THE BOOK OF AUTHORS. A COLLECTION OF CRITICISMS, ANA, MÔTS, PERSONAL DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. ETC. ETC. WHOLLY REFERRING TO ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS IN EVERY AGE OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. Bratish BY W. CLARK RUSSELL. "The place of books in the public estimation is fixed, not by what is written about NEW EDITION. LONDON: FREDERICK WARNE AND CO. BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN. NEW YORK: SCRIBNER, WELFORD AND CO. PREFACE. THE design of this collection is to present to the reader specimens of some of the smart and piquant things that have been said by literary men and women of one another. The collection, as the title sets forth, is wholly restricted to English literature. Among English writers will be found names more generally associated with painting, music, the senate, and the stage. These names, as in the case of Hogarth, Reynolds, Burke, Macklin, Foote, and others, have been admitted without reference to vocation. Of Divines not many have been included. The most familiar names in English Church History are eminent rather by their acts and by the example of their lives than by their writings. A few American authors have been inserted. Room would have been found for more could more criticisms have been collected. There are many recent and living authors to whose names I should have been glad to have subjoined more criticisms than will be found. There are also many recent and living authors whose names I have with great reluctance omitted from simple inability to procure requisite testimonies. Anonymous criticism I could have procured in abundance; but anonymous criticisms I have, with few exceptions, rejected. Of the periodicals I havę |