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--> Holmes, John Clellon, 1926-1988

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From the description of Reminiscences of John Clellon Holmes : oral history, 1976. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 309740414

American writer and educator John Clellon Holmes (1926-1988), author of novels, short stories, essays, and poems, was best known as a chronicler of the ideology and lifestyle of the "Beat generation writers."

Holmes's semi-autobiographical novel Go, published by Scribner in 1952 and later in England as The Beat Boys , is considered to be the first published novel depicting the Beat generation.

Shirley Allen Holmes married on September 9, 1953. She was his second wife.

"John Clellon Holmes." Contemporary Authors Online (reproduced in Biography Resource Center). http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioR (accessed April 2013).

From the guide to the John Clellon Holmes letter to Shirley Holmes, 1967 June 19, (University of Delaware Library - Special Collections)

American writer and educator John Clellon Holmes, author of novels, short stories, essays, and poems, was best known as a chronicler of the ideology and lifestyle of the "Beat generation writers."

Born March 12, 1926, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Holmes died on March 30, 1988, in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.

Richard N. Douglass is a poet from Northampton, Massachusetts.

Previously Douglass has had one poem, "Charlie One Eye," published in The Brook Alumni Magazine (SUNY-Stony Brook).

On February 7, 2011, Douglass wrote in a letter to Philip Ciapponi of Chloe's Books, "I consider myself, the unknown, unpublished Beat, carrying on their tradition. I still dribble on paper and might start sending out again. At 62, I just want peace and quiet."

Elizabeth Van Vogt, the sister of John Clellon Holmes, has written several novels and a memoir about the Beats, Jack Kerouac at 681 Lexington Avenue , which was published by Beat Scene Press in 2007.

"John Clellon Holmes." Contemporary Authors Online. (reproduced in Gale Biography In Context). http://ic.galegroup.com (accessed August 2011). Information regarding Richard Douglass was derived from the letters. Elizabeth Van Vogt. Jack Kerouac at 681 Lexington Avenue. Beat Scene Press Books. http://bescomy.com/books-published-by/beat-scene-press (accessed August 2011). Information regarding Elizabeth Van Vogt was derived from her letter.

From the guide to the John Clellon Holmes letters to Richard Douglass, 1976-2011, 1976-1977, (University of Delaware Library - Special Collections)

Shirley Allen married Holmes on September 9, 1953. She was his second wife.

Contemporary Authors Online (reproduced in Biography Resource Center). http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioR (accessed April 2010).

From the guide to the John Clellon Holmes letter to Shirley Allen, 1953 June 23, (University of Delaware Library - Special Collections)

Birth 1926-03-12

Death 1988-03-30

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Holmes, John Clellon, 1926-1988

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Historical Trustees 1-10

Thomas gold appleton.

Trustee of the Library, 1852-1856. Born 1812 to a Boston merchant and manufacturer; died 1884 while on a trip to New York. An essayist, amateur artist and poet, as well as a collector and patron of the arts, Thomas Appleton was a celebrated citizen of Boston. After graduating from Harvard University in 1831, Thomas Appleton pursued his interests in art and literature, living in Europe for a time. Even before his return to Boston, he became a trustee of the Boston Public Library as part of a contemporary movement to make art and learning available to everyone. Also a trustee for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, he made many contributions of money and artwork to both institutions; the Library’s print collection originated from the generous donation of his Tosti collection of engravings in 1869. After his death, a bust in his image was donated by family members to the Library in 1885 and can now be seen in Bates Reading Hall today.

Sources: Hughes, Lynn Gordon. “Thomas Appleton”, Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography [online database] at http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/thomasappleton.html. Wadlin, Horace G. The Public Library of the City of Boston: A History. Boston: Trustees of the Boston Public Library, 1911.

Illustration: “Thomas G. Appleton”, salt print, 1850’s, from Portrait Collection, Print Dept.

