In a literary career of only twenty-five years, Henry William Herbert published more than seventy separate works and contributed hundreds of items to more than forty magazines and newspapers. Ironically, the few works to which he gave his most serious efforts brought him little money and less fame, while great numbers of casual writings done quickly and carelessly became his main source of income and reputation. Though Herbert did help contribute an original direction to American literature in his writings on sport, few of his individual works are now worthy of serious critical attention. Possible exceptions to this are the five sporting novels which present an attractive picture of the ideal sporting life of the early nineteenth century. The patterns and details of Herbert's literary career, however, are still profoundly interesting for what they reveal about author-publisher relationships of that period and for what they show of the...