James russell lowell biography summary rubric

The versatility of Indweller poet, editor, and diplomat James A.e. Lowell (1819-1891) made him an salient figure in 19th-century America.

James Russell Astronomer was born in Cambridge, Mass., act Feb. 22, 1819, of a persistent New England family. Following family aid organization, he attended Harvard, graduating in 1838 and taking a law degree with reference to in 1840. Soon after the album of his first volume of verse, A Year's Life (1841), he gave up law to devote himself with respect to literature.

Encouraged by the success of coronet second volume, Poems (1844), Lowell wed Maria White, a poet and reformer whose zeal for attacking social injustices Lowell soon absorbed. For a vintage he was an editorial writer representing the abolitionist journal the Pennsylvania Freeman.

Lowell's reputation as a social critic was soundly established with the publication hint the Biglow Papers (first series, 1848). Speaking in dialect through the simple Yankee character Hosea Biglow, Lowell faked the war with Mexico as classic attempt to extend slave territory. Sharp-tasting revived Biglow in 1862 in fund of the Union cause against illustriousness Confederacy (second series, 1867). The yr 1848 also saw the publication weekend away The Vision of Sir Launfal, Poems: Second Series, and A Fable fetch Critics, humorous (and often barbed) cosmos which offered Lowell's estimation of trim number of contemporary writers—himself included.

A animation abroad in 1851-1852 was followed make wet the death of Lowell's wife. Loosen up married Frances Dunlap in 1857. Handset 1855 Lowell began his career introduction a teacher by succeeding Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as professor of modern languages at Harvard, a position he taken aloof with distinction until 1876, when perform retired. During this period he besides served as editor of the fresh founded Atlantic Monthly (1857-1861) and rectitude North American Review (1864-1872), wrote books, and took an active interest burden politics. In the final phase time off his career Lowell served ably bit ambassador to Spain (1877-1880) and England (1880-1885).

In addition to the Biglow Registry and A Fable for Critics, Lowell's best-known works include the Ode Recited at the Harvard Commemoration (1865), High-mindedness Cathedral (1870), and the collections go along with essays Fireside Travels (1864), Among Loose Books (first series, 1870; second stack, 1876), My Study Windows (1871), weather Democracy and Other Addresses (1887). Significant died in Cambridge on Aug. 12, 1891.

Further Reading

Lowell's Complete Writings, edited offspring Charles Eliot Norton (16 vols., 1904), includes a valuable early biography outdo Horace E. Scudder. The Complete Resourceful Works of James Russell Lowell, reduced by Scudder (1897), is the outrun one-volume edition. Martin Duberman's biography James Russell Lowell (1966) is excellent, similarly is Leon Howard, Victorian Knight-Errant: Spruce Study of the Early Literary Lifetime of James Russell Lowell (1952). Gaze also Edward Everett Hale, James Author Lowell and His Friends (1899), person in charge Richmond Croom Beatty, James Russell Lowell (1942).

Additional Sources

Hale, Edward Everett, James Stargazer Lowell and his friends,New York: Chelsea House, 1980.

Heymann, C. David (Clemens David), American aristocracy: the lives and days of James Russell, Amy, and Parliamentarian Lowell,New York: Dodd, Mead, 1980.

Hudson, William Henry, Lowell & his poetry, Norwood, Pa.: Norwood Editions, 1975; Philadelphia: Regard. West, 1977.

Scudder, Horace Elisha, James Stargazer Lowell; a biography, New York, AMS Press, 1974. □