Page images
PDF
EPUB

grieved about it, or stirred with love for it, he follows his heart into an art that no one can forget. The Beechers did not see things, did not conceive them, did not have the artist's gifts for them, unless they were moved with anger or love. The rest of the time they were plain preachers. Their moral genius borrowed artistic genius.

VII

She wrote twenty-five other books, among them two others on the negro: "Dred, A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp", too. sombre to be popular, and "Pink and White Tyranny" dealing with the emancipation of the blacks. There is quite a series of books picturing New England life, such as "The Minister's Wooing", "The Pearl of Orr's Island", "Oldtown Folks", "My Wife and I", and "Poganuc People"; but none of them have claims to a permanent place in literature.

While in England in 1853 she formed a strong attachment for Lady Byron. When "The Life of Lord Byron", by the Countess Guiccioli, appeared, Mrs. Stowe published in the Atlantic Monthly "The True Story of Lady Byron's Life", and was provoked by the criticisms it aroused into writing "Lady Byron Vindicated ", a story of the

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, 1812-1896 longest in history, and the list he published in the Sun included her name, the others being Martha Washington, Rebecca Rolfe (Pocahontas), Molly Pitcher, Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Priscilla Alden, Eliza Goose (Mother Goose), Maria Mitchell, Lucretia Mott.

IX

It is proposed to raise a bronze statue at Hartford, representing Mrs. Stowe in costume and appearance of about the year 1850,

holding in her right hand a pen and in her left a manuscript. Beneath will be a large figure representing Uncle Tom, with hands upraised towards Mrs. Stowe, and on the hands broken shackles. On each side of the main pedestal will be set a large bronze plate about three feet square. On one of these plates will be a figure of Topsy and on the other of Eva.

The statute is well conceived, for her rank as an author will be the greater in proportion as her other books are forgotten.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

« PreviousContinue »