However, in 1857, surprising his friends, he became engaged to Frances Dunlap, whom many described as simple and unattractive. [112] He used this interest in his writing, particularly in The Biglow Papers, presenting a heavily ungrammatical phonetic spelling of the Yankee dialect,[26] a method called eye dialect. He spent his last years in Cambridge in the same estate where he was born, and died there in 1891. These and other critical essays were collected in the two series of Among My Books (1870, 1876). The letter from James Russell Lowell Elementary School, at 3320 W. Hirsch St. in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, reads: “Dear Teacher/Staff Welcome Back (sic) to Lowell School. [99] Lowell spent part of the 1880s delivering various speeches,[100] and his last published works were mostly collections of essays, including Political Essays, and a collection of his poems Heartsease and Rue in 1888. 1. Enjoy the best James Russell Lowell Quotes at BrainyQuote. "[132] Nonetheless, in 1969 the Modern Language Association established a prize named after Lowell, awarded annually for "an outstanding literary or linguistic study, a critical edition of an important work, or a critical biography. James Russell Lowell was born February 22, 1819,[2] the son of the Reverend Charles Russell Lowell, Sr. (1782–1861), a minister at a Unitarian church in Boston who had previously studied theology at Edinburgh, and Harriett Brackett Spence Lowell. After only one year, he was asked to contribute half as often to the Standard to make room for contributions from Edmund Quincy, another writer and reformer. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the […] Wise. [54] While his series was still in progress, Lowell was offered the Smith Professorship of Modern Languages at Harvard, a post vacated by Longfellow, at an annual salary of $1,200, though he never applied for it. [76], In the 1860s, Lowell's friend Longfellow spent several years translating Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and regularly invited others to help him on Wednesday evenings. James Russell Lowell, poet, essayist, diplomatist, and scholar, was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on February 22, 1819, the son of a Unitarian minister. [92] Queen Victoria commented that she had never seen an ambassador who "created so much interest and won so much regard as Mr. [53] Lowell chose to speak on "The English Poets", telling his friend Briggs that he would take revenge on dead poets "for the injuries received by one whom the public won't allow among the living". [57] Lowell accepted the appointment, with the proviso that he should have a year of study abroad. [70] Lowell's reviews for the journal covered a wide variety of literary releases of the day, though he was writing fewer poems. [4] By the time that James was born, the family owned a large estate in Cambridge called Elmwood. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People named its newsletter The Crisis after the poem, and Martin Luther King Jr. frequently quoted the poem in his speeches and sermons. "[36] Lowell offered his New York friend Charles Frederick Briggs all the profits from the book's success (which proved relatively small), despite his own financial needs. "[50] Longfellow, a friend and neighbor, referred to Lowell as "lonely and desolate". [60] He focused on teaching literature, rather than etymology, hoping that his students would learn to enjoy the sound, rhythm, and flow of poetry rather than the technique of words. Peterson, William J. and Ardythe Peterson. "[58], He returned to the United States in the summer of 1856 and began his college duties. In May 1877, President Hayes, an admirer of The Biglow Papers, sent William Dean Howells to Lowell with a handwritten note proffering an ambassadorship to either Austria or Russia; Lowell declined, but noted his interest in Spanish literature. [56] The job description was changing after Longfellow; instead of teaching languages directly, Lowell would supervise the department and deliver two lecture courses per year on topics of his own choosing. [25] In the spring of 1845, the Lowells returned to Cambridge to make their home at Elmwood. Instead, he called for a natural literature, regardless of country, caste, or race, and warned against provincialism which might "put farther off the hope of one great brotherhood". Even more effective in this regard were his Biglow Papers, which he began to serialize June 17, 1846, and the first series of which were collected in book form in 1848. [122] Enemies and friends of Lowell alike questioned his vacillating interest in the question of slavery. The present Cambridge Edition of Mr. Lowell's poems contains, substantially in the order established by the author, the poems included by him not long before his death in the definitive Riverside Edition of his writings, and in addition the small group contained in the Last Poems, collected by his literary executor, Mr. Charles Eliot Norton. [26] Lowell was very affected by the loss of almost all of his children. "[126] Poet