The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss Part 59

I.

A List of Mrs. Prentiss' Writings, with notices of some of them and the dates of their publication:

1. _Little Susy's Six Birthdays._ 1853.

2. _Only a Dandelion, and other Stories._ 1854.

The first piece, from which the little book takes its name, was written at the time, and is not excelled by anything of the kind written by Mrs.

Prentiss. Spring Breeze is as fresh and delicate as a May flower. The other stories are mostly a selection from her early contributions to The Youth's Companion.

3. _Henry and Bessie; or, What they did in the Country._ 1855.

4. _Little Susy's Six Teachers._ 1856.

5. _Little Susy's Little Servants._ 1856.

The three Little Susy books were republished in England, where they seem to have been as popular among the children as at home. Not far from 50,000 copies have been sold in this country.

6. _The Flower of the Family._ A Book for Girls. 1856.

This work has had a wide circulation at home and abroad. Some 19,000 copies have been sold here. The following is the t.i.tle-page of one of the French editions:

Le Fleur de La Famille ou Simple Histoire pour Les Jeunes Filles.

Ouvrage Americain.

Cinquieme edition.

Toulouse, Societe des Livres Religieux.

1877.

Die Perle der Familie is the German t.i.tle. Here are a few sentences from a highly laudatory notice in the well-known "Neue Preuss. Zeitung":

In ausserordentlicher lieblicher und sinniger Weise wird uns ein hausliches, schlichtes, von edlem Christlichen Sinn getragenes Familien- leben forgefuhrt, das durch seine treffliche Characterschilderung unser lebhaftestes Interesse flir jedes Glied des kinderreichen Hauses in Anspruch nimmt. Es ist im eigentlichsten Sinne ein Buch fur die Familie.

_The Flower of the Family_ was translated into German,--as were also _Stepping Heavenward, The Percys, Fred and Maria and Me_,--by Miss Marie Morgenstern, of Gottingen. Some omissions in the version of _Stepping Heavenward_ mar a little the vivacity of the book; but otherwise her work seems to have been very carefully and well done, and to have met with the warm approval of the German public.

7. _Peterchen and Gretchen; or, Tales of Early Childhood._ 1860.

This is a translation from the German.

8. _The Little Preacher._ 1867.

One of the most striking of her smaller works. It has throughout the flavor of German peasant life and of the Black Forest. But it seems never to have found its way across the sea.

9. _Little Threads; or, Tangle Thread, Silver Thread, and Golden Thread._ 1868.

The aim of _Little Threads_ is happily indicated in its closing sentences:

If you find that you like to have your own way a good deal better than you like your mamma to have hers; if you pout and cry when you can not do as you please; if you never own that you are in the wrong, and are sorry for it; never, in short, try with all your might to be docile and gentle, then your name is Tangle Thread, and you may depend you cost your mamma many sorrowful hours and many tears. And the best thing you can do is to go away by yourself and pray to Jesus to make you see how naughty you are, and to make you humble and sorry. Then the old and soiled thread that can be seen in your mother's life will disappear, and in its place there will come first a silver, and by and by, with time and patience, and G.o.d's loving help, a sparkling and beautiful golden one. And do you know of anything in this world you should rather be than Somebody's Golden Thread?--especially the Golden Thread of your dear mamma, who has loved you so many years, who has prayed for you so many years, and who longs so to see you gentle and docile like Him of whom it was said: "Behold the _Lamb_ of G.o.d!"

_Little Threads_ is based upon a very keen observation of both the dark and the bright side of childhood. The allegory, in which its lessons are wrought, is, perhaps, less simple and attractive than that of _Little Susy's Six Teachers_, or that of _Little Susy's Little Servants_; but the lessons themselves are full of the sweetest wisdom, pathos, and beauty.

10. _Little Lou's Sayings and Doings_. 1868.

Among the papers of her sister, Mrs. Prentiss found a journal containing numerous little incidents in the early life of her only child, together with more or less of his boyish sayings. Much of the material found in this journal was used in the composition of _Little Lou_; and that is one thing that gives it such an air of perfect reality.

11. _Fred and Maria and Me._ 1868.

12. _The Old Brown Pitcher._ 1868.

This is a temperance tale. It was written at the request of the National Temperance Society and issued for their press.

_13. Stepping Heavenward. 1869._

Some interesting details respecting this work have been given already.

Its circulation has been very large, both at home and abroad; far greater than that of any other of Mrs. Prentiss' books. More than 67,000 copies of it have been sold in this country; while in England it was issued by several houses, and tens of thousands of copies have been sold there, in Canada, in Australia, and in other parts of the British dominions.

Among the English houses that republished _Stepping Heavenward_, were James Nisbet & Co.; Ward, Lock & Co.; Frederick Warne & Co.; Thomas Nelson & Sons, London and Edinburgh; Milner & Co.; Weldon & Co. An edition by the last-named house, neatly printed and intended specially for circulation in Canada and Australia, as well as at home, was sold at fivepence, so that the very poorest could buy it. No accurate estimate can be formed of the number of copies circulated in Great Britain and its dependencies, but it must have been enormous. It was also issued at Leipsic, by Tauchnitz, in his famous "Collection of British Authors."

The German translation has already pa.s.sed into a fourth edition--a remarkable proof of its popularity. In the preface to this edition Miss Morgenstern, the translator, says: "So moge sie denn hinausziehen in die Welt, diese vierte Auflage, moge wiederum aufklopfen an die Stuben und Herzenthuren, der deutschen Lesewelt, und nachdem ihr aufgethan, hineintragen in die Stuben und Herzen, was ihre Vorgangerinnen hineintrugen;--Freude und Rath und Trost." Nowhere has the work won higher, or more discriminating, praise than in Germany. The following extract from one of the critical notices of it may serve as an instance:

In Form von Tagebuch--Aufzeichnungen, somit Selbstbekenntnissen, wird uns das Leben einer Frau erzalt, welche--ohne andere _aussere_ Schickungen freudiger und truber Art, als sie in _jedem_ Leben vorzukommen pflegen--aus einem zwar gutartigen und wohlbegabten aber Susserst reizbaren und leidenshaftlich erregten Mudchen zu einer gelauterten Jungerin des Herrn heranreift. Was aber dies Buch zu einem wahren Kleinod macht, das ish nicht die uberaus wahre und tiefe a.n.a.lyse jener menschlichen Sunde, Sundenschwachheit und Eitelkeit, die sich auch in die frommsten Regungen einuschleichen sucht, sondern die Angabe des wahren Heilmittels. Der goldne Faden namlich, der sich durch das ganze Buch zieht, ist die Wahrheit; Nicht _unser_ Rennen und Lanfen, sondern _Sein_ Erbarmen! Nicht _wir_ haben _Ihn_ geliebt, sondern _Er_ hat _uns_ geliebt, und daran haben _wir_ kindlich zu _glauben_. Sich _Ihm_ an _Sein_ Herz werfen mit all unsern Schwachen, all unser Armuth--das _wirkt_--ja das _ist_ Heilung.... Das Ganze ist im hochsten Grade fesselnd. Man lebt sich unwillkurlich in dies christliche Hauswesen mit ein, und glaubt in vielen Zugen einen Spiegel des eigenen zu erkennen.

[14]

The t.i.tle-page of the French translation is as follows:

MARCHANT VERS LE CIEL.

par E. PRENTISS.

Auteur de _La Fleur de la Famille_, etc.

Traduit de L'Anglais avec L'Autorization de L'Auteur.

Lausanne: Georges Bridel, Editeur.

The following extract from a letter of Madame de Fressense, dated Paris, July 18, 1882, will show what impression the work made not only upon the gifted and accomplished writer, but upon many other of the most cultivated Christian women of France and Switzerland:

C'est un livre qui fait aimer celle qui y a mis son ame, une etude du coeur humain bien vraie et bien delicate. L'amour de Dieu deborde dans ses pages charmantes, dont la lecture rechauffe le coeur. Je crois qu'il a ete fort apprecie dans nos pays de langue francaise. Une personne dont toute la vie est un service de ceux qui souffrent me disait l'autre jour: "C'est _mon_ livre, il m'a fait beaucoup de bien."

Le nombre d'editions qu'a atteint la traduction francaise teemoigne qu'il a eu du succes, et je suis sure que beaucoup de personnes ont prefere, avec raison, le lire dans l'original.