James Russell Lowell and His Friends

by Edward Everett Hale

CHAP.		PAGE
I.	His Boyhood and Early Life	[1]
II.	Harvard College	[15]
III.	Literary Work in College	[25]
IV.	Concord	[43]
V.	Boston in the Forties	[55]
VI.	The Brothers and Sisters	[70]
VII.	A Man of Letters	[78]
VIII.	Lowell as a Public Speaker	[102]
IX.	Harvard Revisited	[125]
X.	Lowell’s Experience as an Editor	[147]
XI.	Politics and the War	[170]
XII.	Twenty Years of Harvard	[192]
XIII.	Mr. Lowell in Spain	[215]
XIV.	Minister To England	[237]
XV.	Home Again	[262]
	Index	[287]

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ILLUSTRATIONS

James Russell Lowell	Frontispiece
From the crayon by S.W. Rowse in the possession of Professor Charles Eliot Norton.	Page
Entrance to Elmwood	facing [4]
From a photograph by Pach Brothers.
Rev. Charles Lowell	[8]
From a painting in the possession of Charles Lowell, Boston.
The Pasture, Elmwood	facing [12]
From a photograph by Pach Brothers.
Edward Tyrrel Channing	facing [18]
From the painting by Healy in Memorial Hall, Harvard University.
Nathan Hale	facing 36
From a photograph by Black.
Lowell’s Poem to his College Class	facing 50
From a printed copy lent by Mrs. Elizabeth Scates Beck, Germantown, Pa.
Facsimile of Programme of Valedictory Exercises of the Harvard Class of 1838	facing 52
Lent by Mrs. Elizabeth Scates Beck, Germantown, Pa.
James Russell Lowell	facing 74
From the crayon by William Page in the possession of Mrs. Charles F. Briggs, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Maria Lowell	facing [78]
From the crayon by S. W. Rowse in the possession of Miss Georgina Lowell Putnam, Boston.
Charles F. Briggs	facing 84
From an ambrotype by Brady lent by Mrs. Charles F. Briggs, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Facsimile Contents Page of the Boston Miscellany. (The Authors’ names are in the handwriting of Nathan Hale)	facing 86
Facsimile of Lowell’s List of Friends to whom he presented copies of Conversations on the Old Poets. “The Don” was Robert Carter	facing 92
From the original MS. owned by General James Lowell Carter, Boston.
James Russell Lowell	facing 96
From a daguerreotype, taken in Philadelphia in 1844, owned by E.A. Pennock, Boston.
John Lowell, Jr.	facing 112
From a painting by Chester Harding in the possession of Augustus Lowell, Boston.
John Holmes, Estes Howe, Robert Carter, and James Russell Lowell	facing 114
From a photograph by Black owned by General James Lowell Carter, Boston.
Cornelius Conway Felton	facing 134
From a photograph lent by Miss Mary Sargent, Worcester,
Mass.
Elmwood	facing 138
From a photograph.
James T. Fields	facing 150
From the photograph by Mrs. Cameron.
Moses Dresser Phillips	facing 154
From a daguerreotype kindly lent by his daughter, Miss Sarah F. Phillips, West Medford, Mass.
Oliver Wendell Holmes	facing 158
From a photograph taken in 1862.
Facsimile of A Fable for Critics Proof-sheet with Lowell’s Corrections	facing 162
Kindly lent by Mrs. Charles F. Briggs, Brooklyn, N.Y.
William Wetmore Story	facing 164
From a photograph by Waldo Story lent by Miss Ellen Eldredge, Boston.
James Russell Lowell	facing 168
From a photograph taken by Dr. Holmes in 1864. The
print is signed by both Holmes and Lowell, and is kindly lent by Charles Akers, New York, N.Y.
Sydney Howard Gay	facing 178
From a photograph lent by Francis J. Garrison, Boston.
Elmwood	facing 182
From a photograph by Miss C.E. Peabody, Cambridge, Mass.
Robert Gould Shaw	facing 184
From a photograph lent by Francis J. Garrison, Boston.
William Lowell Putnam	facing 184
From the crayon by S.W. Rowse in the possession of Miss Georgina Lowell Putnam, Boston.
Charles Russell Lowell	facing 184
From the crayon by S.W. Rowse in the possession of Miss Georgina Lowell Putnam, Boston.
James Jackson Lowell	facing 184
From a photograph kindly lent by Miss Georgina Lowell Putnam, Boston.
Francis James Child	facing 186
From a photograph lent by Mrs. Child.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow	facing 188
From a photograph, taken in 1860, lent by Miss Longfellow.
Asa Gray	facing 196
From the bronze tablet by Augustus St. Gaudens in Harvard University.
Louis Agassiz	facing 198
From a photograph lent by Francis J. Garrison, Boston.
Charles Eliot Norton	facing 202
From a photograph taken in 1870.
The Hall at Elmwood	facing 210
From a photograph by Mrs. J.H. Thurston, Cambridge.
Whitby	facing 240
From a photograph kindly lent by The Outlook Company.
Thomas Hughes	facing 258
From a photograph.
William Page	facing 266
From a photograph kindly lent by Mrs. Charles F. Briggs, Brooklyn, N.Y.
James Russell Lowell in his Study at Elmwood	facing 268
From a copyrighted photograph taken in the spring of 1891 by Mrs. J.H. Thurston, Cambridge. This is probably the last picture of Mr. Lowell.
Room adjoining the Library at Elmwood	facing 270
From a photograph by Mrs. J.H. Thurston, Cambridge.
Facsimile of Letter from Mr. Lowell to Dr. Hale, November 11, 1890	facing 274
First Two and Last Two Stanzas of Mr. Lowell’s Poem My Brook	facing 284
From the original MS. in the possession of the Rev. Minot J. Savage, New York, N.Y.

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JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

AND HIS FRIENDS

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CHAPTER I
HIS BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE

One cannot conceive more fortunate or charming conditions than those of the boyhood and early education of James Russell Lowell. You may study the babyhood and boyhood of a hundred poets and not find one home like his. His father, the Rev. Charles Lowell, was the minister of a large parish in Boston for more than fifty years. Before James was born, Dr. Lowell had moved his residence from Boston to Cambridge, to the home which his children afterwards called Elmwood. So much of Mr. Lowell’s poetry refers to this beautiful place, as beautiful now as it was then, that even far-away readers will feel a personal interest in it.