John Prescott Bigelow

Trustee of the Boston Public Library, 1852-1868. Born 1797 in Groton, MA; died 1872 in his Boston residence. A veteran Massachusetts politician by the time he served as Boston’s mayor from 1849-1851, John P. Bigelow witnessed and participated in the formation and development of the Public Library. Through his support, City and private funding as well as material donations were encouraged during his mayoral term. Upon leaving public life, he was elected to the Board of Trustees as one of its first citizen members. The first fund received by the Library for acquiring books was the Bigelow Fund, which was established through his contribution to the fledgling Library of monies raised for a testimonial to recognize his efforts during an 1849 cholera outbreak in Boston.

Sources: Green, Samuel A. Groton Historical Series, vol. 3. Cambridge, MA: University Press, J. Wilson and Son, 1887-1899, p. 254. Kestenbaum, Lawrence. “Index of Politicians: Bigelow”, The Politicial Graveyard: A Database of Historic Cemeteries [online database] at http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/bigelow.html . Wadlin, Horace G. The Public Library of the City of Boston: A History. Boston: Trustees of the Boston Public Library, 1911.

Illustration: "John P. Bigelow", engraving, from Massachusetts Political Archive, Print Department

Edward Everett

Trustee of the Boston Public Library, 1852-1865. President of the Board of Trustees, 1852-1864. Born 1794 in Dorchester, MA; died 1865 in Boston. Clergyman, politician, author and orator. A veteran politician and statesman by the time of his election to the Board of Trustees, Edward Everett was designated its first President. He graduated from Harvard University in 1811 and served as a faculty member, later its President, and for several periods one of its Overseers. His public life included service in both houses of Congress representing Massachusetts, as Secretary of State to Millard Fillmore, as Governor of Massachusetts, and speaking extensively in support of the Union cause—his most famous speech was delivered before the President’s Address at Gettysburg, PA. A firm believer in libraries as part of a complete education for all people, the gift of his personal collection of public and State documents to the City Library began Edward Everett’s constant support in guiding the development of the Library until his death in 1865. His bust, created by Thomas Ball, stands in Bates Reading Hall today.

Sources: “Edward Everett”, Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. [Online database] Farmington Hills, MI: The Gale Group, 2003. at http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC via BPL Electronic Resources web page. Wadlin, Horace G. The Public Library of the City of Boston: A History. Boston: Trustees of the Boston Public Library, 1911. Whitehill, Walter Muir. Boston Public Library: A Centennial History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1956.

Illustration: “Edward Everett”, salt print, 1850’s, from Portrait Collection, Print Dept.

Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff

Physician, antiquary, genealogist, politician and author. A graduate of Harvard University in 1831 and of its medical school in 1834, Nathaniel Shurtleff was passionate about Massachusetts history which led to his thorough editing and publishing of several collections of early Massachusetts records, as well as tracing his family to eleven of the Mayflower Pilgrims. Following his terms as Boston’s mayor between 1868 and 1870, he published, A Topographical and Historical Description of Boston, his most important work, in 1871. Nathaniel Shurtleff created for the Library the book numbering system that denoted the exact alcove, range and shelf location of each book, and co-developed the rules and regulations for public use of the Reading Room at the original Mason Street site of the Library.

Sources: “Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff”, Dictionary of American Biography Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. [Online database] Farmington Hills, MI: The Gale Group, 2003. at http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC via BPL Electronic Resources web page.

“Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff”, Virtual Americans Biographies [online database] at http://famousamericans.net/nathanielbradstreetshurtleff/

Wadlin, Horace G. The Public Library of the City of Boston: A History. Boston: Trustees of the Boston Public Library, 1911.

Whitehill, Walter Muir. Boston Public Library: A Centennial History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1956

Illustration: "Mayor Nathaniel B. Shurtleff", salt print, 1850's, from Massachusetts Political Archive, Print Dept.

George Ticknor

Founder and Trustee of the Boston Public Library, 1852-1866. President of the Board of Trustees, 1865. Born 1790 and died 1871 in Boston. Scholar, educator and author. A graduate of Dartmouth College in 1807 at age 16, George Ticknor would become Harvard University's first professor of Modern Languages and Literature, and was the author of History of Spanish Literature, among other histories and biographies. Like Everett, he believed in libraries as an important educational component for the populace and insisted that Boston's library be developed to freely circulate its book collection. Ticknor's detailed contributions on the original library proposal to the City Council set the standard for the public library movement. After his death, his collection of books on the Spanish peninsula was bequeathed to the Library with the stipulation that none should ever leave the library building. In 1895, a portrait of George Ticknor by Thomas Sully was donated to the Library by his daughter Anna and now hangs in the Rare Books Reading Room.

