Four distinguished American poets are living at this writing—Henry W. Longfellow, John G. Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and J. Russell Lowell. Among other poets to be mentioned arc Edgar A. Poe, T. Buchanan Read, George II. Boker, Richard II. Stoddard, Thomas B. Aldrich, Edmund C. Stedman, Henry T. Tnekerman, and Joaquin Miller. Of humorists we have had lieut. Derby ("John Phumix"), Mortimer 31. Thompson (" Doesticks"), Charles G. Leland in the Hans Breitman Ballads, John G. Saxe, Samuel L. Clemens ("Mark Twain"), Francis Bret llarte, and a host of minor writers.
In both poetry and philosophy few names rank as high as that of Ralph Waldo Emerson, everywhere acknowledged as the first of idealist and sptieulative reasoners. He is in some degree followed by Henry D. Thoreau. The name of Nathaniel Haw thorne, author of l'
produced poems, ballads, and sketches; 3Iaria Gowen, or Mrs, Maria Brooks (- _Maria del' Occidente"), b. 1195, was the author of Zophiel, or the Bride cf Stren, a weird story in verse in seven cantos, and of various poems of merit, including Idomen, or the Vale of Yumuri, in which she tells the story of her singularly romantic life; Mrs. Pollen, widow of prof. F., who was lost in the burning of the steam-heat Lexington, in 1890, was an interesting writer. The name of Catharine 31. Sedgwick stands deservedly high. and her works, A New England Mc,
hope Leslie, The Lie woods, and others are held in esteem. Mrs. Ilannah F. Lee's Three Experiments in Living won great popularity. Maria J. McIntosh (" Aunt Kitty") wrote tales for children, stories for order folks. Woman in America, and other works. Lydia Maria Francis (Mrs. Lydia Maria Child) is a name widely known and honored for works adapted to the household, books of biog raphy, and excellent Letters from New York. The sisters Lucretia Maria and Margaret Miller Davidson were remarkable instances of precocity in verse and prose. Mrs. Emma C. Embury, daughter of Dr. J. R. Manley, wrote a volume of poems and many prose sketches. Caroline Lee Whiting (Mrs. Bentz) excelled in the same line. Sarah }Men Power (Mrs. Whitman) published a volume of poems of superior merit. Hannah F. Gould's name is familiar to all readers of verse. Margaret Fuller (Countess Ossoli), whose melancholy fate by shipwreck is not forgotten, was one of the most terse and vigorous of American writers, a thorough scholar, and a critic of rare ability in art, liter ature, and social science. Mrs. Ann S. Stephens is another popular author, her latest work being a Pictorial History qf the War for the Union. Frances Sargent Locke (Mrs. F. S. Osgood) is a well-known writer of verse and prose, sketches, and of a drama. Elizabeth Oakes Prince (Mrs. E. Oakes Smith) has published poems, a
of stories, and two tragedies, one upon a purely American theme, called Jacob Le:Wel-, relating to the politico religious rebellion in New York in 1689. Caroline M. Stansbury (Mrs. G.M. Kirkland) wrote boof:s and letters duiscriptive of the west as it was 40 years ago; also critical essays and fireside books. full of common-sense and keen insight of character.