Bunce was a self-made man, with an excellent grasp of literature,
which served him well in his various literary ventures. His mind was
cast in channels of originality, and the history of book publishing
in New York must needs consider the numerous suggestions, which,
as literary adviser at different times for the houses of Harper and
Appleton, he saw to successful fruition. In 1872, he became Editor of
_Appleton's Journal_, and it is to the files of this magazine we must
turn to extract his frank reaction to the theatre of his day. He wrote
novels, stories, essays, editorials, everything to win him the name of
journalist; once he had a publishing house of his own, doing business
under the firm name of Bunce & Co. He was always cordial toward every
move to further the literary interest of the country, and was among
the first to welcome the founding of the Authors Club. It may be that
his "Love in '76" was a by-product of a book written by him, in 1852,
and called "Romance of the Revolution."

Bunce wrote well on theatrical matters; he is much more vivid and
human than many a better-known critic. Here, for instance, is an
impression of the old Park Theatre, New York, in 1846.

"That was the time," he writes in "The Editor's Table" of _Appleton's
Journal_ for October, 1880, "when the theatre had a pit, where critics
and wiseacres were wont to assemble and utter oracular things about
the plays and the performers. The actors were in those days afraid
of the Pit, especially at the Park, of the fourth bench from the
orchestra, where the magnates of the pen sat watchful, and where old
Nestors of the drama delivered their verdicts in terms that no one
dared to gainsay. The Pit was entered by cellar steps, and through a
half-lighted, subterranean passage. Decorative art, as we see it now