose famous book, "Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded," with preface by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was published in London, 1857, it being the author's zealous purpose "to solve the enigma of those mighty dramas," which the auda- cious critic devoutly admired though she endeavored to prove they could not have been written by "that booby," William Shakespeare. Carlyle, to whom she came with a letter of introduction from Emerson, laughed at her theory, which, nevertheless, has found many advocates.
More important than Miss Bacon's theory or the "Cryptogram" literature to which it gave rise, are the scholarly speculative works of Denton Jaques Snider (1841 -), an author who was born and raised in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, and who now lives in St. Louis. His critical writings on Shakespeare are regarded by so competent a judge as Dr. William T. Harris, and by many European scholars, as of especial value in reveal- ing the ethical significance of the immortal dramas. Dr. Snider, a graduate of Oberlin College and one of the lecturers of the Concord School of Philosophy,
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devotes himself exclusively to authorship and to the elucidation of his somewhat transcendental doctrines from the platform. He is a man of profound erudition and of very bold speculative views. Besides his nine volumes of "Commentary on the Literary Bibles," viz., Shakespeare, Goethe, Homer and Dante, he has published five volumes of poems, three volumes on psychology, three on Froebel and the Kindergarten, and several miscellaneous books, including one novel. Among his later publications are: "The Father of History," "Ancient European Philosophy," and a political treatise entitled "The State." Under the general caption, "Psychology: The New Science Uni- versal," his principal works have recently been pub- lished in a series of sixteen volumes. In 1894 Oberlin College conferred the degree, Litt. D., upon Professor Snider, "her greatest scholar."
James E. Murdoch, the celebrated actor, whose home was in Warren County, Ohio, wrote "A Short Study of Hamlet," "A Short Study of Macbeth," and other critical studies, and his volume entitled "The Stage," published in 1884, is replete with suggestive comments on the dramatic art. One chapter discusses the topic, "Shakespeare and His Critics."
Henry Hooper, of Hamilton County, Ohio, who has written luminously on the philosophy of Schopenhauer, is also the author of various scholarly articles in dra- matic criticism published in "Shakespeariana."
Emerson Venable (1875 -), of Cincinnati, head of the department of English Language and Literature, Walnut Hills High School, editor of "Poets of Ohio,"
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is the author of "A Speculation Regarding Shakespeare" (1904), and of a recent critical study entitled "The Hamlet Problem and Its Solution."
BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Among the many Ohio writers who have attained conspicuous success in the province of juvenile litera- ture, a few of the most popular are here named:
Julia P. Ballard (1828-49), is gratefully remembered on account of the pure, sweet stories she wrote for children under the titles, "Gathered Lilies," "The Hole in the Bag," "Little Gold Keys, " etc.
Martha Finley (1828-1909), of Chillicothe, Ohio, known to innumerable children under her pseudonym, "Martha Farquharson," as the author of the "Elsie Books" and the "Mildred Books," more than forty volumes, wrote also many Sunday-school books and the popular juveniles, "Casella," "Old-Fashioned Boy," "Twiddledewitt," etc.
Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, "Susan Coolidge" (1845- 1905), of Cleveland, whose reputation rests chiefly upon her contributions to the literature intended for the young, is the author of "What Katy Did," "Eye Bright," "A Guernsey Lily," "Cross Patch," "A Round Dozen," "In the High Valley," "Just Sixteen," and many other books.
Lydia Hoyt Farmer (- 1903), of Cleveland, is the author of "Boys' Book of Famous Rulers," "Girls' Book of Famous Queens," "A Story Book of Science," "Belindy's Point of View," and other books for young folks, and of many volumes addressed to the mature
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reader, including: "What America Owes to Women" and "A Short History of the French Revolution."
Sarah Knowles Bolton (1841 -), of Cleveland, formerly editor of "The Congregationalist," though most of her writings appeal to the general reader, as is especially the case with her poems and her studies in art and biography, is the author of many instructive juveniles, including: "How Success is Won," "Poor Boys Who became Famous," "Girls Who became Famous, " and "Famous American Authors."
FICTION
In the days long ago, when James G. Percival was considered the chief of American poets, and when the old "Knickerbocker Magazine" and the "Port Folio" were arbiters of literary destiny, there dwelt within the borders of Ohio at least two men of national reputation, who essayed to write novels. These pioneers of the imaginative pen were Timothy Flint (1780-1840), and James Hall (1793-1868).