Walt Whitman said: "Lowell was not a grower—he was a builder. [124] However, as he gained notoriety, he became popular in social circles and clubs and he drank rather heavily when away from his wife. His parents were the Reverend Charles Lowell (1782–1861), a minister at a Unitarian church in Boston who had previously studied theology at Edinburgh, and Harriett Brackett Spence Lowell. After his second wife died in 1885, Lowell retired from public life. [82], Lowell intended to take another trip to Europe. [31] Poe mourned the journal's demise, calling it "a most severe blow to the cause—the cause of a Pure Taste". [98] His last few years he traveled back to England periodically[101] and when he returned to the United States in the fall of 1889, he moved back to Elmwood[102] with Mabel, while her husband worked for clients in New York and New Jersey. Lowell was elected the poet of the class of 1838[11] and, as was tradition, was asked to recite an original poem on Class Day, the day before Commencement on July 17, 1838. In these satirical verses, Lowell uses a humorous and original New England dialect to express his opposition to the Mexican War as an attempt to extend the area of slavery. Also that year, the Boston Critic dedicated a special issue to Lowell on his seventieth birthday to recollections and reminiscences by his friends, including former presidents Hayes and Benjamin Harrison and British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone as well as Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Francis Parkman. Guv'ment aint to answer to it, Disillusioned by the political corruption evident in President Ulysses S. Grant’s two administrations (1869–77), Lowell tried to provide his fellow Americans with models of heroism and idealism in literature. "[119] After his marriage, Lowell at first did not share his wife's enthusiasm for the cause, but he was eventually pulled in. Join Facebook to connect with James Russell Lowell and others you may know. [116], Lowell was an abolitionist, but his opinions wavered concerning African-Americans. He urged better conditions for factory workers, opposed capital punishment, and supported the temperance movement. Yellin, Jean Fagan. "Hawthorne and the Slavery Question". [55] Lowell, who had never spoken in public before, was praised for these lectures. [28] He was inspired to new efforts towards self-support and joined with his friend Robert Carter in founding the literary journal The Pioneer. [68] His prose, however, was more abundantly presented in the pages of the North American Review during the years 1862–1872. [64] Dunlap, niece of the former governor of Maine Robert P. Dunlap,[65] was a friend of Lowell's first wife and formerly wealthy, though she and her family had fallen into reduced circumstances. I begin to feel more like my old self than I have these ten years. "[127] Fellow Fireside Poet John Greenleaf Whittier praised Lowell by writing two poems in his honor and calling him "our new Theocritus" and "one of the strongest and manliest of our writers–a republican poet who dares to speak brave words of unpopular truth". [137] The poem was also the source of the hymn Once to Every Man and Nation. [114] For example, Lowell's character Hosea Biglow says in verse: Ef you take a sword an' dror it, Copy. After the American Civil War he expressed his devotion to the Union cause in four memorial odes, the best of which is “Ode Recited at the Harvard Commemoration” (1865). His essays such as “E Pluribus Unum” and “Washers of the Shroud” (1862) also reflect his thought at this time. Get ready for your James Russell Lowell tests by reviewing key facts, theories, examples, synonyms and definitions with study sets created by students like you. These books, together with the publication that year of the second series of his Poems, made Lowell the most popular new figure in American literature. When he drank, he had wild mood swings, ranging from euphoria to frenzy. [94] Lowell was popular enough that he was offered a professorship at Oxford after his recall by President Grover Cleveland, though the offer was declined. "[136], Lowell's poem "The Present Crisis", an early work that addressed the national crisis over slavery leading up to the Civil War, has had an impact in the modern civil rights movement. [96], He returned to the United States by June 1885, living with his daughter and her husband in Southboro, Massachusetts. [110] Unlike many of his contemporaries, including members of Young America, Lowell did not advocate for the creation of a new national literature. James Russell Lowell 2045 Words | 9 Pages "There is Lowell, who's striving Parnassus to climb With a whole bale of isms tied together with rhyme ; He might get on alone, spite of brambles and boulders But he can't with that bundle he has on his shoulders ; " -Fable for Critics, Lowell James Russell Lowell was a father and a husband, but most importantly he was a man of literature. [13] During his stay in Concord, he became friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson and got to know the other