Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 45523-h.htm or 45523-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45523/45523-h/45523-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45523/45523-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/famousauthersmen00harkrich FAMOUS AUTHORS--MEN [Illustration: Reproduced, by permission, from "A Pair of Patient Lovers."--Copyright, 1901, by Harper & Brothers. WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS.] FAMOUS AUTHORS (MEN) by E. F. HARKINS Author of "Famous Authors (Women)," "The Schemers," etc. Illustrated L·C·Page·&·Company Boston Publishers Copyright, 1901 By L. C. Page & Company (Incorporated) All rights reserved Fourth Impression, February, 1906 Colonial Press Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. Boston, U.S.A. PREFACE _The aim of this book is to present to the reading public sketches of some of its American literary heroes. There are heroes young and old; but in literature, especially, age has little to do with favorites. At the same time, it will be noted that the subjects of these sketches occupy places in or near the centre of the literary stage. The lately dead, like Maurice Thompson; the hero of the last generation, like Edward Everett Hale; the young man who has made his first successful flight--these do not come within the scope of the present work. So, if some reader miss his favorite, let him understand that at least there was no malice in the exclusion._ _A part of the aim has been to present the social or personal as well as the professional side of the authors. Many of the anecdotes commonly told of well-known novelists are apocryphal or imaginary. Care, therefore, has been taken to separate the wheat from the chaff. Wherever it was possible, preference has been given the statements of the authors themselves._ _The sketches are arranged chronologically, that is, in the order of the authors' first publications. No other arrangement, indeed, would seem fair among so gifted and popular a company, writing for a public that discriminates while it encourages and enjoys._ CONTENTS _Page_