Whatever may be the opinion of critics respecting Uncle Tom's Cabin, the people—the great mass of readers in nearly every country—appear to have come a conclusion that it is the most captivating work ever produced by a woman, or man either, for that matter, as no production in all literature has had so quick and universal a popularity. Harriet E. Beecher, a daughter of the celebrated preacher, Lyman Beecher, D.D., was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, rather more than forty years ago. From a very early age she was associated with her sister in the care of a large female seminary, "and was thus fitted," says Mrs. Hale, "to be the congenial companion of the Rev. Calvin E. Stowe, whom she married when about twenty-one." Previous to the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, she had written but little beyond magazine articles. "The May Flower," a collection of her stories, published in eighteen hundred and forty-nine, has been very popular.