Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1894-10-11
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES DEAD.

|
The death of Oliver Wendell Fl dimes,
scientists, essayist, novelist and poet,
occurred at his home at Beverly, Mass,
Sunday at 1915 p. m. He was the last
of the famed New England school of
| literary men and his admirers are mum
bered by the speakers of the English
language.
Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in
Cambridge, Mass, on August 30, 1909.
| He was the third of five children
Among his schoolmates were Alfred
| Lee, who was afterwards bishop of
Delaware, Margaret Fuller and Rrch.
ard Henry Dana, jr. He was prepared
for college at Phillips Andover acade-
my, where he made his first attempt at
yersilication, a translation from the
| first book of Eneid, in heroic cOuplets.
| He was graduated at Harvard 1889,
among his classmates being William
FL. Charming, James Freeman Clarke
and Benjamine r. Curtis. He was
contributor to one of the college peri
odicals, delivered the poem at COM
mencement and was one of the sixteen
Il.
society. The next year, when it was
proposed to break up the frigate Con-
stitution Holmes posted in the Boston
Advertiser his lyrical protest, begin
ming: SAY, tear her tattered ensign
down" Which was widely copied in
the newspapers and circulated in hand
bills, saving the ship from destruction
and giving the young poet a repu-
tation. He studied law for year at
the law school in Cambridge, and at
that time produced some of his best
known humorous pieces, including
Evening by Tailor" and "The Height
of the Ridiculous" In 1888, with Epps
Sargent and Fark Benjamin, he CON
tributed to gift book entitled "The
Harbinger," the profits of which were
given to an asylum for the blind. But
his hereditary instincts seem to have
been for the profession of medicine,
and he studied under DR.. James Jack
son and then spent three years abroad,
chiefly in Paris. He received his de-
gree in 1886 and in the same year pub
lished his first volume of poems in
Boston, which contained forty five
pieces, including, besides those already
named, Poetry, a Metrical Essay"
read before the l. O. B. X. society:
"The Last Leaf" "My Aunt" "The
Treadmill Songs and "The September
Gale" In 1889 he was chosen profess
sor of anatomy and physiology at Dart.
mouth. In 1910 he married Amelia
Lee Jackson, daughter of Judge
Charles Jackson, of the supreme court
of MASSACHUSETTS,, and soon after
wards resigned his professorship at
Dartmouth In order to devote himself
to practice i'll Boston. In 1S49 he es-
tabliShed summer home at Pittsfield,
Mass, a few miles away, and in his
Hall of Fantasy" after describing an
ideal group of poets, he says: SIN the
most yivacious of these | recognized
Holmes" In 1917 he succeeded DR.
John &. Warren as professor of anato.
my and physiology in the medical
school at Harvard.
| DIR. Holmes was the author of long
list OF scientific works, as well as essays
and poems. AS writer of songs, Tyr
les and poems for festive occasions he
long occupied first place. When the
Atlantic Monthly was established, il
the fall of 1857, DR.. Holmes became
one of the first contributors, and by
many readers he was deemed the mos
brilliant of all that notable galaxy. l
was in this periodical that the famous
"Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" ant
similar papers appeared. Among hi
poems, the Last Leaf On the Tree,
the "W Wonderful One Hoss Shay" "Th
VoicelesS, ""The Chambered Nautilus,
have become classics. AS poet Of OC
| caSiOnS it is doubtful if he ever had al
equal.