Not the least among the novelists of the Old South was John Pendleton Kennedy. His Horseshoe Robinson enjoyed in its day, and justly, a popularity second to that of no other Southern novel of the time. And his Swallow Barn and Rob of the Bowl, - the one a series of sketches and tales after the manner of the Sketch Book, the other an ultra-romantic story of colonial Maryland, though inferior to Horseshoe Robinson, compare favorably, nevertheless, with the work of any other novelist of the antebellum South, save that of William Gilmore Simms. But Kennedy deserves to be remembered on still other grounds. He gave us in his biography of Wirt one of the best biographies yet produced in the South; he was a gifted lawyer and a statesman of widely recognized ability; he was Secretary of the Navy for a short time under Fillmore; and-what is of peculiar interest to us to-day-he was the friend of most of the leading men of letters in America in his century and of not a few writers of distinction from foreign parts. He was the early friend and patron of Poe; he was the warm friend of Irving and of Willis; and he was on terms of friendly intercourse with Cooper, Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, Paulding, Prescott, Wilde, Everett, Simms, Halleck, and Bayard Taylor, among Americans, and with Dickens, Thackeray, Landor, Lever, Rogers, and G. P. R. James, among English writers of his day.

The best record that we have of Kennedy's literary friendships is furnished by his correspondence, some thousands of letters bequeathed by him to the Peabody Library at Baltimore. Kennedy died in 1870, but one of the conditions of his bequest

was that his papers, including the manuscript volumes of his novels and other works, his diaries and journals, together with his correspondence, should be "packed away in a strong walnut box, closed and locked," and be preserved "unopened until the year 1900." This provision of his will was faithfully executed by the custodians of these papers, and it was not until less than ten years ago that they were first made accessible to the public.

The most valuable and the most interesting single series of letters in the Kennedy collection is that written by Washington Irving. These are twenty-nine in number, the bulk of them addressed to Kennedy himself, the remainder to members of his family, either to Mrs. Kennedy, or to her father, Edward Gray, or to the novelist's niece, Mary Kennedy. They range in date from 1833 to 1859.

2

Kennedy and Irving first met in June, 1832, at a dinner given in the latter's honor by Josias Pennington in Baltimore. They met again the following January in Washington, and frequently during the next spring, when Irving spent three weeks at Baltimore; and during the summer of the same year they contrived to be together for a few days at Saratoga Springs. During the next nineteen years they met but infrequently, it appears: the only letter of Irving's for this period that is preserved in the Kennedy collection being that of November 8, 1846. But early in the winter of 1853 Irving made a visit of several weeks to Washington, where he was entertained at Kennedy's home. There were other visits during the same year (Irving being engaged at the time on his Life of Washington), and their friendship now ripened into an intimacy which was to end only with Irving's death in 1859.

Eleven of the Irving letters have already been published, either in whole or in part,- two of them by Tuckerman in his

1 1 Not, as P. M. Irving has it in his Life of Irving (III, p. 50), in the following winter. In his diary under date of June 18, 1832, Kennedy has this entry : "Dined with Washington Irving at Pennington's. He passes but two days in Baltimore, and promises to return in the fall."

....

2 On January 31, 1833, Kennedy wrote to his wife from Washington: "My dear Puss. . . . . Washington Irving is here, and will after the great guns are fired come to Baltimore for a few days. He is not courting McLane's daughter."

Life of Kennedy, nine by Pierre M. Irving in the four-volume biography of his distinguished uncle; and these are not here reprinted. The remaining eighteen letters, together with an extract from a letter heretofore printed only in part, are now published for the first time. To these are added a letter from one of Irving's nephews to Kennedy apprizing him of Irving's death, an extract from one of Kennedy's letters to Irving, and sundry extracts from Kennedy's diary and journals.*

Irving to Kennedy

MY DEAR SIR,-I had hoped to have seen and thanked you personally before this, for the very acceptable present of Swallow Barn, as well as for the flattering tenor of the note which accompanied it. Believe me, my dear sir, the sentiments of esteem and regard which you so kindly express are most fully reciprocated, and I shall always be proud to be considered among the number of your friends. Very truly yours,

BALTIMORE, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 1833.

WASHINGTON IRVING.1

NEW YORK, May 18, 1835.

MY DEAR KENNEDY,-Let me introduce to you my particular friend, Mr. Abm. Schermerhorn, who with his daughter will pass a few days in your city. Any attention you may be able to show them during their stay will add to the many friendly obligations you have already conferred on

NEW YORK, June 5, 1835.5

MY DEAR Kennedy,—. on your Canadian tour, my operations in Wall Street being of so complicated and momentous a nature as to require my constant presence. If you can spare a few days in passing through New York, I may be able to fit you out with a small travelling fortune, as they are daily made here of all sizes to suit candidates. In the meantime keep all these business hints a profound secret; if you don't I'll give the Horse Shoe such a hammering that all Wall Street shall ring with it.

I regret that I shall not be able to join you

With kindest remembrances to Mrs. Kennedy,

Yours very truly,

W. I.

I wish hereby to make grateful acknowledgement to the officials of the Peabody Library for their courtesy in granting me permission to publish these papers.

These letters have been "edited" for punctuation and capitalization, but not, in every instance, for spelling, some of Irving's vagaries in spelling being both interesting and enlightening.

This letter is given in part by Tuckerman, Life of Kennedy, p. 169, being there inaccurately dated June 5, 1836. Kennedy had recently submitted to Irving a copy (perhaps in proofs) of his Horseshoe Robinson, which was about to appear. The American edition of

this novel was dedicated to Irving; the English edition to Samuel Rogers,