Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors][merged small]

From the Cincinnati Christian Standard. "It is highly fitting that Mr. Bryant, who presided over American poetry almost from its birth as well as from his own, should have left this collection as an evidence of his influence in forming the American taste to what is pure and noble. The directing hand of such a critical spirit is wanted at American firesides, in the formation of tastes averse to all meanness, and alive to all that is grand and true. With all Mr. Bryant's contributions to poetry and social science, we doubt if he has done one service greater than the collection of this admirable book of poetry."

From the Portland (Me.) Transcript. 'A revised and enlarged edition of the work published in 1870, and very appropriately contains a well-written memoir of Mr. Bryant, by Gen. Grant Wilson, a lifelong personal friend.”

From the Richmond (Va.) Whig. "A monument of the editor's genius, taste, and industry."

From the Louisville (Ky.) Argus. "Bryant's Library of Poetry and Song' promises to become, in its line, a classic, as already it is generally accepted as an authority. A word more: The spirit of this work is broad, untrammeled, catholic! It recognizes, in the American department, both the sections of a now common country, and endeavors to do justice to literary genius wherever exemplified. In this particular it is altogether unique."

From the N. Y. Christian Advocate.

"All the poets of the English tongue are here brought together, and we are taken through their illustrious ranks by one of their own honored company, and introduced to each as a special friend. Few men have ever lived who could guide us through this company with greater skill than could Mr. Bryant. For three quarters of a century he had had the passport of a brother into their society. He had studied them as a labor of love and as a business. With the secret inspiration of kinship, and the final authority of kingship, he knew exactly what to see and what to overlook. It will be a long time before we will find another such guide.

"While Mr. Bryant has added no little to the richness of the world's treasures by the creations of his own thought, we cannot avoid the conviction that this library of selections is among his greatest services to the average reader. In this hurried life one cannot afford to waste much time on inferior productions. It is half the battle to know what to read."

From the Boston Traveller.

"A wealth of verses such as have been collected nowhere else in one volume, and which are chosen with the rare discrimination and judgment the editor possesses."

From the N.Y. Jewish Advocate. "This book may, without hesitation, be called the choicest selection of poetry ever formed. With such rare judgment and discriminating taste have the selections been made, that there is scarcely anyone, even an extensive reader of poetry, who will not find his favorite pieces. The edition now before us of this great work of Bryant is issued as a tribute to his memory. To this end is appended a Biographical Memoir by his friend, Gen. J. G. Wilson, which will be found very valuable, and deeply interesting."

From the Baltimore (Md) Sun. "A most attractive work to the lovers of poetry."

[blocks in formation]

CRITICAL OPINIONS OF BRYANT'S LIBRARY OF POETRY AND SONG.

The Work of a Master. "Here are the best productions of the best poets of the world selected by a poet of exquisite taste and culture. Save

the Book of books' and 'Webster's Unabridged,' we think this book of Bryant's is destined to become the most popular ever published in this country."-Christian Union.

"In the character of the selections a broad catholicity has inspired the choice, while it has been guided by the scholarly judgment and human sympathy for which Bryant was known. Not the least valuable feature of the work is the review of English poetry and poets from Mr. Bryant's pen which forms the Introduction. Whether viewed as a specimen of English composition or as a critical essay, it is a piece of work such as only a Bryant could produce."-Springfield (Mass.) Union.

"The venerable and distinguished editor's name and character will prepare every reader to approach this work with respect and confidence."-Richmond Whig.

"Every poem has passed the cultivated criticism of Mr. Bryant, who has written a lengthy and able introduction to the work." -Albany (N. Y.) Morning Press.

"Mr. Bryant, to whom the whole realm of English poetry is as familiar as household words, has gathered here all that is choicest and sweetest and best in that wide field."-St. Paul Pioneer Press.

"Mr. Bryant's Introduction is a most beautiful and comprehensive critical essay on poets and poetry."-Albany Evening Journal.

"The Introduction alone would make the book valuable. So short an essay containing so much that is valuable for its quality would be hard to find elsewhere."-Machias (Me.) Republican.

"The Introduction to the book is written with all the perspicuity and elegance which mark the prose writings of our illustrious bard."-Syracuse (N. Y.) Standard.

A Library Indeed.