Sources: "George Ticknor", Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. [Online database] Farmington Hills, MI: The Gale Group, 2003 at http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC via BPL Electronic Resources web page.

Whitehill, Walter Muir. Boston Public Library: A Centennial History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1956.

Illustration: "George Ticknor", salt print, 1850's, from Print Dept.

William Whitwell Greenough

Trustee of the Boston Public Library, 1856-1888. President of the Board of Trustees, 1866-1888. Boston merchant and politician. Born 1818 and died 1899 in Boston. William Greenough pursued the mercantile life after graduating Harvard University in 1837, and served on the Boston City Council from 1847 to 1849. A trustee with Ticknor and Everett, he served 32 years on the Board and in an unpaid administrative capacity selecting and purchasing books from Europe. President Greenough urged the construction of a new library building and appointed the firm of McKim, Mead and White to design the building in Copley Square. For reasons of health and private affairs, he resigned from the Board in 1888, but his interest in the Library continued until his death in 1899. A bust of William Greenough given by his widow stands in Bates Reading Hall.

Sources: Wadlin, Horace G. The Public Library of the City of Boston: A History. Boston: Trustees of the Boston Public Library, 1911. Whitehill, Walter Muir. Boston Public Library: A Centennial History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1956.

Illustration: “William W. Greenough”, salt print, Print Department

Henry Ingersoll Bowditch

Trustee of the Boston Public Library, 1865-1867. Born 1808 in Salem, MA; died 1892. Physician, author and abolitionist. A son of mathematician Nathaniel Bowditch, Henry I. Bowditch graduated from Harvard College in 1828 and completed his medical training there in 1832, spending an additional 2 years studying with physicians in Paris, France. While in Europe he was so impressed with the anti-slavery writings of William Wilberforce that he became a militant abolitionist on his return to Boston. His medical contributions to public health service include establishing a board of health for Massachusetts and publishing Public Hygiene in America, as well as detailed studies on tuberculosis, one of the chest diseases in which he specialized. Prior to the 1858 opening of the Library’s Boylston Street building, Henry I. Bowditch and his brothers donated their late father’s collection of some 2,500 mathematic, navigation and astronomy books, with the stipulation that they be kept together and not circulate so as to provide reference to those who would have need of their contents.

Sources: “Henry Ingersoll Bowditch”, Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. [Online database] Farmington Hills, MI: The Gale Group, 2003 at http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC via BPL Electronic Resources web page.

Dr. Winslow Lewis

Trustee of the Boston Public Library, 1867. Born 1799 to sailor and lighthouse builder, Winslow Lewis; died 1875 in Grantville, MA. Physician, surgeon and politician. A descendant of Plymouth Colony's Winslow family, Winslow Lewis graduated from Harvard College in 1819 and completed his medical training there in 1822. He immediately went to Europe to advance his medical training and would later return often for pleasure. His skills as a surgeon were augmented by his interests in anatomy and led to his editing and translating some medical texts from French. Besides private practice, Dr. Lewis' medical career included service as Consulting Physician for Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as Physician to the House of Corrections and the Municipal Institutions. He would also serve several terms in the Massachusetts State Legislature. Before joining the Library's Board of Trustees, Dr. Lewis was president of the New England Historic Genealogical Society from 1861 to 1866.

Sources: Sheppard, John H., Esq. "A Brief Memoir of Dr. Winslow Lewis", New England Historic Genealogical Society Register, v.17, January 1863, pp. 1-13.

"Winslow Lewis (1770-1850)", Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. [Online database] Farmington Hills, MI: The Gale Group, 2003 at http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC via BPL Electronic Resources web page.

