Barrett Wendell

{{Infobox academic

| name = Barrett Wendell

|image = Picture of Barrett Wendell.jpg

| birth_date = {{birth date|1855|08|23}}

| birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1921|02|8|1855|07|23}}

| death_place = Boston, Massachusetts

| nationality = American

| alma_mater = Harvard University

| workplaces = University of Paris
Harvard University

| relatives = Jacob Wendell (brother)

}}

Barrett Wendell (August 23, 1855 – February 8, 1921) was an American academic known for a series of textbooks including English Composition, studies of Cotton Mather and William Shakespeare, A Literary History of America, The France of Today, and The Traditions of European Literature.

Early life

Wendell was born in Boston on August 23, 1855. He was the son of Jacob and Mary Bertodi ({{nee}} Barrett) Wendell. His parents married in Boston in 1854, about a year after his father had moved from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and joined the firm of J.C. Howe & Co.{{cite web |title=Mrs. Jacob Wendell (Mary Barrett, 1832–1912) |url=https://emuseum.nyhistory.org/objects/68658/mrs-jacob-wendell-mary-barrett-18321912 |website=nyhistory.org |publisher=New-York Historical Society |access-date=11 May 2022}} Among his three younger brothers were Gordon Wendell, philanthropist and athlete Evert Jansen Wendell, and actor Jacob Wendell.{{cite web |title=Wendell Family Correspondence, 1801-1896 – MS088 |url=https://portsmouthathenaeum.org/wendell-family-correspondence-1801-1896-ms088/ |website=portsmouthathenaeum.org |publisher=Portsmouth Athenaeum |access-date=11 May 2022 |date=18 October 2017}}

His paternal grandparents were Jacob Wendell Sr. and Mehitable Rindge ({{nee}} Rogers) Wendell.{{cite book |title=The New England Historical & Genealogical Register and Antiquarian Journal |date=1868 |publisher=S.G. Drake |page=427 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zrs-AAAAYAAJ&dq=Mehitable+Rindge+Wendell+Rogers&pg=PA427 |access-date=11 May 2022 |language=en}} The first Wendell, Evert Jansen, left the Netherlands in 1640 and settled in Albany, New York.Small, Miriam Rossiter. Oliver Wendell Holmes. Twayne's United States authors series, 29. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1962. {{OCLC|273508}}. p. 20 His maternal grandparents were Boston merchant Nathaniel Augustus Barrett and Sally ({{nee}} Dorr) Barrett. Both the Barrett and Dorr families had deep roots in colonial America, with the Dorrs making their fortune in the fur trade.

Wendell graduated from Harvard in the class of 1877 with Abbott Lawrence Lowell, who was later a president of Harvard. At Harvard, Wendell was a member of The Lampoon.

Career

In 1880, he was appointed Instructor in English at Harvard. He later became an Assistant Professor of English from 1888 to 1898, and a Professor of English from 1898 to 1917, after which he was a professor emeritus. He was also elected to the Harvard Board of Overseers.{{cite web |title=EMINENT SCHOLAR AND WELL-KNOWN PROFESSOR DEAD {{!}} Barrett Wendell '77 |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1921/2/9/eminent-scholar-and-well-known-professor-dead/ |website=www.thecrimson.com |publisher=Harvard Crimson |access-date=11 May 2022 |date=February 9, 1921}}

In 1904 to 1905, he travelled overseas, and lectured at Cambridge University in England, the Sorbonne in Paris, and other French universities. After this visit he wrote The France of Today.

He was a trustee of the Boston Athenaeum, a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1916. He received honorary degrees from Harvard and Columbia University, and an LL.D. from the University of Strasbourg in France. He was an early member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.{{cite book|chapter=American Academy of Arts and Letters|title=World Almanac and Encyclopedia 1919|date=1918 |location=New York|publisher=The Press Publishing Co. (The New York World)|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=faBtNh34xREC&pg=PA216|page=216}}

Personal life

File:William Greenough Wendell (1888-1967).jpg

On June 1, 1880, Wendell was married to Edith Greenough (1859–1938) at Quincy, Massachusetts. Edith was a daughter of William Whitwell Greenough and Catharine Scollay ({{nee}} Curtis) Greenough. Edith was a national leader of movements to preserve historical sites. Together, they were the parents of four children:{{cite book |last1=Society |first1=New England Historic Genealogical |title=Proceedings of the New England Historic Genealogical Society |date=1919 |publisher=New England Historic Genealogical Society |page=lii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IhEyAQAAIAAJ |access-date=11 May 2022 |language=en}}

