THE ATLANTIC, dependent alone on reading matter for its success, is brilliant above all others in this respect, and never has been so fresh, so versatile, so genial, as it is now. — - The Literary World. THE JANUARY NUMBER OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY FOR 1885 Will contain the first installments of three Serial Stories, namely: I. A Country Gentleman. By MRS. OLIPHANT, 99 66 Author of "The Ladies Lindores,' "The Wizard's Son,” etc. II. The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains. By CHARLES EGBERT CRADDOCK, Author of "In the Tennessee Mountains." III. A Marsh Island. By SARAH ORNE JEWETT, Author of "A Country Doctor," "Deephaven," etc. Mrs. Oliphant's novels are too well known to the readers of THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY to need commendation. Mr. Craddock appears for the first time with a serial story. The freshness and strength of his recently published sketches of Tennessee life and scenery lend especial interest to his appearance as a novelist. In "A Marsh Island" Miss Jewett will present the readers of THE ATLANTIC with her first serial, the excellence of which is guaranteed by her admirable "Country Doctor." The July ATLANTIC will contain the opening chapters of The Princess Casamassima. By HENRY JAMES, Author of "The Portrait of a Lady," etc. "The Princess Casamassima" is to be Mr. James's most elaborate work, and any one knowing his "Portrait of a Lady," and appreciating the author's power of analysis, will look forward with deep interest to the appearance of this novel. TERMS: $4.00 a year, in advance, POSTAGE FREE; 35 cents a number. With superb life-size portrait of Hawthorne, Emerson, Longfellow, Bryant, Whittier, Lowell, or Holmes, $5.00; each additional portrait, $1.00. New subscribers to THE ATLANTIC for 1885, whose subscriptions are received before December 20th, will receive the November and December numbers of the magazine free of charge. Postal Notes and Money are at the risk of the sender, and therefore remittances should be made by money-order, draft, or registered letter, to HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, 4 PARK STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 4 Park Street, BOSTON. II East 17th Street, NEW YORK. Christmas, 1884. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.'S LITERARY BULLETIN. Holmes's Illustrated Poems. Go, pictured rhymes, for loving readers meant; HE Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table is THE always sure of loving readers, and of delighted readers also. It is exceedingly pleasant to think of the multitudes in all English-reading lands who have been quickened, invigorated, and cheered by his words, which, like sunshine, carry light and warmth wherever they go. Those whom his poems have charmed. will welcome with peculiar satisfaction. the volume of his ILLUSTRATED POEMS, produced with a wealth and variety of beauty which will please the eye no less than the poems delight the mind. The poems chosen by Dr. Holmes for illustration are Old Ironsides, The Last Leaf, The Pilgrim's Vision, My Aviary, On Lending a Punch-Bowl, The Ploughman, A Mother's Secret, The Voiceless, The Two Streams, Brother Jonathan's Lament for Sister Caroline, The Flower of Liberty, The Chambered Nautilus, Sun and Shadow, Under the Violets, Hymn of Trust, Dorothy Q., The Organ-Blower, A Ballad of the Boston Tea-Party, Lexington, Grandmother's Story of Bunker-Hill Battle, Bill and Joe, Contentment, The Deacon's Masterpiece (The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay), De Sauty, The First Fan, Nearing the Snow Line, The Silent Melody, and The Iron Gate. From Holmes's "Illustrated Poems." The illustrations are worthy of the poems. Typography and binding correspond well with both poems and pictures, the whole forming a harmonious. work of art, exquisitely adapted for Holiday uses. