HOLMES, I )Lit Eit WEN DELL ( 1809-94 ) . An American man of letters. born at Cambridge, Mass.. August 29. 1809, son of the Bev. Abiel Ilolmes (q.v.). Holmes was brought up in the orthodox faith, was sent to Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., for his preliminary education, and graduated from Harvard College in 1829. lie at once entered the Law School of that insti tution. but, finding the law uneongenial, he gave it up for medicine. While a law student he wrote and published in the Boston .1 dirt! iser, in 1830, hi, well-known and stirring verses, .111i1 Ironsides," which were an effective and popular protest against the proposed breaking up of the famous frigate Constitution. After three year- in the Harvard School, 'Holmes, in 1S33. -ailed for Europe, where he studied two years, chiefly in Paris, and on his return began the practice of medicine in Boston in 1836. The same year witnessed the publication of his first volume of poems. In 1838 he was appointed to the professorship of anatomy at Dartmouth Col lege. a post which he held for two years. Thence ft rib he passed his life almost wholly in Boston, with which cite his name became very intimately associated. (In June 15. 18411, lie married Miss Amelia Lee Jackson of Boston. Ilk only impor tant eontribut ion to medical science was made in Is43, when he puldi-hed his essay au the Con taaionsouss of Puerperal Purer, though lie wrote imincrous other scientific papers. From 1847 to 1S82 he was Parkman professor of anatomy and physiology in the 'Harvard Medical School. lie was, however, not really eminent in his pro fession. His literary gift was marked. and lie was less renowned in Boston as a practitioner than a- a writer id very facile, witty verse, col lections of which appeared in 1836. 1846, 1849, 1850. and later.
Cntil 1857, however. his reputation was almost vvholly local. The establishment in that year of the ttlautir .11onthly. under the editorship of Lowell. brought him a national and almost world wide segue through the serial publication in that magazine of the .1 atorrat of the Breakfast Table, which appeared in book form in 1858. These de lightfully egotistical talks, full of brilliant wit and buoyant seriousness. essentially of New Eng land and Boston, had had their origin in two forgotten essays by Holmes in the New England Magazine in 1833. The success of The Autocrat was remarkable, and Holm', ha. been likened to almost every famous essayist from NIontaigne to Lamb. Among orthodox Calvinists the sketelle4 met with di-favor. since the ideas and the manner were those of an essential rationalist. They were in the next year by mi series less delightful. The at the Breakfast Table ISCO) in book form). and after a lapse of more than a decade. in 1871.72, by the third and last volume of the series, The Poet at the Breakfast Table. l'he Autocrat, however, is the hest, most original, and IllOst popular of the works of Holmes, who is often called 'The Autoerat.'
In 1861 Holmes published hi, first novel, Elsie too r. Though rather formless and uneven in quality, and inartistic in method, it i- interest ing. and full of power. More commonplace in idea 111;111 /.7.‘lie Acnn•r,but equally interesting in its delineation, often rather vontempt nous, of New England eharacter, was The thrardion ..taget (1867). III the interval between these two nov els appeared Songs in .liana li a ys (181n) and /tumorous Po, als (1865). and a volume of prose, Soundings from the .1 e ',int it" ( 1 s113 1. His re maining literary work eontained nothing very new or striking. The chief titles are: .Mech anism ire Though/ and Morals ( 1871 ) ; Songs of Mang Seasons (1874): John Lathrop Volley (1878), a memoir; The Nehoof-Hop (1878) ; 7'he Iron (late. and Other Poems (1881)); Pages Iron; an Old l'olutni. of Life (1883); helical Essays (1883); Valph Waldo Emerson (1881), a life; .1 Mortal Antipathy (1885), his last novel, in ferior If) the t WO The "Vele Portfolio (1885.86) in the Atlantic; Our Ilundred Days in Europe (18S7 I, an account of a voyage taken with his wife and daughter: Before lire Curfew, and Other Portn.s (18881 : and Or.). the Tua.Cups (18110), in the vein of The .lutorrat. death occurred in his eighty-sixth year, in Boston, tictober 7. 1894.
Dr. Holmes was slight in stature and fastidi ous as to his personal appearance. In temper lie was humane and kindly, particularly gracious to his numerous correspondents when confident of their sincerity. and genial in his writing. Ills social accomplishments were unusual: he is said to have been the hest talker in Boston. Ifis style, at its best, is the style of spoken discourse—light, intimate, and winning, but not Ilippant. Ills verse, which is almost wholly of an occasional character, such as poems read at reunions of his college class or scattered throughout the pages of 7'he Autocrat, is, like that prose work, spark ling with wit, or a graceful of gravity and humor. He is a prince among writers of airs dr soril'te:. Among the best known of his are "I/1,1 Ironsides." "The Chambered Nautilus," "The Last Leaf." "Dorothy Q.," "The Voiceless." "The Deacon''. Masterpiece; or, the Wonderful One-110-- Shay." a satire against the doctrines of Jonathan Edwards.
II BLIonnA pli y. Consult Morse, Life and Let ters of Holmes, vols. xiv. and xv. of the Collected Works. are to lie found in Iligginson, Old Oalobridgu (New York. 1900), and 'Howells, literary •riendA rind Arquaintance (Ne• York, 1899). The literary historians. as Stedman, Riehardson, and Wendell, diseuss at. some lemrth his general position in the history of American letters. The standard edition of his works is the Riverside, in fifteen volumes (Boston, 1892).