LOWELL, James Russell, American poet, critic and diplomat: b. Cambridge, Mass., 22 Feb. 1819; d. there, 12 Aug. 1891. The Lowells were descended from Percival Lowell of Bris tol, England, who emigrated to Massachusetts in 1639. Judge John Lowell, grandfather of the poet, contributed a clause to the Bill of Rights which effected the abolition of slavery in the State. One of the poet's uncles, Fran cis Cabot Lowell, was a leading promoter of manufactures in New England, and is remem bered in the name of the city of Lowell. An other uncle, John Lowell, founded the Lowell Institute of Boston. Rev. Charles Lowell, the poet's father, b. 1782, was graduated at Har vard in 1800, and after some study at the Uni versity of Edinburgh was settled over the West Church of Boston, and remained its pas tor till his death in 1861. He married Harriet Spence, from a family of Spences in Ports mouth, N. H., who were of Scotch origin. She was the sister of Robert Trail! Spence, of naval fame, and is remembered as having the gifts of great memory, an extraordinary aptitude for language, and a passionate fondness for ancient songs and ballads," as also a lively sense of humor. There were five children, two daughters and three sons, of whom James Russell was the youngest. He was prepared for college by William Wells, an English schoolmaster, who gave him an excellent drill in the rudiments of Latin. But perhaps the best part of his early education was derived from the unrestricted use of books at home. His father had come into possession of the old Tory mansion, on the Watertown road, later called Elmwood, and its abundant library was well stocked with attractive authors. He en tered Harvard College in his 16th year, grad uating in the class of 1838. He was not dili gent in the prescribed work of the course, but engaged mainly in desultory reading and in writing essays and verse for college societies and magazines. Because of cleverness thus shown, he was made class poet. But the poem, his first considered effort, was not delivered, as the author had been ordered to Concord, for a brief rustication, on account of some neglect of college rules. It was published the next year, under the title of (A Poem Recited at Cambridge.) Lowell now entered the Harvard School of Law, took its degree in 1840 and attempted practice. But he was quickly drawn aside to literature, largely through the influence of Maria White, a young lady of Watertown, to whom he became engaged in the latter part of the same year. The poetic gifts and moral enthusiasm of this young woman quickened Lowell's nature, and gave his bent a purpose. In 1841 he collected some of his best poems into a volume called 'A Year's Life,' and in scribed it in covert language to his betrothed. Two years later he began, with Robert Carter, the publication of a literary monthly, called The Pioneer, with Hawthorne, Poe and Whit tier among the contributors, but after three issues it was discontinued. In 1844 occurred his marriage with Maria White; and during the year were published an enlarged edition of the Poems, including (A Legend of Brittany,' 'Prometheus,' Miscellaneous Poems,' and 'Sonnets,' and a volume called 'Conversations on some of the Old Poets.' In 1848 he again published an edition of the Poems, with the addition of the Third Series, including several poems against slavery. Later in the year 'The Vision of •Sir Launfal,> 'A Fable for Critics' and 'The Biglow Papers' came out, the last named being a reprint of dialect poems fur nished to the newspapers of the day. In noth ing had Lowell been so effective as in these satires; nothing in the literature of those stir ring times attracted more attention. In 1851 he sailed for Europe, with his wife, who was in failing health, and spent a year, mainly in Italy, in study and travel. After their return Mrs. Lowell's health did not improve, and in 1853 she died. A volume of her poems was printed, after her death, for private circulation. In 1855, on the resignation of Professor Long fellow, Lowell was elected Smith professor of the French and Spanish languages, and profes sor of belles-lettres in Harvard College. He spent two years in Europe, to prepare himself more fully, and in 1857 took up the duties of his chair. He married Miss Frances Dunlap, of Portland, Me., the same year. For the next 20 years his strength was taxed inces santly, being devoted, outside of his service in his college, to editorial and critical rather than poetic writing. He was the first editor of The Atlantic Monthly, and continued in the posi tion for two years. He had an editorial con nection with the North American Review from 1862 to 1873, and contributed to it many critical essays of unusual merit. In 1864 he reprinted, in 'Fireside Travels,' a few papers of less sub stantial worth. In the lighter work of this busy period falls the 'Bi'low Papers,' Second Series, which he began in 1862. These were reissued in 1867. In the next year appeared 'Under the Willows,' a collection of his poems written since 1848. In 1869 he published 'The Cathedral,' over which he had long worked, and in 1870 'Among my Books,' a reprint of some of his best essays on literary themes. In
