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JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, 1819-1891
[Illustration: J.R. LOWELL]
Early Years.--James Russell Lowell, the son of the Rev. Charles Lowell, was
a descendant of one of the best of the old New England families. The city
of Lowell and the Lowell Institute of Boston received their names from
uncles of the author. His mother's name was Spence, and she used to tell
her son that the Spence family, which was of Scotch origin, was descended
from Sir Patrick Spens of ballad fame. She loved to sing to her boy in the
gloaming:--
"O forty miles off Aberdeen,
'Tis fifty fathoms deep,
And there lies gude Sir Patrick Spens,
Wi' the Scots lords at his feet."
[Illustration: LOWELL'S MOTHER]
From her Celtic blood her son inherited a tendency toward poetry. When a
child, he was read to sleep with Spenser's _Faerie Queene_ and he found
amusement in retelling its stories to his playmates.
James Russell Lowell was born in 1819, in the suburbs of Cambridge,
Massachusetts, in the fine old historic home called "Elmwood," which was
one of the few homes to witness the birth and death of a great American
author and to remain his native residence for seventy-two years.
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