Horace Elisha Scudder (October 16, 1838 – January 11, 1902) was an American man of letters and editor.

Biography

He was born into a

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

family as the youngest of seven siblings—six brothers and one sister. His siblings included David Coit Scudder and

Samuel Hubbard Scudder Samuel Hubbard Scudder (April 13, 1837 – May 17, 1911) was an American entomologist and paleontologist. He was a leading figure in entomology during his lifetime and the founder of insect paleontology in America. In addition to fossil insects ...

, and his niece was scholar and reformer

Vida Dutton Scudder Julia Vida Dutton Scudder (1861–1954) was an American educator, writer, and welfare activist in the social gospel movement. Early life She was born in Madurai, India, on December 15, 1861, the only child of David Coit Scudder (of the Scudder ...

. He graduated from Boston Latin School alongside

Henry Adams Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents. As a young Harvard graduate, he served as secretary to his father, Charles Fr ...

in 1854. His Congregationalist family made him attend

Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kill ...

due to its conservative orthodox religious values, though Scudder became more interested in studying literature rather than religion. After his graduation in 1858, he taught school in New York City, and subsequently, returned to Boston and devoted himself to literary work. He is best known for his children's books. He published the ''Bodley Books'' (1875–87) and was also an essayist, and produced large quantities of journalism that was printed anonymously. He was a correspondent of Hans Christian Andersen and biographer of

James Russell Lowell James Russell Lowell (; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets that ...

. He edited '' Riverside Magazine For Young People'' (1867 to 1870), where several Andersen fairy tales were published for the first time. Scudder also prepared, with Mrs. Taylor, the ''Life and Letters of Bayard Taylor'' (1884) and was series editor for the extensive "American Commonwealths Series" as well as the "Riverside Literature Series" for

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

, where he also worked as literary advisor for several years. Scudder may have been most famous for his 1884 work ''A History of the United States of America Preceded By a Narrative of the Discovery and Settlement of North America and of the Events Which Led to the Independence of the Thirteen English Colonies for the Use of Schools and Academies'', which long set the standard for American history textbooks. Scudder served as editor of the prestigious ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'' from 1890 to 1898. Only a couple months into his role as editor, on August 28, 1890, Scudder received from

William Dean Howells William Dean Howells (; March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of ''The Atlantic Monthly'', ...

a submission written by

Charlotte Perkins Gilman Charlotte Perkins Gilman (; née Perkins; July 3, 1860 – August 17, 1935), also known by her first married name Charlotte Perkins Stetson, was an American humanist, novelist, writer, lecturer, advocate for social reform, and eugenicist. She w ...

. He quickly rejected the story, later published as " The Yellow Wallpaper", telling Gilman, "I could not forgive myself if I made others as miserable as I have made myself!" His predecessor,

Thomas Bailey Aldrich Thomas Bailey Aldrich (; November 11, 1836 – March 19, 1907) was an American writer, poet, critic, and editor. He is notable for his long editorship of ''The Atlantic Monthly'', during which he published writers including Charles W. Chesnutt. ...

, was not impressed by Scudder's tenure and joked with the pun that Horace Scudder was greater than Moses because "Moses dried up the Red Sea once only; Scudder dries up ''The Atlantic'' monthly."Goodman, Susan. ''Republic of Words: The Atlantic Monthly and Its Writers 1857–1925''. Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2011: 163. Scudder died in 1902. The pallbearers at his funeral included

Thomas Wentworth Higginson Thomas Wentworth Higginson (December 22, 1823May 9, 1911) was an American Unitarian minister, author, abolitionist, politician, and soldier. He was active in the American Abolitionism movement during the 1840s and 1850s, identifying himself with ...

and

James Bradley Thayer James Bradley Thayer (January 15, 1831 – February 14, 1902) was an American legal theorist and educator. Life Born at Haverhill, Massachusetts, he graduated from Harvard College in 1852, where he established the overcoat fund for needy under ...

. His cremated remains were buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery.

Works

* ''Seven Little People and Their Friends'' (1862) * ''Life and Letters of David Coit Scudder'' (1864) * ''Dream Children'' (1864) * ''Stories from my Attic'' (1869) * ''Stories and Romances'' (1880) * ''Boston Town'' (1881) * ''Noah Webster'' ("American Men of Letters," 1882) * ''A History of the United States of America Preceded By a Narrative of the Discovery and Settlement of North America and of the Events Which Led to the Independence of the Thirteen English Colonies for the Use of Schools and Academies'' (1884 and later editions) * ''History of the United States'' (1884) * ''Men and Letters'' (1887), essays * ''

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

'' (1889) * ''Childhood in Literature and Art'' (1894) * ''Life of James Russell Lowell'' (1901) * ''The Book of Fables and Folk Stories''

References

External links

* * * * * *

, �
Horace Elisha Scudder
” ''Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences'', Vol. 37, No. 23 (Aug., 1902), pp. 657–661.

* ttp://www.mainlesson.com/displayauthor.php?author=scudder Horace Elisha Scudder(1838 - 1902)The Baldwin Project
The Jean Hersholt Collection
at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

contains Hans Christian Andersen's correspondence (1868–74) with his American publisher Horace E. Scudder * {{DEFAULTSORT:Scudder, Horace Elisha Writers from Boston American children's writers American magazine editors American essayists Williams College alumni 1838 births 1902 deaths The Atlantic (magazine) people Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery