Unquestionably Mr. Currier’s exhaustive bibliography must be consulted by everyone who wishes authoritative and documented data on the writings of John Greenleaf Whittier or who wishes to know why, when, and where his works were printed. It is far more than a mere bibliography; for in addition to listing, with all the detail and thoroughness required by the book collector and student of American literature and history, the actual printed publications of the poet and Abolitionist, it comprises a complete survey of Whittier’s literary life and labors. Mr. Currier has unearthed the innumerable broadside and leaflet printings of Whittier’s poems, has sifted the mass of anonymous works, and has arranged a chronological series of references to communications sent by Whittier to various newspapers with which he was not editorially connected. One section relates at length Whittier’s activities as editor of political newspapers; another is a list of books and articles that have been written about Whittier. All these items, however, are but random samplings from what may be considered a perfect example of bibliographical writing.

These letters of a man deeply concerned about his country, directly involved in political action, and torn, as the Civil War approached, by the conflict between his abolitionist zeal and his Quaker pacifism—letters here collected for the first time and many of them hitherto unpublished—shatter the stereotype of Whittier as “the good gray poet.” The many letters to such figures as John Quincy Adams, Charles Sumner, and William Lloyd Garrison form a detailed record of the abolitionist movement from its inception to its merging with the Free Soil party in the 1850s. The first two volumes reproduce all the extant letters from 1828 to 1860, with full annotations. The last volume is selective, excluding several thousand perfunctory items and including only the historically or biographically interesting letters of the last three decades of the poet's life.