History Making in Its Practical Side
Work of Sparks, Bancroft, Stokes

Mr. John Spencer Bassett has written a very interest¬
ing work in his Middle Group of American Historians.
We learn through his pages some of the inside workings
of a great history in the making. And what is equally
interesting, some of the financial results accruing to
the writers.

Only a few achieve any monetary reward. The
amount of labor involved is something none of us quite
appreciate. Bancroft's first volume of his History of the
United States began in 1832 and his last appeared in
1882. Here we have exactly half a century devoted to
one subject. We should deduct at least ten years for
time spent in the diplomatic service. The remaining
forty were occupied in various trips to European coun¬
tries in search of material and in making transcripts from
original manuscripts thus obtained. This material is
now in the New York Public Library, having come into
its possession from the old Lenox Library. It consists
of over two hundred and ten bound volumes. His
original manuscript and originals, consisting of the valu¬
able Samuel Adams papers, in which letters from Revo¬
lutionary leaders total 1,300 pieces, to say nothing of the
Minutes of the Boston Committee of Correspondence;
notes and proceedings of the Massachussets Assembly,
and co-related material. It would take many pages of
the Manual merely to enumerate the different items of
this imposing collection.

The material collected by Jared Sparks, the first of
our Revolutionary writers and for many years the auth¬
ority on Washington, involved titanic labor extending
over many years. His "Life of Washington" contains
12 volumes and includes nearly all of Washington's
personal correspondence—a collection involving years of
patient research and constant investigation.

[364]