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Professor Woodberry in his biography has said of Poe's poetical doctrine: "Of the minor articles of his creed it is necessary to recall only those which assert that a poem should be brief; should aim at a single artistic effect, but not to the exclusion of a secondary suggested meaning; and should be touched, if possible, by a certain quaintness, grotesqueness, or peculiarity of rhythm or meter, to give it tone. The diversity of criticism upon Poe's verse is largely due to the assumption that it can be measured intelligently by any other than his own standard. The poet strives, Poe thought, to bring about in others the state felt in himself; and in his own case that was one of brooding reverie, a sort of emotional possession, full of presentiment, expectancy, and invisible suggestion, the mood that is the habitat of superstition; vagueness was the very hue in which he painted." These analyses by Professor Woodberry may well be remembered when reading Poe's "“Eulalie.”

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II. THACKERAY'S NOTEBOOK FOR “HENRY ESMOND"

HIS interesting manuscript of notes and drawings made by William Makepeace Thackeray for his historical novel, The History of Henry Esmond, Esq., and for lectures, was presented to the Library recently by Mrs. Henry Draper, as an addition to the John Shaw Billings Memorial, founded by her. It was secured directly from Thackeray's daughter, Lady Ritchie, through an American agent. In Lady. Ritchie's "Centenary Biographical Edition" of her father's works, she refers to it as containing "a few topographical notes" (Henry Esmond. London, 1911, p. xxx). But in addition, there are historical notes and memoranda on four pages, notes and drawings on two pages, five full-page drawings of Lord North, Charles James Fox, the Duke of Cumberland, Dean Atterbury, and other sketches. The accompanying facsimiles show the first page of his notes and a sketch which Lady Ritchie says is "probably Dean Atterbury."

The first edition of The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. was published at London, in 1852, by Smith, Elder and Company, in three volumes, with half-titles which read: “Esmond: A Story of Queen Anne's Reign. By W. M. Thackeray." The original manuscript of the novel is preserved in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, in two large quarto volumes which were presented to the college in 1888 by Sir Leslie Stephen, the author's son-in-law. That manuscript, which served as printer's copy, is partly in Thackeray's hand, and partly written by his daughter, now Lady Ritchie, and by Mr. Eyre Crowe, his "factotum and amanuensis."

One of the earliest critiques written about "Henry Esmond" was penned by George Brimley, then librarian of Trinity College, for the Spectator of November 6, 1852; since reprinted in Brimley's Essays, Cambridge, 1858; and later, with an introduction by Richard Henry Stoddard, New York, 1861. He characterizes the work as follows:

"The book has the great charm of reality. The framework is, as we have said, historical: men with well-known names, political, literary, military,

pass and repass; their sayings and doings are interwoven with the sayings and doings of the fictitious characters; and all read like a genuine memoir of the time. The rock ahead of historical novelists is the danger of reproducing too much of their raw material; making the art vïsible by which they construct their image of a by-gone time; painting its manners and the outside of its life with the sense of contrast with which men of the present naturally view them, or looking at its parties and its politics in the light of modern questions: the rock ahead of Mr. Thackeray, in particular, was the temptation merely to dramatize his lectures: but he has triumphed over these difficulties, and Queen Anne's Colonel writes his life, — and a very interesting life it is, — just as such a Queen Anne's Colonel might be supposed to have written it." Half a century has sustained that earlier estimate. In his De Libris (1908), Austin Dobson says that this novel "is still unrivaled as the typical example of that class of historical fiction, which, dealing indiscriminately with characters real and feigned, develops them both with equal familiarity, treating them each from within, and investing them impartially with a common atmosphere of illusion. No modern novel has done this in the same way, nor with the same good fortune, as Esmond; and there is nothing more to be said on this score.'

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If Thackeray succeeded in keeping his literary workshop from view in his novel, the revelation of some of the bases of his process, as discovered in his little notebook, cannot fail to have an interest to the literary historian.

MANUSCRIPT DIVISION

OTHER RECENT ADDITIONS

HE November Bulletin mentioned a military diary and account book of Captain Henry True, of Salisbury, Mass. The Library has since purchased another account book of Captain True, 1712-1725, with accounts by Samuel True relating to the first church of Salisbury, 1774-1803.

