Early American Literature discussion

James Russell Lowell
Fireside Romantic poet, critic, editor,
diplomat and abolitionist.
Born on February 22, 1819 in Cambridge, Massachusetts and died on August 12, 1891 at the age of 72 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Born a to a well-established New England family.
Despite his reputation as a troublemaker,
he attended Harvard in 1838 and selected as Class Poet by the Harvard class of 1838
for his prolific word usage. Lowell was suspended from attending pre-graduation festivities due to truancy and delinquency.
Lowell went on to earn a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1840.

Lowell married Maria White, a poet and
abolitionist 1844. The couple had several
children, though only one survived past
childhood. Maria died in 1853, and Lowell
accepted a professorship of languages at
Harvard in 1854; he continued to teach
there for twenty years.
While Lowell held more conservative views than the Transcendentalists did, he wrote to friends about the Concord men with a mix of respect, fondness, aloofness, and mockery.
He traveled to Europe before officially assuming his teaching duties in 1856, and married Frances Dunlap shortly thereafter in 1857. That year, Lowell also became editor of The Atlantic Monthly. It was not until 20
years later that he received his first
political appointment, the ambassadorship
to the Kingdom of Spain (1877-1880).
He was later appointed ambassador to
Court of St. James's, England (1880-1885).
He spent his last years in Cambridge in
the same estate where he was born,
and died there in 1891.

List of works:
Poetry collections
A Year's Life (1841)
Miscellaneous Poems (1843)
The Poetical Works of James R. Lowell: Miscellaneous Poems. Memorial Verses. Sonnets. I-XXVII. L'Envoi. Vision of Sir Launfal
The Early Poems of James Russell Lowell
The Biglow Papers (1848)
A Fable for Critics: The Original 1848 Satire (1848)
Poems of James Russell Lowell (1848)
The Vision of Sir Launfal and Other Poems (1848)
Under the Willows and Other Poems (1869)
The Cathedral (1870)
Heartsease and Rue (1888)

Essay collections-
Conversations on Some of the Old Poets (1844)
Fireside Travels (1864)
Among My Books (1870)
My Study Windows (1871)
Among My Books (second collection, 1876)
Democracy and Other Addresses (1886)
Political Essays (1888)
The English Poets, Lessing, Rousseau: Essays
My Garden Acquaintance
A Moosehead Journal

Other Works-
Impressions of Spain
Abraham Lincoln
The Anti-Slavery Papers of James Russell Lowell
Letters of James Russell Lowell Volume 1

Never heard of this author but now I WTR his books!

ClaraBelle wrote: "Never heard of this author but now I WTR his books!"

Yeah he's not that well-known anymore it seems, but he's well worth reading! 😊