Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v4.djvu/169

Lyrics in German 581 ikas bis ztim Hoch-Plateau von Neu-Mexiko. Then he turned to fiction, fully able to give his countless stories a setting in Western American life but handicapped by a fatal facility both in sketching characters and weaving entertaining plots. The Halbindianer, his first novel, compares favourably with his later work. Die Familie Neville is a three-volume novel with the background of the Civil War. Das Mormonenmddchen (1864) was a timely warning for European girls against the practices of Mormon missionaries in Germany and Switzerland before governments intervened. Throughout the nineteenth century a great mass of lyrics were written by cultivated Germans in the United States. They are scattered in journals and booklets and have only in part become accessible in anthologies. ' They sang the praises of America, her political freedom, resources, and natural beau- ties ; they also voiced a love of the German mother-tongue, the language of poetry. To the rich and abundant harvest of song in German literature they contributed nothing new, except it be an occasional note of homesickness, the melancholy of ex- patriation. The following may serve as illustrations: Franz Lieber {Der Niagara), K. H. Schnauffer (Turnermarsch) , E. Dorsch {Californien, 1849), J. Dresel {Auswanderers Schicksal), J. Gugler (Vaterlandslos) , H. A. Rattermann ("Reimmund," Aphorismen und Agrionien), Konrad Krez {An mein Vaterland, the best of the songs of this type), B. Bruhl ("Kara Giorg," Poesien des Urwalds), T. Kirchoff (California, Das Stille Meer), F. C. Castelhuhn (Zweihundertjdhrige Jubelfeier der deutschen Einwanderung, den 6. Oktober, 1883). Recent contributors, and more modern in spirit are: Martin Drescher (Gedichte), Femande Richter (' ' Edna Fern, " Gedichte und Erzdhlungen) , Konrad Nies {Funken A uswestlichen Weiten) , a master of form, though not sur- passing G. S. Viereck, whose poems {Niniveh und andre Gedichte) and prose works {The House of theVampire, A Game of Love and other Plays, etc.) were weU rendered into English by himself. Excellent translations of American authors were furnished by the poet Udo Brachvogel, who translated the works of Bret Harte and Aldrich; by Franz Siller, of Longfellow's poems; by Eduard Leyh, of Joaquin Miller's Arizonian. Some original dramas performed in German theatres of this country were: ■ See Bibliography.