Kentucky, rich in themes for song and story, has attracted the attention of some of the master minds of literature. Sir Walter Scott in "Marmion" sings of

George Gordon (Lord Byron) in "Don Juan" names

while Alfred Tennyson tells of

Her own sons and daughters, native and adopted, have also sung her glories, and in many other themes have made a great contribution to American Literature. Gilbert Imlay was our first novelist. Since him it is impossible to name all who have brought honor to their state by their works, but among the writers of prose are the noted novelists James Lane Allen and John Fox, Jr. Gertrude Atherton's writings include "The Bell in the Fog," "Rulers of Kings" and "Rezanov." Alice Hegan Rice has delighted many with "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" and "Lovey Mary." Ingram Crockett's "A Year Book of Kentucky Woods and Fields" and "A Brother of Christ" give him a place in this group. Edwin C. Listey's "Love Story of Abner Stone" and "The Race of the Swift" are honors to their creator.

Abbie Carter Goodloe's "At the Foot of the Rockies" has been favorably compared with some of Kipling's works. Frank Waller Allen in "Back to Arcady" has given a pastoral romance. Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews has distinguished herself in "A Kidnapped Colony" and "The Perfect Tribute."

Young and old delight in the "Little Colonel Stories" by Mrs. Annie Fellows Johnston, "Emmy Lou" by Mrs. George Madden Martin, and Eva A. Madden's "Two Royal Foes." John Bacon gave us "The Pursuit of Phyllis"; Nancy Huston Banks, "Oldfield"; Eleanor T. Kinkead, "The Invisible Bond"; and Mrs. H.D. Pittman, "The Belle of the Blue-grass Country." Hallie Erminie Rives-Wheeler has given "Hearts Courageous" and "Tales from Dickens."

John Uri Lloyd has described mountain life in "Redhead" and "Stringtown on the Pike," while his "Etidorhpa" shows a master mind.

James Tandy Ellis has delighted all with his dialect stories in "Sprigs o' Mint." Mrs. Fannie Caldwell Macauley (Frances Little) has written "The Lady of the Decoration," while "Aunt Jane of Kentucky" by Mrs. Eliza Calvert Obenchain (Eliza Calvert Hall) has attracted universal attention.

John Wilson Townsend in "Kentuckians in History and Literature" and "Kentucky in American Letters" has done a great work for an appreciative public.

William C. Watts' "Chronicles of a Kentucky Settlement" is a great pen picture of early times; and Irvin S. Cobb's "Back Home" and "Cobb's Anatomy" have won him undying fame as a story teller and humorist.

In other lines of prose we find John Bradford's "Notes on Kentucky," histories of the state by Marshall, Lewis and R.H. Collins, Z.F. Smith, Elizabeth Kinkead, and Ed Porter Thompson; also the works of Humphrey Marshall, Mann Butler, Thomas Corwin, Fornatus Cosby, Samuel D. Gross, Henry Watterson, Bennett H. Young, and others.

Since our first poet, Thomas Johnson, there have been many who have won credit in verse.

Theodore O'Hara's immortal elegy, "The Bivouac of the Dead" is known to all. John Wilson Townsend has called Madison Cawein the successor of Sidney Lanier; Edmund Gosse calls him the "hermit thrush," while others have named him the "Kentucky Keats." Cale Young Rice has won fame in dramatic verse. Thomas H. Chivers, a native of Georgia, spent some time in Kentucky. He accused Poe of stealing some of his words in "The Raven" from him.

Robert Burns Wilson, the poet-painter, has published several volumes of the highest merit. Bishop John L. Spalding, William O. Butler, Fornatus Cosby, Jr., George D. Prentice, Sarah T. Bolton, Mary E. Betts, Henry T. Stanton, Sarah N. Piatt, and a host of others have written verse that will compare favorably with that of many writers more renowned.