George Ticknor
Encyclopedia
George Ticknor was an American
academician
and Hispanist
, specializing in the subject areas of languages
and literature
. He is known for his scholarly work on the history and criticism
of Spanish literature
.
, former principal of the Franklin public school and a founder of the Massachusetts Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of the system of free primary schools in Boston, and of the first New England savings bank, Provident Institution for Savings
. In 1805 George entered the junior class at Dartmouth College
, where he graduated in 1807. During the next three years he studied Latin and Greek with Rev. Dr John Sylvester John Gardiner
, rector of Trinity Church, Boston
, and a pupil of Dr Samuel Parr
.
In 1829, George Ticknor moved into half of the home built by Thomas Amory at the corner of Beacon and Park Streets in 1804, which thus became the Amory-Ticknor House
. In 1810 Ticknor began the study of law
, and he was admitted to the bar in 1813. He opened an office in Boston, but practised for only one year, satisfying himself that his vocation, or at least his taste, lay in the direction of letters rather than of law. His father's circumstances were such as to enable him to consult his taste in the selection of his profession, and he went to Europe in 1815, for nearly two years studying at the University of Göttingen, attending the lectures of the university and devoting himself to philological studies, especially to the ancient classics
. After that, he remained two years longer in Europe
, chiefly on the continent, passing most of his time in the capitals of France
, Spain
and Portugal
doing critical studies of the national literatures.
In 1817, while still in Europe, he became Smith professor of French
and Spanish
languages and literatures (a chair founded in 1816), and professor of belles-lettres at Harvard University
. In 1819 he returned to the United States
, bringing with him a valuable library. This in time grew to be one of the largest private collections in the country, and, for the rarity and importance of the books, was unsurpassed, in some of its departments. This is especially true of the collection of Spanish literature, which rivaled the best private ones in Europe. And it was particularly strong in Portuguese literature
as well.
During his professorship Ticknor advocated the creation of departments, the grouping of students in divisions according to proficiency, and the establishment of the elective system, and reorganized his own department. He suggested valuable improvements in the system of discipline, for which he had derived the hints from the German universities. He had greatly extended the range of intellectual culture among the students at the university, where literary instruction had hitherto been confined to the classics, and gave long and elaborate courses of lectures on French
and Spanish literature
. He also entered into a critical analysis of such writers as Dante
, Goethe, Milton
, and Shakespeare. The audience of the lectures, instead of being confined to students, was increased by persons without the walls of the college, who were attracted not merely by the interest of the subject, but by the skill of the critic, his luminous and often eloquent diction, and his impressive delivery. In 1835 he resigned his chair after holding it for 15 years, and returned to Europe. His successor, in 1836, in the professorship at Harvard was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
.
After his return he devoted himself to the chief work of his life, the history and criticism of Spanish literature
, in many respects a new subject at that time even in Europe, there being no adequate treatment of the literature as a whole in Spanish. Both Friedrich Bouterwek
and Jean Charles Leonard de Sismondi
had worked with limited or secondhand resources. Ticknor developed in his college lectures the scheme of his more permanent work, which he published as the History of Spanish Literature (New York and London, 3 volumes, 1849). The book is not merely a story of Spanish letters, but, more broadly, of Spanish civilization and manners. The History is exhaustive and exact in scholarship, and direct and unpretentious in style. It gives many illustrative passages from representative works, and copious bibliographical references.
It was soon translated into Spanish (1851–1857) by Pascual de Gayangos y Arce
and de Vedia; into French by Magnabal; and German by Nikolaus Heinrich Julius and Ferdinand Wolf
. The second American edition appeared in 1854; the third corrected and enlarged, in 1863; the fourth, containing the author's last revision, in 1872, under the supervision of George Stillman Hillard
; and the sixth in 1888.
Ticknor had succeeded his father as a member of the Primary School Board in 1822, and held this position until 1825; he was a trustee of the Boston Athenaeum in 1823-1832, and was vice-president in 1833; and he was a director (1827–1835) and vice-president (1841–1862) of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company, and a trustee of the Massachusetts General Hospital
(1826–1830) and of the Boston Provident Institution for Savings
(1838–1850), the bank that his father had helped to found.
He was especially active in the establishment of the Boston Public Library
(1852), and served in 1852-1866 on its board of trustee
s, of which he was president in 1865. On its behalf he spent fifteen months abroad in 1856-1857, at his own expense, and to it he gave at various times money and books; a special feature of his plan was a free circulating department. He also left his own collection of books to the library.
Ticknor's minor works include, besides occasional reviews and papers:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
academician
Academician
The title Academician denotes a Full Member of an art, literary, or scientific academy.In many countries, it is an honorary title. There also exists a lower-rank title, variously translated Corresponding Member or Associate Member, .-Eastern Europe and China:"Academician" may also be a functional...
and Hispanist
Hispanist
A Hispanist is a scholar specialising in Hispanic studies, that is Spanish or Portuguese language, literature, linguistics, or civilization, and by extension, Basque, Catalan and Galician....
