Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. Holmes was a member of the Fireside Poets and was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day. He popularized several terms, including Boston Brahmin and anesthesia. He was the father of Justice Oliver Wendell. Holmes Jr. of the Supreme Court of the United States.

About Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. in brief

Oliver Wendell Holmes was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. Holmes was a member of the Fireside Poets and was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day. His most famous prose works are the \”Breakfast-Table\” series, which began with The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. Holmes also served as a physician, professor, lecturer and inventor and, although he never practiced it, he received formal training in law. He popularized several terms, including Boston Brahmin and anesthesia. He was the father of Justice Oliver Wendell. Holmes Jr. of the Supreme Court of the United States. Holmes was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on August 29, 1809. His birthplace, a house just north of Harvard Yard, was said to have been the place where the Battle of Bunker Hill was planned. Through his mother, Holmes was descended from Massachusetts Governor Simon Bradstreet and his wife, Anne Bradstreet, the first published American poet. For his literary achievements and other accomplishments, he was awarded numerous honorary degrees from universities around the world.  Holmes retired from Harvard in 1882 and continued writing poetry, novels and essays until his death in 1894. He was also an important medical reformer. His first recorded poem, which was copied down by his father, was written when he was 13. Holmes’s writing often commemorated his native Boston area, and much of it was meant to be humorous or conversational. Some of his medical writings, notably his 1843 essay regarding the contagiousness of puerperal fever, were considered innovative for their time.

He also enjoyed exploring his father’s library, writing later in life that \”it was very largely theological, so that I was walled in by solemn folios making the shelves bend under the load of sacred learning. Holmes’s father sent him to Phillips Academy in Massachusetts at the age of 15. Although he did not enjoy his single year at Phillips Academy, he achieved distinction as an elected member of Social Fraternity, a literary club. He studied under Dame Prentiss and William Bigelow before enrolling in what called the Cambridgeport School. He later went on to study at Harvard College, where he graduated in 1829 with a Doctor of Medicine degree. He taught at Dartmouth Medical School before returning to teach at Harvard and, for a time, served as dean there. He wrote a number of novels and short stories, including one that was influential in the eventual preservation of the USS Constitution. His first published work, “Old Ironsides,” was published in 1830 and was influenced by the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James Russell Lowell. Holmes had no interest in becoming a theologian, however, because he hoped his oldest son would follow him into the ministry. His mother, Sarah Wendell, was the daughter of a wealthy family, and Holmes was named for his maternal grandfather, a judge.

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