Coming to modern days, we meet the name of Harriet E. Beecher (Mrs. II. B. Stowe), whose Uncle Tom's Cabin lies had a wider reading than any other book written by a woman. She is the author of many other works of fiction and fact, and of a volume, of poems, Elizabeth F. Lummis (Mrs. E. F. Ellet) has written Wown of the American Revolution, Pioneer Women of' the West, Women Artists, Queens of American Society, Brides and 1Vidows of the Bible, and lighter works. Anna Cora Ogden (Mrs. A. C. Mowatt, and Mrs. Ritchie) is remembered as an actress of ability, and as author of Mimic Life, of the comedy of Fashion, and various stories. We hastily pass on. mention ing Mrs. Mary E. Ilewites Heroines of history, and verses; Mrs. Emma D. E. N. South. worth's thirty-rt.] VC ' of novels; Susan Warner's lirel/e, Wide Quccehy, and Hills of tint Shatainue; her sister Anna's Wayfaring Hymns; Mrs. Emily C. Judson's (" Fanny Forester") Village Sketches, and verses; Anna C. Lynch's (Mrs. Botta) Hind took Of Universal Literature; and Caroline M. Fisher's (Mrs. C. M. Sawyer) verses. About 30 years ago„ Mrs. Amelia B. Welby was one of the most popular of American poetic writers, and Lucy Hooper, who died at the age of 25, was the literary light of Long Island. Mrs. Estelle Anne Lewis has published many poems here and in Europe, letters of travel and on literature and art, and several dramas, one of which was accepted by Ristori ; Julia Ward (Mrs. S. G. Howe) will be oftenest remembered by one of the least poetical of ter universally 'excellent poems—The Battle Hymn if the Republic) she has published Passion Flowers, her first volume of poems; Words tar the Hour, a second poetical volume; Hippolytus, a Tragedy, and many prose contributions in magazines and newspapers. The names of Alice Bradley, (Mrs. Alice B. Neal, and Sirs. of Misses Catherine and Eleanor Ware, of Sarah S. Jacobs, and Mrs. Elizabeth C. Kinney, bring us to Sarah Jane Clarke (Mrs. Lippincott, or "Grace Greenwood "), whose lectures and letters from abroad are well known to cultivated people. Her juvenile stories have been repeatedly published, and widely read. We scarcely need mention the Carey sisters (Alice and Phrebe), so much in print 30 years ago, mainly in verses of the quiet domestic kind; or Caroline Cheesebro's Dreamland by Daylight and Little' Cross-Bearers; or Mrs. Eliza W. Farnham's philanthropic writings. Mary L. Booth, editor of Haiper's Bazar, has won deserved fame as a historical writer; Louisa Chandler Moulton as sketch writer, critic, and correspondent ; Mrs. Julia C. R. Dorr for novels and poems; Mary Clemtner for sketches of life in NVashington, and Outlines of Men, Women, and Things; Margaret T. Preston for poems; Helen Fiske Hunt ("IT. ') for excellent verse, Bits of Tran.l, Bits of Talk, about home Matters, and magazine articles; Elizabeth Akers Allen (" Florence Percy") for Rock me to Seep, Mother, and other poems of wide popularity; Louisa May Alcott for Horpital Sketches, novels, stories for children, and sketches of travel; Harriet Prescott Spofford for novelettes and stories; Sarah M. B. Piatt for poetry; Mary Virginia Terhune ("Marion Harland ") for a long list of novels; Elizabeth Stuart Phelps for The Gates ajar, The Silent Partner, and many short stories; and Celia Thaxter for poems.. Of sketch writers for literary journals no one .has surpassed Sarah Payson Willis, wife of James Parton, sister of N. P. Willis (" Fanny Fern"), whose sensible and often caustic short articles in the Nem Thrk, Ledger were deservedly. .famous. Mary Abigail Dodge (" Gail Hamilton") has' employed a pungent pen in many articles on political and social subjects for magazines and journals, and in volumes of sketches and essays. This list of women authors might be greatly enlarged, but names enough are given to show that the sex contributes its full share to the instruction and gratification of the reading In considering American literature the newspapers must not be overlooked. In no other country have the daily or weekly journals anything like so broad a field and so great an influence. It is quite probable that there are to-day published in the United States as many daily and weekly newspapers as in all the world besides, and quite as prob able that their circulation among less than 50,000.000 of the Americans is twice as great as that of all the others among unonm the 28 times as many people who constitute the population of the rest of the world. In 1835, the daily and weekly newspapers in the United States numbered 1253; in 1810, 1401; in 1830, 2039; in 1860, 3543: in 1870, 4869; in 1879, 7478. The whole number of serials, daily, triweekly, semi-weekly, hi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly, bianoathly, and quarterly, in 1879, was 8579, an increase in 9 years of 9703, or nearly 50 per cent. The aggregate issues of these prints for one year
