Library of the best American literature: Containing the lives of our authors in story form, their portraits, their homes, and their personal traits, how they worked and what they wrote; choice selections from eminent writers, embracing great American poets and novelists, foremost women in American letters, distinguished critics and essayists, our national humorists, noted journalists and magazine contributors, popular writers for young people, great orators and public lecturers
General
Library of the best American literature: Containing the lives of our authors in story form, their portraits, their homes, and their personal traits, how they worked and what they wrote; choice selections from eminent writers, embracing great American poets and novelists, foremost women in American letters, distinguished critics and essayists, our national humorists, noted journalists and magazine contributors, popular writers for young people, great orators and public lecturers
American literature
In the meantime the fears of the author as to whether or not her book
would be read were quickly dispelled. Three thousand copies were sold
the very first day, a second edition was issued the following week,
a third a few days later; and within a year one hundred and twenty
editions, or over three hundred thousand copies, of the book had been
issued and sold in this country. Almost in a day the poor professor’s
wife had become the most talked-of woman in the world; her influence
for good was spreading to its remotest corners, and henceforth she
was to be a public character, whose every movement would be watched
with interest, and whose every word would be quoted. The long, weary
struggle with poverty was to be hers no longer; for, in seeking to aid
the oppressed, she had also so aided herself that within four months
from the time her book was published it had yielded her $10,000 in
royalties.
In 1852 Professor Stowe received a call to the professorship of
Sacred Literature in Andover Theological Seminary, and the family
soon removed to their Massachusetts home. They were now relieved from
financial pressure; but Mrs. Stowe’s health was still delicate; and
in 1853 she went with her husband and brother to England, where she
received, much to her surprise, a universal welcome. She made many
friends among the most distinguished people in Great Britain, and
on the continent as well. On her return she wrote the “Key to Uncle
Tom’s Cabin,” and began “Dred, a Tale of the Dismal Swamp.” In fact,
her literary career was just beginning. With “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” her
powers seemed only to be fairly awakened. One work after another came
in quick succession. For nearly thirty years after the publication
of “Uncle Tom,” her pen was never idle. In 1854 she published “Sunny
Memories of Foreign Lands,” and then, in rapid succession, “The
Minister’s Wooing,” “The Pearl of Orr’s Island,” “Agnes of Sorrento,”
“House and Home Papers,” “Little Foxes,” and “Oldtown Folks.” These,
however, are but a small part of her works. Besides more than thirty
books, she has written magazine articles, short stories, and sketches
almost without number. She has entertained, instructed, and inspired
a generation born long after the last slave was made free, and to whom
the great question which once convulsed our country is only a name.
But her first great work has never been surpassed, and it will never
be forgotten.
Illustration: A SCENE IN UNCLE TOM’S CABIN.
_Little Eva._――“‘Oh, Uncle Tom! what
funny things you _are_ making there.’”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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