Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v3.djvu/205

Justin Winsor; Edward Gaylord Bourne 187 book, however, was richer in its suggestions on colonial and Revolutionary history than on the later period ; and this was because the editor's interest was strongest in our early history. Winsor came under the influence of "the great subject," and probably his most intense study was given to the achieve- ment of the explorers. He was a high authority on early American cartography. His interest in the period of discovery led him to write his Christopher Columbus and How he Received and Imparted the Spirit of Discovery (1891). It was a minute and conscientious discussion of the career of the discoverer and of the progress of geographical knowledge in the Columbian period. He carried on the history of discoveries and explora- tions in three other books: From Cartier to Frontenac (1894), The Mississippi Basin (1895), and The Westward Movement (1897). These books proved disappointing to persons who sought readable narratives. They were filled with details and poorly constructed; but the maps and cartological informa- tion in them were very valuable. In fact, in Winsor's philosophy the historian's function was to burrow into the past for the facts that had been overlooked by other writers, and when the facts were found he took little pains how he arranged them before the eyes of the reader. I may confess [he said], that I have made history a thing of shreds and patches. I have only to say that the life of the world is a thing of shreds and patches, and it is only when we consider the well rounded life of the individual that we find permeating the record a reasonable constancy of purpose. This is the province of biography, and we must not confound biography with history. Of "shreds-and-patches" history Justin Winsor was a master. He was loved of the student and nearly unknown to the reader. Professor Bourne was the son of a village minister in New England. Unlike Winsor, his life was always overcast with the problem of earning a living. Lameness from childhood handi- capped his efforts and eventually resulted in his death when he had just demonstrated his capacity for historical work of the first class. Wide information, good judgment, and a keen eye for inaccuracies characterized his work. A sense of proportion is ever found in the structure of his books, and his language is clear and sometimes graceful. In the latter part of his life he