are about 2,500,00(1,000 copies, enough to furnish an average of three papers or magazines each week to every family in the country. In this country, people read newspapers. whether they read anything else or not. In boats, stages, cars, at rest, at lunch, every where except in actual-business, or in church. or asleep, one sees the inevitable newspaper among all classes, from the shop-girl with her single weekly story-paper, to the merchant with all the daily journals within his reach. Such universal reading cannot fail to have a powerful effect upon the literary taste and character of the people, for it must be understood that the newspapers contain not only the news, but fill a large portion of their space with essays, tales, poems, discussions, and information, aside from the mere transactions of the day. Then, too, the American press is notably personal, and readers look to see what this or that editor, rather than this or that journal, has to say; and the peculiar style of a popular editor is often distinctly impressed upon his readers. In the field of politics the editor of a well-established journal is generally a power, often almost an autocrat; and quite naturally a similar power attaches to eminent editors in other fields. Again, a large proportion of eminent editors have been book-makers also, and as many book-makers havJ reached the dignity of authors through earlier efforts in the newspapers. William Cu.len Bryant was both editor and author all his life; so was Benjamin Franklin for the most of his early life; the Warrens, Adamses, and Quincys of the revolution wrote for the press; so did James Otis, Alexander Hamilton, Burr, the Clintons, and a throng of statesmen. Freneau, the poet, was an editor; Noah Webster was an editor; so was Henry Wheaton, who was succeeded by Mordecai M. Noah. The names of Horace Greeley, Henry J. Raymond, William L. Stone, William Leggett, Francis P. Blair, Thurlow Weed, James Watson Webb, George D. Prentice. George W. Kendall, Duff Green; Hezekiah Niles, Henry B. Anthony, John G. Whittier, John C.
Rives, Samuel Bowles, Joseph R. Hawley, Henry Ward Beecher, Sidney E. Morse, George W. Childs, Joseph R. Chandler, George P. Morris, Nathaniel P. Willis, Edwin Croswell, Matthew L. Davis. William Colman, Theodore Dwight, Edward Everett, Joseph Gales, William Lloyd Garrison, Charles G. Green, Richard Hildreth, Amos Ken dall, Charles Ring. John Neal, James K. Paulding, John Howard Payne, William C. Prime, It. Barnwell Ithett, George Ripley, George \Villain Curtis. Bayard Taylor, Henry B. Stanton, Thomas Ritchie, Epes Sargent, Isaiah Thomas, Gillian C. Verplanek, Robert Walsh, Robert C. Winthrop, William Wirt, and many others, dead and living, belong alike to literature and journalism. Many of the most famous authors in the country first felt their way, like Washington Irving, in the newspapers of their time. The intimate connection between journalism and authorship is manifest, and the great influence of the newspapers not only in informing the 14cople but in molding their habits of thought and expression is equally clear. And iu late years the character of newspaper writing has been greatly elevated. The press now demands and secures the best talent, and the editorial portion of some daily newspapers approaches in careful writing the pages of Hume and .\lacaulay.
A glance over the field shows that there was little of pronounced American litera ture until near the time of the war for independence. What welled was mostly relig ious disputation. The stamp act aroused the people and filled the land with political literature, some of it of excellent quality; but there was little else until long after the revolution. It should be remembered that the conditions of a new country are never favorable to literary culture. The man who has to clear away the forests, build his cabin, and plant and gather crops, knows little of the "groves of Academe." It is not a little to the credit of Americans that within the first century of the hard, practical work of subduing a wild country, they have found or made leisure to do anything in the way of high literature. Now a literary class is taking its place as one of the institu tions of our social life. Science, art, the profoundest philosophy, the most careful lin guistic criticism and study, already challenge for America an equal place with the fore most nations of Europe.