SOURCE: "Mr. Brander Matthews as a Critic," in The Sewanee Review, 1895, pp. 373-84.

In the following appreciation, Trent argues that Matthews's other impressive achievements ought not be permitted to eclipse his reputation as a major critic.

While there are few living American writers better known or more heartily admired than Mr. Brander Matthews, it has long seemed to me that the public does not sufficiently appreciate a special phase of his versatility. What that phase is, will be learned from the title I have given this paper. Mr. Matthews is a playwright, a story-teller, a composer of vers de société, a genial humorist, a bibliophile, a professor in Columbia College, and all, or most of these facts are known to the public. The variety, the wit, the charm of his writings are familiar to the people that read the magazines as well as to the people that...