Of Flint's masterpiece, "Francis Berrian, or the Mexican Patriot," 1826, Mrs. Trollope, who was a neighbor to the author, in Cincinnati, says in her "American Manners": "It is excellent; a little wild and romantic, but containing scenes of first rate interest and pathos." Others of Flint's novels are "Arthur Clenning" and "George Mason, the Backwoodsman." One who had read Flint's "Recollections" would expect to find charm in his works of fiction. A reviewer of his "Geography and History of the Mississippi Valley" declared that book "too interesting to be
!
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useful"! Many readers found as good fiction in Flint's delightful pseudo-biography, "The First White Man of the West, or the Life and Exploits of Colonel Daniel Boone." Though somewhat prolix and too much given to moralizing, Timothy Flint is characteristically delightful, and two or three of his books are of such permanent interest and charm of style that they should be reprinted.
Judge James Hall (1793-1868), the author of an elaborate "History of the Indian Tribes," and other noted books in biography and history, wrote several historical romances, modeled somewhat after the style of Cooper, and valuable on account of their fidelity to life and scenery in the early West, particularly in Kentucky. His best works are "Legends of the West," "Harpe's Head," and "Tales of the Border."
"The Western Souvenir," first of the so-called "Annuals" issued west of Philadelphia, was published in Cincinnati in 1829. It was "embellished" with six steel engravings, and was made up of stories, sketches and poems, by James Hall, Timothy Flint, Otway Curry and others. Perhaps the most interesting con- tribution in it is a character sketch of "Mike Fink, the Last of the Boatmen, " by Morgan Neville.
A volume of original pieces collectively called "Tales of the Queen City," by Benjamin Drake, brother of Dr. Daniel Drake, was published in Cincinnati in 1839. The merit of this book is that it attempts to delineate local scenes and characters with simplicity. But the "Tales" is not nearly so readable as the author's other ventures, "The Life of Tecumseh" and the "Life of Black Hawk," which are romantic in their essence.
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The first woman to gain literary reputation in Ohio was Mrs. Julia L. Dumont (1794-1841), preceptress of Edward Eggleston, the author of "The Hoosier Schoolmaster." Mrs. Dumont wrote pleasing verse and excellent prose. Her stories had vogue in the Ohio Valley and some of them found a publisher in the East. She wrote "The Brothers," "Gertrude Beverly," "Ashton Gray" and "Sketches from Com- mon Paths." Of livelier imagination and brighter touch than Mrs. Dumont, was Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz (1800-54), a popular writer who, for several years, was a resident of Ohio. Some of her numerous novels are of a mildly sensational character, which perhaps accounts for the fact that nearly 100,000 copies of them were sold within three years. She is the author of several tragedies, one of which, "Lamorah, or the Western Wild," was written and acted in Cincinnati. Mrs. Francis D. Gage (1808-84), born and bred in Ohio, was a practical writer, of strong common sense and much energy, who, like Mrs. Dumont, Mrs. Hentz, Mrs. Stowe, Alice Cary and other talented women of her day, helped to create a love for literature in the West. Her best story is one entitled "Elsie Magoon." Early in the sixties she published a volume of poems. Mrs. Gage was a descendant of Anne Bradstreet, "The Tenth Muse," who wrote the first book of verse published in New England.
The relations of the Beecher Family to the educa- tional and literary development of Ohio were intimate and vital. From 1832 to 1850, Dr. Lyman Beecher, as president of Lane Seminary and pastor of a promi- nent church, was a commanding character. He and
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his energetic sons and daughters received much from the rapidly developing society by which they were surrounded, to which they gave much in return. Henry Ward Beecher studied theology and learned to preach in Cincinnati; there Catharine Beecher organ- ized and conducted a decidedly radical and progressive school for girls, and wrote some "up-to-date" text- books. The writing tendency was strong in several members of the brilliant family. The famous novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," though not actually written in Cincinnati, was conceived there. The author tells us in her Autobiography that many of the characters, scenes and incidents, in the story, were suggested by what she had observed in her own house, on Walnut Hills, or witnessed on occasional trips to Kentucky. Mrs. Stowe lived in Cincinnati for eighteen years, the most vigorous and formative portion of her life. She wrote for a Western magazine. She was an active member of the "Semi-Colon Club," of the Queen City, and to that society she dedicated her first book, "The May Flower," 1849. It is reasonable to claim that Ohio was the literary Alma Mater of the author of one of the world's most potent works of fiction.
