Historic leaves, volume 1, April, 1902 - January, 1903

That Mr. Brooks' books should be mainly historical and patriotic naturally follows from the nature of his ancestry and the quality of the Yankee blood which flowed through his veins. Of the seventy minutemen in line at the battle of Lexington, eleven were relatives on his mother's side. Three of the names on the monument erected to the memory of the fallen heroes were those of blood relations; the first is that of Ensign Robert Munroe, his great-great-uncle. His great-grandfather also participated in the battle. His paternal grandfather was a jolly privateer in the war of 1812, and it is not to be wondered at that Mr. Brooks had his share of fighting blood. That he should spend his last years on such historic ground as Prospect hill is singularly appropriate.

Always during his business and editorial life he was a busy writer. His object seemed to have been to instruct and interest the young people. His first marked success was the series of ‘Historic Boys’ and ‘Historic Girls,’ which originally appeared in the St. Nicholas Magazine in 1885 and 1886. His first book was written as a labor of love, and presented the life of his father, who died in 1876. The volume was published in 1881.

The titles of other volumes which he has placed before the public, and which have been read so widely, are as follows: ‘In Leisler's Times,’ ‘In No Man's Land,’ ‘Storied Holidays,’ ‘The American Indian,’ ‘The Story of the American Sailor,’ ‘The American Soldier,’ ‘Chivalric Days,’ ‘The True Story of the United States of America,’ ‘The True Story of Christopher Columbus,’ ‘A Boy of the First Empire,’ ‘The Century Book for Young Americans,’ ‘The Children's Lives of Great Men,’ ‘The True Story of George Washington,’ ‘The True Story of Abraham Lincoln,’ ‘The True Story of U. S. Grant,’ ‘The True Story of Benjamin Franklin,’ ‘The True Story of Lafayette,’ ‘The Story of New York,’ ‘In Blue and White,’ ‘The Boy ’