period literature

[Johan Steele]

What would the discriminating gentleman or professional soldier have in his library?

Such authors as Blackstone, Plutarch and of coarse the bible were well known to the learned man, but what other literature would he be familiar with?

[TeamsterPhil]

Re: period literature

I know there have been threads on this subject before -- but one author that would be proper for anyone from any class to read would be the Bard of Avon. There are plenty of references to soldiers all the way down to the lowliest private quoting Shaekespeare.

Phil Campbell
Richard would have been better off with a mule.

[BishopLynch]

Re: period literature

Dickens was very popular, as well as Shakespeare. If you were a more learned soldier, both latin and greek texts might be in your kit. Seneca's plays and Ciceros writings were very popular for classical study, as they are today as well. The Holy Bible would be good, but one thing that I have been looking into getting for my kit is The Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis. It has been extremly popular ever since its first printing. I have found original copies of this book as far back as 1744. I dont recall exactly when it was first published, you may want to look into that. Sullivan Press sells Dime Novels which were popular at the time. It would even be good to have an old Harper's Weekly in your pack. Ill have to look up some more for you, but since the 1860's is classified as part of the Romantic Period in literature, many romantic writers and poets of the time would be possibly read. Hope this helps out a little.

[BishopLynch]

Re: period literature

Here is a brief summary of some of the popular themes in literature:
1850's:
"The era of public libraries began during this decade with the Astor Library in New York. Boston Public Library was opened also. Several books which had enormous social impact were written during this decade: books we still read and love 150 years later. Nathaniel Hawthorne published The Scarlet Letter, depicting American life under Puritan rule during Colonial times, and The House of Seven Gables. Herman Melville published White Jacket describing abuses in the navy, including emphasis on flogging. The following year Melville published Moby Dick, considered by many Americans as the greatest book produced in this country. The most important book of the decade (maybe the century) was Uncle Tom's Cabin or Life Among the Lowly,1852, by Harriet Beecher Stowe This book became phenomenally popular and dramas of the story of Uncle Tom and Eliza were played by traveling companies throughout the country. Clotel, released in England in 1853 and in the U.S.in 1864, was the first African American novel, was written by William Wells Brown, who had escaped from his former owner. Slave narratives, popular between 1840 and 1860, included Frederick Douglass' My Bondage and My Freedom and Solomon Northrup's Twelve Years as a Slave. Cotton is King, or the Economical Relations of Slavery by David Christy,was published.
Thoreau published Walden, or Life in the Woods. Longfellow's poetry was popular, poems like The Song of Hiawatha and The Courtship of Miles Standish. Walt Whitman wrote and published Leaves of Grass. Oliver Wendell Holmes published the witty Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. In1855, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations was published by John Bartlett, a Cambridge, Mass. bookstore owner.
Sentimental fiction grew even more popular, especially with women readers. A popular male author in the sentimental (romantic) genre was Donald Grant Mitchell, who wrote Reveries of a Bachelor: A book of the Heart, which sold more than a million copies by the end of the century. Mary Jane Holmes published 39 novels during her lifetime, wrote the sentimental Tempest and Sunshine; or Life in Kentucky and later Lena Rivers, which sold over 1,000,000 copies. Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth, the popular novelist, published The Hidden Hand which sold nearly 2,000,000 copies.
William Andrus Alcott wrote more than 100 home health books, including The Home Book of Life and Health. Religious tracts (brochures) were everywhere in the nineteenth century and anti-abolition tracts began being published in both the north and south.A novel, Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There by Timothy Shay Arthur, promoted temperance and sold over 1,000,000 copies in the first few years of publication..
Harper's Monthly Magazine began its publication and contained serializations of novels of Dickens, Trollope, George Eliot and Thackery - British authors who were paid more by Harper's than by British publications. The Atlantic Monthly was founded. The first issues of newspapers were published in the west, included the The Weekly Oregonian and The Deseret News in Salt Lake City, published by the Mormon Church. The New York Times (first known as the New York Daily News) began publication. Una was published in Washington, D.C. by Paulina Wright Davis and was a magazine supporting women's suffrage.''
1860's:
"Poets Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Greenleaf Whittier, Emily Dickinson, and Ralph Waldo Emerson continued writing. Political satire was popular, Petroleum Vesuvious Nasby (David Ross Locke) leading the way. American humor in literature depicted shred comments on current events, primarily by Charles Farrar Browne (Artemus Ward)and Washington Harris Browne.
Dime novels made their appearance; Erastus Beadle published these. The Beadle dime novels contained tales of the West, Indians, pioneers, and gunmen. The first, Malaeska: the Indian Wife of the white Hunter, sold over 300,000 copies. Romance novels continued drawing a large audience. Miriam Coles Harris' Rutledge, who published 130 other novels, was extremely popular .East Lynne by British author Mrs. Henry Wood, was introduced - it was a tearjerker and sold at least 1,000,000 copies in the United States. Authors wrote about the American West. An early romantic western novel set in the Rockies, John Brent, by Theodore Winthrop was published. Western writer Bret Harte published The Outcasts of Poker Flat. Southern writers published wartime romances, idealizing the colonial past. (John Esten Cooke wrote a series of romances, including Surry of Eagle's Nest.) The detective and mystery genre took firm hold on the reading public with the publication of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.
American realism in literature got its start during this decade. Industrialization led some writers like Rebecca Harding Davis (Life in the Iron Mills)to realistically depicted the lives of working people. Horatio Alger published his books preaching hard work and resistance to temptation as the road to wealth and renown. His series featured Ragged Dick, then Luck and Pluck. The Ragged Dick books influenced young farming boys to leave small towns and look for work in the cities. Mark Twain wrote Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog (The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County) and became famous across the country. He also completed Innocents Abroad. Sunday sermons by Henry Ward Beecher, pastor of the Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn, appeared in print on Tuesdays and sold for five cents."
This information is quoted from the Kingwood College Library at www.kclibrary.nhmccd.edu