, specializing in the subject areas of languages
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
and literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
. He is known for his scholarly work on the history and criticism
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
of Spanish literature
Spanish literature
Spanish literature generally refers to literature written in the Spanish language within the territory that presently constitutes the state of Spain...
.
Biography
Ticknor was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his early education from his father, Elisha TicknorElisha Ticknor
Elisha Ticknor was an educator and merchant and the father of Boston author George Ticknor.-Biography:...
, former principal of the Franklin public school and a founder of the Massachusetts Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of the system of free primary schools in Boston, and of the first New England savings bank, Provident Institution for Savings
Provident Institution for Savings in the Town of Boston
The Provident Institution for Savings in Boston, Massachusetts, was the first chartered savings bank in the United States. James Savage and others founded the bank on the belief that "savings banks would enable the less fortunate classes of society to better themselves in a manner which would...
. In 1805 George entered the junior class at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, where he graduated in 1807. During the next three years he studied Latin and Greek with Rev. Dr John Sylvester John Gardiner
John Sylvester John Gardiner
John Sylvester John Gardiner , aka John S. J. Gardiner, was Rector of Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts, president of Boston's Anthology Club, and active in the Boston Athenaeum....
, rector of Trinity Church, Boston
Trinity Church, Boston (Summer Street)
Trinity Church was an Episcopal church in Boston, Massachusetts, located on Summer Street. It housed Boston's third Anglican congregation...
, and a pupil of Dr Samuel Parr
Samuel Parr
Samuel Parr , was an English schoolmaster, writer, minister and Doctor of Law. He was known in his time for political writing, and as "the Whig Johnson", though his reputation has lasted less well that Samuel Johnson's, and the resemblances were at a superficial level, Parr being no prose stylist,...
.
In 1829, George Ticknor moved into half of the home built by Thomas Amory at the corner of Beacon and Park Streets in 1804, which thus became the Amory-Ticknor House
Amory-Ticknor House
The Amory-Ticknor House in Boston, Massachusetts was built in 1804 by businessman Thomas Amory, and later owned by scholar George Ticknor. It sits atop Beacon Hill, across from the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Street and the Boston Common on Park Street...
. In 1810 Ticknor began the study of law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
, and he was admitted to the bar in 1813. He opened an office in Boston, but practised for only one year, satisfying himself that his vocation, or at least his taste, lay in the direction of letters rather than of law. His father's circumstances were such as to enable him to consult his taste in the selection of his profession, and he went to Europe in 1815, for nearly two years studying at the University of Göttingen, attending the lectures of the university and devoting himself to philological studies, especially to the ancient classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
. After that, he remained two years longer in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, chiefly on the continent, passing most of his time in the capitals of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
doing critical studies of the national literatures.
In 1817, while still in Europe, he became Smith professor of French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
languages and literatures (a chair founded in 1816), and professor of belles-lettres at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. In 1819 he returned to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, bringing with him a valuable library. This in time grew to be one of the largest private collections in the country, and, for the rarity and importance of the books, was unsurpassed, in some of its departments. This is especially true of the collection of Spanish literature, which rivaled the best private ones in Europe. And it was particularly strong in Portuguese literature
Portuguese literature
This is a survey of Portuguese literature.The Portuguese language was developed gradually from the Vulgar language spoken in the countries which formed part of the Roman Empire and, both in morphology and syntax, it represents an organic transformation of Latin without the direct intervention of...
as well.
During his professorship Ticknor advocated the creation of departments, the grouping of students in divisions according to proficiency, and the establishment of the elective system, and reorganized his own department. He suggested valuable improvements in the system of discipline, for which he had derived the hints from the German universities. He had greatly extended the range of intellectual culture among the students at the university, where literary instruction had hitherto been confined to the classics, and gave long and elaborate courses of lectures on French
French literature
French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in French language, by citizens...
and Spanish literature
Spanish literature
Spanish literature generally refers to literature written in the Spanish language within the territory that presently constitutes the state of Spain...
. He also entered into a critical analysis of such writers as Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
, Goethe, Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
, and Shakespeare. The audience of the lectures, instead of being confined to students, was increased by persons without the walls of the college, who were attracted not merely by the interest of the subject, but by the skill of the critic, his luminous and often eloquent diction, and his impressive delivery. In 1835 he resigned his chair after holding it for 15 years, and returned to Europe. His successor, in 1836, in the professorship at Harvard was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
.
After his return he devoted himself to the chief work of his life, the history and criticism of Spanish literature
Spanish literature
Spanish literature generally refers to literature written in the Spanish language within the territory that presently constitutes the state of Spain...
