The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
VOLUME XVI. Early National Literature, Part II; Later National Literature, Part I.
§ 20. The Talisman; The Boston Book; The Liberty Bell
Among annuals that differ a little from the ordinary was The Talisman, which was published at New York for 1828, 1829, and 1830. The literary contents were prepared in collaboration by William Cullen Bryant, Robert C. Sands, and Gulian C. Verplanck, and the illustrations were by artist friends of the authors, among them Henry Inman and S. F. B. Morse. The volumes were unpretending in appearance, but the literary quality was high. The Boston Book (Boston, 1836, 1837, 1841, 1850) is, in the words of the editor, “a compilation of specimens,—or, essentially, a specimen, in the aggregate—of the modern literature of the metropolis of the North.” The Liberty Bell, by Friends of Freedom, published nearly every year from 1839 to 1858 for the benefit of the annual anti-slavery fair or anti-slavery bazaar in Boston, contained contributions from all the leading anti-slavery writers of New England.