biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1831–97)
|
| biography:
| Historian and librarian, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Stemming from his early interest in history, his first book, A History of the Town of Duxbury, was published in 1849 during his freshman year at Harvard. He left in 1852 without taking a degree, travelled in Europe, then returned to Boston (1854) and began writing criticism, poetry, and fiction for various periodicals. He became a trustee and then director (1868–77) of the Boston Public Library. During his 20-year tenure as librarian of Harvard College (1877–97), he became the first president of the American Library Association (1876–85) and a co-founder of the American Library Journal. As a historian, he wrote such ground-breaking works as The Reader's Handbook of the American Revolution (1880), A Narrative and Critical History of America (1884–9), The Mississippi Basin (1895), and The Westward Movement (1897). His interest in and use of maps made him the leading historical cartographer of his day. |
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