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CHAPTER XII.

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UNPRECEDENTED SALE OF REVISED EDITION OF THE SKETCH BOOK."-ENGAGED UPON A "LIFE OF GOLDSMITH."-ITS PUBLICATION.-RIPLEY'S NOTICE.-CRITIQUE OF GEORGE W. GREENE.-APPEARANCE OF 66 MAHOMET AND HIS SUCCESSORS.

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"THE REVISED 66 ALHAMBRA AND CONQUEST OF GRANADA."-ANXIETY TO BEGIN ANEW ON 66 LIFE OF WASHINGTON."

HIS year opened most encouragingly. The issue of the seventh thousand of the "Sketch Book" was advertised on or about the 1st of February, less than four months after its republication; and Putnam gave the most flattering reports of the manner in which the illustrated edition had gone off during the holidays. The profits of this last named edition were mainly the publisher's, Mr. Irving being at no expense for the embellishments, receiving merely the twelve and a half per cent. on the retail price of so many ordinary copies. All the illustrated editions of his works were got up exclusively by his publisher.

"Bracebridge Hall," the author's last monthly publication, was followed in January by the second volume of the "Life and Voyages of Columbus," and in February by volume third, including the "Companions of Columbus." The "Tales of a Traveller" were brought out

in March, "Astoria" in April, and the "Crayon Miscellany" in May.

In noticing the appearance of this last, which comprised the "Tour on the Prairies," "Abbotsford,” and "Newstead Abbey," the editor of the "Literary World" remarks:

The author's "Astoria," the last monthly publication of the series, has, from its timely issue, when men's eyes are directed to the "California Trail," met with the most distinguished success. It is appropriately followed by the "Tour on the Prairies," included in the present volume. The next, we understand, will be a republication of "Captain Bonneville's Adventures," which will complete the volumes through which Irving has so happily connected his name with the history of the Great West. The charm of the "Tour on the Prairies" is its unique, finished character. It is a little episode of the author's life, in which he has condensed the sentiment and fresh spirit of adventure consequent on his return to American life, after long familiarity with the overcultivation of Europe. It will probably be read as long as any of his writings. The sketch of "Abbotsford and its Master" is one of the most graceful and truthful of the many reminiscences of Scott. How admirably the character of Sir Walter's conversation is conveyed in a line" The conversation of Scott was frank, hearty, picturesque, and dramatic." The anecdotes and traits of the great master, charmingly told in this narrative, are all to the point. The paper which concludes this volume of the miscellany, on "Newstead Abbey," reminds us of the best of the "Sketch Book" or "Bracebridge Hall."

Of "The Adventures of Captain Bonneville," the next in the series of Mr. Irving's collected works, a cotemporary remarks:

This book loses none of its freshness or interest with the lapse of years. The contrast between the polished, luxuriant style of its composition, and the wild, daring adventures of forest life which it describes, gives it a peculiar charm, and leads many to prefer it to the more universally admired productions of its popular author.

On the 5th of July, soon after a return from a short visit to his niece on Cayuga Lake, Mr. Irving writes to Mrs. Storrow as follows:

For upward of a year past I have been very much from home, obliged to be for the most of the time in the city, superintending the publication of a new and revised edition of my works, making researches for other works on which I am employed, and attending to the settlement of Mr. Astor's estate, and the organization of the Astor Library. Altogether I have had more toil of head and fagging of the pen for the last eighteen months than in any other period of my life, and have been once or twice fearful my health might become deranged, but it has held out marvelously; and now I hope to be able to ease off in my toils, and to pass my time at home as usual.

In the succeeding month, he received from the Astor estate, here mentioned, his share of the commissions devolving upon the executors, amounting to ten thousand five hundred and ninety-two dollars and sixty-six cents. It was shortly before this that he called at my office, and, speaking of his fagging at the "Life of Goldsmith," two or three chapters of which he had still to write, said it had taken more time than he could afford-had plucked the heart out of his summer; and after all he could only

play with the subject. He had no time to finish it off as he wished.

He had now published all but two of the revised edition of his works-"The Chronicles of Granada" and "The Alhambra "-and had intermitted the continuation of the series and his "Life of Washington," to take up the "Life of Goldsmith." It was a sudden literary freak, similar to that which had induced him, when first in Spain, to break off from "Columbus" to begin the "Chronicles of Granada," and had subsequently drawn him aside to his "Moorish Chronicles."

His publisher, Mr. Putnam, in his "Recollections of Irving," communicated to the "Atlantic Magazine in November, 1860, has the following glimpse at its origin

Sitting at my desk one day, he was looking at Forster's clever work, which I proposed to reprint. He remarked that it was a favorite theme of his, and he had half a mind to pursue it, and extend into a volume a sketch he had once made for an edition of Goldsmith's Works. I expressed a hope that he would do so; and within sixty days the first sheets of Irving's "Goldsmith were in the printer's hands. The press (as he says) was "dogging at his heels," for in two or three weeks the volume was published.

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I was on a visit to the cottage when it came out, and, reading it at once, expressed to him my satisfaction with the work. He replied that he had been afraid to look at it since it was brought up, for he had never written anything in such a hurry. He wanted more time for it, and

did not know but that his talents might be flagging. "Are you sure it does not smell of the apoplexy?" he inquired, in playful allusion to Gil Blas and the Archbishop of Granada.

A few days after, Mr. Irving received a note from Mr. George Ripley, at the head of the literary department of the New York "Tribune," and more widely known of late years as one of the editors of the "New American Cyclopædia," inclosing the following cordial and animated

notice:

Everything combines to make this one of the most fascinating pieces of biography in the English language. Enough is known of the personal history and character of Goldsmith to tempt us to recur to the subject with fresh interest; but he has not been so bandied about by life-writers and reviewers as to satiate curiosity. The simplicity and even the weaknesses of his nature call forth a feeling of affection; and the charm of his writings, so unaffected, so naïve, so transparent in their crystal purity of expression, attracts us to a more intimate acquaintance with the author. Mr. Irving was in possession of abundant materials to do justice to the subject. He has only to insert his exquisite magnetic needle into the mass, to give a choice and shapely form to all that was valuable in the labors of previous biographers. He has done this in a manner which leaves nothing to be desired. With a genial admiration of Goldsmith, with a cordial appreciation of the spirit of his writings, and with many similar intellectual tendencies, he has portrayed the varied picture of his life with a grace and elegance that make his narrative as charming a piece of composition as can be found in the whole range of his former works. He has added a new enchantment to the potent spell with which he always binds the hearts of his readers. He has performed his task with a facile excellence peculiar to himself; and henceforth the

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