[Drygoods]

Re: period literature

Greetings Gentlemen,

Why is it that when people write today about modern books of the mid-nineteenth century, they always forget the most popular and widely sold author of that time, Fanny Fern? (Sara Willis Parton) She outsold Dickens is this country, no contest, her articles and books were translated into seven different languages and also sold overseas. She earned $100 for every column that she wrote for the NY Ledger, which was something for a woman starting out in 1852!

Gift books, "annuals, gems, and offerings" were probably the most common books sold on the market and their heyday was the 1840-1860s period. As the CW continued these books with their decorative arts and intricate plates began to disappear. With titles such as; annual 'Friendship Offering, Laurel Wreath, Ladies Wreath, Rose of Sharon, Ladies Casket, Gems By The Wayside, The Altar At Home, The Pet Annual, plus don't forget that although the trade catered most to ladies at home books, there were just as many men's and childrens annuals and light literature. I'd seprate more of them into a men's pile if you're interested, but as I have over 390 of them, it's kind of tough to locate them all around the house at an instance's notice. Also, don't forget that the various lodges, eg; Masons, and Odd Fellows, also published gift annuals for their members.

If you really want to know what were THE most current books on the market, than a quick glance at Hunts Merchants Manual will give you the lowdown. These were books that were reviewed for gentlemen, here is a brief sample with just the titles... mind you, again, this HMM was written for the educated, or businessman....."The Heiress of Greenhurst, Why And What I Am, Dynevorterrace, The Way Home, The Englisman In Kansas, Lectures on Temperance, Putnams Railway Classics, Lizzie Maitland, God's Message To The Young, The Hasheesh Eater, Life Of Aaron Burr, The Waverly novels, Twin Roses, The Spanish Conquest in America, European Acquaintance, The Fireman, White Lies, Life Thoughts By HW Beecher, Adele, Old Hempsey - An Antislavery Romance, Livingstons Travels and Researches In Africa, The Belle Of Washington, The Impressions Of The West And South During a Six-Weeks Holiday, Mabel Vaughn (reviewed as "one of those lively stories made up of nicknacks and gossip which have become so popular of late")
The few books that I mentioned above were only taken as examples from three months worth of reviews and listed book sales. At any rate, this is far different than what most modern day historians would tell you what people read or found at the local bookshop. What I found interesting is that you not only get to read their review in HMM, but also note what is selling the best. :wink_smil

It is my opionion that if you really want to know the material culture of the 1860s and be able to speak of it fluently as though second nature to you, nothing beats reading the original sources.
Mfr,
Judith Peebles

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: period literature

Hallo Kameraden!

"...if you really want to know the material culture of the 1860s and be able to speak of it fluently as though second nature to you, nothing beats reading the original sources.:

Yes, indeed...

But I would answer the question, overly brief and PEC, with one word: "newspapers."

