Harte, Francis Bret, born 1836. Taking full advantage of his unique acquaintance with the West of America during the stirring days of ’49, when, in California, he was in turn gold-digger, express-rider, printer, and editor, Bret Harte has given to the world volume after volume of short stories which picture in an inimitable way the manners and men of the gold days. No writer is more characteristically American than he; his style is vivid and beautiful, and he has a wonderful fund of humour, which appears in every line he writes. His published works, prose and verse, are many. Messrs. Chatto & Windus have recently published a complete edition of his writings. American publishers, Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1804-1864). Like most men of exceptional worth in literature; he found great difficulty at first in getting his work published. After writing and destroying many tales, he published, at his own expense, a novel entitled Fanshawe, which proved a failure; and it was not until 1837 that he, or rather a friend, induced a publisher to bring out Twice-told Tales. In the spring of 1850 appeared The Scarlet Letter, which raised the author from obscurity to the front rank of American literature, and the works which followed established his position in the letters of his country.
Hay, Colonel John, born 1838, one of President Lincoln’s private secretaries during the war, and has since in collaboration written a history of the martyr-president. His reputation for humour was made by a small volume of verse entitled Pike Country Ballads. Best known of these ballads are “Little Breeches” and “Jim Bludso,” both strong pieces of verse.
Henderson, William James, born 1855, a New York journalist who has written much pleasant verse and prose.
Holland, Josiah Gilbert (1819-1881). For some time editor of Scribner’s Monthly (now the Century), and a writer who, though judged from a literary point of view is quite second class, still is popular with the reading public of America. He wrote a number of articles under the nom de plume of “Timothy Titcomb.”
Holley, Marietta. Under the pseudonym of “Josiah Allen’s Wife” she wrote a great deal of humorous matter. Author of My Opinions and Betsey Bobbet’s, My Wayward Partner, Josiah Allen’s Wife as a P. A. and P.I., etc.
Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell, born 1809, physician, novelist, essayist, and poet, began literary work at an early age, and for more than half a century has written industriously and with consistent success. The Breakfast-Table series is among the most read of all America’s humorous writings, and various short poems of a humorous nature, such as “The One-Hoss Shay,” “Contentment,” “The Spectre Pig,” etc., are in every compilation of humour. His chief works are The Autocrat at the Breakfast-Table, The Professor at the Breakfast-Table, The Poet at the Breakfast-Table, Songs of Many Seasons, Songs in Many Keys. He is one of the small band of humorists who are as carefully read and highly appreciated in the United Kingdom as in their native land. American publishers, Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.
Hooper, Johnson, J. (1815-1863), a native of North Carolina, studied law in Alabama, was made a judge, and in 1861 appointed Secretary of the Provisional Confederate Congress. He published Widow Rugby’s Husband and Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs. Clever, but somewhat broad in humour.
Hopkins, Lemuel (1750-1801), one of the “Hartford Wits,” and co-author and projector of The Anarchiad, a poem on State Rights, cuttingly sarcastic. He also wrote The Echo, The Political Greenhouse, and New Year’s Verses, all full of sarcasm.
Hopkinson, Francis (1737-1791), a telling, sarcastic writer, widely read in his lifetime, and author of the poem, “The Battle of the Kegs,” which remains famous. He was one of those who signed the Declaration of Independence. His son wrote “Hail, Columbia.”