Justin Winsor

Trustee of the Boston Public Library, 1867-1868. Superintendent of the BPL, 1868-1877. Historian, author and librarian. Born 1831 in Boston and died 1897 in Cambridge. A graduate of Boston Latin School, Justin Winsor went on to attend Harvard University. During his freshman year, he compiled and published his first book, A History of the Town of Duxbury. Although he did not graduate with his class, he would eventually receive his degree with the class of 1853 and write various articles and poetry for periodicals until his appointment to the Board of Trustees in 1866. On the death of the superintendent and during the illness of the assistant superintendent, Justin Winsor was asked to take charge of the Library in 1868. He proved to be a capable manager and became the permanent superintendent, serving nine years. During his tenure, Justin Winsor advocated and developed a branch library system to get more books into the Boston communities and thereby encourage people to read. Misguided municipal politics led to his resignation from Boston and to a new position as Librarian of Harvard University in 1877. A pioneering librarian in the young American library community, Justin Winsor helped found the American Library Association and served a number of terms as its President, as well as continuing to be a prolific writer, publishing numerous articles and notes, and a number of books on American history up to his death at age sixty-six.

Sources: “Justin Winsor”, Dictionary of American Biography Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. [Online database] Farmington Hills, MI: The Gale Group, 2003 at http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC via BPL Electronic Resources web page.

Illustration: “Justin Winsor”, photograph by A.W. Elson & Co., appearing in The Public Library of the City of Boston: A History, between pp.76-77.

Samuel A. Green

Trustee of the Boston Public Library, 1868-1878. Born 1830 in Groton, MA; died 1918. Physician, librarian, politician, author and antiquarian. A graduate of Harvard College in 1851, Samuel Green received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1854 and continued his medical studies in Philadelphia and Europe. The first physician in the state to enter the army medical service, he served in two Massachusetts regiments and in a number of other medical staff positions during the Civil War. Upon his return to Boston, Dr. Green continued his medical practice and found time to also serve as the city physician and mayor of Boston for one term. He assumed the temporary position of “Trustee in Charge” following Justin Winsor’s resignation in 1877. Concurrent to his time on the Boston Public Library’s Board of Trustees, Dr. Green also was a member of and served as the Librarian of the Massachusetts Historical Society until his death in 1918. Prior to his departure from the Board, he established the Green Trust Fund to acquire books to commemorate Benjamin Franklin and later donated to the Library books from his personal collection that would become the nucleus of the Franklin Library within the Boston Public Library. A native of Groton, Dr. Green wrote several books on the history of that town as well as a family genealogy following his service on the Board.

“Samuel Abbott Green (1830-1918)”, Dictionary of American Biography Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. [Online database] Farmington Hills, MI: The Gale Group, 2003 at http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC via BPL Electronic Resources web page.

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Charles astor bristed.

Brief biography of Charles Astor Bristed.

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Electronic source.

An electronic version of this text is available at Gale's Biography Resource Center , a subscription database of biographical information available to individuals and institutions that purchase a license for its use. Viewing the electronic version of this text will lead you to an external website . Please report dead links to [email protected] .

MENTIONED IN - Charles Astor Bristed

Charles Astor Bristed was born in New York City to Rev. John Bristed and Magdalen Astor, daughter of John Jacob Astor II. He was educated by tutors until age fifteen when he entered Yale College.

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Nikolay Gogol

Born: Sorochyntsi, Poltava Governate - 31 March 1809 Died: Moscow - 4 March 1852

Nikolay Gogol, the author of the first great Russian novel of the 19th century, Dead Souls , as well as two classic plays and some of the finest short stories written in any language, was a true literary oddity. His peculiar, unhappy life and his uniquely dark comic sensibility have been consistently misunderstood by posterity, with critics fiercely debating his nationality, his religious beliefs, and even his sexuality. What has never been in doubt, however, is his immense literary talent which, while essentially sui generis , provided a template for the absurdist, surreal streak in Russian literature that continues to bear fruit to this day. Along with Alexander Pushkin, he also established a literary pattern for the depiction of St. Petersburg as a city of ambiguity and even monstrosity, life in which proves untenable for many of his long-suffering protagonists.

Nikolay Vasilievich Gogol was born in Sorochyntsi, a Ukrainian Cossack village in what is now Ukraine's Poltava Oblast. His family were from the lower ranks of the gentry, his mother of Polish descent and his father a Ukrainian Cossack who wrote poetry and drama in Ukrainian. The family spoke both Ukrainian and Russian at home, and Gogol would later make a conscious choice to pursue a literary career in Russian rather than Ukrainian. He was educated at the Gymnasium of Higher Sciences in Nezhyn, a school founded as part of Alexander I's education reforms.

