Everett, Edward b.April II, 1794; Dorchester, Massachusetts d. January 15, 1865; Boston, Massachusetts
Everett is primarily remembered today as the “other” orator at Gettysburg, when Abraham Lincoln delivered his historic address, and secondarily as the holder of numerous public offices, as well as the presidency of Harvard College, but he is not widely known as a cultural intermediary between Germany and the United States.
In fact, Everett was among the early contributors to the wave of enthusiasm for the German language and literature that swept the New England intellectual elite in the early nineteenth century. After his graduation from Harvard in 1811 and a brief ministerial career, Everett accepted a newly endowed chair of Greek literature at his alma mater, an appointment that allowed him to travel and study in Europe prior to assuming his teaching responsibilities. Accompanied by his friend, George Ticknor, he left for Europe in 1815 and returned four years later. After a brief tour of Europe, the two nascent scholars enrolled at the University of Gottingen, which, thanks largely to their influence, was to become a de facto graduate school for Harvard graduates who were later to gain prominence, such as George Bancroft, Joseph Green Cogswell, and John Lothrop Motley. Everett immersed himself in his studies with prodigious enthusiasm and energy, concentrating on Greek, while studying subjects as diverse as modern history, civil law, Hebrew, and German language and literature. While in Germany he found time to write book reviews for the North American Review, the most important of which was a forty-five-page review of
Edward Everett, ca. 1863. (Library of Congress)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Dichtung und Wahrheit (Poetry and Truth), considered to be the first important article on Goethe written in an American journal.
After completing his PhD in 1817, probably the first American to receive that degree at Gottingen, Everett returned to Harvard in 1819. During his brief teaching career, he introduced German philological methodology to his students of Greek.As a student and young professor, Everett clearly made a substantial contribution to American understanding and appreciation of German culture. This was especially true in the case of Goethe, who had been known primarily through indifferent translations of The Sorrows of the Young Werther (1774) and selected passages from Faust. During their stay at Gottingen, he and Ticknor had undertaken a pilgrimage to Weimar, where they had an interview with Goethe. Even though Everett viewed Goethe as somewhat stiff and cold, he persisted in his admiration of him. In his review of Dichtung und Wahrheit (1817), Everett made a plea for a greater understading of the poet, while comparing some of the passages in Faust with the writing of William Shakespeare. While in Germany, Everett also laid the groundwork for the subsequent German collection at the Harvard library. With a grant of $500 from the Harvard College, he purchased German grammars and dictionaries, Greek lexicons, and other works. He also began negotiations with Goethe to acquire his writings, which culminated in the eventual purchase through Joseph Cogswell of a twenty-volume edition of Goethe’s works for the library. During his teaching career at Harvard, Everett was also editor of the North American Review, in which he published reviews of several German authors. During the same period, he translated a prominent Greek grammar and a reader, which reflected current German scholarship, for the benefit of his students.
In spite of such promise as a teacher and scholar, Everett decided by 1824 to turn his abundant energies to public life, virtually terminating his intensive involvement in German culture. His change of career was partly attributable to his dissatisfaction with teaching immature youths and partly because of his admiration for Daniel Webster, who became Everett’s mentor.
As Webster’s protege, Everett became a member of the House of Representatives, governor of Massachusetts, and ambassador to Great Britain. After his return from England, he became presidentof Harvard College from 1846 to 1849. When Webster died in 1852, Everett succeeded his mentor as secretary of state until 1853 and then served briefly as senator from Massachusetts (1853-1854). One of his last acts of public service reflected his student days at Gottingen, where he and Ticknor had been favorably impressed with the extensive university library. Inspired by these impressions, he joined Ticknor in founding the Boston Public Library and served as president of its board from 1852 to 1864. In this way, too, Germany played a role in the legacy that Everett left to his city and nation.
John T Walker
See also American Students at German
Universities; Bancroft, George; Encyclopaedia Americana; Gottingen, University of; Motley, John Lothrop;
Ticknor, George
References and Further Reading
Bartlett, Irving H. “Edward Everett Reconsidered.” New England Quarterly 69, no. 3 (September 1996): 426-460.
Frothingham, Paul Revere. Edward Everett: Orator and Statesman. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1925.
Long, Orie. Literary Pioneers: Early American Explorers of European Culture. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1935.
Pochmann, Henry A. German Culture in America: Philosophical and Literary Influences, 1600-1900. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1957.