Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1809–1894)

An extraordinary energetic man with a variety of talents and interests, Oliver Wendell Holmes made important contributions to both literature and medicine. In addition to serving as a professor of anatomy at Harvard University for thirty-five years and writing numerous professional articles, Holmes wrote three novels and several volumes of poems and essays.

Holmes, a descendant of seventeenth-century poet Anne Bradstreet, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard University, where he was named class poet in 1829. Following his graduation Holmes entered Harvard Law School. While there, he wrote the poem "Old Ironsides" to protest the planned demolition of the battleship Constitution, nicknamed "Old Ironsides" because if its ability to withstand the attacks of British warships during the War of 1812. The poem, which aroused such protest that the ship was preserved as a national monument, earned Holmes national recognition as a poet.

After abandoning the study of law, Holmes studied medicine in Paris for several years. Then, in 1836, he returned to Harvard to complete his medical degree. In that same year, Holmes also published his first collection of poetry, Poems.

In 1847, Holmes began his lengthy teaching career at Harvard. During his years there, he established himself as a leading medical researcher. At the same time, he continued his literary pursuits with energy and enthusiasm. Along with James Russell Lowell, Holmes helped to found the Atlantic Monthly literary magazine that is still published today. Holmes published many of his best-known works in the Atlantic Monthly, including his poem "The Chambered Nautilus" and a series of humorous essays eventually collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858)—his most popular book. Drawing on his knowledge of medicine, Holmes also wrote three novels in which he expressed his views concerning heredity.

Retiring from medicine in 1882, Holmes devoted the final years of his life to writing and lecturing. He died in 1894, the last member of America's first generation of highly regarded writers.

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