The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1909-08-30
OLIVER v. HOLMES
CENTENARY


sary of the birth of DR.. Oliver Wen
dell Holmes, one of the greatest lit
erary character this country has
ever produced. There was no public
observance to mark the day, as it
has been thought best to postpone
the centennial celebration until later
in the year, when the work of Har-
ward university has been resumed.
1t is understood that Cambridge and
its great university will unite in pre-
pairing an appropriate celebration of
the Holmes centenary to be held in
the coming autumn.
Oliver Wendell Holmes was born
in Cambridge, August 20, 1909. His
birth year was that of Gladstone,
Tennyson, Darwin and Abraham Lin
coin. 1t was exactly 100 years sub
sequent to that of Samuel Johnson,
and in his later years it was quaint
amusement of Holmes to compare
his own progress in life, epoch by
epoch, with that of the great con-
versationalist, whose interest in lit
erature, in society and in life was
so much akin to his own.
Holmes father. the Rev. Abel
Holmes, was CongregationaliSt
clergyman, a man of culture, scholar
ship, sunny disposition, humane
character and the best New England
breeding divers mother was Sarah
Wendell, a descendant of a Mynheer
Wendell that came over to New York
from Holland about 1910 and had
become the progenitor of a prosper
Gus race that sent some offshoots
into New England. Through his
mother, too, Holmes was descended
from the Dorothy Quincy, or Dor
othy @" of whom he spoke in one of
his poems.
Holmes spent his boyhoo1 days in
Cambridge, where his fathe.' was the
pastor of the First Cong esational
church. His environment in every
way conduced to culture and indie
pendent thinking. His father had a
desire that Oliver should become a
clergyman, and with tina, hope had
sent him to the Phillips academy at
Andover to be prepared for the theo-
logical seminary there. But in 1925,
at the age of Is, Oliver entered Har-
ward. and In due course he was gradu-
uated. his class being that which for
many years was known as 1.-The fam
Gus class of 1929" For some time
after graduation he studied law, but
his natural fondness for scientific in
vestigation and for the manipulation
of tools and implements led him to
abandon the law and take up the
study of medicine and surgery.
For two or three years HOlmse
pursued his medical studies in Bos-
Paris. There for two full years more
he studied under medical teachers
who were at that time the most fam
Gus in their profession in the world.
He devoted himself 10 his studies in
Paris with great zeal, but at the
same time took pains to see good
deal of life. He learned to speak
and to write French like a native
and became thoroughly acquainted
with every part of Paris, in1iudine
the Latin quarter. He also travelled
through Italy, Switzerland and Great
Britain and did not return home I'M
til December, 1S45.
He preferred teaching to the prac-
tice of his profession and became pro-
lessor of anatomy at Dartmouth col
lege. In 1S47 he was appointed
Parkman professor of anatomy at the
medical school of Harvard. upon
which he gradually withdrew from
the regular practice of medicine.
Later, Wucu H6 DtSdn W OCNolC Hin
self to literature, he abandoned medi-
cal practice altogether. In his
younger years he devoted himself to
medical literature and won several
prizes by essays. Later he published
a book of Medical Essays which
won for him not only recognition as
a medical scientist, but also as man
Of great literary ability. When
Holmes retired from his professor
ship after IS years. in November,
1882, the universal testimony of the
medical profession was that he YVES
1.-The most successful combination If
the physician and the man of letters
that the world has ever known
Holmes did not become an author
through any set purpose or design of
his own. He slipped into literature
gradually and was induced to make
the final plunge by his friend James
NOD