colony at Cornish, New Hampshire, just across the Connecticut river from the town of Windsor, Vermont. Later he entered politics in New Hampshire and became thoroughly identified with that state. The scenes of some of his novels are laid in the West, but the political and social problem novels of his recent years deal mainly with conditions in the East. All his work, however, is more or less general and national rather than local in character, and on the whole he seems to belong with the group of Western writers who have attempted to express in their novels the broad national or democratic ideal known as Americanism. His three important historical novels are Richard Carvel (1899), the scene of which is laid principally in Maryland covering the whole of the Revolutionary period; The Crisis (1901), which opens in St. Louis just before the Civil War and covers the whole of that critical period in our history, introducing Abraham Lincoln in a rather large way; and The Crossing (1904), a picturesque narrative of "the crossing of the Alleghanies" by the early pioneers, such as Daniel Boone and his companions, the development of the great movement for westward expansion through the Louisiana Purchase, and the exploring expedition of Lewis and Clark. Of his other works two are political novels dealing with conditions in New Hampshire: Coniston (1906) portraying the career of Jethro Bass, a typical political boss during the administration of President Grant; and Mr. Crewe's Career (1908), a continuation of the same theme, a searching satire on railroad domination of state politics. Two of his later works are American social studies, turning largely on marriage and business problems: A Modern Chronicle (1910), a love story opening in St. Louis and moving on to New York and Virginia, then back to the starting point; A Far Country (1915), a highly generalized study of the rise of big business methods at the end of the nineteenth century. Finally, The Inside of the Cup (1913) deals in a

rather frank and startling way with the inner social workings of a rich twentieth-century American church. It will be observed that each of these novels takes up some big theme, and it will be found that the treatment is broad and epic in character rather than narrow and personal. An attempt is made to portray primarily some great historical, political, or social problem, and the characters and personal narrative are made to elucidate the theme. The characters are well drawn and peculiarly attractive as human beings, it is true, and the reader becomes intensely interested in their fortunes as the story progresses; but they seem to be merely a part of the greater social or national movement which the author portrays as sweeping them on or engulfing them in its stream. The first three of Churchill's novels have been called historical, but in truth all his books may be called historical or interpretative of American life in a chronological sequence from the Revolution to present times. These eight novels are all well worth reading, for Churchill is a careful and painstaking workman both in the collecting and marshaling of his facts and in his literary style. Perhaps younger readers should be content at first to take up the three earlier novels in their chronological order — Richard Carvel, The Crossing, The Crisis. The first and last of these are connected by the interesting device of making the heroine of the last, Virginia Carvel, to appear as the great-great-granddaughter of the hero of the first.

Western women story writers. Among the women novelists of the West, the following are the most notable: Helen Hunt Jackson1 (1831-1885), poet and novelist, author of Ramona (1884), a strong story intended to arouse sympathy for the mistreated Indian, as Uncle Tom's Cabin had previously done for the Southern negro; Mary Hartwell Catherwood (1847-1902), of Ohio, writer of romantic stories

1 Miss Helen Maria Fiske, born in Amherst, Massachusetts, was first married to Captain Hunt and frequently signed her early works "H. H." She later married a Mr. Jackson of Colorado.

of Indian life in the earlier period of French settlements in Canada and the Middle West, such as The Romance of Dollard (1889), Old Kaskaskia (1893), Lazarre (1901); Mary Hallock Foote (1847-), writer of stories dealing with primitive life in the West, such as The Led Horse Claim (1883), Coeur d'Alene (1894); Octave Thanet (1850–), in real life Alice French, author of sympathetic and artistic short stories revealing life in Iowa and Arkansas, as in Knitters in the Sun (1887), Stories of a Western Town (1893), The Heart of Toil (1898); Gertrude Atherton (1857-), of San Francisco, writer of novels dealing with life in the West, such as The Californians (1898), and also with general social and political life in the East, as in Patience Sparhawk (1897) and Senator North (1900), treating respectively of New York and Washington society, and The Conqueror (1902), a historical romance with Alexander Hamilton as the chief figure; Dorothy Canfield (1879–), now Mrs. J. R. Fisher, born in Kansas and educated in Ohio State and Columbia Universities, author of The Squirrel Cage (1912), a novel which attacks the senseless education of girls to physical invalidism, and The Bent Twig (1915), an excellent study of life in a state university of the Middle West; and Kathleen Norris (1880-), of San Francisco, writer of realistic novels of present-day social life, such as Mother (1911) and The Heart of Rachel (1916).

