The story of the Sun, New York, 1833-1918 / by Frank M. O'Brien.

THE FIELD OF THE LITTLE "SUN" 35

He was then fifty, and had written his best books.
Cooper, half a dozen years younger, had long since
basked in the glory that came to him with the publication of " The Spy," " The Pilot," and " The Last of the
Mohicans." He and Irving were guests at every cultured function.
Prescott was finishing his first work, "The History
of Ferdinand and Isabella." Bancroft was beginning
his "History of the United States." George Ticknor
had written his "Life of Lafayette." Hawthorne had
published only "Fanshawe" and some of the "Twice
Told Tales." Poe was struggling along in Baltimore.
Holmes, a medical student, had written a few poems.
Dr. John William Draper, later to write his great
" History of the Intellectual Development of Europe,"
arrived from Liverpool that year to make New York
his home.
Longfellow was professor of modern languages at
Bowdoin, and unknown to fame as a poet. Whittier had
written "Legends of New England" and " Moll
Pitcher." Emerson was in England. Richard Henry
Dana and Motley were at Harvard. Thoreau was helping his father to make lead-pencils. Parkman, Lowell,
and Herman Melville were schoolboys.
Away off in Buffalo was a boy of fourteen who clerked
in his uncle's general store by day, selling steel traps to
Seneca braves, and by night read Latin, Greek, poetry,
history, and the speeches of Andrew Jackson. His name
was Charles Anderson Dana.
The leading newspaperman of the day in New York
was James Watson Webb, a son of the General Webb
who held the Bible upon which Washington took the
oath of office as first President. J. Watson Webb had
been in the army and, as a journalist, was never for
peace at any price. He united the Morning Courier