Autograph Note Signed by Abbott Lyman (1 results)

Influential Congregational clergyman and author who co-edited "Christian Union" with Henry Ward Beecher and succeeded Beecher as pastor of Brooklyn's famed Plymouth Congregational Church. ANS, 1p, 5" X 8", Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY, n.y. [1878] November 25. Addressed to showman P.T. Barnum (1810-91). Very good. Lightly age toned. Intriguing if brief: "Your letter respecting Popular Amusements was received too late for this week's issue. It will go in next week & the papers shall be sent as requested." In Abbott's 1922 book "Silhouettes of My Contemporaries" he devotes a chapter to Barnum, of whom he was a great admirer. In 1878 Abbott wrote Barnum requesting information about Tom Thumb, and on 5 October 1878 received a cordial note in reply from Barnum. Meanwhile, in the November 6th and 13th issues of "Christian Union," Reverend Samuel Scoville published a two-art article titled "The Christian View of Popular Amusements." Barnum took issue with some of this Congregationalist minister's views, and in the December 4th issue his rebuttal, titled simply "Popular Amusements," was published in "Christian Union." This letter, then, is the magazine's initial response to Barnum's reply to Scoville's criticisms. The article was republished a number of times in other publications and also found its way into Barnum's 1880 autobiography "Struggles and Triumphs; or, Forty Years' Recollections.".