Show X local fiction periods ank of american j S literature writers were lilium Liti um drawn aside or an occasional poem address or magazine article upon BT LORENZO SEARS S S some phase of the contest but the professor atif american ft 5 few books oc note published between Unive mtv and inclusive were not 0 ot the usual course ot production in fiction travel biography and history alter the war there la little to andt ante eliat its turmoil had greatly disturbed the literary atmosphere A few war stories and many war papers sprung up like new weeds after a forest fire precursors of a later groothof grow military history biography and romance but in the main older authors returned to the familiar ruts and younger ones with a few exceptions did not drive far afield meantime as the last third of the century wore on readers multiplied exceedingly the waltera bad created a literature which educated the nation to a taste for the best peace and returning prosperity brought leisure and means to it stimulating the demand for more than the group or any other could supply new aspirants appeared and were encouraged by new publishing enterprises some of them were passed of them bad their little and tell on to seats among the mighty more day out c be strange if a few were not conspicuous when BO many felt to write the classic authors who were finishing their work bad come out of no such swarms of competitors on the other hand the throng of lat ter dy d y penmen sent no such representatives to the front had an age ot reflection and criticism get in as usual after one of original production certainly one of demand had arrived first for fiction A busy and anxious day was over and like children everybody was saying tell us a story one of the first to comply was a young man of great promise who tell in the first battle of the war theodore wynthrop of new york could count seven presidents of yale among his ancestors besides jonathan edwards and oie younger wynthrop read first governor of connecticut it would not have been like theodore to fall back upon his forefathers but literary tastes do not die out even if they skip a generation now and then they blossomed early in this one scholarships and prizes came to him in college with the habit of composition and or etory telling with the pen yet be waited long for recognition it was just beginning to be accorded when he wrote the description of the march of the seventh regiment of new york to washing ton for him it was a of a promising career and a march to a heroic death then readers began to call for anything he had written and laid away until the time of appreciation should come five books were pub lashed in rapid succession cecil dreame was the first a story of bohemian alto in and around the old university building in new york city such as a graduate student might work into the chinks of more pretentious study ac he had the rare ability then came john brent the outgrowth of a run through california and oregon as tar as puget sound it was in the manner of the mountain and prairie fiction watch when well done never loses its charm for either american or english readers this example of it belongs to the best of its class and is a graphic picture of roving life on the plains in the days of the indian and the emigrant the buffalo and the wild horse other outdoor books by this breezy man are the canoe and saddle and life in the open air wholesome sketches for boys of all ages books to read in camp on rainy days or at home when the woods are full of mosquitoes and malaria there is no malaria in these volumes and their place is with the balsamic books of healthful adventure which are doing much to counteract the over studious and commercial tendencies of our time edward wrote of frontier life in the nearer west of indiana before the wave of emigration had crossed the plains the hoosier schoolmaster the circuit elder the end of the world the mystery of me and half boien other stories win preserve the feature of early western life in all its hardship poverty and aspiration they are the annals of the in a wilderness where a bare existence was nearly all that could bo attained narrow and meager at that but pioneers must go before those who easily follow and their work is not to be despised because t was done in narrow lines heavily and drearily francis bret harte is a portrayer cr of something rougher than prairie life the half condl tlona which sprang up after the rush to california in found in ham a faithful chronicler A new and fresh field was preempted pre empted by an enterprising he had been preceded by bayard taylor in bis el dorado and rhymes of travel who drove a stake or two and passed OB in twenty years mining camps and towns became a feature of remote american enterprise and in the pages of the overland monthly started in 1868 the editor who iad been miner schoolmaster and compositor in turn began to depict what be bad seen after bla introduction to the public in the condensed novels and poems bis heathen chineo created an immense demand for more of the new brand the luck of bearing camp the outcasts of poker flat and ten nes sees partner exhibit the best that was left in the rough and tumble life which miners aad desperadoes were leading on the hills and in the gulches A picture of a different we in sontheim california la given in helen hunt jacksons raynona Ra lnona a story of the mexican and the indian the mis elon and the priest from southern california the wanderer may travel along the coast to new orleans to find the next picture of local life in descriptions of the louisiana by georgo W cable they remind the reader of the occupation of the mouth of the mississippi by the french when they followed tho great waterway from canada to the gulf in the last years of the seven century and of the tossing of the colony back and forth between france aad spain until it was sold by bonaparte to the united states tor meantime the mixture of races developed a phase of life and character charac tei as unique and distinct as the hebrew and as far removed from the northern type as the gulf of mexico from massachusetts bay of this people cable baa been the interpreter to the country in a series of novels whose very titles indicate a new discovery of old relics old creole days the ame mme dr devler the cheoles creoles of louisiana and others of kindred sound suggest a tropical languorous halt foreign existence an exotic from southern europe and more southern africa transplanted to the old french and spanish town years ago and keeping its distinctive features through all the changes in government and fortune that have gone on in and around the ancient city it was another of the rich and unoccupied fields of the continent which none but one born on the spot could find and cultivate with success none but a brave and con artist could reveal its treasures trea aures to the delight of all the nation and the ultimate satisfaction of the peculiar people themselves the drowsy land in which they dwelt is a land of cypress shadows of blazing sunlight of and purple of broad bayou and majestic river BO there are oriental aspects in the life which is lived aad all this opulence of color and luxuriance of climate turning northward and eastward the georgia negro sketches of joel chandler harris bring the brighter side p f plantation life to the front in the wonderful stories of uncle bemus about bacr fox and brer babbit with all the lore of the tour footed tribes that were their familiars the cunning craft and the dry humor wisdom which appear to be shared by beast and negro together common heritage in lives that were not tar apart in alma and sympathy ahra endless sources of interest and amusement to children oc all ages the element of dialect which belongs to every local story has here its llona share of importance advantage in favor of him who knows bow to reproduce it faithfully such an artist is found at one drifts northward into tennessee she was known for a time on the title pages of ier books as charlea egbert craddock now as mary the word of sunshine and futorm of morning and evening of cummer and winter and their ceaseless transformations in the across the virginia una john eeten cooko reproduced the days of the and of tha civil war in two ferriea of stories which caught the manner of each age and portrayed which prevailed in each in the old dominion they belong however to a bygone style and help to indicate the change which has come over the fashion in novel writing sentiment has bof passed away but it is now seldom sentimental of new england there have been many ayera given to literary enterprises the province has not failed to ransack its own neighborhood to find material for fiction the back country has been as abor hughly explored for and dueer words as for old clocks and chairs hard and sharp rien and women clinging to remote traditions and mispronunciations pronunciations mis not because they do fiat know better but tor fear of being inconsistent and newfangled have been shown bip in striking contrast to shift leas neighbors who have been born tired of the two century strain after primness no one baa done this better than miss in her books and of the frosty life which she did not have to go far to find the more mellow town life haq been depicted in appropriate colors by alas jewett lu numerous books alich exhibit the variety that exists in character cultivation and manner of living in a province which Is fast becom ehg this larger life dealing with vital issues and progressive ideal ent ersinto the work writers 0 other who deserve more extended mention notably hose terry cooke elizabeth stuart phelba and louisa may alcott besides so also In althe circuit of prairie coast and mountain there are writers who stand near the great colo that have been enumerated each depleting the group be knows bes andall contributing to a wide and picturesque vlear of cosmopolitan life oh the continent A H S H i i M t mrm M l MM I t t A |