Memoirs

The author offers a candid chronological account of his life, beginning with childhood memories in a Quaker city and New England boyhood and tracing intellectual formation through early reading and college. He describes extended studies at European universities and participation in the revolutionary barricades of the era, then returns to a varied American career as lawyer, journalist, and man of letters, with active involvement during the Civil War and efforts to further emancipation. He recalls work in the oil regions and on the frontier, collaboration with political editors in a pivotal campaign, literary publications, and long residence in Europe, while promising later volumes on travels, folklore, and ethnographic researches.