The death of Lowell's mother and the fragility of his wife's health led Lowell, with his wife, their daughter Mabel and their infant son Walter, to go to Europe in 1851. The early months of their stay were saddened by the death of Walter in Rome and by the news of the illness of Lowell's father. They returned in Nov. 1852, and Lowell published some recollections of his journey, later collected in Fireside Travels (1864). He took some part also in preparing an American edition of the British Poets, but the low state of his wife's health kept him in an uneasy condition, and when her death (Oct. 27, 1853) released him from the strain of anxiety, there came with the grief a readjustment of his nature and a new intellectual activity. In the winter of 1855 he delivered a course of lectures on English poets before the Lowell Institute in Boston. This first formal appearance as a critic at once gave him a new standing in the community and was the occasion of his election to the Smith Professorship of Modem Languages in Harvard college, then vacant by the retirenient of Longfellow. Lowell accepted the appointment, with the proviso that he should have a year of study abroad. He spent his time mainly in Germany, visiting Italy, and increasing his acquaintance with the French, German, Italian and Spanish tongues. He re turned to America in the summer of 1856 and entered upon his college duties, retaining his position for 20 years. In 1856 he married Frances Dunlap, who since his wife's death had had charge of his daughter Mabel.
In the autumn of 1857 the Atlantic Monthly was established, and Lowell as its first editor at once gave the magazine the stamp of high literature and of bold speech on public affairs. He held this position only till the spring of 1861, but he continued to make the magazine the vehicle of his poetry (including the second or Civil War series of the Biglow Papers) and of some prose. More of his prose, however, especially of a political nature, was contributed to the North American Review, in the conduct of which he was associated from 1862 to 1872 with Charles Eliot Norton. Both his collegiate and his editorial duties stimulated his critical powers, and the publication in the two magazines, followed by republication in book form, of a series of studies of great authors gave him an important place as a critic. Shake speare, Dryden, Lessing, Rousseau, Dante, Spenser, Wordsworth, Milton, Keats, Carlyle, Thoreau, Swinburne, Chaucer, Emerson, Pope, Gray—these are the principal subjects of his prose. and the range of topics indicates the catholicity of his taste. He wrote also a number of essays, such as "My Garden Acquaintance," Good Word for Winter," "On a Certain Condescension in Foreign ers," which were incursions into the field of nature and society. Although the great bulk of his writing was now in prose, he made after this date some of his most notable ventures in poetry. In 1868 he issued the next collection in Under the Willows and Other Poems, but in 1865 he had delivered his "Ode Recited at the Harvard Commemoration," and the successive centennial historical anniversaries drew from him a series of stately odes.
In 1877 Lowell was appointed by President Hayes minister resident at the court of Spain. He had a good knowledge of the Spanish language and literature, and his long-continued studies in history and his quick judgment enabled him speedily to adjust himself to these new relations. Some of his despatches to the
home government were published in a posthumous volume, Im press'ons of Spain. In 1880 he was transferred to London as American minister, and he remained there till the close of Presi dent Arthur's administration in the spring of 1885. As a man of letters he was already well known in England, and he was in much demand as an orator on public occasions, especially of a literary nature; but he also proved himself a sagacious publicist and made himself a wise interpreter of each country to the other. In 1887 he published Democracy and Other Addresses, all of which had been delivered in England. The title-address was an epigrammatic confession of political faith as hopeful as it was wise and keen. The close of his stay in England was saddened by the death of his second wife in 1885. After his return to America he made several visits to England. His public life had made him more of a figure in the world; he was decorated with the highest honours Harvard could pay officially, and with degrees of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Edinburgh, and Bologna. He issued Political Essays and a volume of poems, Heartsease and Rue, in 1888, and occupied himself with revising and re arranging his works, which were published in ten volumes in 1890. The last months of his life were attended by illness, and he died at Elmwood, Aug. 12, 1891. After his death his literary executor, Charles Eliot Norton, besides editing his letters, pub lished his Latest Literary Essays (1891), The Old English Dramatists (1892), and Last Poems (1895).
The spontaneity of Lowell's nature is delightfully disclosed in his personal letters. They are often brilliant, and sometimes very penetrating in their judgment of men and books; but the most constant element is a pervasive humour, and this humour, by turns playful and sentimental, is largely characteristic of his poetry, which sprang from a genial temper, quick in its sympathy with nature and humanity. Through his writings and speech and action Lowell impressed himself deeply upon his generation in America, especially upon the thoughtful and scholarly class, who looked upon him as their representative. He attained a perma nent place as one of America's most distinguished critics and a poet of assured power. (H. E. S.) chief editions of Lowell's Writings are: the Riverside edition (189o-92) ; the Standard Library edition (18q1 19o2) ; the Elmwood edition (19°4) and, printed from the same plates, the Autograph edition (1904). His Complete Poetical Works (1896) were edited by H. E. Scudder. Posthumous volumes are: The Power of Sound: a Rhymed Lecture (1896) ; Lectures on English Poets (1897) ; Early Prose Writings (19o2) ; Anti-Slavery Papers (19o2) ; Four Poems (1906) ; The Round Table (1913). The Letters of James Russell Lowell (1894) were edited by C. E. Norton. The chief biog raphies are by E. E. Hale (1899) ; H. E. Scudder (i9oi), and Ferris Greenslet (19o5). A Bibliography of James Russell Lowell (1906) by G. W. Cooke and the Bibliography (1914) by L. S. Livingston are helpful. See also J. J. Reilly's James Russell Lowell as a Critic (1915) and W. H. Hudson's Lowell and His Poetry (i9ii). Some of the outstanding essays on Lowell may be found in W. D. Howells, Literary Friends and Acquaintances; Henry James, Essays in London; and Alice Meynell, The Rhythm of Life and Other Essays.