Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/105

 11 S. X. Au.. 1, 1914.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

99

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Memories of my Youth. By George Haven

Putnam. (Putnam's Sons, 7s. 6d. net.) MAJOR PUTNAM has done well in supplementing the delightful memoir of his father, a noble record of a noble life (reviewed by us on the 14th of December, 1912), by giving in this volume memories of his own youth from 1844 to 1865. These memories are based in part upon home letters and in part upon his memory of conversations with his father. He has now completed the seventh decade of his life, having been born at the paternal cottage in St. John's Wood in 1844.

His father was one of the first of the American publishers to invade England, and his American agency in Waterloo Place became a centre for American residents and for the not very large groups of Englishmen who were interested in American affairs. Major Putnam gives a pleasant description of the group of pub- lishers of those days. It " included John Murray the second (Byron's Murray), and his son John the third (I have had the pleasure of continued personal association with John the fourth, and with his son, John the fifth, who ably continue the dynasty of this historic house) ; Kichard Bentley, stalwart Tory and ' publisher to Her Majesty ' ; Francis Rivington, ' publisher for the Church ' ; Thomas Longman ; Edward Moxon, the first publisher of Tennyson, and also publisher for Thomas Hood and Charles Lamb (Moxon, whom my father described as having a most attractive personality, married Emma Isola, the adopted daughter of Charles Lamb) ; Henry George Bohn, creator of the first ' libraries,' or uniformly printed series of books accepted as classics ; George Smith, then a youngster amongst the bookmen, head of the firm of Smith & Elder, the publishers of Cornhill, from whose office Thackeray sallied forth for his famous journey from Cornhill to Cairo ; Nicholas Triibner, a scholarly young German, who became known as the leading publisher of Oriental literature ; and Daniel Macmillan, founder (with his younger brother Alexander) of a publishing firm which within a comparatively brief term of years has become one of the most important in Europe."

In June, 1847, in consequence of changes con- nected with the business arrangements in Ame- rica, G. P. Putnam returned to New York, and founded the present firm of Putnam. He resided with his wife and family in the village of Stapleton, Staten Island, and among the guests during the earlier years there Major Putnam recalls Miss Bremer, the Swedish authoress ; Susan Warner, the author of ' The Wide, Wide World ' ; and Wendell Phillips.

The author's second glimpse of England was in 1851, when he was seven years old, and his father took him to the opening of the Exhibition, where he heard Prince Albert deliver the address ; he remembers " the sunshine breaking through the crystal glass and the treetops, and falling upon the uplifted heads of the dense crowd and upon the figure of the man speaking."

Among other early recollections was his seeing, in the following year, his father with " a tall, good- looking man in the dress of a naval officer.

' Haven,' said he, ' you want to remember this gentleman. He tells us that he has discovered a new people of whom, in the course of the next half-century, we shall hear a good deal.' The tall officer was Commodore Perry, who had been received by the Tycoon of Japan, and who had secured for the commerce of the United States- privileges that had thus far been accorded to the- representatives of no other nation. It proved, of course, impossible to refuse to Great Britain,. France, and Germany facilities that had been; conceded to the United States.... My father- published Perry's account of his visit, which was- in its way an epoch-marking book." A year or two later young Putnam " picked up " in his- father's office Layard's ' Nineveh and Babylon,.'' the American edition of which was issued by his firm. Among the callers at the office was Cyrus Field, " whose imagination and persistence brought into existence the first Atlantic cable."

In 1857 a terrible financial crisis occurred in the^ States, when bank after bank suspended payment, and at the age of forty-three the elder Putnam had to begin his business life over again and to- lay the foundations of a new business while supporting a large family. The old home was- the property of Mrs. Putnam, it having been' settled on her when there was no question of the solvency of the firm. She, however, insisted upon its being handed over to the creditors, " withi the entire approval of her husband, although Mr. Mason, the assignee, told her that the house was hers by law and in equity."

In 1860 young Putnam was sent to Europe for his education. He studied first in Paris, and afterwards in Germany, and he gives many reminiscences of his life as a student. In 1861,. while at Gottingen, he read in The Times of the disaster at Bull Run. This was looked upon by many as indicating the collapse of the United States as a nation, and his " German friends were- not a little surprised that months after the- battle the North was still proceeding with its preparations, and that the Northern leaders were in fact taking the ground that they had only ' just begun to fight.' " In December came to him the news of the boarding of the Trent, and in July of the following year (1862) his traps were packed and he was off to New York. As he passed the office of the Herald he saw on the poster, " A battle is now going on." By August he was with the army in the field, and for three years took part in the war. He gives a graphic account of his adventures. He thus lost the oppor- tunity for a college training, which was to him a great deprivation, as he took a keen interest in literature and science. During the war he had to bear for two years exposure to the heat and the damp of the swamps of Louisiana swamps in which nearly one-third of the 19th Army Corps lie buried. He had barely recovered from the series of swamp fevers before he was captured and had to endure five months of prison life. Not- withstanding all he had undergone, he found him- self, on landing in New York, in fairly good con- dition, and he now remembers with satisfaction his being able in October, 1865, to register his name for his first legal vote. We agree with him that " he had fairly earned his citizenship."

We have much enjoyed these memories of Major Putnam's youth, and look forward to the account he promises of the years since 1865.