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vi OUR FAMILIAR SONGS.
of dumb devotion to man in his loneliness, was himself the saddest realization of the plaintive fancy. Epes Sargent was long a successful author and editor ; but thousands who never heard of him as either, know that somebody wrote " A Life on the Ocean Wave," with which they cheer their inland homes. Caroline Gilman is associated with har books for the young, but hardly with her " Trancadillo,, chorus, which is sung by boating parties when all books are forgotten. Bulwer is known by his stately novels, but not by his song, " When Stars are in the Quiet Skies,'' though no moonlight ride is complete without it. It is perhaps hardly necessary to say, in regard to the biographical sketches, that it has been my purpose to make them full in the case of authors little known, but not to cumber the book with the familiar details of the lives of more famous men. It is assumed that the ordinary reader knows, or can readily turn to, the history of authors like Ben Jonson, Lord Byron, Longfellow, and Tennyson, while he would be glad to find, in this connection, information about such as Tannahill, Bayly, Dempster. Ainslie, and Foster.
I take pleasure in expressing my indebtedness to Professor Edward S. Ctm-mings, of New York, for the skill and care with which he has edited the music in this volume. My thanks are also cordially returned for courtesies received from publishers who hold the copyright of songs included here : Messrs. Oliver Dit son & Co., Boston; William A. Pond & Co., New York; G. Schirmer, New York ; Louis Meyer, Philadelphia ; and S. Brainerd's Sons, Cleveland ; as well as to the authors and composers. For much of the information which here appears in print for the first time, I am indebted to the personal kindness of friends and relatives of the authors, retired music-publishers, and others, both here and in England, in whose memories alone were to be found any records of some of the writers of immortal songs. I regret that to all these I can only make this general acknowledgment.
H. K. J. New York, January 4, 1881.
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