James Russell Lowell was a lawyer who found more success as a poet, scholar, and
ambassador than he did in practicing law. He was born on February 22, 1819, in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. His family was financially comfortable, and James received a
good education as a boy. He was already recognized as a promising young poet when he
attended Harvard and received his law degree.
The law could not hold his heart the way literature did, and his wife, who was also
a poet, encouraged him to pursue his writing talents. In 1845, the year after he married
Maria White, he published a collection of essays that discussed many topics, including
the abolition of slavery. He continued to write in opposition of slavery for several years.
By 1853, he had published several books. But life was very difficult. Three of his
four children had died, and in 1853, his wife Maria also died. Still, he kept writing, and in
1855 he was appointed professor of modern languages at Harvard, a job that had been
previously held by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. James remarried in 1857.
James Russell Lowell is remembered as a man who never stopped reading and
never stopped learning. He traveled to Europe and studied language. He worked as an
editor of the Atlantic Monthly. After the Civil War, he wrote odes to the Union. He
became frustrated by things he did not agree with in President Grant’s leadership of the
nation and used his writing to remind people of the ideals he felt were missing from the
presidency at that time.
In 1870 and 1876, he published Among My Books, a series of critical essays about
influential authors of the past. President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him ambassador
to Spain and then to Great Britain. When his second wife died in 1885, he left public life.
He died on August 12, 1891.
On the following pages you will find a timeline of James Russell Lowell’s life and a
notebooking page. Do some research into the life and work of James Russell Lowell and
record your observations as you look more closely at the life of this famous author.
© 2014 Bonnie Rose Hudson WriteBonnieRose.com
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© 2014 Bonnie Rose Hudson WriteBonnieRose.com
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James Russell Lowell
Timeline
James Russell Lowell was born 1819
1844
1845
1848
1848
1853
1857
1857
1877-1880
1880-1885
1891
Poem A Fable for Critics published
Editorship of the new Atlantic Monthly
Married the poet Maria White
Ambassador to Great Britain
Married Frances Dunlap
Published Conversations on Some of the Old Poets
Died in Cambridge, Mass.
Appointed minister to Spain
Poem The Vision of Sir Launfal published
© 2014 Bonnie Rose Hudson WriteBonnieRose.com
17
Answer Key
James Russell Lowell
Timeline
James Russell Lowell was born 1819
1844 Married the poet Maria White
Published Conversations on Some of the
Old Poets 1845
Poem The Vision of Sir Launfal
1848 published
Poem A Fable for Critics published 1848
1853 Wife died
Married Frances Dunlap 1857
1857 Editorship of the new Atlantic Monthly
Appointed minister to Spain 1877-1880
1880-1885 Ambassador to Great Britain
Died in Cambridge, Mass. 1891
© 2014 Bonnie Rose Hudson WriteBonnieRose.com
18