Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v2.djvu/190

 174 Magazines, Annuals, and Gift-books peared in at least ten re-issues by different publishers, with changes of title and of plates, and in some instances with abridgment of contents. The volume for 1840 was similarly- treated at least five times. The name was also adopted by a New York publisher for the reprint of a cheap annual which appeared without date in the later fifties. The Rose of Sharon, a Religious Souvenir (Boston, 1840 to 1858) boasted a longer continuous existence than any of the other American annuals. The first ten volumes were edited by Miss Sarah C. Edgarton, the last eight by Mrs. Caroline M. Sawyer. The volume for 1857 was reissued, merely with change of date, "for 1858"; and a publisher at Auburn, New York, borrowed the title for a wholly different work in 1849. The Rose of Sharon was somewhat showy in binding, but was good in typography and illustrations, and in literary contents was an average example of the better grade of annuals. The Opal, A Pure Gift for the Holy Days, published by John C. Riker, New York, survived only from 1844 to 1849 inclusive, but it was made attractive by contributions from Poe, WiUis, Longfellow, and Whittier, and by plates by Cheney and Sartain. Among annuals that differ a little from the ordinary was The Talisman, which was published at New York for 1828, 1829, and 1830. The literary contents were prepared in col- laboration by William Cullen Bryant, Robert C. Sands, and Gulian C. Verplanck, and the illustrations were by artist friends of the authors, among them Henry Inman and S. F. B. Morse. The volumes were unpretending in appearance, but the literary quality was high. The Boston Book (Boston, 1836, 1837, 1841, 1850) is, in the words of the editor, "a com- pilation of specimens, — or, essentially, a specimen, in the aggregate — of the modem literature of the metropolis of the North." The Liberty Bell, by Friends of Freedom, published nearly every year from 1839 to 1858 for the benefit of the annual anti-slavery fair or anti-slavery ba2aar in Boston, contained contributions from all the leading anti-slavery writers of New England. i Others of the better known annuals were The Amaranth, The Christmas Blossoms and New Year's Wreath, The Diadem, The Forget-Me-Not, Friendship's Offering, The Garland, The Gem of the Season, The Gift, The Gift of Friendship, The Hyacinth,