John Henry Wright
John Henry Wright | |
|---|---|
American Philological Association American Academy of Arts and Sciences | |
| Notable work | "Masterpieces of Greek literature" (1902) "A History of All Nations from the Earliest Times" (24 volumes, 1905) "The Origin of Plato's Cave" (1906) |
| Spouse | Mary Tappan Wright |
| Children | Elizabeth Tappan Wright, Austin Tappan Wright, John Kirtland Wright |
| Parent(s) | Austin Hazen Wright, Catherine Myers Wright |
| Signature | |
 | |
John Henry Wright (February 4, 1852 – November 25, 1908)
Some of Wright's most notable works are A History of All Nations from the Earliest Times (1905), a 24–volume history of the world; the translations Masterpieces of Greek literature (1902); and The Origin of
In 1893 Wright met the Indian
Wright received LL.D.s from Dartmouth and Case Western Reserve University in 1901. He died on 25 November 1908 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[2]
Early life
Wright was born on 4 February 1852 in Urumiah, Persia. His father, Dr. Austin Hazen Wright (1811-1865) was a medical missionary (Dartmouth alumnus, 1830) in Persia from 1840 to 1865, with an interest in archaeology;[2][5][6] and an Oriental scholar.[2] Wright's mother was Catherine Myers Wright (1821-1888).[1] Wright's older sister was the classical archaeologist, Lucy Myers Wright Mitchell.[6]
In 1873, Wright obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College and three years later, he obtained his Master of Arts degree from the same school. Afterwards he studied
Career
In 1873, he worked in Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College (now known as Ohio State University) as an associate professor of ancient languages (Greek and Latin), being part of the school's first faculty. Teaching graduate studies and doing research in classical antiquity were his forte, which brought him fame. As there was a dearth of faculty to teach his specialization of classical archaeology and Greek history, he created courses on these subjects. He left in 1876.[1] In 1878, he joined Dartmouth College as an associate professor where he taught Greek and German, working at Dartmouth till 1886.[1]
In 1886, he was appointed professor of classical philology and Dean of the Collegiate Board of Johns Hopkins, and a year later was assigned as professor of Greek at Harvard; in 1895 he became Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.[7] He retained the post at Harvard till 1908.[1]
In 1906, he went to Athens, Greece and worked as an annual professor at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens until 1907.[1]
Scholarly works
Wright wrote, edited and translated many books, monographs and scholarly papers. Some of his earlier notable works are— An Address on the Place of Original Research in Collegiate Education (1882), The College in the University and Classical Philology in the College (1886), translation of Collignon's Manual of Greek Archæology (1886), etc.
In 1902, Wright edited and published Masterpieces of Greek literature. In this book, he translated and published selections of most notable Greek literature including works of Homer, Tyrtaeus, Archilochus, Callistratus, Alcaeus, Sappho, Anacreon, Pindar, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato, Theocritus and Lucian. The book also included short biographical sketches on these philosophers and writers and explanatory notes and analysis.[10] In 1904, he read a paper "Present Problems of the History of the Classical Literature'" at the Congress of Arts and Sciences at the St. Louis Exposition.
In 1905, he served as editor, translator and supervisor on
In 1906, Wright published "The Origin of Plato's Cave," an outgrowth of his interest in the archaeological excavations of the Cave of Vari on Mt. Hymettus near Athens.[1] In this article he deals with the antecedents of the allegory of the cave that the philosopher introduced in the opening of the seventh book of the Republic. Wright demonstrated that the attributes of the allegorical cave closely matched the actual one; he concluded they were likely based on it, with the possible influence of additional elements from the Empedocles' poem Purifications and the Quarry-Grottos of Syracuse.[12]
Other activities
In 1893, he became a fellow of American Association of Arts and Sciences. In the same year he was a member of
He was a member of New England Classical Association and was the president at its first annual meeting which was held in Springfield in April, 1906.[1] He worked as a co-editor of Classical Review from 1889 to 1906 and then of its successor Classical Quarterly in 1907. From 1897 to 1906 he was the chief editor of the American Journal of Archaeology.[1] He was also one of the notable contributing editors to the classical section of the Twentieth Century Text Books.[2]
Personal life
He married, on 2 April 1879 in
Legacy
Wright is considered as one of the most eminent American scholars of the nineteenth century. According to C. B. Gullick "His range in teaching was encyclopaedic, and a keen critical sense, fortified with wide reading, gave him what seemed like the power of divination in interpreting difficult texts".
