" He studied law, turned Abolitionist, wrote
poetry, married the beautiful and transcendental Maria White, and
did magazine work in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. He was
thought by his friends in the eighteen-fifties to be "the most
Shakespearian" man in America. When he was ten years out of
college, in 1848, he published "The Biglow Papers" (First
Series), "A Fable for Critics," and "The Vision of Sir Launfal."
After a long visit to Europe and the death of his wife, he gave
some brilliant Lowell Institute lectures in Boston, and was
appointed Longfellow's successor at Harvard. He went to Europe
again to prepare himself, and after entering upon his work as a
teacher made a happy second marriage, served for four years as
the first editor of "The Atlantic," and helped his friend Charles
Eliot Norton edit "The North American Review." The Civil War
inspired a second series of "Biglow Papers" and the magnificent
"Commemoration Ode" of 1865. Then came volume after volume of
literary essays, such as "Among My Books" and "My Study Windows,"
and an occasional book of verse.
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