The multiplication of books by Indianians increased steadily during the last decade of the nineteenth century. Much of the production in prose is unimportant save as it is taken in connection with the general rise of cultivation in the State, and not a little derives interest principally from the personality of the writers. Fiction attracted many during the period indicated, and the impulse in this direction has been attended with notable successes. The part played by Indiana in the Civil War has latterly received attention, and the newer phases of village life have also been treated. Local history has not, unfortunately, attracted the literary fledgling in Indiana so often as could have been desired, though the field is inviting, and thorough work of this kind is far likelier to enjoy permanency than fair or indifferent fiction or mediocre verse. Criticism is naturally last to receive attention, and little critical writing can be credited to the State. It is, however, remarkable that so much good work is done in the several departments, the inference being that where so many are moved to make experiments, the general average of cultivation must be high. Indiana has been a kind of way station for many who have gained their chief distinction elsewhere. Joaquin Miller and John James Piatt were born in Indiana, but left in childhood, and Mary Hartwell Catherwood lived in the State for a number of years; but these writers may hardly be numbered among Indiana authors. James Newton Matthews, an Indianian who has lived for many years in Illinois, has written much good verse, and is included in discriminating anthologies. Lyman Abbott began his ministry in Indiana as pastor of the Congregational Church at Terre Haute. Both Charles Warren Stoddard and Maurice Francis Egan were members of the faculty of Notre Dame University at different periods. The Rev. Arthur Wentworth Eaton, a poet and writer on Acadian life, was once a resident of Indianapolis; and Henry F. Keenan, who wrote “Trajan” and other novels, edited the Indianapolis _Sentinel_ before he became an author. The Rev. Bernard Harrison Nadal (1812-1870) held a professorship at Asbury University from 1854 to 1857, and was the father of E. S. Nadal, an essayist whose critical papers appeal to the admirers of a calm and pensive style of writing. Miss Lucy S. Furman’s “Stories of a Sanctified Town” (1896) were written at Evansville, though the scenes are laid in Kentucky. The Rev. James Cooley Fletcher, of the well-known Indiana family of that name, is the author of “Brazil and Brazilians” (1868); and his daughter, Julia Constance, wrote, under the pen-name “George Fleming,” the novels “Kismet” (1877); “Mirage” (1878); “The Head of Medusa” (1880); “Vestigia” (1884); and “Andromeda” (1885). Both have long been absent from the State, Mr. Fletcher in California and his daughter in Italy. I. _Fiction_