Charles Timothy Brooks (June 20, 1813 – June 14, 1883) was a noted American translator of German works, a poet, a transcendentalist and a Unitarian pastor.

Biography

Charles Timothy Brooks was born in

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...

on June 20, 1813. He graduated at Harvard in 1832, then studied theology and in 1835 began to preach in

Nahant, Massachusetts Nahant is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,334 at the 2020 census, which makes it the smallest municipality by population in Essex County. With just of land area, it is the smallest municipality by are ...

. He married Harriet Lyman Hazard in October 1837, and they had four children. He served as a preacher in various New England towns until he became pastor of the Unitarian church in

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...

on June 4, 1837, where he remained until his death on June 14, 1883. In addition to his translations, he published theological writings, contributed to ''

The Dial ''The Dial'' was an American magazine published intermittently from 1840 to 1929. In its first form, from 1840 to 1844, it served as the chief publication of the Transcendentalists. From the 1880s to 1919 it was revived as a political review and ...

'', a transcendentalist publication, and wrote a biography of

William Ellery Channing William Ellery Channing (April 7, 1780 – October 2, 1842) was the foremost Unitarian preacher in the United States in the early nineteenth century and, along with Andrews Norton (1786–1853), one of Unitarianism's leading theologians. Chann ...

, another Unitarian minister in Newport, Rhode Island (''William Ellery Channing: A Centennial Memory'', 1880).

Works

German translations into English

* ''Schiller's William Tell'' (Providence, 1838) * ''Songs and Ballads from the German,'' forming one volume of George * Ripley's ''Specimens of Foreign Standard Literature'' (Boston, 1842) * Schiller's ''Homage of the Arts'' (Boston, 1847; 2d ed., New York, 1870); * ''German Lyrics'' (Boston, 1853); * Goethe's ''

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...

'' in the original metres (1856) * ''Life, Opinions, Actions, and Fate of Hieronymus Jobs, the Candidate,'' a satirical poem, popular in Germany (Philadelphia, 1863) * Richter's ''Titan'', ''The Invisible Lodge'', and ''Hesperus'' (1865) * Schefer's "Layman's Breviary" (1867) and "World-Priest" (1873) * Ruckert's "''Wisdom of the Brahmin'' (Boston, 1882) * several children's books

Poetry

* ''Aquidneck,'' a poem delivered at the 100th anniversary of the Redwood library (Newport, 1848) * ''Songs of Field and Flood'', a volume of poems (Boston, 1854) * numerous

occasional verse Occasional poetry is poetry composed for a particular occasion. In the history of literature, it is often studied in connection with orality, performance, and patronage. Term As a term of literary criticism, "occasional poetry" describes the work ...

s * A collection of his poems, original and translated, with a memoir by Charles W. Wendte, was published in Boston after his death.

Other works

* "The Controversy touching the Old Stone Mill," opposing the theory that it was built by the Northmen (Newport, 1851); * ''William Ellery Channing, A Centennial Memory'' (Boston, 1880) * a volume of sermons According to ''Appleton's Encyclopedia'', several of Brooks' works were unpublished years after his death:

References

External links

* *
''Aquidneck''
(64 pages) by Charles Timothy Brooks, (scroll down the page for links to individual pages of the book) {{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Charles Timothy American Unitarians Harvard University alumni 1813 births 1883 deaths 19th-century American poets American male poets 19th-century American translators 19th-century American male writers Translators of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe