The Knickerbocker/Volume 13/Number 5/Sparks
Sparks' American Biography.—The volumes which compose this admirable series, from the press of Messrs. Hilliard, Gray and Company, Boston, deserve a notice in detail; and as leisure and occasion may serve, it is our intention that they shall receive it, in these pages. They are ten in number; were issued under the capable supervision of Mr. Jared Sparks; written by persons must familiar with, or interested in, the several subjects; illustrated in most instances by portraits, and rare facsimiles of hand-writings; printed in a beautiful style, upon fine paper, and in the most convenient size and form. We subjoin a list of the distinguished men whose lives are embraced in these volumes, with the names of the writers: Life of John Stark, by Hon. Edward Everett; Charles Brockden Brown, by Prescott, author of 'Ferdinand and Isabella;' Ethan Allen, by Jared Sparks; Richard Montgomery, by John Armstrong; Wilson, the ornithologist, by Rev. W. B. O. Peabody; Benedict Arnold, by Jared Sparks; Anthony Wayne, by John Armstrong; Sir Henry Vane, by C. W. Upham; Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians, by Convers Francis; William Pinckney, by Henry Wheaton, D. D.; William Ellery, by Channing; Cotton Mather, by Rev. Mr. Peabody; Sir William Phips, by Francis Bowen; Israel Putnam, by Oliver W. B. Peabody; Lucretia Davidson, by Miss Sedgwick; Rittenhouse, by Prof. Renwick; Jonathan Edwards, by Dr. Miller, of Princeton; David Brainerd, Missionary to the Indians, by Rev. Mr. Peabody; Baron Steuben, by Francis Bowen; Sebastian Cabot, by Charles Hayward, Jr.; William Eaton, by Professor Felton; Robert Fulton, by Prof. Renwick; Joseph Warren, by Alexander H. Everett; Henry Hudson, by Prof. Cleveland; and Father Marquette, by Jared Sparks. All these works are admirably written, and are obtainable at a very moderate price. No American library can be complete without them; and they deserve to be found in every family in the United States.