Who Wrote It?

embrace all." * The scholar, it is true, may fail to obtain from this little manual the information respecting some old and half-forgotten treatise, which has long baffled his search, and the lover of light literature will often look in vain for the title of some popular but ephemeral novel (and it is in the department of prose-fiction that the greatest difficulty in selection has been experienced), yet it is hoped and confidently believed that the general reader, recognizing at once the usefulness of such a work, and the difficulties inseparable from its successful execution, will kindly allow its merits, excuse its defects, and receive it as the convenient vademecum it is intended to be.

In the preparation of this Index, use has been made of Appleton's and Chambers's Encyclopædias, Hoefer's Nouvelle Biographie Générale, Michaud's Biographie Universelle, Thomas's Biographical Dictionary, Payne's Index of Biography, and other similar standard works of reference. A thorough examination has also been made of the catalogues of the Boston Public Library and of the Library of Congress, as well as of works specially devoted to the various branches of literary history, of which it will be sufficient to name no more than Allibone's Dictionary of Authors, Hallam's Introduction to the Literature of Europe, Craik's Cyclopædia of English Literature, Duyckinck's Cyclopædia of American Literature. Longfellow's Poets and Poetry of Europe, Dana's Household Book of Poetry, Hedge's Prose Writers of Germany, and Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature.

WILLIAM A. WHEELER.

* Le critique se trouve comme noyé dans cette abondance; il doit choisir pour saisir D'ensemble, et se reduiré à quelques-uns pour les embrasser tous. Histoire de la littérature anglaise. Paris, 1864. T. 4, p. 72.

NOTE.

THE preface above given had been printed, and the first part of the manuscript of this Index had been finally revised for the printer, when the work was interrupted by the death of Mr. WILLIAM A. WHEELER.

Attention had first been called to the book (then in preparation) in the preface to his Dictionary of the Noted Names of Fiction, 1865, and it was afterwards announced by the publishers as soon to be issued under the title of Who Wrote It? Since these announcements a work bearing the same title, but wholly unlike this both in scope and contents, has been published in England. Two other English works (both republished in this country), which apparently cover a part of the same ground as this Index, and one of which seems to have embodied to a large extent both the plan and contents of Mr. Wheeler's Dictionary of the Noted Names of Fiction, have also appeared since public notice was given of the intended publication of Who Wrote It? But notwithstanding some points of similarity, neither of these works fills the place which this little manual is designed to occupy, and it is confidently believed that no work exists, which aims, like this, to present in a condensed form a synoptic view of the more noted works in ancient and modern literature.

In the notes which are appended to some of the articles the purpose has merely been to give a few facts (sometimes of an historical character) which it is thought may be interesting to the general reader, and which it is hoped may in some cases save the necessity of further research. No attempt has been made to give the plots of novels and dramas, or to furnish descriptions of those works about which an ordinary reader may easily inform himself. In the preparation of these notes the statements have been carefully collated from independent sources, and no hesitation has been felt in using an author's exact words when the information needed has been found already expressed in what seemed the best language. Some familiar first lines of English poetry have been included in the work.

The end in view, as stated in the original preface, being the preparation of a small manual, not of a general index, it has of course been impossible to include the popular books of the day, and comparatively few are inserted

which have been published in the latter half of the present century. Let the reader who does not find the work about which he seeks information ask himself two questions: Is it one of the More Noted (and not very recent) works of literature? Has it a specific and distinctive title? Doubtless some of the older works here included may seem to have a very questionable right to admission, and to be so far forgotten as to rank with the rauci Theseïde Codri which lives only in the line of Juvenal, but in general such works have had a certain fame which gives them a recognized place in the history of literature. Likewise a few ephemeral works of more recent date may now and then have gained admission for one or another reason, but because of these insertions no responsibility is felt for the omission of thousands of a similar class, or in fact for the exclusion of any works which are not famous. In accordance with the original plan, and in continuation of this book, the editor has now in an advanced state of preparation a companion-volume, intended to include a class of works which do not properly come within the scope of this book, but which it is believed will meet the wants of readers who do not find here in all cases the information they seek.

It merely remains to add that the present editor has endeavored to carry out the work in accordance with the original design; that, in so doing, his aim has been to secure the highest practicable degree of accuracy, comprehensiveness, and practical utility; and, finally, that any corrections or suggestions which may be sent to him will be gratefully received, and used in the preparation of a future edition.

BOSTON, 1881.

CHARLES G. WHEELER.

[Titles are entered, as a rule, under the first word not an article. Exception is however made in case of some names of which the first word is not commonly known or not especially prominent, e. g., Adam Smith's Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations will be found under Wealth of Nations, the title by which it is popularly known.]