Of peculiar interest for the early period of the American Revolution is an orderly book kept principally by Captain William Mason and Captain William Charnock, of Colonel (afterwards General) William Moultrie's command, from June 20, 1775 – December 8, 1776. It contains data in regard to the building of Fort Sullivan (now Fort Moultrie) in Charleston harbor, South Carolina, and the attack thereon by the British fleet on June 28, 1776. To the same period there also belongs a "Journal of the Canadian Campaign, 1775," kept by Henry Brockholst Livingston, from August 25 to December 19, of that year. The later period of the war is represented by two orderly books kept by Lieutenant Libbeus Loomis, adjutant of the First Connecticut Regiment of the Line, in General Heath's command, mostly in The Highlands of the Hudson, from February 5 - April 9, and May 30 - July 14, 1782.

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The Keeper of the Wardrobe had his office by palent for life, and a salary of 2000.

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The brike & Scowich was in England in 1695.

Dr Tillation br Paluck to Pelaborow br. Shlung feel tof &' Pauls D. Tannisa Mumed en of of 8' turned S. Martins. Di Sherlook Master of the Kimple. des Wake is the wonderfullest young man in ther world & the most popular duine now in England. Burcul to lom

PAGE FROM THACKERAY'S NOTEBOOK

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The War of 1812 is represented among the recent additions by an orderly book of General Green Clay, of the First Brigade of Kentucky Militia dẹtached. This has entries from March 19- August 25, 1813, written mostly in the hand of his aide, Joseph H. Hawkins, at Lexington, Cincinnati, Camp George Town, Dayton, Piqua, St. Marys, Fort Winchester, Fort Meigs, etc. It includes an original "plan of march" and an autographic roll of General Clay's officers, dated at Camp Meigs, September 16, 1813, agreeing to continue with the army to Malden.

The Texas revolution and Mexican War are represented by a most important purchase of more than three-fourths of the correspondence of Commodore David Conner, U. S. N. It consists of more than 2,600 pieces, including secret diplomatic papers, official instructions and correspondence from the Navy Department, secret intelligence, communications from the commanders of the ships in his squadron, and drafts of his own correspondence.

The Library has also acquired a small number of official reports and letters to Rear Admiral L. M. Goldsborough, U. S. N., commander of the European squadron in 1866-1867, during the rebellion of Crete against Turkey, showing the part played by our navy in succoring refugees.

New York history has been enriched by a volume of "General Observations on the Brantingham Tract," in Lewis County, accompanied by a large map of the tract as surveyed into lots in 1806 by P. Benjamin Wright, with colored drawings of the Black River Falls, the Canal Lock, and Hell Gate on Black River. But the most important accession of interest to students of the history of New York is the original manuscript report of February, 1811, of the first commissioners appointed by the legislature of New York to explore the route from the Hudson River to Lake Ontario and Lake Erie for an inland navigation. It was presented to the senate on March 2, 1811. This primary document in the history of the Erie Canal bears the signatures of Gouverneur Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, W. North, De Witt Clinton, Thomas Eddy, Peter B. Porter and Simeon De Witt. The Library has secured a portion of the papers of John Tayler, acting governor of New York for some months in 1817. Tayler had a public career of half a century, during which period he held many important posts. The papers acquired extend from 1787-1849. The Honorable Charles S. Fairchild, Secretary of the Treasury in the cabinet of President Cleveland, has given to the Library a number of financial papers and account books of the Third Great Western or Cherry Valley Turnpike and of the Utica and Syracuse Railroad.

New acquisitions of British naval and military documents include a contemporary manuscript volume giving a record of the grants of the British Parliament for the army and navy, 1689-1698; abstracts of accounts of public revenue, taxes and loans, 1688-1697, with an estimate of the cost of the war; a general and particular state of the army in 1697; grants in 1698; list of the navy royal of England, 1688-1697, with interesting particulars. There is also the original letter copy-book of Captain A. H. Hoskins, R. N., while in command of H.M.S. "Sultan," from December 3, 1873, to September 25, 1874.

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