Through the Year With Famous Authors Part 38

OCTAVE FEUILLET, a celebrated French novelist, was born at St. Lo, August 11, 1821, and died at Paris, December 29, 1890. He wrote: "The Great Old Man," "The History of Sibylla," "Julie de Trecoeur," "A Marriage in High Life," "Story of a Parisienne," "La Morte," and his most notable work, "Romance of a Poor Young Man."

My mother says I must not pa.s.s Too near that gla.s.s; She is afraid that I will see A little witch that looks like me, With a red mouth to whisper low The very thing I should not know.

"The Witch in the Gla.s.s,"--_Sarah Morgan Bryant Piatt_.

MRS. SARAH MORGAN (BRYANT) PIATT, a noted American poet, was born at Lexington, Ky., August 11, 1836. Her best known works are: "A Woman's Poems," "A Voyage to the Fortunate Isles," "Dramatic Persons and Moods,"

"The Witch in the Gla.s.s," "An Enchanted Castle," etc.

How beautiful is night!

A dewy freshness fills the silent air; No mist obscures; nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain, Breaks the serene of heaven: In full-orbed glory, yonder moon divine Rolls through the dark blue depths; Beneath her steady ray The desert circle spreads Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky.

How beautiful is night!

"Thalaba," Book i, Stanza 1,--_Robert Southey_.

ROBERT SOUTHEY, an English poet and prose-writer, of great renown, was born in Bristol, August 12, 1774, and died March 21, 1843. He wrote: "A Vision of Judgment," "Joan of Arc," "Thalaba the Destroyer," "The Curse of Kehama," "Life of Nelson," "The Doctor," "Book of the Church," "Life of John Bunyan," "Life of John Wesley," "History of Brazil," etc.

One day thou didst desert me--when I learned How looks the world to men that lack thy grace, And toward the shadowy night sick-hearted turned,-- When, lo! the first star brought me back thy face!

"To Imagination,"--_Edith Matilda Thomas_.

EDITH MATILDA THOMAS, a famous American poet, was born in Chatham, Ohio, August 12, 1854. She has written: "A New Year's Masque," "The Round Year," "Children of the Seasons," "Babes of the Year," "Babes of the Nation," "Lyrics and Sonnets," "Heaven and Earth," "The Inverted Torch,"

"Fair Shadow Land," "In Sunshine Land," "In the Young World," "A Winter Swallow, and Other Verse," "The Dancers," "Ca.s.sia and Other Verse,"

"Children of Christmas," "The Guest of the Gate," "The White Messenger,"

"The Flower from the Ashes," etc.

Cruel is death? Nay, kind, he that is ta'en Was old in wisdom, though his years were few; Life's pleasure hath he lost--escaped life's pain, Nor wedded joys, nor wedded sorrows knew.

"On a Youth," Translated from Julia.n.u.s,--_Goldwin Smith_.

GOLDWIN SMITH, a renowned English historian, essayist and educator, was born at Reading, Berkshire, August 13, 1823, and died June 7, 1910. He has written: "Irish History and Irish Character," "Foundation of the American Colonies," "England and America," "The Civil War in America,"

"Lectures on the Study of History," "Short History of England," "Life of Cowper," "Life of Jane Austen," "Guesses at the Riddle of Existence,"

"Reminiscences" (1910), "The Empire," "My Memory of Gladstone," etc.

Sweetest the strain when in the song The singer has been lost.

"The Poet and the Poem,"--_Elizabeth Stuart Phelps_.

ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS WARD, a celebrated American novelist, was born at Andover, Ma.s.s., August 13, 1844, and died in 1911. Among her many works are: "Ellen's Idol," "Gypsy Stories," "Men, Women and Ghosts,"

"Poetic Studies," "The Story of Avis," "Old Maid's Paradise," "Sealed Orders," "Beyond the Gates," "Songs of the Silent World," "The Gates Between," "A Struggle for Immortality," "The Life of Christ," "Trixy,"

"Walled In," and her most famous work, "Gates Ajar."

Flowers are Love's truest language.

"Sonnet,"--_Park Benjamin_.

PARK BENJAMIN, a noted American journalist, poet, and lecturer, was born at Demerara, British Guiana, August 14, 1809 and died in New York, September 12, 1864. Among his poetical pieces are: "The Old s.e.xton,"

"Poetry," "Infatuation," "The Nautilus," "To One Beloved," and "The Contemplation of Nature."