Other Western novelists. The popular Western novelists include Maurice Thompson (1844-1901), of Indiana, poet, essayist, and novelist, author of Alice of Old Vincennes (1901), a stirring tale of Revolutionary times and one of the most widely read novels of its decade; Henry Blake Fuller (1857-), of Chicago, author of realistic present-day studies in city life, as in The Cliff Dwellers (1893), With the Procession (1895); Frederic Remington (1861-1909), painter of Western pictures and writer of Western short stories, as in Crooked Trails (1898), Men with the Bark On (1900);

William Allen White (1868-), of Kansas, author of The Court of Boyville (1899), a sequence of delightfully human and playfully humorous stories of boy life in the Middle West, and A Certain Rich Man (1909), a novel dealing with the rapid growth of a Western town and the making of a modern millionaire; Robert Herrick (1868-), a professor in the University of Chicago, author of many searching and somewhat pessimistic studies in social life, particularly on the marriage problem, such as The Common Lot (1904), Together (1908); Charles D. Stewart (1868-), of Wisconsin, whose The Fugitive Blacksmith (1905) and Partners of Providence (1907), portray Western life on plain and river with both art and humor; Stewart Edward White (1873–), of Michigan, portrayer of Western mining and mountaineer types, as in The Claim Jumpers (1901), The Blazed Trail (1902); Jack London (1876-1916), of San Francisco, writer of realistic stories of outdoor adventure and animal life, as in The Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea Wolf (1904), White Fang (1907); and Newton Booth Tarkington (1869–), of Indiana, one of the best of the modern popular novelists. He is the author of The Gentleman from Indiana (1899), a study of Hoosier character; Monsieur Beaucaire (1900) a romantic story laid in England a century or more ago; The Two Vanrevels (1902), a story of mistaken identity, the scene being laid in the Middle West of the mid-nineteenth century; Cherry (1903), a sprightly Revolutionary romance; The Turmoil (1915), his most ambitious work, a searching study of modern business methods in a big city; Penrod (1914), and Penrod and Sam (1916), short stories presenting a live American boy of twelve with his companions; Seventeen (1916), a delightful picture of an American youth at the impressionable age of seventeen; and The Magnificent Ambersons (1918), a story of a wealthy American family in a present-day midland town.

FINAL WORDS

The present literary outlook. It is dangerous to enter into any prophecy as to the future of American literature or even as to the permanency of the work of those writers who have already gained a wide present-day fame; but as we close our brief survey of American literature, we may certainly be pardoned if we are somewhat optimistic as to our literary future. There never was a time when so many of our citizens were so vitally interested in reading new and old books, never a time when so many old and new books were being printed and circulated, and never a time when so many writers were experimenting in new artistic forms of literature as at present. The magazines are more and more widely distributed among our citizenship; the weekly periodicals and the daily papers count their subscribers by the hundreds of thousands and even by millions. Special magazines dealing with poetry, or drama, or fiction in its various forms, or criticism, flourish; publishers are besieged with manuscripts from every nook and corner of the land; new writers are springing up every day; and the whole nation seems to be gathering its strength and resources for a period of great artistic productivity. The material wealth of our nation is greater than that of any other nation in the world. This wealth brings the leisure necessary to the development of art and also furnishes the means for satisfying the natural desire to possess the productions of art. Even the great masses of the common people everywhere are becoming more and more widely educated, so that the whole population is demanding a part in the enjoyment of the art products of the race.

Interest in poetry. Fiction has held the place of chief interest during the last quarter or even half century; perhaps the novel and the short story may still be said to flourish as the favorite forms of popular art with the great mass of American readers. But during the past four or five years