Robert Herrick (novelist)
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United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
realists. His novels deal with the turbulence of industrialized society and the turmoil it can create in sensitive, isolated people. He was also briefly acting-Governor of the United States Virgin Islands in 1935.
Herrick was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, April 21, 1868, and attended 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...
, where he received a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in 1890. In 1894 he married Harriett Peabody Emery with whom he had a son Phillip Abbot Herrick and daughters Alice Freeman Palmer Herrick and Harriet Peabody Herrick. He later taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. From 1905 to 1923, he was a professor of literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, during which time he wrote thirteen novels. Among those considered to be his finest was Web of Life (1900).
Herrick was praised by William James
William James
William James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
for his frank and clear-eyed views, and his work can be compared to that of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
's George Gissing
George Gissing
George Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published twenty-three novels between 1880 and 1903. From his early naturalistic works, he developed into one of the most accomplished realists of the late-Victorian era.-Early life:...
. Both writers developed themes of social discontent, the changing role of women, and the effects of social isolation. While seeing his world with a critical eye, Herrick escaped the shrill tone of muckraking writers like Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...
. His art was free of dogmatic isms and achieves its power from a melancholic fatalism. He dreaded the brutality and ignorance of the mob as much as he despised the avarice and ennui of the upper class. Herrick was suspicious of political doctrines and utopian legislation, feeling that true progress for human happiness must always lie in individuals making moral choices.
In January 1935, he was appointed as a Secretary to the United States Virgin Islands. During a political scandal involving then-Governor Paul Martin Pearson
Paul Martin Pearson
Dr. Paul Martin Pearson was an author, college professor, and a very embattled first civilian Governor of the United States Virgin Islands....
, both Pearson and his Lieutenant Governor
Lieutenant Governor of the United States Virgin Islands
The following is a list of Lieutenant Governors of the United States Virgin Islands.*David Earle Maas - Republican...
, Lawrence William Cramer
Lawrence William Cramer
Lawrence William Cramer was the second civilian Governor of the United States Virgin Islands.Cramer was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and obtained a master's degree from Columbia University. He then spent two years in the United States...
, were called away to testify before the Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
. Pearson was ultimately forced to resign and Cramer was appointed as his replacement, but he was forced to remain in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, until the conclusion of the hearings. During this period, Herrick was acting-Governor of the Islands, presiding over legislative sessions.
Herrick died of a heart attack on December 23, 1938 while in Charlotte Amalie
Charlotte Amalie, United States Virgin Islands
-Education:St. Thomas-St. John School District serves the community. and Charlotte Amalie High School serve the area.-Gallery:-See also:* Anna's Retreat* Cruz Bay* Saint Thomas* Water Island-External links:* *...
, St. Thomas
Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Saint Thomas is an island in the Caribbean Sea and with the islands of Saint John, Saint Croix, and Water Island a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands , an unincorporated territory of the United States. Located on the island is the territorial capital and port of...
, U.S. Virgin Islands.