Oshkosh High School - Index Yearbook (Oshkosh, WI)

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APRIL INDEX FOR NINETEEN HUNDRED SEVENTEEN The Influence of Books on American Authors INVESTIGATION of the lives of some of America ' s greatest writers shows that they were mainly or partially influenced in their writings by famous books written by authors, who lived and wrote in an earlier time. When Benjamin Franklin, our first great American writer, was but a boy, he was very fond of reading. The books which he read at this time, Bunyan ' s, Pilgrim Progress; Burton ' s, Historical Collections; Plutarch ' s, Lives; Defoe ' s, Essay on Projects; and Cotton Mather ' s, Essays to Do Good, Franklin says in his Autobiography, gave me a turn of thinking that had an influence on some of the principal events of my life. He also says that this bookish inclination made his father determine that he should be a printer. During the time that he served as an apprentice for his brother,- he read the Spectator, and imitated it. The influence of this paper made him ambitious, and improved his style of writing. Daniel Webster, on the other hand, received the wrong kind of influ- ence during his early life from the Oratorical Dictionary, which contained a plentiful amount of such words as compestral, ' lupidecent, and obnu- bilate, ' with which he amply filled his early speeches. This ponderous style, which he had acquired through the influence of the Oratorical Dic- tionary, soon disappeared, however, under the tutalege of Jeremiah Mason, who made all sorts of fun of his ornate efforts. After being cured of this tendency to use flowery language, he became our greatest American orator, being no worse, but all the better for his experience. Even our great learned men were not free from this influence of books. These men were our Harvard poets, Longfellow. Lowell, Holmes, and our Quaker poet, Whittier. When Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a child, he lived in a world of books. It is not strange, then, that while on his first trip abroad, the sketches of his trip, entitled. Outre Mer: A Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea, which he wrote during this time, should show traces of the influence of Irving ' s Sketch Book, of which he was fond as a boy. James Russell Lowell ' s mother used to sing to him the old Scotch ballad. Sir Patrick Spens, and read him to sleep with Spencer ' s Fairie Queen, when he was a child. It was probably this influence, combined with the inheritent poetic tendency, which made him one of America ' s greatest poets. When John Greenleaf Whittier was still a youth, his school teacher read aloud to the family, the poems of Robert Burns. When Whittier learned that Burns had been only a plowman it gave him hopes for himself. Burns ' influence helped him to see ... through all fa miliar things. The romance underlying. Page twenty-four

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APRIL INDEX NINETEEN- HUNDRED SEVENTEEN in 1638; the Public Library in New York (now the Society library), in 1700; Yale library, in 1701; Benjamin Franklin ' s Literary Company of Phila- delphia, in 1731; the library of Congress, in 1800; and the Boston Public library, in 1852. The libraries of the United States have grown to be, cer- tainly more numerous, and probably more effectively organized, than those of any other country. In 1914, there were more than two thousand libraries of over five thousand volumes, and the greater number of them were sup- ported by taxation. Our own public library belongs to this class, having in its possession about thirty-two thousand volumes. Both the United States and Great Britain show a great increase in the number of small town and citv libraries. O. W. A Synnbol of Spring By MARION McCARVILLE How oft against the sunset sky or moon, I ' ve watched that zig-zag movement of spread wings. In unforgotten autumns gone too soon. In unforgotten springs! Creatures of isolation, far they fly Above all lands bound by the curling foam; In misty fens, wild moors, and trackless sky. These wild things have their home. They know the tundra of Siberian coasts. And tropic marshes by the Indian seas; They know the wind and night and starry hosts From Crux to Pleiades. Dark flying rune against the western glow — Fond hopes you bring as you soar on the wing; Symbol of winters vanished long ago, Symbol of coming spring! Page twenty-three

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APRIL INDEX FOR NINETEEN HUNDRED SEVENTEEN Oliver Holmes was fond of, and influenced by, the eighteenth century writings, and much of his verse was modeled after Pope ' s couplets. The Bible helped toward the making of William Cullen Bryant ' s fame. When he was but a child nine years of age, he turned the first chapter of Job into classical couplets, while his later famous productions reflect the dignity, gravity, and simplicity of the Hebraic Scriptures. Washington Irving, one of our great essayists and historical writers, was mainly influenced by Addison ' s Spectator. This influence is shown in the newspaper letters which he wrote under the pen-name of Jonathan Oldstyle. These letters were modeled after the Spectator, while in his Sketch Book, many of the stories and essays are also suggestive of it. Nathaniel Hawthorn ' s early life, which was solitary, predisposed him to reading. Bunyan, Shakespeare, and Spencer were his favorite authors. Bunyan ' s and Spencer ' s writings influenced him enough to make him love the allegorical method of presenting truth. This influence was what induced him to name his daughter, Una, after one of Spencer ' s allegorical heroines, and the big cat which she played with, Lion, as suggested in the Fairie Queen. Abraham Lincoln ' s life was very much influenced by the following good and everJasting books: The Bible, Aesop ' s Fables, Arabian Nights, Robinson Crusoe, The Pilgrims ' Progress, Franklin ' s Autobiography, Weems ' Life of Washington, and two or three text books. Without this good reading, which served as a guide in his writings and speeches, he could never have become President of the United States, as he had very little school education. Parts of his second Inaugural Address show even better than his Gettysburg .Address the influence of the Bible on his thought and style. Thus, we see the great part which book s have played in the lives and writings of American authors. And what is true of our own writers is equally true of the authors of other countries from Demosthenes of Greece to Thomas Carlyle of England. 0 books, ye monuments of mind, concrete wisdom of the wisest; Sweet solace of daily life, proofs and results of immortality; Trees yielding all fruits, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations; Groves of knowledge, where all may eat, nor fear a flaming sword; Gentle comrades, kind adi ' isers; friends, comforts, treasures, Helps, governments, diversities of tongues; who can weigh your worth? — D. P. Of all the things which man can do or make here below, by far the most momentous, wonderful, and worthy are the things we call Books! — Carlyle. Page twenty-five