The Biglow Papers


The Biglow Papers, by James Russell Lowell

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Title: The Biglow Papers
Author: James Russell Lowell
Editor: Thomas Hughes
Release Date: September 20, 2007 [EBook #22680]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE
BIGLOW PAPERS.
BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
NEWLY EDITED, WITH A PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR OF "TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL-DAYS."
THIRD ENGLISH EDITION.
Reprinted, with the Author's Sanction, from the Last American Edition.
LONDON: TRüBNER & CO. 60, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1861.

Transcriber's Note
Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Dialect spellings, contractions and discrepancies have been retained.
Greek words have been transliterated and are shown between {braces}.
The carat symbol [^] has been used to note 'superscript', and three asterisks [***] represent an inverted asterism. The following less common characters have been transcribed as follows:
[)a] a with breve [=a] a with macron [oe] oe ligature

PUBLISHERS' PREFACE.
In order to avoid any misconception, the Publishers think it advisable to announce that the present Edition of the "Biglow Papers" is issued with the express sanction of the Author, granted by letter, from which the following is an extract:--
"CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, 14th September, 1859.
"I think it would be well for you to announce that you are to publish an Authorized Edition of the 'BIGLOW PAPERS;' for I have just received a letter from Mr. ----, who tells me that a Mr. ---- was thinking of an edition, and wished him to edit it. Any such undertaking will be entirely against my will, and I take it for granted that Mr. ---- only formed the plan in ignorance of your intention.
"With many thanks, very truly yours,
"J. R. LOWELL."

ENGLISH EDITOR'S PREFACE.
I can safely say that few things in my life have pleased me more than the request of Messrs. Trübner, backed by the expressed wish of the author, that I would see the first English edition of the "Biglow Papers" through the press. I fell in with the Papers about ten years ago, soon after their publication; and the impression they then made on me has been deepening and becoming more lively ever since. In fact, I do not think that, even in his own New England, Mr. Lowell can have a more constant or more grateful reader, though I cannot say that I go much beyond most of my own intimate friends over here in my love for his works. I may remark, in passing, that the impossibility of keeping a copy of the "Biglow Papers" for more than a few weeks (of which many of us have had repeated and sorrowful proof[1]) shows how much an English Edition is needed.
Perhaps, strictly speaking, I should say a reprint, and not an edition. In fact, I am not clear (in spite of the wishes of author and publishers) that I have any right to call myself editor, for the book is as thoroughly edited already as a book need be. What between dear old Parson Wilbur--with his little vanities and pedantries, his "infinite faculty of sermonizing," his simplicity and humour, and his deep and righteous views of life, and power of hard hitting when he has anything to say which needs driving home--and Father Ezekiel, "the brown parchment-hided old man of the geoponic or bucolic species," "76 year old cum next tater diggin, and thair aint nowheres a kitting" (we readily believe) "spryer 'n he be;" and that judicious and lazy sub-editor, "Columbus Nye, pastor of a church in Bungtown Corner," whose acquaintance we make so thoroughly in the ten lines which he contributes--whatever of setting or framing was needed, or indeed possible, for the nine gems in verse of Mr. Hosea Biglow, has been so well done already in America by the hand best fitted for the task, that he must be a bold man who would meddle with the book now in the editing way. Even the humble satisfaction of adding a glossary and index has been denied to me, as there are already very good ones. I have merely added some half-dozen words to the glossary, at which I thought that English readers might perhaps stumble. When the proposal was first made to me, indeed, I thought of trying my hand at a sketch of American politics of thirteen years ago, the date of the Mexican war and of the first appearance of the "Biglow Papers." But I soon found out, first, that I was not, and had no ready means of making myself, competent for such a task; secondly, that