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.'s Literary Bulletin. A Superb New Art Volume. THE RUBÁLYÁT OF OMAR KHAYYÁM, which have long been admired by special students of Oriental literature, have, through the admirable translation by Edward Fitzgerald, become known to the English-speaking world. And wherever read, they have excited wonder and admiration by their insight; their resolute recognition of the hardships, the temptations, the fatality, of human life; and their remarkable force and felicity of expression. These quatrains do not admit of illustration, in the ordinary sense. They do not describe scenes or landscapes which the skillful artist can reproduce. They challenge thought, and study, and reflection; and the artist who would produce designs to illustrate the spirit and to suggest pictorially the significance of the quatrains must enter sympathetically, and by profound brooding over the tone and tendency of every line, into the poet's state of mind. In addition to this, he must possess a power and range of imagination, and a fine vigor of expression, granted to very few. Mr. Elihu Vedder has long been fascinated by Omar Khayyám's Rubaiyát. For ten years and more he has studied them, and sought to illustrate in fitting pictorial designs the deep and mysterious meanings they bore to him. Fortunately his appreciation of the grandeur and mystery of the poem was matched by his remarkable vigor and fertility of imagination, and by a sure force and grace of expression very rare. Mr. Vedder has devoted the past year to producing the designs for the Rubáiyát, and the result is a series of majestic and beautiful pictures, such as can hardly be paralleled in modern art. They possess astonishing power, variety, and suggestiveness, and give one a new sense of the scope and domain of truly great art. There are fifty-six designs, in which are incorporated the one hundred and one stanzas contained in Fitzgerald's translation. These designs are reproduced in fac-simile, and as the method used admits of printing in any desired color, the results are nearer the original designs in every respect than could be secured by any other known method. The plates are 11 inches by 8, and the page measures 12 inches by 15. Separate designs have been made by Mr. Vedder for pages devoted to the Poet, the Artist, and the Publisher; and others for the Title-page, Frontispiece, and Dedication. The book is a large quarto, beautifully bound in cloth, with a cover designed by Mr. Vedder. Hawthorne's Wonder-Book Illustrated. A beautiful Holiday volume for young folks, and indeed for folks of any age, is Hawthorne's Wonder-Book of fascinating Greek and Roman legends, told in the exquisitely simple and charming style for which Hawthorne has become famous the world over. These have been finely illustrated by Mr. Frederic S. Church, who also designed the cover of the book. The Art Age says: "Both cover and illustrations, while full of the personality and creative insight peculiar to this artist, worthily interpret the genius of Hawthorne." Houghton, Mifflin & Co.'s Literary Bulletin. As specimens of excellent bookmaking, and in this respect as well as others admirably suited for gift purposes, some recently published reprints of standard authors are worthy of special attention. For example, the new issue of Sir Walter Scott's edition of DEAN SWIFT'S COMPLETE WORKS, with Scott's life of Swift, in nineteen handsome octavo volumes; the WORKS OF CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE, whose dramas are not unworthy to be compared with those of Shakespeare, edited by A. H. Bullen, and printed in three sumptuous volumes, octavo; the initial volumes of the GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE LIBRARY, which comprises the choice and permanently valuable portions of the famous "Gentleman's Magazine," handsomely printed, and produced in three different styles, all very attractive. Attention is asked to the Riverside Editions of Hawthorne and Emerson, the former in twelve volumes, crown octavo, with a fine portrait of Hawthorne, eleven etchings, and twelve wood-cut vignettes; the latter in eleven duodecimo volumes, with two portraits of Mr. Emerson, and comprising two volumes of essays and addresses not included in any previous collection of Mr. Emerson's works. Both of these editions are beautiful in typography, and are bound in various desirable styles. Longfellow's "Michael Angelo," which was one of the noblest and most prized gift-volumes of the last holiday season, should not be crowded out of remembrance by newer works of art. The form, typography, illustrations and binding were in keeping with the lofty character of the poem, and formed a royal gift-book. From Longfellow's "Twenty Poems." The "Twenty Poems from Longfellow," brought out last year, in a tasteful volume, with a portrait and numerous illustrations, all from the hand of the poet's son, Mr. Ernest Longfellow, is as beautiful this year as last, and a very acceptable gift. |