1871 followed 'My Study Windows,' of like contents, and in 1876 'Among my Books,' Sec ond Series. In 1877 Lowell was called to take the post of Ambassador to Spain, and after three years at Madrid was transferred to the court of Saint James. Here he won the ad miration not only of his countrymen, but also of the more exacting English public, by his executive abilities and his social and oratoric gifts. He received public honors from Oxford, Cambridge. Edinburgh and Bologna, and in 1883 was chosen lord rector by the University of Saint Andrews. His residence at Saint lames terminated in 1885, and the affliction of his wife's death came to him, the same year, before return. He resumed to some degree his literary labors, after coming back to Cam bridge. He published and other Addresses' in 1887, and 'Heart's-ease and Rue,' and 'Political Essays,' in 1888. He pre pared the public address for the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of Har vard University, in November 1886, and deliv ered a course of lectures on the Old English dramatists before the Lowell Institute in the spring of the following year. In the year be fore his death he revised and edited a defini tive edition of his writings in 10 volumes. Sup plemental to these, 'American Ideas for Eng lish Readers,' Latest Literary Essays and Addresses,' and • 'Old English Dramatists,' were issued posthumously in 1892. Lowell was first and chiefly a man of books, yet essentially without bookishness or pedantry. The most scholarly of all the group then making a name in literature, he was incapable of rigid applica tion or of learning for learning's sake. He confessed himself half mystic, half humorist, and could shift from the one to the other vein in a single paragraph. Inheriting traits and principles from the Puritan age, he failed of its discipline and conscious dignity. Because of his untactful and uncompromising attitude upon questions of the day, as slavery and civil service reform, he came to be regarded as an academic thinker and the typical "scholar in politics." But he materially helped win respect for his class from the public of a later gener ation, which has elevated a college professor to the presidency of the country. As ambassador at the court of Saint James and at Madrid, he Droved himself less a classroom doctrinaire than a man of the world, an esteemed social figure and a facile speaker. Yet he had been thought of at home as too nearly what the Englishman looks for in the typical American. He never lost the point of view of life, never lost sympathy with people, and was perhaps as wise in affairs as in the field of letters and aesthetic criticism. This concord of opposite qualities is conspicuous in the 'Biglow Papers,' his most brilliant and least considered perform ance, which has carried most influence and bids fair to be longest remembered of all his works. As a writer of prose he was often distin guished, yet often wilfully whimsical or sensa tional,—he could speak of a landscape as "gagged" with snow. His essays show more reading— which was wide except in its liter ature of northern Europe -- than originality, though he was gifted with deeper insight than any other of the New England school save Emerson. As a critic he sometimes lost his sense of perspective, as in his estimate of Mrs. Browning's 'Aurora Leigh.' In his chosen field of poetry, Lowell's work' is uneven, often savoring of bookishness and formality in his lyric pieces, as 'To a Dandelion' and 'Beaver Brook.' While at times informal and unnoble in his higher strains, yet here and there at his hest, as in (Prometheus' and 'The Cathedral' he has left "immortal phrases" which no other American poet can parallel. An elaborate in ternational centennial commemoration of his birthday was celebrated in New York City 19 22 Feb. 1919. See BIGLOW PAPERS; COMMEMO RATION ODE.
Bibliography.— Lowell's works were is sued in a complete edition (Riverside edition. 11 vols., Boston 1899). His letters were edited in two volumes by Charles Eliot Norton (New York 1894). Consult Brownell, W. C., (Amer ican Prose Masters) (New York 1909); Cooke, G. W. (compiler), 'Bibliography of James Rus sell Lowell' (Boston 1906) ; Greenslet, Ferris, 'James Russell Lowell: His Life and
(ib. 1905) : Hale, E. E., 'James Russell Lowell and His Friends' (ib. 1899); Howells, W. D.,