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1920 by Houghton Mifflin Company
Reissued in 1967 by Kennikat Press
The Centenary Celebration of James Russell Lowell last year showed thathe has become more esteemed as a critic and essayist than as a poet.Lowell himself felt that his true calling was in critical work ratherthan in poetry, and he wrote very little verse in the latter part of hislife. He was somewhat chagrined that the poetic flame of his youth didnot continue to glow, but he resigned himself to his fate; nevertheless,it should be remembered that "The Vision of Sir Launfal," "The BiglowPapers," and "The Commemoration Ode" are enough to make the reputationof any poet.
The present volume sustains Lowell's right to be considered one of thegreat American critics. The literary merit of some of the essays hereinis in many respects nowise inferior to that in some of the volumes hecollected himself. The articles are all exquisitely and carefullywritten, and the style of even the book reviews displays that qualityfound in his best writings which Ferris Greenslet has appropriatelydescribed as "savory." That such a quantity of good literature by soable a writer as Lowell should have been allowed to repose buried in thefiles of old magazines so long is rather unfortunate. The fact thatLowell did not collect them is a tribute to his modesty, a tribute allthe more worthy in these days when some writers of ephemeral reviews onephemeral books think it their duty to collect their opinions in bookform.
The essays herein represent the matured author as they were written inthe latter part of his life, between his thirty-sixth and fifty-seventhyears. The only early essay is the one on Poe. It appeared in Graham'sMagazine for February, 1845, and was reprinted by Griswold in hisedition of Poe. It has also been reprinted in later editions of Poe, buthas never been included in any of Lowell's works. This was no doubt dueto the slight break in the relations between Poe and Lowell, due toPoe's usual accusations of plagiarism. The essay still remains one ofthe best on Poe ever written.
Though Lowell became in later life quite conservative and academic, itshould not be thought that these essays show no sympathy with liberalideas. He was also appreciative of the first works of new writers, andhad good and prophetic insight. His favorable reviews of the first worksof Howells and James, and the subsequent career of these two men,indicate the sureness of Lowell's critical mind. Many readers willenjoy, in these days of the ouija board and messages from the dead, theraps at spiritualism here and there. Moreover, there is a passage in thefirst essay showing that Lowell, before Freud, understood thepsychoanalytic theory of genius in its connection with childhoodmemories. The passage follows Lowell's narration of the story of littleMontague.
None of the essays in this volume has appeared in book form except a fewfragments from some of the opening five essays which were reported fromLowell's lectures in the Boston Advertiser, in 1855, and wereprivately printed some years ago. Charles Eliot Norton performed aservice to the world when he published in th