Oliver Wendell Holmes

1. Oliver Wendell Holmes August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894

2. Biography • Born at Cambridge, Mass. , the son of Abiel Holmes. He was a physician by profession but achieved fame as a writer, one of the best regarded American poets of the 19th Century. He had a daughter with Sarah Wendell (second wife) and her name was Anne Bradstreet, The first published American female poet. He later had a son with Amelia lee Jackson (3rd wife) named Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., which he is a civil war hero. He was also a teacher and public speaker and supported liberal religious options.

3. Education • He was educated at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., and at Harvard where he later got his M.D. After that he went to the famed Ecole de medecine in Paris were he was a student of Dr. Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis.

4. The Poetry • He first attained national prominence with his poem Old Ironsides about the 18th Century frigate USS Constitution. One of his most popular works was The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. He was also one of the five members of the group known as the Fireside Poets. He contributed poems and essays to the Atlantic Monthly from the inception, and also published novels.

5. American Romantic • Dr. Holmes was called an American Romantic because his poems are more like popular verse than serious poetry. Many are notable for the actuate descriptions of nature and understanding of human character. His story The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table “consist of 12 essays” is also American Romantic because it expresses the author’s own observation and options on many subjects including human nature, manners, and religion.

6. Later Years • In 1847 he became the Dean of the Harvard Medical School and stayed in till a853. • He kept teaching in till 1882. • He also developed the popular model of the stereoscope, 19th century entertainment in which pictures were viewed in 3-D. • He never stopped writing in till he died.