[Page 161.]—Miriam Coles Harris is a contemporary Catholic writer whose works have attracted considerable attention. The extract is from A Corner of Spain, published in 1896.
[Page 166.]—William Cullen Bryant, a famous American poet, was born at Cummington, Massachusetts, November 3, 1794. He entered Williams College at the age of sixteen, but at the end of two years took honorable dismission and engaged in the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1815; removed to New York in 1825; was editor of the New York Review in the same year; and in 1826 became connected with the Evening Post, with which he continued until his death, which occurred in 1878.
[Page 170.]—Conrad Von Bolanden is the pseudonym of a contemporary German Catholic writer, Monsignor Joseph Bischoff, who was born in August, 1828. He was made a Papal Chamberlain to Pope Pius IX in recognition of the merits of his efforts in the field of Catholic literature. He has written much, finding the motives of his books in history and in the problems of social life.
[Page 174.]—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is often called the children’s poet, partly because of his love for children and partly because of some poems written for children. He was born in Portland, Maine, in 1807. From 1835 to 1854 he was professor of modern languages at Harvard University. He died in 1882.
[Page 178.]—John Gilmary Shea, a brilliant Catholic writer, was born at New York city, July 1824; died, 1892. He devoted most of his time to literature instead of to the law, for which he was educated. Perhaps no one has done more to preserve the history and language of the aborigines of this country. History of the Catholic Missions among the Indian Tribes of the United States, Early Voyages up and down the Mississippi, History of the Catholic Church in Colonial Times, are some of his most popular works.
[Page 186.]—James Russell Lowell was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 22, 1819. He died in the same house in which he was born, August 12, 1891. For many years he held the chair of modern languages in Harvard University. He was a man who represented American culture and letters at their best.
[Page 188.]—Mother Mary Loyola of the Bar Convent, York, England, is a writer of more than ordinary power on the subjects dearest to every true Catholic. Her book, Jesus of Nazareth, from which our selection is taken, was written especially for American children and is dedicated to them.
[Page 196.]—Francis Scott Key, author of “The Star-spangled Banner,” was born in Frederick County, Maryland, in 1780. It was during the British invasion in 1814, while he was detained on a British man-of-war within sight of the bombardment of Fort McHenry, that Key wrote this beautiful lyrical poem. He died at Baltimore in 1843.
[Page 214.]—James Montgomery was a Scottish poet, born in 1776; died in 1854. His poems, once very popular, are now almost forgotten.