Page 94 - Four Famous American Writers: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Taylor

criticism. Here, for instance, is his definition of poetry: "Poetry, as I
understand it, is the recognition of something new and true in thought or

feeling, the recollection of some profound experience, the conception of
some heroic action, the creation of something beautiful and pathetic."

In his diary Longfellow sometimes refers to Mrs. Lowell, "slender and pale
as a lily"; and once when he and Charles Sumner had gone to see Lowell

and found that he was not at home, Longfellow adds, "but we saw his
gentle wife, who, I fear, is not long for this world."

His words were prophetic. She gradually failed in strength. Of their four
children, three died while mere babes. In 1853 Mrs. Lowell herself died.

The appointment to Longfellow's professorship did not come until a little

over a year after the death of Mrs. Lowell. During her life Mr. Lowell's
income was very small and irregular, a few hundred dollars a year in
payment of royalties on his books and for articles and poems contributed to

various periodicals. With his appointment to the Harvard professorship he
became financially independent for the first time. To prepare for it he went

abroad, spending most of his time at Dresden.

He returned sooner than he expected, and for a reason that very well

illustrates his business habits. When he set out he had a limited amount of
money. This he placed with London bankers, arranging to draw on them for

such sums as he might need from time to time. He asked that when he had
drawn down to a certain sum the bankers should notify him, and then he
would immediately prepare to return home. He settled down, and thought

that he was getting on moderately well and had a considerable sum still to
draw. What was his surprise when he was notified by his bankers that he

had drawn his account down to the amount he had mentioned! As there was
nothing better for him to do, he packed his trunk and went home.

Some years after that, he received a letter from these London bankers
informing him that an error had been made in his account, and that a draft

for a hundred pounds sterling (five hundred dollars) which had been drawn
by some other person named Lowell had by mistake been charged to his