BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

JACOB ABBOTT (1803-1879), a lifelong resident of Maine, was a very popular writer for young people. He published over two hundred volumes, of which his histories of famous men, his Rollo Books, and Franconia Stories are the most noteworthy.

JOHN ADAMS (1735-1826), second President of the United States, was gifted with those Puritan virtues of determination and independence that gave our nation birth. As a lawyer and politician in Quincy, Mass., he took a firm stand against the Stamp Act and was chosen delegate to the Continental Congress. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence. In France, England, and Holland he performed various diplomatic services.

MRS. CECIL FRANCES ALEXANDER (1818-1895), the wife of a Bishop in Ireland, wrote anonymously many poems and stories for children, many of them on subjects from the Bible. Her hymns are characterized by descriptive power and devotional feeling.

JAMES MATTHEW BARRIE (1860- ), a Scotch writer of stories and plays, was born at Kirriemuir, a quaint old town in Scotland, which in his stories he calls "Thrums." His vivid and touching pictures of lowly Scotch life in The Little Minister, A Window in Thrums, and other books, are thought by many to have no equal. For children he has created delightful fairies and pirates in Peter Pan.

KATHARINE LEE BATES (1859- ) has long been Professor of English Literature at Wellesley College. She has written many stories, poems, and literary essays.

HENRY WARD BEECHER (1813–1887), one of America's distinguished preachers and orators, was for many years pastor of the Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. During the Civil War, he lectured in England with all the force of his eloquence to win support for the Northern

cause.

HORATIUS BONAR (1808-1889), an English clergyman and religious writer, is best remembered by his hymns.

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WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. See the biographical sketch on page

265.

ROBERT BURNS (1759-1796), the son of a poor farmer, was the greatest Scotch poet and song-writer. He sang of the simple things about him- the banks and braes of Bonnie Doon, the timid field mouse, the daisy, and his love for Highland Mary. He had a wonderful power of investing with charm the commonplace things of life.

LORD BYRON (1788-1824) was a romantic and reckless Englishman, who led a stormy life until he died of a fever, contracted while fighting for the liberty of Greece. His Childe Harold is a masterpiece of poetic description.

THOMAS CAMPBELL (1777-1844) was born in Glasgow, but lived most of his life in London. The poems that best represent his lyric genius are the patriotic "Ye Mariners of England," "The Battle of the Baltic," and "Hohenlinden." In his day, he vied with Scott in popularity as a writer and was honored by burial in Westminster Abbey.

BLISS CARMAN (1861- ) is a poet of road-songs and the campfire. He was born in New Brunswick, Canada, but has passed his later life in Connecticut, and has traveled widely. He has published several books of nature lyrics.

BENVENUTO CELLINI (1500-1571) was a goldsmith, sculptor, and engraver whose brilliant craftsmanship, adventurous life, and violent deeds are typical of sixteenth-century Italy. He worked for King Francis I of France and for Cosmo de' Medici of Florence, one of the most famous patrons of art in that age.

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. See the biographical sketch on page 300.

GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS (1824-1892) was an American man of letters, political reformer, essayist, editor, and orator. Although a New Englander by birth, Curtis made New York his home, and in the editorial office of Harper's Monthly penned the informal essays that have been collected in volumes called From the Easy Chair.

CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) was the energetic champion of children and the poor and oppressed. His own early struggles with wretched poverty in London are represented in David Copperfield. His efforts to improve the conditions of the English debtors' prisons and boys' schools through exposing them in his novels in Little

Dorrit and Oliver Twist were more successful in bringing about reforms than many laws have been.

EMILY DICKINSON (1830-1886), a poet of few words, lived a secluded life in her native town of Amherst, Mass., finding much of interest in her simple household tasks. Her poems show a nearness to everything in nature and a unique power of expression.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882), the Concord philosopher and poet, through his lectures and essays did much to promote high ideals and solid thinking. Money getting, cheap showiness, and greed growing evils of his day - he denounced strongly. As preacher, school-teacher, lecturer, and neighbor, he called forth the deepest respect of those about him.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH (1728-1774) was the son of an Irish curate. He studied for the ministry, the law, and medicine, but finally turned to literature. He led a happy-go-lucky life, often not knowing where his next meal was coming from. He wrote poetry and plays, and his novel The Vicar of Wakefield ranks as a masterpiece.

EDWARD EVERETT HALE (1822-1909) was one of Boston's famous preachers for the greater part of his life. He started many movements for helping people, and wrote unceasingly. His short stories, The Man Without a Country and My Double and How He Undid Me, and others, are remarkable for their seeming reality or quaint humor.

