A dictionary of American authors

OSCAR FAY ADAMS
AUTHOR OF “THE STORY OF JANE AUSTEN’S LIFE,” “THE ARCHBISHOP’S UNGUARDED MOMENT,” ETC.; EDITOR OF “THROUGH THE YEAR WITH THE POETS,” ETC.
FIFTH EDITION REVISED AND ENLARGED
BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 1904
REPUBLISHED BY GALE RESEARCH COMPANY, BOOK TOWER, DETROIT, 1969
COPYRIGHT 1884, 1897, 1904 BY OSCAR FAY ADAMS
To My Mother
In the present issue of this work such errors and misprints as the writer or others have noted in earlier editions are corrected, while the supplement has been extended sixty-five pages by the insertion of thirteen hundred and twenty names in excess of those included in the fourth edition. Wherever needful the entries in this portion of the volume have been materially amplified, and this has occurred in numerous instances, while throughout the book there have been supplied many dates of deaths happening since the first issue of the Dictionary, in 1897. Since that year the work has been enlarged to the extent of one hundred and forty-six pages of addenda in all, and though it still falls much short of perfection in its line, the writer trusts that it will yet be found responsive to all reasonable requirements that may be made upon it.
Boston, December 1, 1904.
The present volume is an outgrowth of the writer’s “Handbook of American Authors,” first published in 1884, several features which the judgment of the public approved in the earlier work having been retained in this. Without pretending to contain an exhaustive list of American writers, it may nevertheless lay claim to be fairly inclusive, as the more than six thousand names herein mentioned will serve to show. A few names that might naturally be looked for here have been omitted at the request of their owners; while some others have not been included, for the reason that diligent search failed to discover any trustworthy data concerning them. Here and there, too, the reader may chance upon unfilled dates of birth, or initials unexpanded. Yet in the majority of such cases application by letter made directly to the owners of the names aforesaid, or to relatives and immediate friends of such persons, has failed to elicit any response. All reasonable effort has been made to obtain trustworthy information upon such points, but failure to obtain replies to letters of inquiry must account for the greater number of such omissions; and here it may not be out of place to mention that information of more general character obtained from private sources has now and then been received too late to be of service, owing to the fact that the work was already electrotyped before it came to hand.