"A book which bears out its comprehensive title most thoroughly."-N. Y. Evening Mail.

"It is a garland of sweet and beautiful flowers culled from the whole garden of English poetry."-Troy (N. Y.) Daily Whig.

"It is well named, for it gives in one volume all that is really valuable in a whole library of verse."—Chicago Evening Journal.

"It is well called a Library' of Poetry and Song, with this advantage for most readers, that a master has made choice for them, bringing to them the rarest gems of our language."-Interior, Chicago, Ill.

"Here we find the choicest gems of the language. Its contents will never grow old.”—New England Journal of Education.

"The number of poets is so large that very few can afford to purchase their works. Indeed, private libraries contain the complete works of but a small number."--Troy (N. Y.) Whig.

"It is the most complete collection of English verse we have ever used. We have called upon it for a great number of our favorites, and they have responded, both the companions of years and the newer friends of yesterday. A severer test has been tried. We have asked it for the authorship of stray, floating waifs of rhyme, and for the concluding strains of tantalizing echoes of melody; and the answer has not failed to come."Advance, Chicago, Ill.

"The Library of Poetry and Song was first published in 1870, and so popular was it that eighty thousand copies have been sold. The volume before us is designed as a memorial of the editor, and as such has been revised and improved in many ways.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

CRITICAL OPINIONS OF BRYANT'S LIBRARY OF POETRY AND SONG.

A Household Book,

..

"It has fairly earned a front rank among volumes of selections for the library and household. The present edition contains a biographical memoir of Bryant by James Grant Wilson, who knew the great poet personally, if not intimately, and was with him at the time of his sudden fall on Mr. Wilson's own door-steps. It is as complete and satisfactory as so brief a biographical sketch well could be; and is probably the best brief biography the public will get, and the best of any sort till the authorized one impliedly promised by the family appears. Take it all in all it is valuable as a book and worthy as a memorial."--Christian Union.

"From any point of view, it must prove an engaging companion, whose influence will be elevating and ennobling, and whose purity and freshness, and, in a literary sense, whose instructiveness, will never be found wanting."-Binghampton (N. Y.) Republi

can.

"There has just come to our family circle, and we wish it was domesticated in every household in the land, Bryant's Library of Poetry and Song.' There is no question that such a work is indispensable in a growing household where a taste for poetry must be developed and directed."-Chicago Ad

vance.

"One of the most beautiful and valuable issues of this large and popular publishing house. It is a treasure of transcendent value to every household and every heart." -Atlanta (Ga.) Sun.

"It cannot be regarded in any other light than a charming visitor and a delightful resident in our family."-Rutland (Vt.) Independent.

"It is evidently destined to be the favorite of every family circle."-New Orleans Times.

"It is preeminently a book for the household."-Boston Globe.

Best of Its Kind.

"We know of no similar collection in the English language which, in copiousness and felicity of selection and arrangement, can at all compare with it."-New York Times.

"No other selection we know of is as varied and complete as this.”—Albany Evening Journal.

"We have no hesitation in recommending it as the best compilation of the kind now extant."-Syracuse Standard.

"It is unquestionably the choicest collection of poetry ever made, and the mechanical execution of the book compares favorably with its contents."-Albany (N.Y.) Evening Times.

"Certainly one of the best selections ever made. It is a delightful companion-a storehouse of sweets."-Harper's Weekly.

"None that we have seen is equal to this in the variety and completeness of its contents, and the general excellence of its mechanical execution."―Journal of Education.

"Nothing has ever approached it in completeness. From Shakespeare to the anonymous poems, and those of little known authors of to-day, scarcely anything at all a favorite, or at all worthy of place here, is neglected. It is a book for every household."-N. Y. Evening Mail.

"We can scarcely take up a paper without seeing some favorable notice of the work. The critics manifest a singular unanimity in its praise."-Detroit Commercial Bulletin.

"This work must be placed side by side with the volumes from Bryant's own pen. Well did he understand the taste of the popular mind when he selected and arranged the poems in this book. Already it has found its way into thousands of homes." -The Voice, Albany, N. Y.

"Unquestionably destined to be the most popular poetic work ever offered to a reading public. It is a book for a life-time."Rutland (Vt.) Independent.

[blocks in formation]
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed]
« ÎnapoiContinuă »