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE (1804–1864) holds a high place in American literature as a writer of prose. Many of his stories deal with the mysterious and supernatural, with exquisite skill. He is equally happy in his telling of stories for children. He lived in Salem and Concord and was for several years consul in Liverpool. Twice Told Tales and The House of Seven Gables are among his best works.

PATRICK HENRY (1736-1799). Probably no other figure in early American history, except Washington, is so dear to the hearts of Americans as this fiery Virginian orator, whose great speech for liberty stirred the Virginia Convention of 1775. He was a zealous patriot in the war and was four times reëlected governor of Virginia.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (1809-1894) was a doctor of medicine in Boston and for many years Professor of Anatomy at Harvard University. His shrewd wit and genial humor made him much sought after as a public speaker. He is often spoken of as "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," from the title of one of his best-known works.

THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826) is known as the author of the Declaration of Independence, the founder of the University of Virginia, and the President who made simplicity and hospitality the order of the day during his administration. He held advanced opinions on the slave question, the rights of individuals, and our foreign policy. The people had unbounded confidence in him because of his great faith in them.

FRANCIS SCOTT KEY (1780-1843) was a Maryland lawyer and for many years District Attorney in Washington. In 1814, from an English battleship where he was detained overnight, Key watched the bombardment of Baltimore. "The Star-spangled Banner," written during the attack, was immediately received with enthusiasm and it has become our national anthem.

RUDYARD KIPLING (1865– ) was born in Bombay, India. He was educated in England, the home of his parents, and afterward returned to India, where he contributed verses and tales to the Indian journals. Four of his books, well known to young people, are Just So Stories, The Jungle Books, Stalky & Co., and Captains Courageous.

CHARLES LAMB (1775-1834) is one of the most lovable of writers. He lived in London, slaving at a desk in a big business house, and devoting his life to the care of his sister Mary, who was never free from a trace of insanity. His essays signed "Elia" and his letters are a constant delight because of their humor. He and his sister wrote for children a series of tales based on Shakespeare's plays.

SIDNEY LANIER (1842-1881) was born in Georgia, served in the Confederate army, and during the last years of his life lectured on English literature at Johns Hopkins University. His devotion to music and poetry was handicapped by illness and poverty. He retold the old English stories of Arthur and Percy for young people and wrote several great poems, noted for their musical sound and spiritual beauty.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1809-1865) was born in Kentucky and shared the wandering life of a frontier family, which meant that he had almost no schooling and a great deal of experience with the ax and the hoe. After volunteering in the Black Hawk War, he served three terms in the Illinois state legislature, and then practiced law in Springfield, Illinois. The question of slavery led him to run as Republican candidate for senator against Judge Stephen A. Douglas. Douglas won the election, but Lincoln's debates in the campaign won him the national

support that later gained him the presidency. His speeches live today because they perfectly express his mighty heart, honesty of thought, and simplicity of nature.

HENRY CABOT LODGE (1850- ) has performed distinguished services as representative and senator from Massachusetts, as orator, as editor of the North American Review, and as a writer of historical and political works.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882) is one of the best loved of our poets, and is often called the "household-poet" of America. He belonged to the Cambridge group of writers which included Lowell and Holmes, and for many years was Professor of Modern Languages at Harvard University.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819-1891) is one of America's chief men of letters. He was a distinguished author of prose and verse, Professor of Modern Languages at Harvard University, magazine editor, and minister to Spain and England. His genius was capable of expression in almost any form; dialect and satirical poems, legends, lyrics, patriotic odes, and nature poems all appear among his best works.

JOHN MILTON (1608–1674), the greatest English poet except Shakespeare, lived at a time when the Puritan struggle for liberty was at its height in England. He championed that cause in stormy prose tracts and as a result lost both his eyesight and political favor. His epic Paradise Lost and Regained, written in his blindness, gives the best expression that we possess of the sublimity of God.

JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY (1844-1890) was born at Dowth Castle, County Meath, Ireland. He was trained to be a printer; but in punishment for spreading revolutionary sentiments among soldiers, he was sent to a penal colony in Australia. He escaped to the United States and secured employment on the Boston Pilot, of which he later became editor-in-chief. He spent the rest of his life here as a journalist, writing poems and novels.

FRANCIS PARKMAN (1823-1893) is one of America's foremost historians and one of the very best authorities on the North American Indian and on the period of French rule in America. For several years he lived among the Indians and made a careful study of their manners and customs. For the greater part of his life he suffered from ill health and serious trouble with his eyes, but with splendid heroism persisted in writing his series of histories.