James Russell Lowell (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

Lowell (1819-1891) was a leading figure in the popular and family-friendly Fireside School of Poets. Critic, editor, and diplomat, he was also a prominent abolitionist. This 1899 memoir, by a man who knew Lowell well, traces the poet’s progress throughout his life—in college and through war and foreign service—as well as providing a glimpse of Boston in the 1840s.