If it is still available, of passing interest on education:

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0IMR/2001_Fall-Winter/100485422/p4/article.jhtml?term=

Curt-Heinrich Schmidt

[Johan Steele]

Re: period literature

Gents I really appreciate the replies, in my initial search I missed an earlier thread on the site.

[Noble Pelican]

Re: period literature

No one has yet to mention the most widely circulated periodical in the South at the start of the Civil War, DeBow's Review. I would tend to think that this item would have more widespread coverage than any one book. DeBow's Review covered a myriad of subjects pertinent to the Southern man. The Fugitive Slave Law, Discussions of the Social Impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Practical Facts of Emancipation, and the like were frequently discussed in DeBow's Review.
I would also guess it would be a good quick read for the soldier in the field. In garrison, I would tend to surmise that a soldier had more of a chance for lengthy reading than in the field. This is evidenced by the ad placed in the Mobile newspaper in early 1863 by Colonel Wesley Winans of the 19th Louisiana Infantry while on a "Detachment of Observation" at Pollard, AL. He requested "donations of books for his regiment of 500 men." Obviously at this posting, they had a lot more time on their hands.

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Re: period literature

I took a list of books from Lucy Breckinridge read in 1862:

Alone (1854) by Marion Harland (pen name of Mary Virginia Terhuse, 1830-1922).

La Femme (1860) by Jules Michelet (1798-1874).

Castle Richmond (1860) by Anthony Trollope

Her sister, Eliza, read and enjoyed The Mill of the Floss by George Eliot (pen name of Mary Ann Evans, 1819-1880).

Read several sermons by an Episcopal bishop, historian, and author, Dr. William Bacon Stevens (1815-1887).

Read several sermons by Bishop Joseph Butler (1629-1752).

The Laird of Norlaw by Margaret Oliphant (1828-1897)

The Confessions of a Pretty Woman, Julia Pardoe (1806-1862)

Bible

The Episcopal Manual by Rev. William H. Wilmer.

The Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers by William Edmondstone Aytoun (1813-1865)

Several Tennyson poems.

The Spectator (early 1700s) by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele .

A few pieces of literature that Mary Chesnut wrote of in her wartime diary:

August 14,1861- Dutch Republic by Motley

August 17, 1861- Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

March 13, 1862- "Read Uncle Tom's Cabin again." Nothing positive to note of Ms. Stowe's book.

May 21, 1862- "Lent the Middletons L'Homme de neige" the footnote states it was a novel published in 1856 by George Sand.

February 24, 1864- Richelieu, a play published in 1839 by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Cinq-Mars published in 1826 by Alfred Victor.

March 11, 1864- Blithedale by Nathaniel Hawthorne published in 1852.

August 19, 1864- Queens of the House of Hanover by John Doran published in 1855.

August 31, 1864- "Today read Christine Johnstone Hetty Cary--Eh?" Christine Johnstone was published in 1853 by Charles Reade. Her other comment is directed toward Miss Hetty Cary (later Mrs. General John Pegram) of Baltimore. In the notes of Mrs. Chesnut's diary it says "The heroine of Charles Reade's Christine Johnstone is a strong fisherwoman careful in business but impulsive with men" (642, Mary Chesnut's Civil War. Edited by C. Vann Woodward)

December 2, 1864- Mademoiselle de Seigliere by Leonard Sylvain Jules Sandeau published in 1847.

February 19, 1865- Memoires by Stephanie Felicite du Crest de Saint-Aubin, comtess de Genlis published in 1825. This recounted her flight from France in French Revolution. Mary Chesnut wrote "An exile's story is curiously interesting now. Contrast our fate and hers." It should be noted that at this time, Mrs. Chesnut was a refugee in Lincolnton, North Carolina.

I am also amazed no one has yet mentioned the Southern Literary Messenger. An extremely important Southern piece of literature began in 1834 and running thirty years until publication ended in 1864. A complete grouping of the articles can be found at:

http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/browse.journals/sout.html

In the December 29, 1860, Harpers Weekly, there are a list of books mentioned for sale by Harper & Brothers:

The Children's Picture-Book of Birds by W. Harvey and is listed as having had 61 engravings.

The Children's Picture Fable-Book by Harrison Weir which had 160 fables and 60 illustrations.

Miss Mullock's Our Year by Miss Mulock, illustrated by Clarence Dobell.

Self-Made Men by Charles C.B. Seymour.

Just a few thoughts on the literary works of the day...