William Evans Burton

Mr. Burton is better known as a comedian than as a literary man, but he has written many short prose articles of merit., and his quondam editorship of the "Gentleman's Magazine" would, at all events, entitle him to a place in this collection. He has, moreover, published one or two books. An annual issued by Carey and Hart in 1840 con­sisted entirely of prose contributions from himself, with poetical ones from Charles West Thompson, Esq. In this work many of the tales were good.

Mr. Burton's MS. is scratchy and petite, betokening indecision and care or caution.

BURTON, William Evans 1804-1860 - English actor who came to the United States in 1834 and established New York’s celebrated Chambers Street Theatre in 1848. Burton himself was successful in a wide range of parts from Shakespeare, Dickens and other authors. He wrote "The Actor's Soliloquy” and "Waggeries and Vagaries” and edited the Literary Souvenir in 1838 and 1840. In 1837, he established The Gentleman's Magazine, of which Poe was briefly assistant editor (1840). He also published a Cyclopedia of Wit and Humor (1858).

Catherine Maria Sedgwick

The penmanship of Miss Sedgwick is excellent. The characters are well-sized, distinct, elegantly but not osten­tatiously formed, and, with perfect freedom of manner, are still sufficiently feminine. The hair-strokes differ little from the downward ones, and the MSS. have thus a uniformity they might not otherwise have. The paper she generally uses is good, blue, and machine-ruled. Miss Sedgwick's handwriting points unequivocally to the traits of her literary style—which are strong common sense, and a masculine disdain of mere ornament. The signature con­veys the general chirography.

SEDGWICK, Catherine Maria 1789-1867 – A popular novelist whose subjects included Native Americans and women’s issues. Her first novel A New-England Tale; or, Sketches of New-England Character and Manners (1822) grew out of her conversion to Unitarianism and ideas on religious tolerance. Redwood (1824) was her second. Her third, Hope Leslie (1827) made her America’s most famous woman novelist. A later novel, Married or Single? (1857) argued for a woman’s independence. Some of her many short stories were collected in Tales and Sketches (1835), Stories for Young Persons (1841), and Tales of City Life (1850).

Lewis Jacob Cist

Mr. L. J. Cist, of Cincinnati, has not written much prose, and is known especially by his poetical compositions. many of which have been very popular, although they are at times disfigured by false metaphor, and by a meretricious straining after effect. This latter foible makes itself clearly apparent in his chirography, which abounds in ornamental flourishes, not ill executed, to be sure, but in very bad taste.

CIST, Lewis Jacob 1818-1885 – Banker, poet and collector of autographs and portraits. Already as a boy he wrote poetry and music. He wrote for the Western Monthly Magazine, Hesperian, and Cist's Weekly Advertiser, and for several years, he published the Souvenir, the first annual of the West. Poe, reviewing his collected Poems (1845) in the Broadway Journal wrote that Cist had many admirers. He is virtually unknown today.

Sarah Josepha Hale

Mrs. Hale is well known for her masculine style of thought. This is clearly expressed in her chirography, which is far larger, heavier, and altogether bolder than that of her sex generally. It resembles in a great degree that of Professor Lieber, and is not easily deciphered.

HALE, Sarah Josepha 1788-1879 – Writer. the first female editor of a magazine and – author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” (1830). A widow, she began writing (1822) to support her family. She edited the Ladies’ Magazine from 1828 until Godey bought it in 1837. As Godey’s Lady’s Book, it became the major woman’s magazine of its time. She collected women’s poetry in The Ladies Wreath (1837). Her Woman's Record; or, Sketches of All Distinguished Women, From "The Beginning Till A.D. 1850” (1853) includes 2,500 biographical entries.

Francis Lieber

Francis Lieber is Professor of History and Political Economy in the College of South Carolina, and has published many works distinguished by acumen and erudition. Among these we may notice a "Journal of a Residence in Greece," written at the instigation of the historian Niebuhr; "The Stranger in America," a piquant book abounding in various information relative to the United States; a treatise on " Education;" "Reminiscences of an Intercourse with Niebuhr;" and an "Essay on International Copyright"—this last a valuable work. Professor Lieber's personal character is that of the best and most unpretending bonhommie, while his erudition is rather massive than minute. We may therefore expect his MS. to differ widely from that of his brother scholar Professor Anthon; and so in truth it does. His chirography is careless, heavy, black, and forcible, without the slightest attempt at ornament-very similar, upon the whole, to the well-known chirography of Chief-Justice Mar­shall. His letters have the peculiarity of a wide margin left at the top of each page.

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LIEBER,  Francis 1800-1872 - Born in Germany, he had a variety of adventures in Europe before coming to America in 1872. He became a professor of history and political economy at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, until 1856, when he went to Columbia College, New York. His inaugural address on "Individualism; and Socialism, or Communism” was published by the college. He wrote against secession (while in South Carolina) and later for the Union. He also wrote Guerrilla Parties considered with reference to the Law and Usages of War, and Instructions for the Government of the Armies of the United States in the Field (1863) as well as a number of other works on law and the penal system.

Anne S. Stephens

Mrs. Ann S. Stephens was at one period the editor of the " Portland Magazine," a periodical of which we have not heard for some time, and which, we presume, has been discontinued. More lately her name has been placed upon the title-page of "The Lady's Companion" of New York: as one of the conductors of that journal—to which she has contributed many articles of merit and popularity. She has also written much and well for various other periodicals, and will hereafter enrich this magazine with her compo­sitions, and act as one of its editors.

Her MS. is a very excellent one, and differs from that of her sex in general by an air of more than usual force and freedom.

STEPHENS, Anne S. 1813-1886 - A New England author, she founded the Portland Magazine in 1835 and in 1836 published The Portland Sketchbook, a collection of local writing. Moving with her husband to New York in 1837, she edited The Ladies’ Companion and wrote for Graham’s Magazine and Peterson’s Magazine, then founded The Ladies’ World (1843) and The Illustrated New Monthly (1846). Her poem “The Polish Boy” was long a favorite. She also wrote several short stories. Her first long novel, Fashion and Famine (1854), went through several editions in France. She was admired for realistic if “intense” writing and did research in hospitals, institutions, etc.. Her other works include Zana, or the Heiress of Clare Hall (1854), The Old Homestead  (1855), Sybil Chase (1862) and Ahmo's Plot (1863) as well as a Pictorial History of the War for the Union.