Theodore Edward Hook, a famous English wit and novelist, was born in London, September 22, 1788, and died August 24, 1841. He wrote: “Macwell,” “Gilbert Gurney,” “Gurney Married,” “Births, Deaths and Marriages.” “His Sayings and Doings,” were published in 1824, 1825 and in 1828.
I never yet heard man or woman much abused, that I was not inclined to think the better of them; and to transfer any suspicion or dislike to the person who appeared to take delight in pointing out the defects of a fellow-creature.
—Jane Porter.
Jane Porter, a distinguished English novelist, was born at Durham, September 23, 1776, and died at Bristol, May 24, 1850. Among her stories are: “Thaddeus of Warsaw,” “The Scottish Chiefs,” “The Pastor’s Fireside,” etc.
Within the rose I found a trembling tear,
Close curtained in a gloom of crimson night,
By tender petals from the outer light.
“Within the Rose I found a Trembling Tear,”—Boyesen.
Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen, a celebrated American novelist, was born at Frederiksvarn, Norway, September 23, 1848, and died in New York, October 4, 1895. He has written: “Idyls of Norway and Other Poems,” “Tales from Two Hemispheres,” “Ilka on the Hilltop and Other Stories,” “A Norseman’s Pilgrimage,” “Gunnar,” and “A Daughter of the Philistines.”
When he writes of himself, how supremely excellent is the reading. It is good even when he does it intentionally, as in “Portraits and Memories.” It is better still when he sings it, as in his “Child’s Garden.” He is irresistible to every lonely child who reads and thrills, and reads again to find his past recovered for him with effortless ease. It is a book never long out of my hands, for only in it and in my dreams when I am touched with fever, do I grasp the long, long thoughts of a lonely child and a hill-wandering boy-thoughts I never told to any; yet which Mr. Stevenson tells over again to me as if he read them off a printed page.
“Mr. Stevenson’s Books,” McClure’s Magazine, Vol. 4, p. 289 1895,—S. R. Crockett.
Samuel Rutherford Crockett, a distinguished Scotch novelist, was born in Little Duchrae, Galloway, September 24, 1862, and died in 1914. He has written “The Stickit Minister,” “The Lilac Sun-Bonnet,” “Lad’s Love,” “Joan of the Sword Hand,” “The Dark o’ the Moon,” “The Banner of Blue,” “An Adventure in Spain,” “Maid Margaret,” “Cherry Riband,” “Flower o’ the Corn,” “Kit Kennedy,” “The Red Axe,” “The Bloom of the Heather,” “The White Plume of Navarre,” “Anne of the Barricades,” “Patsy,” “Sandy,” etc.