Alice Cary (1820-71) published her first book of stories, "Clovernook," in 1851, and her first regular novel, "Hagar: A Story of To-day," in 1852, the year in which "Uncle Tom's Cabin" appeared. Others of Alice Cary's novels were "Married, not Mated," "Holywood," and "The Bishop's Son." Of this Ohio writer the Westminster Review declared, "No other American woman has evinced in prose or poetry any- thing like the genius of Alice Cary."
ALICE CARY
Born near Cincinnati, April 20, 1820; from an early age wrote poems and other productions; removed to New York City in 1852, and during the remainder of her life was successfully engaged in literary work; died in New York, February 12, 1871.
PHŒBE CARY
Sister of Alice; born near Cincinnati, September 24, 1824; writer of poetry; removed with her sister to New York, and spent the rest of her career there; died in Newport, Rhode Island, July 31, 1871.
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Belonging to the same period as the woman authors just mentioned, are several literary men who wrote or published novels, in Ohio. Thomas H. Shreve (1808-53), a friend and associate of Mr. Gallagher, produced many short stories and one ambitious romance, "Drayton: an American Tale," 1851. Fred- erick W. Thomas (1811 -), of Cincinnati, wrote "Clin- ton Bradshaw," "East and West," and "Howard Pinkney," successful novels in their time and of decidedly artistic quality. The same may be said of the two novels which Edmund Flagg (1815 -), com- posed while a resident of Marietta in 1842-43, viz .: "Carrero; or the Prime Minister," and "Francis of Valois." Wm. W. Fosdick (1825 -), a poet of no mean ability, attempted fiction with some success, producing a romantic novel, "Malmiztic, the Toltec and the Cavaliers of the Cross," a study of Mexican traditions, and said to have furnished the prototype of Wallace's "The Fair God."
The period from about 1846 to 1856 was prolific of sensational stories such as have been denominated, in slang phrase, "yellow-backs," "dime novels," "blood-and-thunder" tales, etc. Two of the most con- spicuous and most entertaining spinners of this class of yarn made their appearance in Ohio, in the forties. These were E. C. Judson, "Ned Buntline," (1823-86) and Emerson Bennett.
Judson came to Cincinnati in 1844 and embarked, with L. A. Hine, in the conduct of "The Western Literary Journal and Monthly Magazine," to which he contributed letters and editorials. He was greatly admired by the patrons of flashy literature. Of his
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lurid masterpiece, "The Mysteries and Miseries of New York," 100,000 copies sold. "Ned Buntline's" income was said to be $120,000 a year.
Emerson Bennett (1822-1905), came to Cincinnati when he was only twenty-two years old, and in that city, between the years 1846 and 1850, wrote and published an incredible number of lively romances, which were eagerly sought and greedily read by the multitude. A sketch of Bennett, printed in a biograph- ical handbook, says, "He began writing poetry and prose at 18; has since followed literature and written more than fifty novels and serials, and some hundreds of short stories." At the very beginning of his career he caught the knack of constructing the "best sellers," and made money for himself and his publishers. His most popular books were "The Prairie Flower" and "Leni-Leoti," each of which had a sale of 100,000.
Hundreds of elderly men and women in the Ohio Valley will confess, with a smile and a sigh, that in their school days they concealed in pocket or desk "The Bandits of the Osage," or "Mike Fink," or "Kate Clarendon," or "The League of the Miami," or "The Forest Rose." After all is said, these exciting romances were innocent enough, the hero always tri- umphant, the heroine an angel. The sharp crack of a rifle rang out and the villain fell with a thud.
In a way, "Ned Buntline" and Emerson Bennett were masters of their craft. They had a host of imitators. George Lippard's "New York: Its Upper Ten and Lower Million," though not written in the West, was published in Cincinnati in 1854. So also was "The Trapper's Bride," by the English author,
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C. M. Murray. In the same city, in 1855, was issued a novel entitled "The Mock Marriage, or the Liber- tine's Victim; being a Faithful Delineation of the Mysteries and Miseries of the Queen City," by H. M. Rulison.
