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J. F. H. Claiborne at ?Laurel Wood? Plantation, 1853-1870	5
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organization of the Mississippi Historical Society.14 Claiborne also maintained an extensive correspondence with some of the leading historians of the day, including Charles Gayarre', Albert James Pickett, John W. Monette, Benson J. Lossing, and Lyman C. Draper.
By the eve of the Civil War Claiborne was devoting as much of his time and talent to historical writing as could be spared from his plantation responsibilities. During the four years immediately preceding the beginning of the war Claiborne wrote at ?Laurel Wood? two biographies, a series of articles, and several short sketches for an encyclopedia. Moreover, there are indications that he was at work on other pieces of writing that were never published,15 and that he wrote several segments of his Mississippi during the same period.
A few months before the inauguration of President Buchanan, when the nation was anticipating the presidentelect?s appointments, Claiborne wrote for the New Orleans Delta an article on ?The Cabinet?Past and Present,?18 a study of the roles of major cabinet officers in the administrations; from Washington to Van Buren. At about the same time he prepared, again for the Delta, his ?Recollections of the Metropolitan Press,?17 a series of brief, intimate sketches of prominent editors he had known in Washington. In 1859 Claiborne?s study of The Houmas Land Claims of Louisiana appeared in pamphlet form.18
During the Civil War Harper?s Magazine published an
14	Z. T. Leavell, ?The Ante-Bellum Historical Society of Mississippi,? Mississippi Historical Society, Publications, VIII (1904), 228.
15	Among Claiborne?s contemplated writings was a political study of the ante-bellum South. J. F. H. Claiborne, Life and Correspondence of John A. Quitman, Major-General, U. S. A., and Governor of the State of Mississippi, 2 vols. (New York, 1860), I, vii-viii.
16	Reprinted in ibid., 231.
17	Reprinted in J. F. H. Claiborne, Life and Times of Gen. Sam Dale, the Mississippi Partisan (New York, 1860), 190-203.
18	J. F. H. Claiborne, The Houmas Land Claims; A Letter from John Claiborne, Esq., to Hon. C. T. Bemis, Accompanied by a Letter from the Hon. John Slidell to Mr. Claiborne (New Orleans, 1859).