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he wrote for the Youth's Companion and Harper's, not to speak in detail of his several lectures and translations.
Mr. Frazar's first book was on ‘Practical Boat Sailing.’
The value of this standard treatise is proved by its reappearance in French, German, and Spanish.
So much for the practical side.
‘Perseverance Island’ (1884) is a work of juvenile fiction, popular in England, as well as in America.
This book out-Crusoes Crusoe.
Its hero is cast upon one of the unknown islands of the Pacific, with no friendly well-stored wreck at hand.
With almost nothing but his hands and his scientific knowledge, the lonely sailor makes tools and house, gunpowder, bricks, a water wheel, a blast-furnace, even a sub-marine boat and a flying machine.
Rich in real estate and in discovered gold, this modern Selkirk is properly rescued at last.
‘The Log of the Maryland’ (1890), in the guise of fiction, is in effect an account of one of Captain Frazar's own voyages.
The routine and adventures of a long ocean journey are faithfully told.
The sea-fight with Chinese pirates, with which the story closes, bristles with excitement.
Perhaps Mr. Frazar's books are as remarkable for their varied knowledge as for any one quality, though they are interesting, as well.
In his active life as a sailor, and in his excursions into French and English literature, he gathered the facts and the readiness of expression which stood him in good stead as an author.
An earlier writer is Isaac F. Shepard, who lived in Somerville and Cambridge.
He published much.
Besides being editor of the Christian Souvenir, and contributing to the Christian Examiner, the list of his writings includes: a poem on ‘The Seventy-first Anniversary of Leicester Academy, Massachusetts,’ August 7, 1835; a poem on ‘The Will of God,’ printed about 1837; a volume of poems, ‘Pebbles From Castalia,’ 1840; a ‘Fourth-of-July Address,’ given in West Killingly, Conn., 1856.
Mr. Shepard appears to have been a fluent writer of English.
His tale, ‘Lewis Benton,’ published in 1842, shows considerable facility of expression.
It is a temperance story, picturing the deterioration of a well-meaning and able man through a failure
Somerville. Historical Society. , 1904.
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