, in many respects a new subject at that time even in Europe, there being no adequate treatment of the literature as a whole in Spanish. Both Friedrich Bouterwek
Friedrich Bouterwek
Friedrich Bouterwek , German philosopher and critic, was born to a mining director at Oker, today a district of Goslar in Lower Saxony, and studied law and philology under Christian Gottlob Heyne and Johann Georg Heinrich Feder at the University of Göttingen.After he had finished his studies he was...
and Jean Charles Leonard de Sismondi
Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi
Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi , whose real name was Simonde, was a writer born at Geneva. He is best known for his works on French and Italian history, and his economic ideas.-Early life:...
had worked with limited or secondhand resources. Ticknor developed in his college lectures the scheme of his more permanent work, which he published as the History of Spanish Literature (New York and London, 3 volumes, 1849). The book is not merely a story of Spanish letters, but, more broadly, of Spanish civilization and manners. The History is exhaustive and exact in scholarship, and direct and unpretentious in style. It gives many illustrative passages from representative works, and copious bibliographical references.
It was soon translated into Spanish (1851–1857) by Pascual de Gayangos y Arce
Pascual de Gayangos y Arce
Pascual de Gayangos y Arce was a Spanish scholar and orientalist.Born in Seville, he was the son of Brigadier José de Gayangos, intendente of Zacatecas, in New Spain. After completing his primary education in Madrid, at the age of thirteen he was sent to school at Pont-le-Voy near Blois...
and de Vedia; into French by Magnabal; and German by Nikolaus Heinrich Julius and Ferdinand Wolf
Ferdinand Wolf
Ferdinand Wolf was born in Germany in 1812. Wolf was a journalist by profession and a proletarian revolutionary. He joined the Communist League and became an editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung in 1848 and 1849. He was a close friend and associate of both Karl Marx and of Frederick Engels and...
. The second American edition appeared in 1854; the third corrected and enlarged, in 1863; the fourth, containing the author's last revision, in 1872, under the supervision of George Stillman Hillard
George Stillman Hillard
George Stillman Hillard was an American lawyer and author. Besides developing his Boston legal practice , he served in the Massachusetts legislature, edited several Boston journals, and wrote on literature, politics and travel.-Biography:Hillard was born at Machias, Maine on September 22, 1808...
; and the sixth in 1888.
Ticknor had succeeded his father as a member of the Primary School Board in 1822, and held this position until 1825; he was a trustee of the Boston Athenaeum in 1823-1832, and was vice-president in 1833; and he was a director (1827–1835) and vice-president (1841–1862) of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company, and a trustee of the Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital is a teaching hospital and biomedical research facility in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts...
(1826–1830) and of the Boston Provident Institution for Savings
Provident Institution for Savings in the Town of Boston
The Provident Institution for Savings in Boston, Massachusetts, was the first chartered savings bank in the United States. James Savage and others founded the bank on the belief that "savings banks would enable the less fortunate classes of society to better themselves in a manner which would...
(1838–1850), the bank that his father had helped to found.
He was especially active in the establishment of the Boston Public Library
Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to...
(1852), and served in 1852-1866 on its board of trustee
Trustee
Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...
s, of which he was president in 1865. On its behalf he spent fifteen months abroad in 1856-1857, at his own expense, and to it he gave at various times money and books; a special feature of his plan was a free circulating department. He also left his own collection of books to the library.
Works by Ticknor
- History of Spanish literature. v.1 (6th ed.); v.2 (4th ed.)
- Life, letters, and journals of George Ticknor. v.1 (1876 ed.); v.2 (1877 ed.). Ed. by George Stillman HillardGeorge Stillman HillardGeorge Stillman Hillard was an American lawyer and author. Besides developing his Boston legal practice , he served in the Massachusetts legislature, edited several Boston journals, and wrote on literature, politics and travel.-Biography:Hillard was born at Machias, Maine on September 22, 1808...
Ticknor's minor works include, besides occasional reviews and papers:
- Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on the History and Criticism of Spanish Literature (1823)
- Outline of the Principal Events in the Life of General LafayetteGilbert du Motier, marquis de La FayetteMarie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette , often known as simply Lafayette, was a French aristocrat and military officer born in Chavaniac, in the province of Auvergne in south central France...
(1825) - Remarks on Changes Lately Proposed or Adopted in Harvard University (1825)
- The Remains of Nathan Appleton Haven, with a Memoir of his Life (1827)
- Remarks on the Life and Writings of Daniel Webster (1831)
- Lecture on the Best Methods of Teaching the Living Languages, delivered, in 1832, before the American Institute of Education
- Life of William Hickling Prescott (1864).
Works about Ticknor
- Charles Henry Hart. Memoir of George Ticknor, historian of Spanish literature. Collins Printer, 1871
- "George Ticknor" in: Edwin Percy Whipple, Cyrus Augustus Bartol. Recollections of eminent men: with other papers. Boston: Ticknor and Company, 1886; p. 244+
- Sheila Heti. Ticknor, Fictionalized account of the relationship between George Ticknor and William H. Prescott. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006