Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/115

 acquired in the Lake country, since celebrated as the residence of Ruskin. He had previously lived at Miteside in Northumberland, which, as well as his intimate friendship with [q. v.], had made him acquainted with a circle of zealous political reformers at Newcastle; there he published anonymously in 1852 'The Plaint of Freedom,' a series of poems in the metre of 'In Memoriam,' which gained him the friendship and the encomiums, for once not undeserved, of Walter Savage Landor. In 1855 'The English Republic' was discontinued, and Linton commenced an artistic periodical, 'Pen and Pencil,' which did not enjoy a long existence. In this year he lost his wife and returned to London, where, devoting himself anew to his profession, he firmly established his reputation as the best wood-engraver of his day, and was in special request for book illustration. His engravings of the pre-Raphaelite artists' designs for Moxon's illustrated Tennyson were among his most successful productions; if justice was not always done to the original drawing, the fault was not in the engraver, but in the imperfections of engraving processes upon wood before the introduction of photography. In 1858 Linton married Miss, the celebrated novelist, best known under her married name of Linton [q. v. Suppl.] The union did not prove fortunate: the causes are probably not unfairly intimated in Mrs. Linton's autobiographical novel of 'Christopher Kirkland' (1885). It terminated in an amicable separation, involving the disposal of the house at Brantwood to Ruskin, 'pleasantly arranged,' says Linton, 'in a couple of letters.' He remained for some time in London, following his profession. The covers of the 'Cornhill' and 'Macmillan's' magazines were engraved by him; he brought out 'The Works of Deceased British Artists,' and illustrated his wife's work on the Lake country. In 1865 he published his drama of 'Claribel,' with other poems, including two early ones of remarkable merit, a powerful narrative in blank verse of Grenville's sea-fight celebrated in Tennyson's 'Revenge,' and an impressive meditation symbolising his own political aspirations, put into the mouth of [q.v.] imprisoned in Chepstow Castle. In November 1866 Linton went to the United States. He had intended only a short visit in connection with a project for aiding democracy in Italy, but he found a wider field for the exercise of his art opened to him than at home, and he mainly devoted the rest of his life to the regeneration of American wood-engraving. He established himself at Appledore, a farmhouse near New Haven in Connecticut, gathered disciples around him, and by precept and example was accomplishing great things, when his career was checked by the introduction of cheap 'process' methods, inevitable when the art has become so largely popularised, but always regarded by him with the strongest objection. At first he sent his blocks to New York, but ultimately bought a press, and conducted both printing and engraving under his own roof. For the literary furtherance of his views on art he produced 'Practical Hints on Wood Engraving,' 1879; 'A History of Wood Engraving in America,' 1882, and 'Wood Engraving, a Manual of Instruction,' 1884. During a visit to England in 1883 and 1884 he began his great work called 'The Masters of Wood Engraving.' This book was based upon two hundred photographs from the works of the great masters, which he began in 1884 in the print-room of the British Museum. Returning to New Haven he wrote his book, printed it in three copies, and mounted the photographs himself, and in 1887 returned to England, bringing one of the copies to be reproduced under his superintendence in London. The work appeared in folio in 1890.

Meanwhile his private press at Appledore had been active in another department, producing charming little volumes of original verse, much prized by collectors, such as 'Windfalls,' 'Love Lore,' and 'The Golden Apples of Hesperus,' the latter an anthology of little-known pieces, partly reproduced in another collection edited by him, 'Rare Poems of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries' (New Haven, 1882, 8vo). In 1883 he published an extensive anthology of English poetry in conjunction with R. H. Stoddard. In 1879 he wrote the life of his old friend, James Watson, the intrepid publisher, and contributed his recollections to the republished poems of another old friend, [q.v.] In 1889 'Love Lore,' with selections from 'Claribel' and other pieces, was published in London under the title of 'Poems and Translations.' A collection of pamphlets and contributions by himself to periodical literature, comprising twenty volumes (1836-86), and entitled 'Prose and Verse,' is in the British Museum Library. After his final return to America in 1892, though upwards of eighty, he produced a life of Whittier in the 'Great Writers' series (1893), and his own 'Memories,' an autobiography full of spirit and buoyancy, which might with advantage have been more full, in 1895. He died at