It is possible that the best solution of the difficulty is found in the Rhymed Reviews of writers like Arthur Guiterman who “ in them has said merrily what another reviewer could only
say heavily." 93 Critics are often misled by reprints, by lack of information in regard to the interval between the date of writing and the date
of publication, or the date of publication and that of republica tion .94 They may be the victims of jest or hoax;95 they may be called on to review forged literature, 96 or books that have not been published ;97 they may be the victims of personal assault, or of actions for libel.98 93 E . L . Pearson , Book-Reviews, p . 36 .
94 H . B . Wheatley , Literary Blunders, pp. 44 -46. 95 Henry Vizetelly gives an account of a review of nearly three columns by the London Times and of six columns by the Athenaeum of a book pur porting to be by J. Tyrwhitt Brooks, entitled Four Months Among the
Goldfinders of Alta California , but in reality a hoax perpetrated by Vizetelly himself, when the news of the discovery of gold in California reached Eng land . Other papers also reviewed the book , it was reprinted in America ,
translated into several foreign languages, and " for years it held the position of chief authority on the subject.” — Glances Back Through Seventy Years,
I , chap. XVIII. J . C . Francis quotes the Athenaeum review in John Francis,
I, 146 - 149. As late as 1902, a prominent American critic writes of it : “ A rare and
very striking pamphlet published as ' The result of actual experience, which it doubtless was, being taken from letters sent home by the author. It was very widely circulated in the Atlantic states, in 1849, and has been more or less utilized by all careful students of the period to which it relates . ” —
Annotated notice of J. Tyrwhitt Brooks, Four Months Among the Goldfinders
in California in J. B . Larned , ed ., Literature of American History,No. 2021. Firmilian , purporting to be the work of a new writer of a new school, was reviewed in Blackwood ' s, May , 1854 , 75 : 533 -551. The story of the hoax is given by H . Maxwell, “ Firmilian ,” Rainy Days in a Library, pp . 33 -42. A similar recent hoax was the volume called Spectra , ostensibly written by
Emanuel Morgan and Anne Knish , but in reality a satire on futurists and cubists written by Witter Bynner and Arthur Davison Ficke. For two years it was reviewed by the critics as serious work , but the acknowledgment of
the hoax by the authors “ banished into ignominy many of the bearded prophets of verse in America ."
96 H . G . Hewlett, “ Forged Literature,” Nineteenth Century, February, 1891, 29: 318-338. 97 Blackwood 's Magazine contained reviews “ of a professedly first edition " of Peter' s Letters to His Kinsfolk , “ but in fact there was no first edition at all , the first actual publication being called the 2nd edition .” - Mrs. Oliphant ,
Annals of a Publishing House: William Blackwood and His Sons, I, 219 – 222; Blackwood 's Magazine, February , March , 1819 , 4 : 612- 621, 745 - 752.
98 A long abusive review , written by Dr. Maginn of Grantley Berkeley's novel, Berkeley Castle, was published in Fraser 's Magazine , August, 1836 . This led to an attack on Fraser , in Fraser 's shop , by Berkeley and his
brother ; then to a duel with Maginn ; then to a justification of the original
