Lectures on English poets

Two hundred and twenty-four copies printed in the month of March, 1897. This is No.
BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
“—CALL UP HIM WHO LEFT HALF-TOLD THE STORY OF CAMBUSCAN BOLD.”
CLEVELAND THE ROWFANT CLUB MDCCCXCVII
Copyright, 1897, By The Rowfant Club.
Whilst midway in his thirty-fifth year Lowell was appointed to deliver a course of lectures before the Institute founded by a relative, and bearing the family name. He was then known as the author of two volumes of poems besides the biting “Fable for Critics” and the tender “Vision of Sir Launfal,” and the nimbus was still brightly shining around the head of him who had created the tuneful “Hosea Biglow” and the erudite “Parson Wilbur.” It was not the accident of relationship that procured this appointment; he had fairly earned the honor by his scholarly acquirements and poetly achievements.
When the twelfth and last lecture had been delivered, the correspondent of the “New York Evening Post” wrote:
“Mr. Lowell has completed his course of lectures on English Poetry, which have been attended throughout by crowded audiences of the highest intelligence. The verdict of his hearers has been a unanimous one of approval and delight. Certainly no course of literary lectures has ever been delivered here so overflowing with vigorous, serious thought, with sound criticism, noble, manly sentiments, and genuine poetry. Mr. Lowell is a poet, and how could a true poet speak otherwise?
“His appointment to the Professorship of Belles Lettres in Harvard College, made vacant by the resignation of Longfellow, is the very best that could have been made, and gives high satisfaction. It is such names that are a tower of strength and a crown of glory to our Alma Mater. Everett, Sparks, Ticknor, Longfellow, Agassiz, Peirce, are known in their respective departments wherever science and polite letters have a foothold, and the nomination of James Russell Lowell as the associate and successor of such men is the most ‘fit to be made.’”