BOOTH, MARY Louisa, an accomplished author and translator of numerous valuable works from the French, b. New York, April 19, 1831, Her father was descended from one of the earliest settlers, John Booth, a kinsman of sir George Booth, afterwards baton Delainere, who came from England to America about 1649. Her mother is the grand daughter of a French eitigre of the revolutionary epoch. Miss Booth's literary career seemed to be foreshadowed in her infancy, as she read Plutarch at five, and Ifacine iu the original at seven; and special care, therefore, was given to her education. At an early age she became a contributor 'of sketches and translations to various journals; she compiled the Marble Worker's Manual, and the Clark and ltrateh Maker's Manual ; and devoted herself to the preparation of the fiat complete History of the City of Sat York, which was published in 1859, a second edition in 1867, and a third edition, revised and brought down to date, in 1880. This work has been extended and illustrated by well known book collectors. One copy enlarged to folio size, and extended to nine large volumes by the addition of many thousand illustrations, maps, and pictures, is the prop erty of a .New York citizen, and is said to be the richest collection of New Yorkiana extant. Another copy with two thousand illustrations is owned by the author, and still another copy has been extended to twenty.two voluines by a gentleman of Chicago. Miss Booth has translated many works from the French, notable among which are Mtlry's .4ndre Chewier, Victor Cousin's Life and Times of Madame de Clierreuse, Marinier's Rus sian !ales, About's Germaine and The King of the Mountains, Pascal's Letters, Sue's Mysteries of the etc. In 1861, the civil war broke out, and Miss Booth, who was
an ardent republican, devoted her pen to the task of interpreting to her countrymen the words of their friends in Europe. She translated in rapid succession count Agecor de Gasparin's Uprising of a Great People and America before Europe, Edouard Labonlaye's Paris in America, and Augustin Cocltin's Results of Emancipation and Results of Sareiy, which Charles Sumner declared worth a whole phalanx in the cause of freedom, and in acknowledgment of which she received letters of thanks from president Lincoln and many prominent statesmen of the day. She also translated Vesper, Camille, and Human Sorrows by the countess de Gasparin, and Happiness by the count de Gasparin, and main tained during the whole war a constant correspondence with Gasparin, Cochin, Labou layc, Henri Martin, Montaleinbert, and other sympathizers with the government, who continually sent documents which she translated and published as a labor of love, In pamphlet form, through the Union League club, in the city journals, and elsewhere. She next turned her attention to Henri Martin's great History of France, in seventeen yob tnnes, six of which she translated, but only four of which were published, the encourage ment not warranting the continuance of the work. Site has since translated Laboulaye's Fairy Book, Maell's Fairy Tales, and her abridgement of Martin's History of Prance is now in course of publication. In 1867, Miss Booth assumed the sole editorial charge of pauper's Bazar, which under her management proved a rapid success, and over which she continues to preside.