After the brilliant galaxy of the “Hartford Wits” disappeared, a graver class of literary men took their places: Noah Webster, with his spelling-book and dictionary (he was born in Hartford, West Division, Oct. 16, 1758); Samuel G. Goodrich (Peter Parley); Mrs. Lydia Huntley Sigourney, who obtained the title of “the American Hemans,” an almost lifelong resident of Hartford, where her first volume of poems was published in 1815; George Denison Prentice and John Greenleaf Whittier both lived in Hartford for a time, doing editorial work, when they were yet young and unknown men; Henry Barnard, LL.D., distinguished for his labors in the cause of education, was born in Hartford in 1811, and is still enjoying an honored old age in his native city. But the man of highest genius in Hartford’s list of authors during the first half of this century was Horace Bushnell. He came to the city in 1833, as pastor of the North Church, and remained until his death, in 1876. His sermons and essays all show [Illustration: SOLDIERS’ MEMORIAL ARCH.] great imagination and beauty of style, as well as great power of thought. In 1864, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, who had once before lived in Hartford as a teacher in the famous school of her sister, Miss Catharine Beecher, again took up her residence in the city, and continued to live here until her death, in 1896. [Illustration: H B Stowe] [Illustration: DR. HORACE BUSHNELL. FROM A CRAYON DRAWING BY S. W. ROWSE.] During this period a number of her later works were written. Of living authors, Charles Dudley Warner and Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) have a world-wide reputation. Mr. Warner came to Hartford in 1860, as one of the editors of the _Press_, and subsequently became one of the owners and editors of the _Courant_, with which paper he is still associated. His _Summer in a Garden_, which first brought him into notice, appeared in the columns of his newspaper in 1870, and since that time he has written many essays, novels, and books of travel. Mr. Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri, November 30, 1835, has lived in Hartford since 1871, and all his books which have appeared since 1872 have been written in our city, except his latest, _Following the Equator_. John Fiske, the historian and essayist, was born in Hartford in 1842, but he left the city at an early age, and his reputation has been won elsewhere. The same can be said of Edmund Clarence Stedman, the poet and critic, who was born in Hartford in 1833. James Hammond Trumbull, LL.D., born in Stonington in 1821, but almost a lifelong resident of Hartford, dying there in 1897, was [Illustration: J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL, LL.D.]