Tuckerman notices "The Apple-Tree Table"

In the latter 1850's, under cover of the pseudonym "Knick," Herman Melville's friend Henry Theodore Tuckerman reported on the latest literary and cultural news from New York City as a valued correspondent of the Boston Evening Transcript. As shown previously on Melvilliana, Tuckerman aka "Knick" wrote favorable notices of Israel Potter (February 27, 1855) and The Confidence-Man (April 10, 1857). 

• https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/07/tuckerman-aka-knick-on-israel-potter.html
• https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2015/10/h-t-tuckerman-knick-in-boston-evening.html

Surveying the contents of Putnam's magazine for May 1856, Knick described The Apple-Tree Table (without naming Melville) as "a story of Hawthorne-like detail, illustrative of the "spirit rappings."

Boston Evening Transcript - May 7, 1856

NEW YORK, May 6, 1856.

LITERARY. Dear Transcript: With their accustomed punctuality, Dix & Edwards issued "Putnam's Monthly," with a freshness and variety of material that seems to indicate a seasonable revival of Magazine literature and May-day exuberance of wit and wisdom. Opening with a pleasant digest of the Kane Relief Expedition, which gives a relishing foretaste in Captain Heinstein's experience, of the Doctor's complete record, soon to appear. They follow up this appropriate tribute to he benevolent enterprise of the times, with a story of Hawthorne-like detail, illustrative of the "spirit rappings," called "The Apple Tree Table." Hale, the martyr spy of the Revolution, has justice done his brave sacrifice, in a biographical sketch of national interest. The claims of Ruskin, as an art-critic, are then discussed with an evident enthusiasm for his views and style. Kingsley's poems are next considered, and "Napoleon as a Family Man" is viewed as revealed in the letters to Joseph, his brother, lately published....

...We are all astonished at the fact that Hawthorne has made a dinner speech,--he who was only heard to speak once during his voyage to Liverpool. He addressed the company in reply to a toast in his honor, and what he said was appropriate, and manly and sensible. Bravo, silent Hawthorne! now you have found your tongue, resume your pen, too long idle... --"Knick" [Henry Theodore Tuckerman] Boston Evening Transcript, May 7, 1856.

Another newspaper mention, from the notice of "Putnam's Monthly for May" in the Boston Daily Atlas on April 30, 1856:

"The Apple Tree Table is an account of original spiritual manifestations, the mystery of which is more simple and satisfactory than such manifestations usually are." 

Related post:

• The Apple-Tree Table, reprinted from Putnam's in the Troy Daily Times
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-apple-tree-table-reprinted-from.html