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Literary
September 5, 1879
Springfield Weekly Republican
Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts
What is this article about?
A Boston literary correspondent celebrates Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes's 70th birthday, noting his continued labor despite age, suggesting retirement from lecturing to enhance his literary legacy, and commenting on his undefined position in American literature overshadowed by professional duties.
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HOLMES'S THREE-SCORE-YEARS-AND-TEN.
[From our Boston Literary Correspondence.]
Dr. Holmes has received the compliments of his friends and the public on reaching the age of 70; but I have not seen just the felicitous thing said about him yet. He does not admire old age as a daily companion, and, for some reason or other, he labors as constantly, though not, of course, so many hours in a day, as he did at 40 or 50. This seems to me a pity, and I could wish that his college would make it easy for him to give up the drudgery of daily lecturing. He has earned the right to command his own time, which nobody could use better. His position in our literature is a peculiar one,—not so well defined as Emerson's or Lowell's or Thoreau's, because he has not taken exactly the pains to define it. His professional relations have stood in his light as a man of letters—and this is another reason for giving them up. He will be better known and more widely read when time has condensed the fine spray of poetry and wit which his "atomizer" has been pouring forth for so many years.
[From our Boston Literary Correspondence.]
Dr. Holmes has received the compliments of his friends and the public on reaching the age of 70; but I have not seen just the felicitous thing said about him yet. He does not admire old age as a daily companion, and, for some reason or other, he labors as constantly, though not, of course, so many hours in a day, as he did at 40 or 50. This seems to me a pity, and I could wish that his college would make it easy for him to give up the drudgery of daily lecturing. He has earned the right to command his own time, which nobody could use better. His position in our literature is a peculiar one,—not so well defined as Emerson's or Lowell's or Thoreau's, because he has not taken exactly the pains to define it. His professional relations have stood in his light as a man of letters—and this is another reason for giving them up. He will be better known and more widely read when time has condensed the fine spray of poetry and wit which his "atomizer" has been pouring forth for so many years.
What sub-type of article is it?
Essay
What keywords are associated?
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Seventieth Birthday
Literary Correspondence
Retirement
American Literature
Lecturing
What entities or persons were involved?
[From Our Boston Literary Correspondence.]
Literary Details
Title
Holmes's Three Score Years And Ten.
Author
[From Our Boston Literary Correspondence.]
Subject
Dr. Holmes Reaching The Age Of 70
Form / Style
Prose Reflection In Correspondence
Key Lines
He Has Earned The Right To Command His Own Time, Which Nobody Could Use Better.
His Position In Our Literature Is A Peculiar One,—Not So Well Defined As Emerson's Or Lowell's Or Thoreau's