On leaving school in 1828, he moved to St. Petersburg with high ambitions of becoming a famous writer. He had with him a long Romantic poem of German rural life called Hans Küchelgarten , which he had published at his own expense and sent copies of to the leading literary journals. The work was rejected and derided by all, and Gogol bought up and burnt all the copies, swearing never to write poetry again.

He turned instead to prose, producing a series of tales set in the Ukrainian countryside, mostly comic, sentimental and occasionally macabre. These met with instant success, and were published in two volumes under the title Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka in 1831 and 1832. Gogol's work was strongly supported by the leading lights of the St. Petersburg literary scene, including Vasiliy Zhukovsky and Pyotr Pletnyov, and even Alexander Pushkin, who he met in 1831 and formed a frienship with. His Ukrainian pastoral period continued with the two volumes of Mirgorod , published in 1835, but in the same year he also published the collection Arabesques , which contained stories set in St. Petersburg and included the classic Nevsky Prospekt and Diary of a Madman . These stories began to explore the themes of alienation and mental instability, set against the fripperies of fashionable life and the Byzantine inhumanity of the state's bureaucracy, that he would further develop in his most famous stories, The Nose (1836) and The Overcoat (1842).

It was also in 1835 that he completed his first comedy for the stage, Marriage , although it was not published or performed until 1842. The Government Inspector , his most famous play, was premiered in 1836 after receiving the official approval of Nicholas I. A biting satire on the corruption and incompetence of provincial government, it was interpreted by many as an attack on the whole system of Tsarist rule, much to Gogol's consternation as he was in fact an ultraconservative monarchist.

Although he had achieved the literary success that he craved, and was equally admired by critics and general readers, Gogol had not found much personal happiness. He had developed an entirely amateur passion for history, and attempted to gain an appointment at the University of Kyiv, despite being utterly lacking in qualifications. His literary fame allowed him to win the professorship of medieval history at St. Petersburg University in 1834, but his lack of knowledge made him completely incapable of performing the work, and he resigned after only a year of farcical subterfuge and failure.

Gogol left Russia in 1836 and spent most of the next twelve years abroad, travelling in France, Germany and Switzerland, and eventually settling in Rome. There he studied art, became a committed opera lover, and supposedly fell in love in 1838 with Count Joseph Vielhorskiy, the 23-year-old son of a prominent Russian official who had come to Italy in an attempt to cure his tuberculosis. He died there the following year. All this time, Gogol continued to work his masterpiece, the satirical novel Dead Souls . He completed it in 1841 and returned to Russia to oversee its publication. It appeared the following year and was an enormous success, further cementing Gogol's position as one of Russia's best-loved authors.

Once again, however, Gogol was shocked and upset at the way his work was seen as a satirical attack on the whole Tsarist system. In fact, Gogol planned for Dead Souls to be the first part of a trilogy that would see his roguish protagonist Chichikov gradually reformed and spiritually purified. His increasingly religious disposition and his terror of demonic forces prompted him to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1846-1847, and in 1848 he returned to Russia to complete the second volume of his work. Dissatisfied with his writings, he fell further under the influence of the spiritual elder Matvey Konstantinovsky, who tried to convince him that writing fiction was a demonic and sinful activity. Gogol became increasingly ascetic, and suffered severe bouts of depression. During one of these on 24 February 1852, he burned most of the manuscripts of the second volume of Dead Souls . In despair at what he had done, believing himself to have been tricked by the Devil himself, Gogol took to his bed and refused all food, and died in agony nine days later.

He was buried at the Danilov Monastery in Moscow. In the 1930s his grave was transferred to the Novodevichy Cemetery, during which process it was discovered that he was lying face down in his coffin, giving rise to the rumour that he had been buried alive. In St. Petersburg, Gogol is commemorated with an imposing and somewhat mournful statue on pedestrian Malay Konyushennaya Ulitsa just off Nevsky Prospekt.

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