Other novels of the period were "Mrs. Ben Darby: or the Weal and Woe of Social Life," 1853, by Maria Collins; "Life's Lesson, a Novel," 1855, by Martha Thomas; "The Old Corner Cupboard," 1856, Susan B. Jewett; "Emma Bartlett; or Prejudice and Fanat- icism," 1856; "Zoe; or the Quadroon's Triumph," 1856, Mrs. A. D. Livermore; "Mabel; or Heart His- tories," 1859, Rosetta Rice-all which are Ohio books.
During the period of the Civil War comparatively few novels were written in the United States, though the events of that stirring time educated authors and supplied material for whole libraries of history, fiction and poetry. In fact the war did much to elevate and nationalize American literature. The old distinctions between eastern literature and western were no longer much regarded. Even the southern writers ceased to be sectional. Secession ended in concession. Pro- vincialism in all sections of the country began to give way to a higher and broader and more tolerant culture, and books of high literary merit came from the South and from the West, to compete with the best from Massachusetts or New York. Tennessee was repre- sented by Miss Murfree, Kentucky by James Lane Allen, Indiana by Riley, and Ohio by Mrs. Cather- wood; writers who were in their early teens when the war began and who were among the first of a rapidly increasing number of painstaking writers developed
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by the influences of a modern régime. The same influ- ences, of course, modified the ideas and methods of the earlier generation of writers, to which belong Wal- lace and Howells and Tourgee and many more. A few names may here be chronicled of Ohio authors born before 1850.
Albert Gallatin Riddle (1816-1902), whose career as lawyer and legislator furnishes a brilliant page in Ohio's history, found time, after he had reached middle life, to record, in a series of clever novels, much that he observed of men and events in northern Ohio, in the days of his youth. He tells the reader in the preface to one of his books that in his stories "an effort is made to preserve something of the freshness, gather up a few of the names, some of the incidents, catch the spirit and flavor of the life which has passed, leaving only its memory in the cherishing hearts of the contemporaries of the author." In the author of "Bart Ridgely," "The Portrait," "House of Ross," and "Anselm's Cave," Cuyahoga County and the Western Reserve in general have a faithful delineator of scenes and characters. His style is simple, vigorous and picturesque ; his story is true to fact and is free from sensationalism. Mr. Riddle was a man of solid attainments and sound judgment. His historical romances supplement his more serious works: "Life and Character of Garfield," "Life of Benjamin F. Wade" and "Recollections of War Times."
William Dean Howells (1837 -), novelist, poet and critic, was born at Martin's Ferry, Belmont County, Ohio, where his early childhood was passed. Along with his father's family he removed to Hamilton, and there spent his boyhood in the manner he has so delight-
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fully recounted in the familiar pages of "A Boy's Town." We are told that he "had not a great deal to do with schools after his docile childhood"; but that having been taken into his father's printing-office he "com- pleted his education there." While yet in his minority he began his career as a writer at Columbus, Ohio. In one of his reminiscential volumes, with character- istic genial frankness and exquisite satiric humor he tells the reader: "If there was any one in the world who had his being more wholly in literature than I had in 1860, I am sure I should not have known where to find him, and I doubt if he could have been found nearer the centers of literary activity than I then was, or among those more purely devoted to literature than myself. I had been three years a writer of news para- graphs, book notices, and political leaders on a daily paper in an inland city, and I do not know that my life differed outwardly from that of any other young journalist, who had begun as I 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 altogether different with me. Inwardly I was a poet, with no wish to be any- thing else, unless in a moment of careless affluence I might so far forget myself as to be a novelist." An appreciative world of grateful readers has long since bestowed its enduring laurel upon the master whose literary apprenticeship is so felicitously described in the passage just quoted. The name of W. D. Howells appears on the title page of some seventy different volumes, embracing biography, history, travel, descrip- tion, sociology, fiction, drama, poetry and criticism;
