A Dictionary of American Authors (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from A Dictionary of American Authors Th! 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 neverthe less 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 unexpauded. Yet in the ma iority 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 efiort has been made to obtain trustworthy information upon such points, but failure to obtain replies to let ters 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 tharacter 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. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.