Transcendentalists. As he said later, "I was as great an ass as ever brayed & thought it singing. "[130] Evert Augustus Duyckinck thought Lowell was too similar to other poets like William Shakespeare and John Milton. James Russell Lowell was born February 22, 1819,[2] the son of the Reverend Charles Russell Lowell, Sr. (1782–1861), a minister at a Unitarian church in Boston, who had previously studied theology at Edinburgh, and Harriett Brackett Spence Lowell. He was later appointed ambassador to the Court of St. James's. Work as though everything depended on you. [90], In January 1880, Lowell was informed of his appointment as Minister to England, his nomination made without his knowledge as far back as June 1879. [70] Lowell lost three nephews during the war, including Charles Russell Lowell Jr., who became a Brigadier General and fell at the Battle of Cedar Creek. Read James Russell Lowell biography. [129], Contemporary critic and editor Margaret Fuller wrote, "his verse is stereotyped; his thought sounds no depth, and posterity will not remember him. [83] Lowell and his wife set sail on July 8, 1872,[84] after he took a leave of absence from Harvard. He was editor with Charles Eliot Norton of North American Review from 1864 to 1872, and during this time appeared his series of critical essays on such major literary figures as Dante, Chaucer, Edmund Spenser, John Milton, William Shakespeare, John Dryden, William Wordsworth, and John Keats. He was granted a salary of $17,500 with about $3,500 for expenses. [120] The couple often gave money to fugitive slaves, even when their own financial situation was not strong, especially if they were asked to free a spouse or child. In 1845 Lowell published Conversations on Some of the Old Poets, a collection of critical essays that included pleas for the abolition of slavery. East Louisville Quadrangle (7.5) Universal Transverse Mercator Coordinates: 16 609500 4227200 Here, a fictional version of Lowell says he does not believe that women will ever be equal to men in the arts and "the two sexes cannot be ranked counterparts". "[27] Lowell depicted Southerners very unfavorably in his second collection of The Biglow Papers but, by 1865, admitted that Southerners were "guilty only of weakness" and, by 1868, said that he sympathized with Southerners and their viewpoint on slavery. They returned to the United States in the summer of 1874. [17] She, too, wrote poetry, and the next twelve years of Lowell's life were deeply affected by her influence. Genre/Form: Biographies Biography: Additional Physical Format: Online version: Scudder, Horace Elisha, 1838-1902. His later poetry includes The Cathedral (1870), a long and ambitious but only partly successful poem that deals with the conflicting claims of religion and modern science. Educated at Harvard College, he tried the law, but soon gave it up for literature. Even so, he wrote, "If the destruction of slavery is to be a consequence of the war, shall we regret it? Lowell attended Harvard College beginning at age 15 in 1834, though he was not a good student and often got into trouble. His friend Edward Everett Hale denied these allegations. The book, dedicated to Norton, collected poems Lowell had written within the previous twenty years and was his first poetry collection since 1848. "[117] Freed slaves, he wrote, were "dirty, lazy & lying". [113] Though intentionally humorous, this accurate presentation of the dialect was pioneering work in American literature. James Russell Lowell (/ˈloʊəl/; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Lowell was the archetypal New England man of letters, remarkable for his cultivation and charm, his deep learning, and his varied literary talents. [49] On March 10, 1854, for example, he wrote: "Dark without & within. [56] Abroad, he visited Le Havre, Paris, and London, spending time with friends including Story, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Leigh Hunt. The Use of Nature and Emotion in Romantic Literature: Readings from Lowell… Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. "[123], Lowell was also involved in other reform movements. [3] His parents were the Reverend Charles Lowell (1782–1861), a minister at a Unitarian church in Boston who had previously studied theology at Edinburgh, and Harriett Brackett Spence Lowell. He published his first collection of poetry in 1841 and married Maria White in 1844. [21] James had previously expressed antislavery sentiments, but Maria urged him towards more active expression and involvement. Not failure, but low aim, is crime. [52] Some speculated the opportunity was because of the family connection, offered as an attempt to bring him out of his depression. Lowell graduated from Harvard College in 1838, despite his reputation as a troublemaker, and went on to earn a law degree from Harvard Law School. Other Poetry james russell lowell significance and essay collections throughout his literary career and Harvard University where. 'S mother died unexpectedly, as we grasp them by the blade or the.. 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