HIGGINSON, Thomas Wentworth, Amer ican author: b. Cambridge, Mass. 22 Dec. 1823; d. there, 10 May 1911. He was Mass., from Rev. Francis Higginson (q.v.); was graduated from Harvard in 1841, and from Harvard Di vinity School in 1847. He became pastor of a Unitarian church in Newburyport, Mass., in 1847, but resigned in 1850, his anti-slavery views being unacceptable to his congregation. In the year last named he was the unsuccessful "Free candidate for Congress, and he was pastor of a Free (unsectarian) church at Worcester, Mass., 1852-58. In the interim he had been prominent in anti-slavery agitation, and for his share in the attempted rescue of the fugitive slave Anthony Burns (q.v.), was indicted for murder in 1854 with Wendell Phillips, Theodore Parker and others, but owing to a flaw in the indictment the defendants were discharged. He also aided in the Kansas Free State efforts, and during the Civil War was captain of the 51st Massachusetts regiment of volunteers, becom ing colonel in November 1862 of the Ist South Carolina Volunteers, the earliest regiment of freed slaves in the Federal service. He re signed from the army in Octdber 1864, by rea son of disability, and thereafter gave his at tention to literature, residing at Cambridge, Mass., since 1878. He was almost a life-long and consistent advocate of woman suffrage and t,f the higher education of woman, and *as a member of the Massachusetts legislature 1880 81, serving - ott the State board of 'education also, 1881-83. He was a polished, graceful speaker, and frequently appeared on the lecture platform. He was the Lowell lecturer oq American, literature in Boston in 1902. As an, after-dinner or occasional speaker he was es, pecially happy, his felicitous sentences being almost always illuminated by the play of a very delicate humor. He was president of the Round Table, a social Boston club, and vice president of the Boston Authors Club, well as a member of many other organizations, social and literary. He was for a generation a con
stant contributor to periodicals of the highest class and figured in literature as essayist, novel ist, poet and historian. His principal work in fiction is 'Malbone) (1869), in which his first wife is outlined as Aunt Jane. As an essayist he is perhaps seen at his best, the essay form seeming peculiarly adapted to his genius. Among collections of essays by him may be cited 'Outdoor Papers' (1863) ; 'Atlantic Essays' (1871) 'Women and Me& (1887) ; 'The New World and the New Book'(1891) ; and 'Concerning All of Us' (1892). His 'Young Folks' History of the United States' (1875) has been widely popular, and other his tories by him are 'Larger History of the United States' (1885) 'English History for Ameri cans' (1893) 'Massachusetts in the Army and Navy, 1861-45' (1895-96). His verse is in cluded in 'The Afternoon Landscape' (1889); 'Such as They Are' (1893). Yet other im portant works by him are 'The Monarch of Dreams,' a strikingly original sketch (1886) ; 'Army Life in a Black Regiment' (1869); 'Cheerful Yesterdays' (1898); 'Old Cam, bridge' (1899) ; 'Contemporaries' (1899) and lives of Mar ret Fuller (1884) Francis 'Hig ginson Henry W. Longfellow (1903) ; John Greenleaf Whittier (1903) ; 'History of the United States', (1905). He translated the complete works of Epictetus (1865, revised ed. 1891). With Samuel Longfellow (q.v.) he completed a Well-known anthology of seaside verse, completed (1853), and with Mrs. E. H. Bigelow 'American Sonnets' (1890). Several of his works have been translated into French, German, Italian and even modern Greek. He was the friend of very many of the older New England writers and was especially helpful to many of the younger ones, not a few of whom owe him much in the of kindly criticism or suggestion, the fruit of ripe scholarship.