Chapter Oliver Wendell Holmes of Index by Simonds History of American Literature

Medicine.

In 1832, Holmes turned from law to medicine, and the next year went abroad to study his profession. He remained in Europe, for the most part in Paris, between two and three years, but received his degree from the Harvard Medical School in 1836; at the same commencement he read before the Phi Beta Kappa society the poem entitled Poetry, a Metrical Essay. Dr. Holmes began the practice of medicine in Boston, but was called in 1839 to the professorship of anatomy in Dartmouth College. Resigning this position after a year's service, he returned to Boston in 1840, the year of his marriage to Miss Amelia Jackson. In 1847, he was appointed professor of anatomy and physiology at Harvard, a position which he filled actively for thirty-five years -- a conscientious and successful instructor, characteristically enlivening his class-room with the brightness of his own high spirits. He wrote frequently upon professional topics and produced some noted medical essays.

Literature Again.

Two volumes of Poems had appeared previous to 1850, but, with the exception of the compositions already mentioned, nothing of especial distinction had been published. In 1857, however, the Atlantic Monthly began its brilliant course, and Dr. Holmes became forthwith a conspicuous figure in the literary life of America. It was, indeed, upon condition that Holmes should be engaged as the "first contributor" that Lowell accepted the editorship of the new magazine. And accordingly the first number of the Atlantic -- a name happily chosen by Dr. Holmes himself -- contained the first installment of that work which is most closely associated with its author's literary fame, -- the new Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table.

The Autocrat.

Dr. Holmes was forty-eight years old when the sparkling pages of the Autocrat began to appear. Beginning whimsically with the sentence, "I was just going to say, when I was interrupted," the speaker resumed the thread of genial comment which had been dropped a quarter of a century before. The scene of colloquy is at the breakfast-table in a typical Boston boarding-house. The "characters" who comprise the company are lightly sketched: the landlady's sentimental daughter who is wont to receive the statements of the speaker with a rising "yes?" the ingenious youth "B.F.," the divinity student, the professor, the "old gentleman who sits opposite," the little school-mistress, and the Autocrat himself -- who presides so wisely and talks to such excellent effect. There is, too, a tiny romance, as a relish; but the charm of the volume is in the conversation, which is simple and familiar, never commonplace. Shrewd observations, witty comment, happily turned epigrams, pithy phrases, bits of wisdom, passages of fantastic humor blend inimitably. Sometimes it is an odd comparison that provokes a smile -- as when the difficulty of "winding- up" a poem suggests the analogy to a diffident caller who finds it hard to get out of a room after the visit is really over:--

"They want to be off, and you want to have them off, but they don't know how to manage it. One would think they had been built in your parlor or study, and were waiting to be launched."

Or this:--

"Writing or printing is like shooting with a rifle; you may hit your reader's mind, or miss it; but talking is like playing at a mark with the pipe of an engine; if it is within reach, and you have time enough, you can't help hitting it."

Here, too, Holmes introduced some of his best-known verse. Contentment, Parson Turell's Legacy, and the never-to-be-forgotten narrative of The Deacon's Masterpiece; or, The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay, are among the humorous poems presented in the Autocrat. It is not always understood that this