Author: Holmes, Oliver Wendell
Biography:
HOLMES, Oliver Wendell (1809-94: ANBO)
Holmes's literary career as a poet did not really take off until he published Poems in 1836, though he had been an early contributor of occasional poetry to newspapers and magazines. He was the son of a Calvinist minister, Abiel Holmes (q.v.), and his second wife Sarah Wendell. He grew up in a well established, wealthy Boston home; attended Phillips Andover Academy and then Harvard (Class of 1829); and, after a brief experience of law, turned his attention to medicine. He spent two years studying in Paris and graduated from Harvard Medical School (of which he was later Dean) in 1836. For some years, he combined general practice with professional writing and with teaching positions at Dartmouth and then Harvard, becoming a celebrated lecturer and popularizer of medical subjects. He was a major contributor to Atlantic Monthly from its founding in 1857. In 1840 he married Amelia Lee Jackson; they had three children, one of them the Supreme Court Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935). Later in life he published many essays, three novels on medical themes, two biographies, and the authoritative Riverside edition of his own Writings (1891). (ANBO 2 Apr. 2019; Appleton [under "Holmes, Abdiel"]) HJ