A surprising amount of literature, largely controversial, has been written about John Brown. His story has inspired the authors of several nationalities. It would be impracticable to give here a list of all these publications. Several years ago the titles in Dr. Featherstonehaugh's bibliography of Brown, which included formal magazine articles, numbered eighty. I shall mention the books and articles of chief importance.
I. The Public Life of Captain John Brown. By James Redpath. (Boston, 1860: Thayer & Eldridge.) This was the first biography of Brown to appear. It contained much personal testimony, especially relating to Kansas matters, but was fragmentary and altogether partisan, and contained errors.
II. Senate Report on the Invasion of Harper's Ferry. By a Select Committee of the United States Senate. Senate Reports, No. 278, Thirty-sixth Congress, First Session, Vol. II.
III. A Voice from Harper's Ferry. By Osborn Perry Anderson. (Boston, 1861: Privately printed.)
IV. John Brown. By Victor Hugo. Paris, 1861: Dusacq & Cie.) Contains Hugo's own drawing of Brown on the gallows, marked Pro Christo sicut Christus.
V. Life and Letters of John Brown, with Notices of Some of his Confederates. By Richard D. Webb. (London, 1861: Smith, Elder & Co.)
VI. Life and Letters of John Brown. By F. B. Sanborn. (Boston, 1885: Roberts Brothers.) This is a really monumental work, of six hundred and thirty-two pages. Its author was a personal friend of Brown, and in his confidence through his last years. It is necessarily the foundation of all study of Brown's life. It presents a great body, but not the whole, of Brown's existing letters to his family and others.
VII. Century Magazine, June, 1885. "John Brown at Harper's Ferry." By John E. P. Daingerfield.
VIII. John Brown. By Dr. Hermann Von Hoist. Edited by Frank Preston Stearns. (Boston, 1888: Cupples, Upham & Hurd.)
IX. The Kansas Crusade. By Eli Thayer. (Kew York, 1889: Harper Brothers.)
X. Andover Review, December, 1890–January, 1891. "Preludes of Harper's Ferry." By Wendell P. Garrison.
XI. The Kansas Conflict. By Charles Robinson. (New York, 1892: Harper Brothers.)
XII. John Brown and his Men. By Richard J. Hinton. (New York, 1894: Funk & Wagnalls Company.) Another volume containing much personal testimony. It is especially valuable for the minuteness of the account of the Harper's Ferry Raid, and for its information about Brown's companions.
XIII. The Life of Henry S. Wise. By Barton H. Wise. (New York, 1899: The Macmillan Company.) An interesting and familiar book, written by the grandson of the governor.