Nov. 21, 1865

Colonel Higginson was medically discharged in 1864 and went home to Newport, Rhode Island, to join his invalid wife and heal his wounds. By 1865 he was elected to the Newport School Board where he hoped to help integrate the schools, and he resumed an active publishing career. This letter follows up on an earlier request for children's books which he still needed to read for a review he was preparing. The review, "Children's Books of the Year," appeared in the North American Review in Jan 1886. The Seven Little Sisters, who live on the Round Ball that floats in the Air, Oliver Optic's Army and Navy Stories and Oliver Optic's Boat-Club Series, and The Bushrangers, a Yankee's Adventures during his Second Visit to Australia, were among the twenty-two books under review. "Carlton's War Juveniles" was not listed in the review, perhaps indicating that he did not receive all the books in time, or that he did not have enough time to read them all before his deadline, which was "only a week more" than the Nov. 21 date of the letter. The review is available online at http://www.merrycoz.org/books/BOOK1866.HTM. The Independent was a magazine published in Boston between 1848–1928.