Oliver Wendell Holmes

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Oliver Wendell Holmes

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes 1809-94, American author and physician, b. Cambridge, Mass., grad. Harvard (B.A., 1829; M.D., 1836); father of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. He began his medical career as a general practitioner but shifted into the academic field, becoming professor of anatomy and physiology at Dartmouth (1838-40), dean of the Harvard medical school (1847-53), and Parkman professor of anatomy and physiology at Harvard (1847-82). A stimulating and popular speaker, he published two important medical lectures, one in opposition to the practice of homeopathy and the other on the nature of fevers. His first important poem, "Old Ironsides" (1830), was a protest against the scrapping of the fighting ship Constitution. A collection of his witty occasional poems was published in 1836. In 1857 he began to contribute to the Atlantic Monthly (which he named) the famous series of "Breakfast-table" sketches, which were collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858) and several subsequent volumes. These urbane pieces present imaginary conversations at a Boston boardinghouse, reflecting Holmes's opinions, charm, and wit. The first volume includes several poems, of which the most famous are the ironic "Deacon's Masterpiece" and "The Chambered Nautilus." Among his other notable works are three novels presenting a scientific approach to psychological traits, most notably Elsie Venner (1861); and biographies of his friends John Lothrop Motley (1879) and Ralph Waldo Emerson (1855).

Bibliography: See biographies by E. M. Tilton (1947) and M. R. Small (1962); study by M. A. De Wolfe Howe (1939, repr. 1972); bibliography by H. C. Shriver, ed. (1978).

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Holmes, Oliver Wendell

The Oxford Companion to American Literature | 1995 | | © The Oxford Companion to American Literature 1995, originally published by Oxford University Press 1995. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1809–94), son of Abiel Holmes, was born at Cambridge, reared in the traditions of the Brahmin class, and graduated from Harvard in the class of 1829, which he helped to make famous by his long series of reunion poems. His first verse to bring him popularity was “Old Ironsides” (1830). While studying medicine at Harvard and in Boston, he published in The New‐England Magazine (1831–32) two papers entitled “The Autocrat of the Breakfast‐Table,” which were precursors of his later famous work. After two years of study in Paris hospitals, he received his M.D. from Harvard (1836), and his collection of witty occasional Poems (1836) was his last literary contribution for some time, since he turned to his chosen profession, holding the post of Professor of Anatomy at Dartmouth (1838–40) and publishing two important medical works, Homeopathy and Its Kindred Delusions (1842) and The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever (1843). From 1847 until his retirement in 1882, he was Parkman Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at Harvard, and for the first six years also served as dean of the Harvard Medical School.

His stimulating qualities as a lecturer soon brought him before the public in the lyceums. As a witty, urbane conversationalist, he reigned supreme in Boston society and club life and became the unofficial poet laureate of all important gatherings in the intellectual “hub of the Universe.” As a reformer he was simply a scientific rationalist opposing the Calvinistic dogmas by which he had been reared. He was probably the most militant Unitarian among Boston laymen, and he attacked the religion of his fathers consistently in prose and poetry, notably in “The Deacon's Masterpiece” (1858) and the more vituperative The Moral Bully, which satirizes a preacher's hypocritical virtues.

When the Atlantic Monthly was founded (1857), Holmes not only named it but also, as a leading contributor, was influenced to become primarily a man of letters. He contributed The Autocrat of the Breakfast‐Table (1858), which he followed with The Professor at the Breakfast‐Table (1860), The Poet at the Breakfast‐Table (1872), and Over the Teacups (1891), all reflections of the original. Selections from his endless flow of poetry peppered these volumes, notably “The Chambered Nautilus” and “The Deacon's Masterpiece” in the first volume. He also turned to fiction, and in Elsie Venner (1861) wrote the best of his three “medicated novels.” All exhibit his theological and biological views and are studies of abnormal psychology, but The Guardian Angel (1867) and A Mortal Antipathy (1885) show diminishing ability. He reprinted from the Atlantic two collections of essays, Soundings from the Atlantic (1864) and Pages from an Old Volume of Life (1883), wrote biographies of Motley (1879) and Emerson (1885), and collected a volume of Medical Essays (1883). His addresses, lectures, and minor essays would constitute a large collection.

Besides the several enlarged editions of his Poems, his verse was issued in many volumes, including Songs in Many Keys (1826), Songs of Many Seasons (1875), The Iron Gate (1880), and Before the Curfew (1888). Although most of his poems were written for specific occasions, some have transcended their occasional nature. Among the best known are The Ballad of the Oysterman (1830), a parody of romantic balladry; “The Last Leaf” (1831), on an aged survivor of the Boston Tea Party; My Aunt (1831), on the “sad, ungathered rose” of his ancestral tree; The Boys, written for the thirtieth reunion of his Harvard class; Bill and Joe (1851), another reunion poem; A Sunday Hymn (1860), which begins Lord of all being! throned afar; Contentment, a humorous poem on “simple pleasures,” from the Autocrat; The Living Temple, also from the Autocrat, a hymn on man's “wondrous frame”; Brother Jonathan's Lament for Sister Caroline (1861), a patriotic poem on the secession of South Carolina; and Dorothy Q. (1871), a sentimentally humorous piece on a family portrait.

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James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Holmes, Oliver Wendell." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Oxford University Press. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. 17 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Holmes, Oliver Wendell." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Oxford University Press. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. (November 17, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-HolmesOliverWendell.html

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Holmes, Oliver Wendell." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Oxford University Press. 1995. Retrieved November 17, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-HolmesOliverWendell.html

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Holmes, Oliver Wendell

World Encyclopedia | 2005 | © World Encyclopedia 2005, originally published by Oxford University Press 2005. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1809–94) US writer and physician. Holmes' best literary work takes the form of humorous table talk, such as The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1857–58), The Professor at the Breakfast Table (1860), and The Poet at the Breakfast Table (1872). He was also a respected professor of medicine at Harvard University.

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

Free Article The Legacy of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.(Brief Article)
Magazine article from: The Historian; 1/1/1994
Free Article The Essential Holmes: Selections from the Letters, Speeches, Judicial Opinions, and Other Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Magazine article from: National Review; 5/25/1992
Free Article The Justice from Beacon Hill: The Life and Times of Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Magazine article from: National Review; 9/23/1991

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