James Russell Lowell

T

HIS LIFE

HE Lowells of New England are descendants

of Percival Lowell, a prosperous Bristol merchant who came to America in 1639 and settled at Newbury, Massachusetts. The family has been distinguished through its various representatives for public spirit and business acumen as well as for a devotion to letters. The grandfather of the poet, Judge John Lowell, was author of the clause in the Bill of Rights abolishing slavery in Massachusetts. One of his sons was founder of the great manufacturing city on the Merrimac which bears his name. A grandson established the Lowell Institute, a system of popular instruction by free courses of lectures, - a system unique, in that it aims to bring to its audiences representa

F. H. Underwood: The Poet and the Man: Recollections and Appreciations of James Russell Lowell, 1893.

E. E. Hale: James Russell Lowell and his Friends, 1899. H. E. Scudder: James Russell Lowell, a Biography, 1901. Ferris Greenslet: James Russell Lowell, his Life and Work, 1905.

tive scholars, chosen less for their skill in the graceful but often specious art of public speaking than for solid attainments.

James Russell Lowell, the youngest son of the Reverend Charles Lowell, minister of the West Church in Boston, was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the colonial mansion known as 'Elm'wood,' on February 22, 1819. His mother, Harriet (Spence) Lowell, was a daughter of Keith Spence, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.'

Under William Wells (an English pedagogue of the old school) Lowell prepared for college, entered Harvard, and after some disciplinary tribulations was graduated with his class (1838). He studied law and was admitted to the bar (August, 1840), but remained briefless during the few months of his efforts to begin a practice.

While waiting for clients, he busied himself with literature. He was early a rhymer. At twelve years of age his skill in making verse had astonished his schoolfellows, one of whom rushed home in great excitement to announce that 'Jemmy Lowell thought he was going to be a poet.'

With the fearlessness of youth and in the hope of bettering himself financially, Lowell, aided by his friend Robert Carter, started a magazine, ‘The 'Pioneer.' According to the prospectus, dated

Keith Spence was born at Kirkwall, Orkney. Mrs. Lowell had Orcadian ancestors on both sides of the house, her maternal grandfather, Robert Traill, having also come from Orkney.

LOWELL'S LIFE

October 15, 1842, the editors proposed to supply 'the intelligent and reflecting portion of the Read'ing Public with a substitute for the enormous 'quantity of thrice diluted trash, in the shape of 'namby-pamby love tales and sketches, which is 'monthly poured out to them. . . . Only three numbers of The Pioneer' were issued.' The 'Reading Public' was joined to its idols and declined to encourage 'a healthy and manly Period'ical Literature.'

In 1841 was published A Year's Life, Lowell's first volume of verse; it was followed by Poems (1844), by a volume of prose, Conversations on Some of the Old Poets (1845), and by Poems, second 'series' (1848).

The 'Ianthe' of A Year's Life was easily identified with Maria White, the gifted and beautiful girl who, in December, 1844, became the poet's wife. The first year of their married life was passed in Philadelphia, whither Lowell had taken his bride to protect her from the harsh New England winter. Their financial resources were few, but of gayety and courage there was no lack. Lowell aspired to live by his pen. What with the small sums paid him (rather against his will) for editorial work on 'The Pennsylvania Freeman,' what with the hardly larger sums for contributions to 'Graham's Magazine' and 'The Broadway Journal,' he managed to subsist.

Nevertheless, it seemed best for a number of reasons that the young people return to Cambridge and make a common home at Elmwood' with Lowell's parents. In June of this year (1846) appeared A Letter from Mr. Ezekiel Biglow ' of Jaalam to the Hon. Joseph T. Buckingham, 'editor of the Boston Courier, inclosing a poem of 'his son, Mr. Hosea Biglow.' This was the first of The Biglow Papers, the initial attack of many attacks Lowell was to make on slavery with the weapons of satire and ridicule. During 1847 three more 'papers' were printed in the 'Courier;' the remaining five appeared in The National Anti'Slavery Standard.'

When the 'Standard' passed from the control of a board of editors into the hands of Sydney Howard Gay, Lowell became a salaried contributor, and for a time his name appeared as corresponding editor. He was allowed a free hand. Abolitionist though he was, his abolitionism was tempered with a deal of sympathy for slaveholders. And he had interests which most reformers of the time lacked, a passionate love of letters, for example. Hence it was that in the midst of leaderwriting he was penning A Fable for Critics and The Vision of Sir Launfal.

The winter of 1851-52 Lowell spent with his family in Italy, and the following spring and summer in journeyings through France, England, Scotland, and Wales. In October he sailed for home,

LOWELL'S LIFE

having as ship companions Thackeray and Arthur Hugh Clough. Just a year later Mrs. Lowell died (October 27, 1853). For months afterward Lowell was in 'great agony of mind, and he had to force 'himself into those laborious hours which one in'stinctively feels contain a wise restorative.''

He abounded in literary plans, some of which (and among them a novel) were never carried out, whereas others, his papers in 'Putnam's Maga'zine' and his lectures on English Poetry, before the Lowell Institute, were in a high degree successful. Each lecture of the Institute course had to be given twice, so great was the demand for tickets. Lowell was very nervous over his first platform experience, and not a little pleased when he found that he could hold the audience an hour and a quarter (they are in the habit of going out 'at the end of the hour'). The singular merit of the lectures led to his being appointed to the chair of belles-lettres at Harvard, just resigned by Longfellow. After a year's study abroad the new professor entered on his academic duties (September, 1856).

In 1857 Lowell married Miss Frances Dunlap, of Portland, Maine. She was a woman of reserved though gracious manners and rare beauty, who through her serene temper and fine critical sagacity, together with a keen sense of the humorous, exerted a most beneficent influence on Lowell's life. I Scudder.