During this year Messrs. Harper & Brothers have added to the biographies of eminent Americans three very valuable works. Following Mr. Godwin’s life of Bryant, is the “Memoirs of John A. Dix.”[M] In so pretentious a work as the latter it is unfortunate that the compilation should have been made by his son. The unbiased, impersonal judgment that makes a biography trustworthy, is wanting. The fondness of the writer is continually evident to the reader. The book, however, is valuable from its fullness and exactness. It is really an epitome of the history of the most exciting times in our annals. General Dix’s part in the stirring events before and after the rebellion, his work as secretary of the treasury, as military commander during the New York riots in ’63, and his position upon various questions of national policy, are all explained minutely, and his correspondence is given in full. Although so voluminous, the work is never fatiguing. A feature which adds to the interest of the book is the selections from his translations, sketches, etc. General Dix added to his political and military ability a literary taste that led him to cultivate letters. His translations are particularly good. _Stabat Mater_, his son has seen fit to publish; it seems a pity that _Dies Iræ_ was not also given. The third of these biographies is the “Life of James Buchanan.”[N] The author himself says of this work, that “it was followed within a week by an amount of criticism such as I do not remember to have seen bestowed on any similar book in the same space of time.” Mr. Curtis was assigned a task from which most men would have shrunk. Mr. Buchanan’s administration as President of the United States was not popular. The belief that he favored the secession of the Southern States has been general. For his biographer to treat him as a conscientious actor in the struggle before the war has necessarily entailed criticism. Mr. Curtis says in his preface, “My estimate of his abilities and powers as a statesman has arisen with every investigation I have made and it is, in my judgment, not too much to say of him as a President of the United States, that he is entitled to stand very high in the catalogue—not a large one—of those who have had the moral courage to encounter misrepresentation and obloquy, rather than swerve from the line of duty which their convictions marked out for them.” Mr. Curtis will not change the popular opinion on the Buchanan administration, but he must modify that opinion. This treatment alone makes the work worth reading by both friend and foe. The most entertaining part of the book is the voluminous private correspondence, which well portray Mr. Buchanan’s social and friendly nature.