James Russell Lowell

Name: James Russell Lowell
Author: Alice Meynell

James Russell Lowell's book "Amyntas" is a collection of essays and poetry that explore themes of literature, culture, and society. The book was first published in 1876 and has since become a classic of American literary criticism. In the book, Lowell offers insightful analyses of various works of literature, including the writings of Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth, among others. He also includes his own original poetry, which reflects his thoughts on the role of art in society. Overall, "Amyntas" is a significant work in the field of literary criticism and continues to be studied and appreciated by scholars and readers alike.

By Alice Meynell · First published 1895 · Genre: Biography, Literary Criticism, History · 1,262 words

First lines

The United States have produced authors not a few; among some names not the most famous, perhaps, on the popular tongue, are two or three names of their poets; but they have hardly given to the world more than one man of letters -- judicious, judicial, disinterested, patient, happy, temperate, delighted. The colonial days, with the 'painful' divines who brought the parish into the wilderness; the experimental period of ambition and attempts at a literature that should be young as the soil and much younger than the race; the civil-war years, with a literature that matched the self-conscious and inexpert heroism of the army; -- none of these periods of the national life could fitly be represented by a man of letters. And though James Russell Lowell was the contemporary of the 'transcendentalists,' and a man of middle age when the South seceded, and though indeed his fame as a Yankee humourist is to be discerned through the smoke and the dust, through the gravity and the burlesque, of the war, clear upon the other side, yet he was virtually the child of national leisure, of moderation and education, an American of the seventies and onwards. He represented the little-recognised fact that in ripeness, not in rawness, consists the excellence of Americans -- an excellence they must be content to share with contemporary nations, however much it may cost them to abandon we know not what bounding ambitions which they have never succeeded in definitely describing in words. Mr. Lowell was a refutation of the fallacy that an American can never be American enough.

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James Russell Lowell is listed on Textopian as an essay by Alice Meynell, dated 1895 CE.

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Work type: Essay
Author: Alice Meynell
Date: 1895 CE
Language: English
Genres: Biography, Literary Criticism, History
Length: 1,262 words
Structure: 1 section, 8 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)

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Genres

Biography — The book title 'James Russell Lowell' implies that it is a biographical text about an actual person. The author, Alice Meynell, is known for such works.
Literary Criticism — James Russell Lowell himself was a critic, poet, and editor. Therefore, Meynell's book may also delve into literary criticism, analyzing Lowell's work and influence.
History — Biographies often include aspects of history, particularly that of the subject's life and times. Thus, this book could fall under the historical genre.