Horace Elisha Scudder
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Horace Elisha Scudder (October 16, 1838 – January 11, 1902) was an American
man of letters An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...
and editor.


Biography

He was born into a Boston family as the youngest of seven siblings—six brothers and one sister. His siblings included
David Coit Scudder David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
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 f ...
. He graduated from
Boston Latin School The Boston Latin School is a public exam school in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established on April 23, 1635, making it both the oldest public school in the British America and the oldest existing school in the United States. Its curriculum f ...
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 Fra ...
in 1854. His Congregationalist family made him attend Williams College 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 Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...
and biographer of James Russell Lowell. He edited ''
Riverside Magazine For Young People ''The Riverside Magazine For Young People'' was a monthly United States children’s magazine, published between January 1867 and December 1870. It was founded by Henry Oscar Houghton, who named the periodical after his former business, Riverside ...
'' (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 Bayard Taylor (January 11, 1825December 19, 1878) was an American poet, literary critic, translator, travel author, and diplomat. As a poet, he was very popular, with a crowd of more than 4,000 attending a poetry reading once, which was a record ...
'' (1884) and was series editor for the extensive "American Commonwealths Series" as well as the "Riverside Literature Series" for Houghton Mifflin, 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'' from 1890 to 1898. Only a couple months into his role as editor, on August 28, 1890, Scudder received from William Dean Howells a submission written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. He quickly rejected the story, later published as "
The Yellow Wallpaper "The Yellow Wallpaper" (original title: "The Yellow Wall-paper. A Story") is a short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in '' The New England Magazine''. It is regarded as an important early work ...
", telling Gilman, "I could not forgive myself if I made others as miserable as I have made myself!" His predecessor, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, was not impressed by Scudder's tenure and joked with the pun that Horace Scudder was greater than
Moses Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...
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 Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural cemetery, rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middl ...
.


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


References


External links

* * * * * *
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 ...
,
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 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