The Biglow Papers, And My Garden Acquaintance (dodo Press)

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, satirist, diplomat, and abolitionist. He became acquainted with the work of Edmund Spenser and Sir Walter Scott in childhood, and was taught old ballads by his mother. He graduated from Harvard University in 1838. During his college course he wrote a number of trivial pieces for a college magazine and was a member of the Porcellian Club. There were four books which stand as witnesses to the Lowell of 1848, namely, the second series of Poems, containing among others Columbus, An Indian Summer Reverie, To the Dandelion, The Changeling, A Fable for Critics, in which, after the manner of Leigh Hunt's The Feast of the Poets, he characterizes in witty verse and with good-natured satire American contemporary writers, and in which, the publication being anonymous, he included himself; The Vision of Sir Launfal, a romantic story suggested by the Arthurian legends - one of his most popular poems. Amongst his other works are The Biglow Papers (1848), Fireside Travels (1864), The Cathedral (1869), Among My Books (1870) and Letters (1894).