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 1 86 Later Historians himself to history and the care of the large library he had col- lected. One of his books, The Voyage of Verrazano (1875), taking the opposite side from Brevoort's, was received as the best on its side of the controversy. These men represent the early manifestations of "the great subject." Two others, Justin Winsor (1831-97) and Edward Gaylord Bourne (1860-1908), stand at the point of its fruition. Alike in scholarship and deep interest in the earliest phase of our history, they were widely apart in their use of language to ex- press their ideas. Winsor wrote a tedious page, filled with details ; Bourne wrote in a simple and well digested style which did not lack in clearness and charm of expression. Winsor was of a prosperous Boston mercantile family and began life with every opportunity that a Boston boy could de- sire. He withdrew from Harvard because he disliked the rou- tine of the college classes but read widely in the best literature. Determined to become a literary man he gave himself to poetry and the drama until he realized that he was not likely to succeed in creative literature. During this period of his life he wrote much for the Boston periodicals and projected a defini- tive life of David Garrick which was never completed. In 1868 he became librarian of the Boston Public Library and served with such success that he was called to the same position at Harvard in 1877, where he remained the rest of his life. It was about this time that he assumed editorial direction of a co-operative history of Boston, for which the leading men of the city had been selected to write special chapters. The work was published in four volumes as The Memorial History of Boston (1880-82). Winsor 's part was so well done that he was asked by the publishers to undertake a similar work on Ameri- can history. Thus was written and published his Narrative and Critical History of America (8 vols., 1886-89), probably the most stimulating book in American history that has been pro- duced in this country. The editor's part was the best and consisted chiefly in an abundance of bibliographical and carto- logical notes. Before the appearance of the book the student had been left to stumble as he could toward his bibliography. Now he had in one work such a wealth of this information that he could always have a point of departure for his studies and need not hesitate in the early stages of any investigation. The