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and with such clear intelligence, acute discrimination, liberality of view, judicial fairness, and with such con- summate power and grace of style, has this well-beloved author acquitted himself in every literary field which he has entered, that by common consent he has been accorded the primacy among living American writers. As a novelist he holds the foremost rank, being unques- tionably, as Edmund Clarence Stedman has said in his "American Anthology," "the founder of the latter- day natural school of American fiction, in which truth to every-day life is given precedence, while rhetoric, forced situations and the arts of the melodramatist are sedulously avoided." Not less rare and admirable than the creative imagination which invents the charac- ters and scenes that live and move on the realistic pages of such a novel as "The Rise of Silas Lapham" or "The Quality of Mercy," is the kindred and correl- ative faculty of insight and subtle penetration which furnishes the just and generous critic with criterions by which unerring analyses are made of literature and of life, and this faculty, this profound insight, Mr. Howells assuredly possesses, together with the beauty and sin- cerity of expression which give to all his work a charm of inimitable art. Mr. Howells is the author of: "Poems of Two Friends" (with Mr. Piatt), "Life of Abraham Lincoln," "Venetian Life," "Italian Jour- neys," "Suburban Sketches, " "No Love Lost, " "Their Wedding Journey," "A Chance Acquaintance, " "A Foregone Conclusion," "Out of the Question, " "Life of Rutherford B. Hayes," "A Counterfeit Present- ment," "The Lady of Aroostook," "The Undiscovered Country," "A Fearful Responsibility and Other Tales, "
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"Dr. Breen's Practice," "A Modern Instance," "A Woman's Reason," "Three Villages," "The Rise of Silas Lapham," "Tuscan Cities," "A Little Girl Among the Old Masters," "The Minister's Charge," "Indian Summer," "Modern Italian Poets," "April Hopes," "Annie Kilburn," "A Hazard of New Fortunes," "The Sleeping Car and Other Farces," "The Mouse Trap and Other Farces," "The Shadow of a Dream," "An Imperative Duty," "A Boy's Town," "The Albany Depot," "Criticism and Fiction," "The Quality of Mercy," "The Letter of Introduction," "A Little Swiss Sojourn," "Christmas Every Day," "The Unexpected Guests," "The World of Chance," "The Coast of Bohemia," "A Traveler from Altruria," "My Literary Passions," "The Day of Their Wedding," "A Parting and a Meeting," "Im- pressions and Experiences, " "Stops of Various Quills," "The Landlord of the Lion's Head," "An Open-Eyed Conspiracy," "Stories of Ohio," "The Story of a Play," "Ragged Lady," "Their Silver Wedding Journey," "Literary Friends and Acquaintance," "A Pair of Patient Lovers," "Heroines of Fiction," "The Ken- tons," "The Son of Royal Lambrith," "Literature and Life," "The Flight of Tony Baker," "Questionable Shapes," "Miss Bellard's Inspiration," "London Films," "Certain Delightful English Towns," "Be- tween the Dark and the Daylight," "Through the Eye of the Needle," "Fennel and Rue," "The Mother and the Father, " "Some English Cities," "My Mark Twain," and "Imaginary Interviews."
Albion Winegar Tourgee (1838-1905), born at Wil- liamsfield, Ohio, United States Consul at Bordeaux,
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France, 1897-1903, and to Halifax, N. S., 1903-05, published numerous novels relating to political affairs in the South and other works of a more general scope. He is the author of "Figs and Thistles," "A Fool's Errand," "Bricks Without Straw, " "Hot Plowshares," "An Appeal to Cæsar," "Button's Inn," "Letters to a King," "Black Ice," "Pactolus Prime," "Out of the Sunset Sea," "An Outing with the Queen of Hearts," and "The Man Who Outlived Himself."
Ambrose Bierce (1842 -), critic and journalist, one of the many men of Ohio birth who have achieved dis- tinction abroad, has spent much of his life in California, and some years in London. A writer in "Vanity Fair" expresses the following opinion: "Mr. Ambrose Bierce is in the front rank of American critics, if indeed he does not head them all. English critics have something to learn from him. * * * Satirist, poet, soldier, literary artist-in a dozen phases Bierce appeals to the dis- criminating reader." Among the best known books by this versatile author are those entitled: "Cobwebs from an Empty Skull," "The Monk and the Hang- man's Daughter," "Black Beetles in Amber," "Can Such Things Be?" "In the Midst of Life," and "The Shadow on the Dial and Other Essays." The col- lected works of Ambrose Bierce, in ten volumes, have recently been published.
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