James Russell Lowell

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James Russell Lowell

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

James Russell Lowell 1819-91, American poet, critic, and editor, b. Cambridge, Mass. He was influential in revitalizing the intellectual life of New England in the mid-19th cent. Educated at Harvard (B.A., 1838; LL.B., 1840), he abandoned law for literature. In 1843 he started a literary magazine, the Pioneer, which failed after two issues. The next year Lowell married Maria White, an ardent abolitionist and liberal, who encouraged him in his work. Lowell's Poems (1844, 1846), A Fable for Critics (1848), The Vision of Sir Launfal (1848), and The Bigelow Papers (1848; 2d series, 1867) brought him considerable notice as a poet and critic. The best remembered of these are The Bigelow Papers, political and social lampoons written in Yankee dialect, which established his reputation as a satirist and a wit. The first of these two series of verses expressed opposition to the Mexican War, and the second supported the cause of the North in the Civil War. In 1855, Lowell became professor of modern languages at Harvard, a position he held until 1876. In addition to teaching, he served as first editor (1857-61) of the Atlantic Monthly and later (1864-72) of the North American Review. In his later writings he turned to scholarship and criticism. Collections of his essays and literary studies appeared as Fireside Travels (1864), Among My Books (1870; 2d series, 1876), and My Study Windows (1871). In 1877 he was appointed minister to London, where he remained until 1885. While abroad Lowell did much to increase the respect of foreigners for American letters and American institutions; his speeches in England, published as Democracy and Other Addresses (1887), are among his best work. Lowell's letters (ed. by C. E. Norton, 2 vol., 1893) and New Letters (ed. by M. A. De Wolfe Howe, 1932) remain valuable for their shrewd and lively comments on public affairs and the literary activities of his generation.

Bibliography: See his collected works (12 vol., 1890-92); biographies by H. E. Scudder (2 vol., 1901, repr. 1969) and M. B. Duberman (1966); studies by L. Howard (1952, repr. 1971) and E. C. Wagenknecht (1971).

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Lowell, James Russell

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | | © The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature 2003, originally published by Oxford University Press 2003. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Lowell, James Russell (1819–91), born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was American minister in Spain, 1877–80, and in England, 1880–5. He was editor of the Atlantic Monthly in 1857. His works include several volumes of verse, the satirical Biglow Papers (1848 and 1867, prose and verse), and memorial odes after the Civil War; and various volumes of essays.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Lowell, James Russell." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 30 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Lowell, James Russell." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (November 30, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-LowellJamesRussell.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Lowell, James Russell." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved November 30, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-LowellJamesRussell.html

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JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL AND ENGLAND.
Magazine article from: Contemporary Review; 7/1/2000; ; 700+ words ; IN his later years James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) was considered...Minister to the Court of St. James. As a New England brahmin...and his replacement James G. Blaine. Though the...generally unsatisfactory, Lowell's participation was...
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'Outsider art' by those who aspire to be inside: Many thanks to the first- and second-graders of Lynne Tarr's class at the James Russell Lowell School in Watertown, Mass., for their wasp drawings.(The Home Forum)
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Anger Over Plan to Alter Lowell Admission Rules / School board gets an earful over diversity proposal.
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Lowell School renovation postponed
Newspaper article from: The Gazette; 10/13/2000; ; 700+ words ; ...of a larger 58-acre redevelopment of the Lowell neighborhood. City Manager Jim Mullen recommended...Obermueller Background Construction on the Lowell School, named for poet James Russell Lowell, began in 1891.
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