Abbott Lawrence Lowell

Abstract

T O WARD the end of Mr. Lowell's life an intimate friend said of him that he had never known in his own person hesitation, misgiving, self-distrust, regret, compunction or self-reproach, to which his biographer demurs only to the word regret.' However accurate or just this characterization may be, it certainly gives a correct impression of the type of man to whom it was applied. Vigorous, courageous, able, Mr. Lowell went his way fearless and self-assured. Mr. Yeomans' book presents him in many situations displaying exactly these qualities. Some readers seem to think that the volume is a history of Mr. Lowell's administration as president of Harvard rather than a true biography of the man himself. A history it certainly is, but Harvard was so essentially a part of Mr. Lowell's life that I do not think the implied criticism of the text is particularly significant. Judging from my own contact with him, I should want to add the characterization conscientious to those implied by this friend just quoted. Inheriting very large wealth, Mr. Lowell never was exposed to some of the grave problems which breed anxiety and unassertive traits in many men of characters essentially like his own. Although he lived unostentatiously as judged by the standards of the social group into which he was born, his money gave him a freedom of action which few academic men have ever enjoyed. I know of no president of an American institution of higher learning who has possessed so large a foi tune. In recent times one or two have had large means, or married wealthy women, but none approached Mr. Lowell in the size of the fortune they owned. 'Yeomans, Henry Aaron. A!bbott Lawrence Lowell: 1856-1943. (Based on Mr. Lowell's papers and the Harvard archives.) Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1948. p. 54I.