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=                          Barrett_Wendell                           =
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                            Introduction
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Barrett Wendell (August 23, 1855 - February 8, 1921) was an American
academic known for a series of textbooks including 'English
Composition,' studies of 'Cotton Mather' and 'William Shakespeare,' 'A
Literary History of America,' 'The France of Today,' and 'The
Traditions of European Literature.'


                             Early life
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Wendell was born in Boston on August 23, 1855. He was the son of Jacob
and Mary Bertodi ( Barrett) Wendell. His parents married in Boston in
1854, about a year after his father had moved from Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, and joined the firm of J.C. Howe & Co. Among his three
younger brothers were Gordon Wendell, philanthropist and athlete Evert
Jansen Wendell, and actor Jacob Wendell.

His paternal grandparents were Jacob Wendell Sr. and Mehitable Rindge
( Rogers) Wendell. The first Wendell, Evert Jansen, left the
Netherlands in 1640 and settled in Albany, New York. His maternal
grandparents were Boston merchant Nathaniel Augustus Barrett and Sally
( Dorr) Barrett. Both the Barrett and Dorr families had deep roots in
colonial America, with the Dorrs making their fortune in the fur
trade.

Wendell graduated from Harvard in the class of 1877 with Abbott
Lawrence Lowell, who was later a president of Harvard. At Harvard,
Wendell was a member of The Lampoon.


                               Career
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In 1880, he was appointed Instructor in English at Harvard. He later
became an Assistant Professor of English from 1888 to 1898, and a
Professor of English from 1898 to 1917, after which he was a professor
emeritus. He was also elected to the Harvard Board of Overseers.

In 1904 to 1905, he travelled overseas, and lectured at Cambridge
University in England, the Sorbonne in Paris, and other French
universities. After this visit he wrote 'The France of Today'.

He was a trustee of the Boston Athenaeum, a member of the
Massachusetts Historical Society, and a Fellow of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences in 1916. He received honorary degrees from
Harvard and Columbia University, and an LL.D. from the University of
Strasbourg in France. He was an early member of the American Academy
of Arts and Letters.


                           Personal life
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On June 1, 1880, Wendell was married to Edith Greenough (1859-1938) at
Quincy, Massachusetts. Edith was a daughter of William Whitwell
Greenough and Catharine Scollay ( Curtis) Greenough. Edith was a
national leader of movements to preserve historical sites. Together,
they were the parents of four children:

* Barrett Wendell Jr. (1881-1973), an investment banker who married
Barbara Higginson, granddaughter of the founder of Lee, Higginson
& Co.
* Mary Barrett Wendell (1883-1975), who married Geoffrey Manilus
Wheelock. They divorced and she married Reinier van der Woude.
* William Greenough Wendell (1888-1967), who married Ruth Appleton, a
daughter of Francis R. Appleton. They divorced in 1938 and he married
Evelyn Fahnestock, a daughter of Ernest Fahnestock.
* Edith Wendell (1893-1963), who married publisher and Mayor of
Auburn, New York Charles Devens Osborne in 1913.

Wendell died in Boston on February 8, 1921. His widow died in Boston
in October 1938.


Descendants
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Through his daughter Mary, he was a grandfather of Reiner Garrit Anton
van der Woude Jr., who married his second cousin, Lady Anne Penelope
Herbert, a daughter of Henry Herbert, 6th Earl of Carnarvon and the
former Anne Catherine Tredick Wendell (Wendell's niece).


                           Selected works
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* 'The Duchess Emilia: A romance', Boston: James R. Osgood and Co.,
1885.
*
[https://books.google.com/books?id=O80TAAAAYAAJ&q=Cotton+Mather,+the+Puritan+Priest
'Cotton Mather, the Puritan priest'], New York, Dodd, Mead and Co.,
1891.
*
'[https://www.google.com/books/edition/English_Composition/R14RAAAAYAAJ
English composition: Eight lectures given at the Lowell Institute]',
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1891.
* 'Some neglected characteristics of the New England Puritans', 1892
* 'William Shakespeare, a study in Elizabethan literature', New York:
C. Scribner's Sons, 1894.
* 'Rankell’s remains: An American novel', New York: C. Scribner's
Sons, 1896.
* 'A literary history of America', New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1901.
* 'Ralegh in Guiana, Rosamond, and a Christmas Masque', New York: C.
Scribner's Sons, 1902 (Boston: Merrymount Press)
* 'The France of today', New York: C. Scribner, 1907.
* 'The privileged classes', New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1908.
* 'The mystery of education, and other academic performances', New
York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1909.
* 'The traditions of European literature, from Homer to Dante', New
York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1920.


                              See also
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*Mark Antony De Wolfe Howe
*'The Harvard Monthly'


                           External links
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*
* [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~nnnotables/zbawe.html
Barrett Wendell genealogy chart]


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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrett_Wendell