THE BIGLOW PAPERS BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL "The top of the hill He will ne'er come nigh reaching A. L. BURT COMPANY, Publishers 52-58 Duane Street, New York English, 09 McClurg 23 ae 10 Fog Paz. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. THE genius of James Russell Lowell places him in the front rank of American poets. He is one of the few who are read and appreciated on both sides of the Atlantic. He made his mark in his earliest published volume, when he was but twenty-two years of age. From that time to the end of a long career he grew steadily in fame. Nor did his power wane, while his literary form showed an increasing perfection of polish. He was born in Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 22, 1819. His father was the Rev. Charles Lowell, D.D., minister of the West Church (Unitarian) of Boston, a scholar of high standing and author of several devotional books. He was descended from Percival Lowell, who came from England in 1639 and settled in Newbury, Mass. The subject of this sketch showed throughout life a fine example of the Puritan conscience, joined with a rare tenderness of nature and winsomeness of character. While he never lacked the moral courage which dared to stand "in the right with two or three," his nature and method were gentle and persuasive rather than severe or antagonizing. He was more than a poet. He was symmetrically developed as a man of letters. To his admirers he was the ideal man of letters. As such his life was 119342 quiet, and his biography will record the growth and products of his mind rather than external events which were never romantic. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1838. At that time he was class poet, but the reading of the poems was omitted from the exercises of Class Day owing to the unavoidable absence of the poet. This absence was caused by the fact that at just that time he happened to be under suspension from the college. His offence, however, was playful and in no wise serious, and his Alma Mater never ceased to do him honor in after years. On leaving college Lowell entered a law office and after the usual preliminary studies was, in 1840, admitted to the bar. He was, however, by nature a man of letters and was unsuited to the peculiar exactions of the legal profession. One is therefore not surprised .that there is no record of his practice of the law, but there was a tolerably steady stream of poems, essays and reviews flowing from his facile pen. The first year of his nominal law practice records a volume of poems (1841) entitled "A Year's Life." In this were evidences that he was a true seer, a genuine poet. His friends recognized the promise of a brilliant career, and they were not mistaken. Two years later he became editor of a magazine of which, however, only three numbers were issued. A year after that he issued another volume of poems. In this year, 1844, he married Miss Maria White, of Watertown, Mass. She was a charming and accomplished woman, possessing literary talent of no mean order. To her translations from the German she added original poems of more than ordinary merit. She died in 1853, and it was her death which elicited from Longfellow one of the sweetest and most beautiful of all poems on death. It is that entitled Two Angels. "T was at thy door, O friend, and not at mine, Then fell upon the house a sudden gloom, A shadow on those features fair and thin, In 1845 he published a volume of essays, "Conversations on Some of the Poets," and thus we see that he was permanently out of the current of the law and in that of literature. In 1848 he published a volume that contained what have proved to be two of his most popular poems: namely, The Vision of Sir Launfal and The Biglow Papers. In 1851-2 he made his first trip to Europe. Most of the time he spent in Italy, especially in Rome with his friend W. W. Story, the famous sculptor. In 1854-5 he delivered the Lowell Institute lectures on "British Poets." The most important event occurred that year when he was appointed professor of Belles Lettres at Harvard to succeed his distinguished friend H. W. Longfellow. Before assuming the duties of the professorhip he spent another year in Europe, chiefly in Dresden. In 1857 he married Miss Frances Dunlap of Portland, Maine. When the Atlantic Monthly was established he was |