Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/60

 LOWELL

LOWELL

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and succeeded Roger Wolcott as president of the Unitarian club of Boston in 1897. He delivered a course of lectures before the Lowell Institute, Boston, in 1895-96. He is author of: Joan of ^rc (1896).

LOWELL, James Russell, poet, was born in Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 22, 1819; son of the Rev. Charles and Harriet (Spence) Lowell. He at- tended the boarding school of William Wells at Cambridge and was graduated from Harvard,

A.B., 1838, LL.B., 1840, A.M. 1841. While in college he edited the Harvar- diana, 1837-38, and after his graduation he opened a law office in Boston, but did not practise, de- voting himself in- stead entirely to lit- erature. In 1841 his first book of poems appeared, some of which had been previ- ously published in magazines, and in 1843, with Robert Carter, he started the Pioneer, a short-lived monthly magazine. He was mar- ried in 1844 to Maria White of Watertown, Mass., who was herself the author of several published poems, and was also a pronounced abolitionist. Both Mr; Lowell and his wife were regular contrib- utors to the Liberty Bell and Lowell subsequently became corresponding editor of the Anti-Slavery Standard. His ** Biglow Papers," satirical poems in Yankee dialect, the first of which appeared in the columns of the Boston Courier in June, 1846, wielded a powerful influence on the politics of the day, and gained a permanent place among the classics. He was a frequent contributor to the Dial, the Democratic Review and the Ulassa- chuaetta Quarterly, his articles being generally political. In 1851 he went to Europe where he remained more than a year, hoping to benefit Mrs. Lowell's health, but in 1853 she died. He spent 1854-55 in study in Europe, and in the latter year succeeded Henry W. Longfellow as Smith professor of the French and Spanish lan- guages and literature and l^elles lettres at Harvard, and served, 1855-86. He was university lecturer, 1863-64. In 1857 lie was married to Frances Dun- lap, a niece of Governor Robert P. Dunlap of Portland, Maine. In addition to his college duties he was editor of the Atlantic Monthly 1857-62, and a joint editor, with Cliarles Eliot Norton, of the North American Review, 1863-72. In r856 he became an active member of the Re- publican party, and although he never sought

office, in 1876 he was elected presidential elector and in 1877 was appointed by President Hayes U.S. minister to Spain. In 1880 he was trans- ferred to the court of St. James, London, Eng- land, where he w^as U.S. minister until 1885. During his residence in England he was elected lord rector of the University of St. Andrew's, Scotland, Jan. 2, 1884, and received other notable recognition for his literary acquirements. He delivered many public addresses and was the orator on the occasion of the unveiling of the bust of Coleridge in Westminster Abbey in ^lay, 1885. In 1887 he delivered before the Lowell In- stitute, Boston, a course of lectures on the Eng- lish dramatists. He returned to his country' seat at "Elmwood" on the Charles river, Cambridge, Mass., where he devoted himself to study and liter- ature, and continued his lectures at Harvard. Th© honorary degree of D.C.L. was conferred on him by Oxford university in 1873, and that of LL.D. by the University of Cambridge in 1874, St. An- drew's, Edinburgh, and Harvard in 1884, and Bologna in 1888. He was an overseer of Harvard, 1887-91; a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; a member of the Massachu- setts Historical society, the American Philosoph- ical society, and the Royal Academy of Spain; and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburglu and the Royal Society of Literature in London. He edited the poetical works of Marvell, Doniie» Keats. Wordsworth and Shelley for the collection of British poets edited by Prof. Francis J. Child of Harvard. His published writings include: Class Poem (1838); A Year's Life (1841); A le- gend of Brittany and Other Miscellaneous Poems and Sonnets (1884); The Vision of Sir Launfal (1845); Conversations on Some of the Old Poets (1845); Poems (1848); The Biglow Papers (1848, 2d ser., 1867); A Fable for Critics (1848); Poems (2 vols., 1849); Poems (2 vols., 1854); Poetical Works (2 vols., 1858); Mason and Slidell, a Yan- kee Idyl (1802); Fireside Travels (1864); The PresidenVs Policy (1864); Under the Willows and Other Poems (1809); Among My Books (1870); My Study Windows (1871); The Courtin' (1874); Tltree Memorial Poems (1876); Democracy and Other Addresses (1887). American Ideas for Evg- lish Readers, Latest Literary Essays and Ad- dresses, and Old English Dramatists were pub- lished posthumously (1892). He was engaged on a Life of Haivthome at the time of his death. His last published poem, entitled My Book, appeared in the New York Ledger of December, 1890. In 1898 part of his estate, *' Elmwood," was pur- chased by the Lowell Memorial Park Fund, nearly $40,000 having been obtained by popular subscrip- tion. Horace E. Scudder prepared a definitive life: James Russell Lowell: A Biography (2 vols., 1901). He died in Cambridge, Mass., Aug. 12, 1891.