Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823–1911)
Author of Army Life in a Black Regiment
About the Author
Image credit: Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery (image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)
Works by Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Harvard Memorial Biographies 20 copies
Oldport Days, with Ten Heliotype Illustrations from Views Taken in Newport, R. I., Expressly for This Work (2006) 18 copies
In a Fair Country 18 copies
The New World and the New Book 13 copies
Women and Men 11 copies
The Complete Poems 4 copies
The sympathy of religions : an address delivered at Horticultural Hall, Boston, February 6, 1870 (2012) 2 copies
Woman and her wishes : an essay 2 copies
A Larger History of the United States of America to the Close of President Jackson's Administration (2012) 2 copies
Typical American 1 copy
The New World and the New Book, an Address, Delivered Before the Nineteenth Century Club of New York City, Jan. 15, 1891 (2016) 1 copy
A Larger History of the United States of America to the Close of Thomas Jefferson's Administration. 1 copy
O Faial e os Portugueses 1 copy
American sonnets 1 copy
Associated Works
The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume 1 (1990) — Contributor, some editions — 252 copies, 1 review
The Civil War: The Third Year Told by Those Who Lived It (2013) — Contributor — 167 copies, 1 review
American Antislavery Writings: Colonial Beginnings to Emancipation (2012) — Contributor — 145 copies
Epictetus - Discourses and Enchiridion (Classics Club) (1944) — Translator, some editions — 111 copies, 1 review
Frankenstein Dreams: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Science Fiction (2017) — Contributor — 75 copies, 5 reviews
The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, Volume 4 (2020) — Contributor — 41 copies, 2 reviews
The Aftermath of Slavery: A Study of the Condition and Environment of the American Negro (1905) — Introduction — 16 copies
Slave Narrative (Six Pack 7) - My Life in the South, The Narrative of Lunsford Lane, Army Life in a Black Regiment, John Brown, An Anti-Slavery Crusade and Henry Ward Beecher (2017) — Contributor — 5 copies
Selected poems — Preface, some editions — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Higginson, Thomas Wentworth
- Birthdate
- 1823-12-22
- Date of death
- 1911-05-09
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Harvard University
Harvard Divinity School - Occupations
- schoolmaster
pastor
author
abolitionist - Organizations
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature, 1898)
United States Army (Civil War)
51st Massachusetts Volunteers (Captain)
1st South Carolina Volunteers (Colonel)
Secret Six - Relationships
- Dickinson, Emily (friend)
Higginson, Stephen (grandfather) - Short biography
- Preacher and writer Higginson campaigned for the abolition of slavery, including helping to raise money for John Brown. He fought in the U.S. Civil War, and in his later years wrote in support of women's suffrage and had an advice column in the Atlantic Monthly to help writers. It was in response to this advice column that Emily Dickinson first sent him her poems, beginning decades of correspondence and friendship. Higginson was one of Dickinson's first supporters and edited the first publications of her work, although he is also criticized for editing her work too heavily.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Places of residence
- Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Place of death
- Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Members
Discussions
Group Read: [White Heat], Dickinson/Higginson Friendship in Book talk (June 2011)
Reviews
I was very surprised by this book. In regards to subject matter, I found the majority of it to be what I expected, but a bulk of it surprisingly unexpected.
For starters I hoped for more detail about the regiment and the soldiers it was comprised of. While the first several chapters and the last were very explanatory and informative, I wished for more. In some respect, I had also desired more "army" stories; the sense I garnered from the narratives was of little actual battlefield occupation show more and more guard duty and a handful of excursions into enemy territory. Granted, they might not have had much opportunity to skirmish in high-profile battles, but I was not upset with the essays included in the book.
What was, by far the most surprising, was the author's style. Forget the hard-boiled, gruff General Patton persona, Mr. Higginson's pen flows freely amongst the prose. Chapter Six, A Night in the Water, was an ethereal venture recounting a nighttime swim. Lost in the heady and verbose detail of a foray across a river to evaluate enemy lines, he writes in a vaguely sensual manner. Much of his writing is at times, dare I say, effeminate.
In the beginning of the book he denotes himself to be a philanthropist; I am not sure if that had a different connotation in the 1860's but he tempers his admiration for the Freeman soldiers as he brags about them. I think he is simply working to dispel the myths of the age about the brutish Negros and their uncivilized way. He is careful not to make them sound without human flaws and less than desirable qualities, but stresses they are admirable and worthy to share in the franchise of human society. show less
For starters I hoped for more detail about the regiment and the soldiers it was comprised of. While the first several chapters and the last were very explanatory and informative, I wished for more. In some respect, I had also desired more "army" stories; the sense I garnered from the narratives was of little actual battlefield occupation show more and more guard duty and a handful of excursions into enemy territory. Granted, they might not have had much opportunity to skirmish in high-profile battles, but I was not upset with the essays included in the book.
What was, by far the most surprising, was the author's style. Forget the hard-boiled, gruff General Patton persona, Mr. Higginson's pen flows freely amongst the prose. Chapter Six, A Night in the Water, was an ethereal venture recounting a nighttime swim. Lost in the heady and verbose detail of a foray across a river to evaluate enemy lines, he writes in a vaguely sensual manner. Much of his writing is at times, dare I say, effeminate.
In the beginning of the book he denotes himself to be a philanthropist; I am not sure if that had a different connotation in the 1860's but he tempers his admiration for the Freeman soldiers as he brags about them. I think he is simply working to dispel the myths of the age about the brutish Negros and their uncivilized way. He is careful not to make them sound without human flaws and less than desirable qualities, but stresses they are admirable and worthy to share in the franchise of human society. show less
It is truly beautiful how many quotes you can extract from her poems. I decided that she's my favourite poet of all times.
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Statistics
- Works
- 64
- Also by
- 21
- Members
- 1,150
- Popularity
- #22,331
- Rating
- 4.1
- Reviews
- 5
- ISBNs
- 183
- Languages
- 3
- Favorited
- 3