Stories of Authors, British and American

Edwin Watts Chubb

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• Publié par: zewyong
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 51
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Stories of Authors, British and American, by Edwin Watts Chubb This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: Stories of Authors, British and American Author: Edwin Watts Chubb Release Date: October 13, 2008 [EBook #26910] Language: English *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUTHORS, BRITISH AND AMERICAN *** Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Jeannie Howse and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Transcriber's Note: Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For a complete list, please see the end of this document. Click on the images to see a larger version. Geoffrey Chaucer GEOFFREY CHAUCER ToListFrom a portrait in Occleve's Poems in the British Museum Stories of AuthorsBritish and American BY EDWIN WATTS CHUBB Professor of English Literature in the Ohio University. ILLUSTRATED New York STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY 1910 All rights reserved Copyright, 1910 By STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1910 Reprinted May, 1910 PREFACE The purpose of this book is to help in making literature and the makers of literature alive and interesting. Few schools have libraries including the bound volumes of the magazines of the past quarter of a century. But what an aid such a collection is to the appreciation of literature! The dignified and abbreviated history of literature cannot indulge in such delightful gossip as is found in the freer essay and fuller biography. To show the excellences of the art and the lovableness of the artist rather than to hunt for defects is the duty and the delight of the teacher of literature. This does not mean, however, that one dare never see the weaker side, the foibles and eccentricities of the man of genius. I like Macaulay none the less because his cock-sureness and loquacity came dangerously near to making him a bore; Dr. Johnson grows in interest when I learn that he found it a continual and almost hopeless struggle to become an early riser, that he feared death, and could drink tea as long as the housekeeper could brew it; that Tennyson was a slave to tobacco and acted like a yokel when the newly-wedded Müllers entertained him at breakfast does not detract from my enjoyment of the exquisite pathos of Tears, Idle Tears; that the marriage of the Brownings was a runaway romance is a whole commentary of explanation when I read their poems of romantic love; that Longfellow is said to have declined an invitation to the Adirondacks because he was told that Emerson was to carry a gun is really far more delightful, and I may add valuable, information than to know the exact date of the birth of either. Of knowledge such as this is the kingdom ofliterary interest. It is not well to place our literary lights upon a pedestal so lofty that the radiating warmth and light never reach our hearts. While many of the articles may be somewhat gossipy in tone, the serious phase has not been overlooked. The sketches have been gathered from many sources. Some have been written by myself, others have been gathered from magazines and books. I wish to acknowledge the kindness of Scribners' Magazine, of the Bookman, and of the New England Magazine in permitting me to use articles originally appearing in these respective magazines. To all who have wittingly or unwittingly made it possible for me to gather my material I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness. Every article has been written, selected, or adapted because of some special value. In these pages the reader may find what Lamb earned during the years of his famous clerkship, or the exciting details of Shelley's death. How many times have we heard of Sir Philip Sidney's immortal act of chivalry as he lay on the field at Zutphen! But definite information has it otherwise. To learn of the prodigious industry of the youthful Mill, the perseverance of Darwin, the heroic struggle of Scott, the gentleness of Stevenson, the modesty of Browning, the lifelong consecration of Motley,—is not the leaven of inspiration made of knowledge such as this? I have an unshaken conviction that the highest art of the teacher is manifested in the awakening of such an interest that the pupil shall forever after be an eager learner. Am I wrong in hoping that no one, though with but a meager knowledge of literature, can read these sketches without a desire to know more of the men and women who are the glory of England and America? Here is but a taste of a more sumptuous feast. Dreams, books are each a world; and books, we know, Are a substantial world, both pure and good: Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood, Our pastime and our happiness will grow. Edwin Watts Chubb. CONTENTS ENGLISH WRITERS CHAPTER PAGE I. The Ancient Tabard Inn 1 II. Sir Philip Sidney at Zutphen 4 III. About Shakspere 9 IV. John Milton 17 V. Charles Lamb, the Clerk of the India House 24 VI. Dr. Johnson and Charles Lamb 28 VII. The Death of Dr. Johnson 33 VIII. Gray Writes the Elegy 37 IX. Cowper as a Letter Writer 42 X. Gibbon and His Visit to Rome 46 XI. Burns Falls in Love 50 XII. Burns' First Book of Poems 54 XIII. Samuel Taylor Coleridge in School and College 59 XIV. Byron as Swimmer and Feaster 64 XV. Shelley as a Freshman 71 XVI. The Death of Shelley 76 XVII. The School-days of John Keats 82 XVIII. The Heroism of Sir Walter Scott 88 XIX. Walter Savage Landor 93 XX. Leigh Hunt's Business Ability 100 XXI. De Quincey Runs Away 102 XXII. Macaulay's Childhood 108 XXIII. Macaulay Becomes Famous 114XXIV. Dickens Writes the Pickwick Papers 119 XXV. Charles Dickens as Reader 123 XXVI. On the Death of Dickens 126 XXVII. Ruskin's Childhood 130 XXVIII. The Marriage of the Brownings 135 XXIX. Robert Browning 140 XXX. Knight's Reminiscences of Tennyson 145 XXXI. Emerson on Carlyle and Tennyson 150 XXXII. Literary Recollections of Max Müller 156 XXXIII. The Early Education of John Stuart Mill 162 XXXIV. Carlyle Goes to the University 167 XXXV. Carlyle and His Wife 170 XXXVI. Carlyle as Lecturer 175 XXXVII. Carlyle on Wordsworth and Browning 180 XXXVIII. The Author of "Jane Eyre" 184 XXXIX. Thackery in America 189 XL. George Eliot Becomes a Writer of Fiction 194 XLI. The Author of "Alice in WonderLand" 200 XLII. About Darwin 203 XLIII. Anecdotes of Huxley 209 XLIV. Stevenson at Vailima 214 XLV. Kipling in India 221 AMERICAN WRITERS XLVI. Benjamin Franklin Runs Away 226 XLVII. Washington Irving 234 XLVIII. Cooper and "The Spy" 242 XLIX. John Lothrop Motley and Bismarck 249 L. The Youth of George Ticknor 254 LI. Fitz-Greene Halleck 259 LII. The Author of Thanatopsis 262 LIII. Curtis and Hawthorne at the Brook Farm 266 LIV. Hawthorne and the Scarlet Letter 270 LV. Max Müller's Recollections of Emerson, Lowell and Holmes 279 LVI. Howells Calls on Emerson, and Describes Longfellow 284 LVII. Longfellow, the Universal Poet 290 LVIII. Henry David Thoreau 297 LIX. The Last Days of Edgar Allan Poe 303 LX. Artemus Ward 313 LXI. Edmund Gosse