Lowell, James Russell
Lowell, James Russell( 1819–91),descendant of a distinguished colonial family, was born at Cambridge, and graduated from Harvard as class poet (1838; LL.B., 1840; M.A., 1841). Finding law not to his liking, he was generally confused about his place in life and went through a morose period from which he was rescued by his future wife, Maria White Lowell. His early poetry, in A Year's Life (1841), shows a sharp difference from the Poems (1844) published the year of his marriage. Under the influence of his wife, an ardent Abolitionist and liberal, he temporarily submerged his native conservatism and was stimulated to forceful thinking and writing. His first journalistic venture was the short-lived Pioneer (1843), but inspired by his wife he became a contributor to and editor of the National Anti-Slavery Standard (1848–52) and contributed to the Pennsylvania Freeman.
The year 1848 marked his most important writing...
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