were imitators, for the most part, of English models; and their work was often marred by sentimentality. But they show growth in literary form, and their work gives evidence that the young nation was developing into national consciousness. The Middle Period includes not only the greater names,Bryant, Emerson, Longfellow, Whittier, Poe, Holmes, and Lowell,but many lesser names that cluster about them. This period closes with Mr. Thompson's The High Tide at Gettysburg, which may be said to mark the culmination of the impulse given to letters by the Civil War. Deep feeling and imaginative power stamp this period as the greatest in our literary history. The two chief forces that made it great were the revival of letters in New England and the Civil War. The Later Period, which deals with writers who are for the most part still living, naturally does not possess the depth of feeling and the sustained imaginative power of poetry inspired by a great war, but it does possess real feeling and imagination. Moreover, it possesses a dominant urbanity, humor, and grace, and everywhere displays lightness of touch and dexterousness of form. Its deficiencies are apparently those of a period of waiting. What the future will bring forth may only be guessed at vaguely. It seems reasonably sure, however, that the splendid material and political activity of the United States at the present day—the surge of life that every day beats around our feet must in due time find fit literary expression; and those of us who believe strongly in the commercial and political future of the country are no less confident of the future of American letters. Grateful acknowledgment for permission to use 'copyrighted selections is given as follows: to Maynard, Merrill & Co. for the selections by N. P. Willis; to J. B. Lippincott Company for the selections by T. B. Read and G. H. Boker; to the Robert Clarke Company for "Antony to Cleopatra," from their edition of the Poems of General William Haines Lytle; to Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company for the selections by P. H. Hayne; to McClure, Phillips & Co., publishers, for the selection by Edwin Markham; to Collier's Weekly for the selection by Caroline Duer; to Harper's Weekly for the selection by G. W. Carryl; to Harper's Magazine for the selection by J. B. Gilder. The selections by Emerson, Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, Lowell, W. W. Story, Julia Ward Howe, T. W. Parsons, Bayard Taylor, J. T. Trowbridge, E. C. Stedman, T. B. Aldrich, John Hay, Bret Harte, E. R. Sill, Maurice Thompson, E. M. Thomas, F. D. Sherman, L. I. Guiney, and W. V. Moody are used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., the authorized publishers of their works. For further courtesies in matters of copyright, the editor is also indebted to: D. Appleton & Co.; The Bobbs-Merrill Co.; The Century Co.; Henry T. Coates & Co.; Small, Maynard & Co.; G. P. Putnam's Sons; F. M. Finch; G. J. Preston; Rosa N. Ticknor; Will H. Thompson; W. T. Meredith; Lloyd Mifflin ; John Vance Cheney; Arthur Peterson; W. Gordon McCabe ; James R. Randall; E. F. Ware. To Mr. E. C. Stedman the special acknowledgment of the editor is due, and is cordially given, for the free use made of the texts in An American Anthology, and for indispensable help from the biographical notes. Many other books have also been of service. For illuminating suggestion, mention should be made of Professor Wendell's Literary History of America, Professor Woodberry's America in Literature, and Professor Trent's American Literature. To Professor Henry van Dyke, Professor T. W. Hunt, Professor T. M. Parrott, and Professor H. F. Covington, of Princeton University, and to Mr. W. M. Reed and Mr. J. J. Moment, the editor is greatly indebted for generous assistance in numberless ways. PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, · A. W. L. September 1, 1905. |