JOHNSON, RossrrEn (1840—). An Ameri can editor and author, born at Rochester, N. Y. He graduated at the University of Rochester in 1863, from 1804 to 1869 was assistant editor of the Rochester Democrat, a Republican journal, and in 1869-72 edited the Concord (N. H.) Statesman. In 1873-77 he was an associate edi tor in the revision of the American Cyclopallia, in 1878 edited the authorized Life of Farragut, and in 1879-SO aided S. II. Gay in the prepara tion of the final two volumes of the latter's History of the United States (4 vols., 1876-80). Be also beenme editor of the Annual Cyclopedia in 1883, and from 1886 to 1888 was managing editor of the ('ycloprdia of American Biography. In 1891-94 he was on the editorial staff of the Standard Dictionary. Among other compilations edited by him are The British Poets (3 vols., 1876) : Famous Single and Fugitive Poems (1877 ; revised and enlarged ed. 1891) ; Play-day Poems (1KS), an anthology of humorous verse in Eng lish; with C. A. Dana, Fifty Perfect Poems
(1882) ; the well-known Little Classics series of prose selections (16 vols., 1874-75; two addition al vols., ISSO: 30th ed. 1892) ; and The World's Great Books (1898-1901). Ills original publica tions include in fiction. Phaeton Rogers (1881) ; in verse, Idler and Port (1883). containing "0 for a lodge in a garden of cucumbers:" and in history, A History of the French War (1882) ; A History of the War Between the United States and Grcat Britain. (1882) ; and A History of the War of Secession (1888). Ile also contrib uted "The Whispering Gallery" department to the Overland Monthly, and edited "The Literary Qucrist" of the Lamp (formerly the Book-Buycr). For six years he was secretary of the New York Authors Chub, whose sumptuous and unique Seriptorum (1893) he prepared with J.
D. Champlin and G. C. Eggleston. He received the degrees of Ph.D. and LL.D. from the Uni versity of Rochester.