Page 65 - Four Famous American Writers: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Taylor

fragmentary, broken bits on this subject or on that. He wrote very few
poems, not many stories, and only a little serious criticism.

But a Frenchman will tell you that Poe, among American poets and writers,

is the greatest; his writings have been translated into nearly every European
language. In England, too, he is spoken of as our one great poet and critic,
our first great story-writer, the inventor of the artistic short story.

Poor, unhappy Poe! After his death a monument was to have been erected

over his grave; but by a strange fatality it was destroyed before it was
finished. Twenty-five years later admiring friends placed over his remains
the first monument to an American poet. No such memorial was needed,

however, for American hearts will never cease to thrill at the weird,
beautiful music of "Annabel Lee," "The Bells," and "The Raven."

THE STORY OF JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

[Illustration: JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.]

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

CHAPTER I

ELMWOOD

James Russell Lowell was born on the 22d of February, 1819, in

Cambridge, Massachusetts. Elmwood, the home of the Lowells, was to the
west of the village of Cambridge, quite near Mount Auburn cemetery.
When James Russell was a boy, Elmwood was practically in the country,

and was surrounded on nearly all sides by woods, meadows, and pastures.
The house stood on a triangular piece of land surrounded by a very high

and thick hedge, made up of all sorts of trees and shrubs, such as pines,
spruces, willows, and oaks, with smaller shrubs at the bottom so as to form
a thick wall of green. In front of the house were some fine English elms,