F. H. Underwood: The Poet and the Man: Recollections and Appreciations of James Russell Lowell, 1893.
E. E. Hale: James Russell Lowell and his Friends, 1899.
H. E. Scudder: James Russell Lowell, a Biography, 1901.
Ferris Greenslet: James Russell Lowell, his Life and Work, 1905.
I
HIS LIFE
The Lowells of New England are descendants of Percival Lowell, a prosperous Bristol merchant who came to America in 1639 and settled at Newbury, Massachusetts. The family has been distinguished through its various representatives for public spirit and business acumen as well as for a devotion to letters. The grandfather of the poet, Judge John Lowell, was author of the clause in the Bill of Rights abolishing slavery in Massachusetts. One of his sons was founder of the great manufacturing city on the Merrimac which bears his name. A grandson established the Lowell Institute, a system of popular instruction by free courses of lectures,—a system unique, in that it aims to bring to its audiences representative scholars, chosen less for their skill in the graceful but often specious art of public speaking than for solid attainments.
James Russell Lowell, the youngest son of the Reverend Charles Lowell, minister of the West Church in Boston, was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the colonial mansion known as ‘Elmwood,’ on February 22, 1819. His mother, Harriet (Spence) Lowell, was a daughter of Keith Spence, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.[63]
Under William Wells (an English pedagogue of the old school) Lowell prepared for college, entered Harvard, and after some disciplinary tribulations was graduated with his class (1838). He studied law and was admitted to the bar (August, 1840), but remained briefless during the few months of his efforts to begin a practice.
While waiting for clients, he busied himself with literature. He was early a rhymer. At twelve years of age his skill in making verse had astonished his schoolfellows, one of whom rushed home in great excitement to announce that ‘Jemmy Lowell thought he was going to be a poet.’
With the fearlessness of youth and in the hope of bettering himself financially, Lowell, aided by his friend Robert Carter, started a magazine, ‘The Pioneer.’ According to the prospectus, dated October 15, 1842, the editors proposed to supply ‘the intelligent and reflecting portion of the Reading Public with a substitute for the enormous quantity of thrice diluted trash, in the shape of namby-pamby love tales and sketches, which is monthly poured out to them....’ Only three numbers of ‘The Pioneer’ were issued.[64] The ‘Reading Public’ was joined to its idols and declined to encourage ‘a healthy and manly Periodical Literature.’