_Mary E. Wilkins Freeman._--The more sombre and less attractive aspects of New England village and country life have been presented with great success in the numerous stories of Mary E. Wilkins (since 1902 Mrs. Charles M. Freeman). Born at Randolph, Massachusetts, in 1862, she was educated at Mt. Holyoke Seminary, South Hadley, Mass. Her stories include “The Adventures of Ann” (1886), “A Humble Romance” (1887), “A New England Nun, and Other Stories” (1891), “Jane Field” (1892), her first novel, “Pembroke” (1894), generally considered her greatest work, and distinguished for beauty of style and truthful and delicate character-drawing, “Madelon” (1896), “Jerome, a Poor Man” (1897), by some ranked higher than “Pembroke” in that it has a stronger central interest, “Silence and Other Stories” (1898), which includes some of her best work, especially “Evelina’s Garden,” one of her most artistic tales, “The Love of Parson Lord” (1900), “The Heart’s Highway” (1900), a historical romance of Virginia in 1682, “The Portion of Labour” (1901), “Understudies” (1901), “Six Trees” (1903), “The Wind in the Rose Bush” (1903), “The Givers,” eight stories (1904), and several magazine stories. Her place is easily in the first rank of those who have delineated New England life. _Harold Frederic._--Harold Frederic (1856-98) wrote a number of realistic stories, chiefly of country life in New York. A native of Utica, in that State, he began his career as proof-reader; at twenty-six he was editor of the Albany _Evening Journal_, and in 1884 he took charge of the foreign bureau of the New York _Times_, with headquarters in London. “Seth’s Brother’s Wife” (1887), first published serially in _Scribner’s_, minutely describes the prosaic round of farming life and country journalism and elections. “The Lawton Girl” (1890) gives us the turmoil of a small manufacturing town. “In the Valley” (1890) is a Mohawk Dutchman’s story of the Revolutionary struggle. “The Copperhead, and Other Stories of the North” (1893) and “Marséna, and Other Stories” (1894) are collections of Civil War stories, vigorous and daring. His best stories are “The Damnation of Theron Ware” (1896, published in England as “Illumination”), an absorbing study of the intellectual career of an earnest but narrow young Methodist minister and of the struggle of two religious ideals in his life, and “The Market-Place” (1899), a thoroughgoing study of the London Stock Exchange. His untimely death cut short a career of notable achievement and great promise.