The Atlantic Monthly, published by Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, is conducted with very great ability, and contains much of varied interest and value. We cannot, of course, always agree with the sentiments of its articles; but we have been reading it with great pleasure and are prepared to accept the assurance of its publishers that it will be more readable than ever during the coming year.
The South Atlantic, published at Wilmington, N. C., by Mrs. Cicero W. Harris, editor and proprietor, is a very well conducted and creditable Magazine, which we should be glad to see in every home and library of the land.
The contents of the December number (we have not yet received the January number) are: Carmelita (continued), W. H. Babcock; Who was Robin Adair? ——— ———; Athens to Trieste, W. C. Johnstone; Trial of Titus Oates, John W. Snyder; Unreturning—A Poem, J. L. Gordon; Notes on Southern Literature, ——— ———; Thiers (continued), Th. von. Jasmund; His Only Love, A. L. Bassett; A Legend of the Roanoke—A Poem, P. Copeland; Editorial—The American Cyclopædia; Recent Literature—Babcock's Poem's, Petals, Hand Book of Church Terms.
In "Notes on Southern Literature " the writer could not, of course, make any complete catalogue of the books that have been written by Southern men since the war, yet one is surprised to find omitted from the list given Rev. Dr. A. T. Bledsoe's able discussion of the secession question in "Is Davis a Traitor?" Rev. Dr. Dabney's life of "Stonewall Jackson"; John Esten Cooke's "Life of Lee," and "Military Biography of Stonewall Jackson"; Colonel Charles C. Jones' "Siege of Savannah," "Chatham Artillery," "Life of Commodore Tatnall," &c.; General Basil W. Duke's "History of Morgan's Cavalry"; General Jordan's "Forrest and his Campaigns," Admiral Semmes' "Service Afloat"; Boykin's "Life of Howell Cobb"; Handy's "United States Bonds"; Stevenson's "Southern Side of Andersonville"; Brevier's "First and Second Confederate Missouri Brigades"; Hodge's "First Kentucky Brigade"; Wilkinson's "Blockade Runner"; Alfriend's "Life of Jefferson Davis"; Miss Emily Mason's "Popular Life of General R. E. Lee"; Hotchkiss and Allan's "Chancellorsville" with their superb maps; General J. A. Early's "Memoirs of the Last Year of the War"; Miss Mary Magill's "Women, or Chronicles of the War," and her History of Virginia; and a number of other similar books.
If another had written them we should have added to the list, Jones' "Reminiscences, Anecdotes and Letters of General R. E. Lee," and the "Army of Northern Virginia Memorial Volume," but we, of course, would not violate good taste by mentioning them in such illustrious company.
We thank the writer for kindly mention of the Southern Historical Society, and we trust that its seven volumes of back numbers may find a place in many libraries this year.