Barrett Wendell Jr. (1881–1973),{{cite news |title=BARRETT WENDELL, CHICAGO BANKER, 92 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/06/04/archives/barrett-wendell-chicago-banker-92.html |access-date=11 May 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=4 June 1973}} an investment banker who married Barbara Higginson, granddaughter of the founder of Lee, Higginson & Co.
Mary Barrett Wendell (1883–1975), who married Geoffrey Manilus Wheelock. They divorced and she married Reinier van der Woude.
William Greenough Wendell (1888–1967), who married Ruth Appleton, a daughter of Francis R. Appleton. They divorced in 1938 and he married Evelyn Fahnestock, a daughter of Ernest Fahnestock.{{cite news |title=MRS. EVELYN STEELE MARRIED TO BANKER; Former Miss Fahnestock Bride of William G. Wendell |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1938/05/15/archives/mrs-evelyn-steele-married-to-banker-former-miss-fahnestock-bride-of.html |access-date=11 May 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=15 May 1938}}
Edith Wendell (1893–1963), who married publisher and Mayor of Auburn, New York Charles Devens Osborne in 1913.{{cite news |title=CHARLES OSBORNE, PUBLISHER, DEAD; Head of Citizen-Advertiser in Auburn Was Ex-Mayor |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1961/06/02/archives/charles-osborne-publisher-dead-head-of-citizenadvertiser-in-auburn.html |access-date=11 May 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=2 June 1961}}

Wendell died in Boston on February 8, 1921.{{cite news |title=BARRETT WENDELL. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1921/02/09/archives/barrett-wendell.html |access-date=11 May 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=9 February 1921}}{{cite news |title=BARRETT WENDELL OF HARVARD DEAD; Professor of English Literature for 37 Years Succumbs in His Boston Home at 66. NOTED LECTURER-AUTHOR One of the Most Brilliant Research Men in Letters--Became Professor Emeritus in 1917. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1921/02/09/archives/barrett-wendell-of-harvard-dead-professor-of-english-literature-for.html |access-date=11 May 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=9 February 1921}} His widow died in Boston in October 1938.{{cite news |last1=TIMES |first1=Special to THE NEW YORK |title=MRS. WENDELL, LEADER IN PATRIOTIC GROUPS; Widow of Harvard University Professor Dies in Boston |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1938/10/04/archives/mrs-wendell-leader-in-patriotic-groups-widow-of-harvard-university.html |access-date=11 May 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=4 October 1938}}

=Descendants=

Through his daughter Mary, he was a grandfather of Reiner Garrit Anton van der Woude Jr.,{{cite news |title=R. Gerrit A. van der Woude, 71, Shell Union Oil President, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1962/08/06/archives/r-gerrit-a-van-der-woude-71-shell-union-oil-president-dies.html |access-date=11 May 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=6 August 1962}} who married his second cousin, Lady Anne Penelope Herbert,{{cite news |title=COUNTESS CARNARVON NOW HAS A DAUGHTER; Second Child Is Born to Former Catherine Wendell, Wife of Lord Potchester. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1925/03/05/archives/countess-carnarvon-now-has-a-daughter-second-child-is-born-to.html |access-date=10 May 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=5 March 1925}} a daughter of Henry Herbert, 6th Earl of Carnarvon and the former Anne Catherine Tredick Wendell (Wendell's niece).{{cite news |title=LADY HERBERT WED TO BRITISH SOLDIER; Penelope, Daughter of Earl of Carnarvon, Bride in England of Gerrit van der Woude |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1945/04/22/archives/lady-herbert-wed-to-british-soldier-penelope-daughter-of-earl-of.html |access-date=10 May 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=22 April 1945}}

Selected works

The Duchess Emilia: A romance, Boston: James R. Osgood and Co., 1885.
[https://books.google.com/books?id=O80TAAAAYAAJ&q=Cotton+Mather,+the+Puritan+Priest Cotton Mather, the Puritan priest], New York, Dodd, Mead and Co., 1891.
[https://www.google.com/books/edition/English_Composition/R14RAAAAYAAJ English composition: Eight lectures given at the Lowell Institute], New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1891.
Some neglected characteristics of the New England Puritans, 1892
William Shakespeare, a study in Elizabethan literature, New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1894.
Rankell’s remains: An American novel, New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1896.
A literary history of America, New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1901.
Ralegh in Guiana, Rosamond, and a Christmas Masque, New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1902 (Boston: Merrymount Press)
The France of today, New York: C. Scribner, 1907.
The privileged classes, New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1908.
The mystery of education, and other academic performances, New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1909.
The traditions of European literature, from Homer to Dante, New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1920.