Edwin Percy Whipple (March 8, 1819 – June 16, 1886) was an American essayist and

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or gover ...

Biography

He was born in

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east o ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

in 1819. For a time, he was the main literary critic for Philadelphia-based ''

Graham's Magazine ''Graham's Magazine'' was a nineteenth-century periodical based in Philadelphia established by George Rex Graham and published from 1840 to 1858. It was alternatively referred to as ''Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine'' (1841–1842, and Ju ...

''. Later, in 1848, he became the Boston correspondent to '' The Literary World'' under

Evert Augustus Duyckinck Evert Augustus Duyckinck (pronounced DIE-KINK) (November 23, 1816 – August 13, 1878) was an American publisher and biographer. He was associated with the literary side of the Young America movement in New York. Biography He was born on Novem ...

and

George Long Duyckinck George Long Duyckinck (October 17, 1823 – March 30, 1863) was a New York City writer. Biography He was born on October 17, 1823 in New York City; his sibling was Evert Augustus Duyckinck. He attended Geneva College and then entered New Yor ...

. Historian

Perry Miller Perry Gilbert Eddy Miller (February 25, 1905 – December 9, 1963) was an American intellectual historian and a co-founder of the field of American Studies. Miller specialized in the history of early America, and took an active role in a revi ...

called Whipple "Boston's most popular critic". Whipple was also a public lecturer. In 1850, he defended the intelligence of

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

and compared him to other brilliant men of his time in a speech which later became known as "The Genius of Washington". Whipple was a close friend of

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...

. After Hawthorne's death in 1864, Whipple served as a pallbearer for his funeral alongside

Amos Bronson Alcott Amos Bronson Alcott (; November 29, 1799 – March 4, 1888) was an American teacher, writer, philosopher, and reformer. As an educator, Alcott pioneered new ways of interacting with young students, focusing on a conversational style, and ...

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Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (; August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894) was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. Grouped among the fireside poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day. His most fa ...

, and

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and '' Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely trans ...

. Whipple's close relationship with other Boston-area authors occasionally tinted his reviews. Edward Emerson later noted, "No other member of the Saturday Club has ever been more loyally felicitous in characterizing the literary work of his associates."Buell, Lawrence. ''New England Literary Culture: From Revolution Through Renaissance''. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986: 44. Whipple died in 1886 and was interred at

Mount Auburn Cemetery Mount Auburn Cemetery is the first rural, or garden, cemetery in the United States, located on the line between Cambridge and Watertown in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, west of Boston. It is the burial site of many prominent Boston Brah ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

Selected list of works

His first book was ''Essays and Reviews'' (two volumes, 1849), which was followed by: * ''Character and Characteristic Men'' (1866) * ''Success and its Conditions'' (1871) * ''Literature of the Age of Elizabeth'' (1876) * ''Recollections of Eminent Men'' (1887) * ''American Literature and Other Papers'' (1887) * ''Outlooks on Society, Literature and Politics'' (1888) An edition of his ''

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

'' (two volumes, Boston), with an introduction by

Arlo Bates Arlo Bates (December 16, 1850 – August 25, 1918) was an American author, educator and newspaperman. Biography Arlo Bates was born at East Machias, Maine. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1876. In 1880 Bates became the editor of the Boston ...

, appeared in 1912.

References

Sources

* *

External links

Whipple biography
at the Boston Public Library web site * *
The Genius of Washington
speech {{DEFAULTSORT:Whipple, Edwin Percy American essayists American literary critics Writers from Boston 1819 births 1886 deaths Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery 19th-century American journalists American male journalists American male essayists 19th-century American male writers 19th-century essayists Trustees of the Boston Public Library