Among living authors Haggard is unquestionably first. I find two very remarkable qualities in Mr. Haggard's novels,--a power of imagination in which, for audacity and strength, he is unequalled since the Elizabethan dramatists. Secondly there is the mesmeric influence which he exercises over his readers.

--_Walter Besant_.

SIR WALTER BESANT, a distinguished English novelist, was born in Portsmouth, August 14, 1838, and died June 10, 1901. Among his noted works may be mentioned: "The Golden b.u.t.terfly," "Ready Money Mortiboy,"

"The Seamy Side," "Studies in Early French Poetry," "When George the Third Was King," "The French Humorists," "All Sorts and Conditions of Men," "Dorothy Foster," "All in a Garden Fair," "The Ivory Gate," "The Master Craftsman," "Beyond the Dreams of Avarice," "St. Katharine's by the Tower," "Armorel of Lyonnesse," "The Rebel Queen," etc. The first three works mentioned were written in collaboration with James Rice.

If on a Spring night, I went by And G.o.d were standing there, What is the prayer that I would cry To Him? This is the prayer: O Lord of Courage grave, O Master of this night of Spring Make firm in me a heart too brave To ask Thee anything!

"Moods, Songs and Doggerels," "The Prayer,"--_John Galsworthy_.

JOHN GALSWORTHY, a famous English author, was born at Combe in Surrey, August 14, 1867. His publications include: "The Man of Property," "A Motley," "Moods, Songs and Doggerels," "The Inn of Tranquillity," "A Sheaf," Vol. I; "Beyond," "A Sheaf," Vol. II; "Saint's Progress," "In Chancery," "Awakening," "To Let," etc. Plays: "The Silver Box," "The Pigeon," "The Eldest Son," "The Skin Game," "A Family Man," etc.

The sun reflecting upon the mud of strands and sh.o.r.es is unpolluted in his beam.

"Holy Living," Chap. i, 3,--_Jeremy Taylor_.

JEREMY TAYLOR, a renowned English theological writer, was born August 15, 1613, at Cambridge, and died at Lisburn, Ireland, August 13, 1667.

His most celebrated works are: "The Great Exemplar of Sanct.i.ty and Holy Life," "Discourse on the Liberty of Prophesying," "The Rule and Exercise of Holy Living," and "The Rule and Exercise of Holy Dying."

The rose is fairest when 't is budding new, And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears, The rose is sweetest wash'd with morning dew, And love is loveliest when embalm'd in tears.

"Lady of the Lake," Canto iv, Stanza 1.--_Walter Scott_.

SIR WALTER SCOTT, a Scotch novelist and poet of great fame, was born in Edinburgh, August 15, 1771, and died at Abbotsford, September 21, 1832.

Among his many works may be mentioned: "The Lay of the Last Minstrel,"

"Ballads and Lyrical Pieces," "Rokeby," "Marmion," "The Lady of the Lake," "Waverley," "Guy Mannering," "The Field of Waterloo," "The Lord of the Isles," "Rob Roy," "Harold the Dauntless," "Ivanhoe," "The Bride of Lammermoor: A Legend of Montrose," "Kenilworth," "The Abbot," "The Monastery," "The Pirate," "Tales of the Crusaders: The Betrothed, The Talisman," "History of Scotland," "Tales of a Grandfather," "Essays on Ballad Poetry," "The Eve of St. John: A Border Ballad," "Life of Dryden," "Life of Swift," etc., etc.

Shakespeare--that is, English tragedy--postulates the intense life of flesh and blood, of animal sensibility, of man and woman--breathing, waking, stirring, palpitating with the pulses of hope and fear. In Greek tragedy the very masks show the utter impossibility to these contests or conflicts.

"Leaders in Literature,"--_De Quincey_.

THOMAS DE QUINCEY, a celebrated English author, was born in Manchester, August 15, 1785, and died December 8, 1859. Besides his numerous essays and papers on historical literary and miscellaneous topics, he wrote: "Confessions of an English Opium Eater," "Letters to a Young Man Whose Education Has Been Neglected," "Logic of Political Economy,"

"Klosterheim," "Leaders in Literature," "Suspiria de Profundis: Essays on Style and Rhetoric," "Joan of Arc," "Autobiographic Sketches,"

"Literary Reminiscences," etc., etc.

Wee Willie Winkie rins through the toun, Upstairs and dounstairs, in his nicht-goun, Tirlin' at the window, cryin' at the lock, "Are the weans in their bed? for it's nou ten o'clock."

"Wee Willie Winkie,"--_William Miller_.