Relationship with Swami Vivekananda
In 1893, Swami Vivekananda went to the United States to the Parliament of the World's Religions as a delegate of Hinduism and India. After reaching Chicago on 30 July 1893 he learned that no one could attend the Parliament as delegate without credential or bona fide. He did not have one at that moment and he felt utterly disappointed. He also learned the Parliament would not open till first week of September. But, Vivekananda did not give up his hope. To cut his expenditure he decided to go to Boston which was less costly than Chicago.[4]
On August 25, 1893, at Boston, Vivekananda met Wright for the first time.[3] Wright was amazed by Vivekananda's profound knowledge and urged him to attend the upcoming Parliament as a speaker. He was so much astonished that he invited Vivekananda to stay in his house as a guest. From August 25 to 27, 1893, Vivekananda stayed at Wright's house at 8 Arlington Street.[3]
When Vivekananda told Wright that he did not have any credential or bona fide to attend the Parliament he reportedly told him— "To ask you, Swami, for your credentials is like asking the sun about its right to shine." Then Wright himself wrote a letter of introduction to the chairman of the Parliament of the World's Religion and suggested to him to invite Vivekananda as a speaker stating — "Here is a man who is more learned than all our learned professors put together."[4][16][17] Wright also learned that Vivekananda did not have enough money to buy a railway ticket, so, he bought him a railway ticket too.[18] Even after the conclusion of the Parliament, they kept in touch with each other through correspondence.[19] Vivekananda remained ever thankful to Wright for his help and kindness. In a letter written on 18 June 1894, Vivekananda addressed Wright as brother and wrote — "Stout hearts like yours are not common, my brother. This is a queer place — this world of ours. On the whole I am very very thankful to the Lord for the amount of kindness I have received at the hands of the people of this country — I, a complete stranger here without even 'credentials'. Everything works for the best."[20]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Briggs 1994, p. 729
- ^ JSTOR 20025660.
- ^ a b c "Chronology of Swami Vivekananda in the West" (PDF). Vedanta Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 4, 2013. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
- ^ a b c Bhuyan 2003, p. 16
- ^ Cohen & Kangas 2010, pp. 9, 32.
- ^ a b Dyson, Stephen L. "Lucy Wright Mitchell, 1845-1888" (PDF). Brown University. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
- ^ American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1916, p. 930.
- ^ Wright 1886, pp. introduction
- ^ Wright 1886a, pp. preface
- ^ Wright 1902, pp. preface
- ^ Wright 1905, pp. preface
- JSTOR 310313.
- ^ "Among the Authors" – article, New York Times, July 14, 1912, p. BR412.
- ^ Hairston 2013, p. 134.
- ^ American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1916, p. 932.
- ^ Bhide 2008, p. 16.
- ^ Banhatti 1995, p. 27.
- ^ Majumdar 1965, p. 39
- ^ "Letters written by Swami Vivekananda". Archived from the original on September 15, 2013. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
- ^ "Vivekananda letter 18 June 1894". Archived from the original on September 15, 2013. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
Sources
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Bibliography
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1916). Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Public domain ed.). Metcalf and Company. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
- Banhatti, Gopal Shrinivas (1995). Life And Philosophy Of Swami Vivekananda. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. ISBN 978-81-7156-291-6.
- Bhide, Nivedita Raghunath (2008). Swami Vivekananda in America. Vivekananda Kendra. ISBN 978-81-89248-22-2.
- Bhuyan, P. R. (2003). Swami Vivekananda: Messiah of Resurgent India. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. ISBN 978-81-269-0234-7.
- Briggs, Ward W. (1994). Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-24560-2.
- Cohen, Ada; Kangas, Steven E. (2010). Assyrian Reliefs from the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II: A Cultural Biography. UPNE. ISBN 978-1-58465-817-7.
- Hairston, Eric Ashley (June 30, 2013). The Ebony Column: Classics, Civilization, and the African American Reclamation of the West. Univ. of Tennessee Press. ISBN 978-1-57233-984-2.
- Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra (1965). Svāmī Vivekānanda: a historical review. General Printers & Publishers.
- Wright's books
- Wright, John (1886). The college in the university and classical philology in the college. Baltimore.
- Wright, John (1886a). A manual of Greek archæology. Baltimore.
- Wright, John (1902). Masterpieces of Greek literature. Boston, Houghton.
- Wright, John (1905). A History of All Nations from the Earliest Times. OL 7050364M.
External links
- Works by or about John Henry Wright at Internet Archive
- John Henry Wright at the Database of Classical Scholars
- The Papers of the Wright Family at Dartmouth College Library