When my friend Mr. Howland, of the "Outlook" magazine, asked me if I could write for that magazine a Life of James Russell Lowell, I said at once that I could not. While there were certain periods of our lives when we met almost daily, for other periods we were parted, so that for many years I never saw him. I said that the materials for any Life of him were in the hands of others, who would probably use them at the proper time. Then Mr. Howland suggested that, without attempting anything which should be called a Life of Mr. Lowell, I might write for the "Outlook" a review, as it were, of the last sixty years among literary and scientific people in Boston and its neighborhood. I do not think he wanted my autobiography, nor had I any thought of preparing it for him; but he suggested the book which is in the reader's hands. This was in April, 1897.