Barrett Wendell (August 23, 1855 – February 8, 1921) was an American academic known for a series of textbooks including English Composition, studies of Cotton Mather and William Shakespeare, A Literary History of America, The France of Today, and The Traditions of European Literature.

Early life

Wendell was born in Boston on August 23, 1855. He was the son of Jacob and Mary Bertodi ( Barrett) Wendell. His parents married in Boston in 1854, about a year after his father had moved from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and joined the firm of J.C. Howe & Co. Among his three younger brothers were Gordon Wendell, philanthropist and athlete Evert Jansen Wendell, and actor Jacob Wendell. His paternal grandparents were Jacob Wendell Sr. and Mehitable Rindge ( Rogers) Wendell. The first Wendell, Evert Jansen, left the Netherlands in 1640 and settled in Albany, New York. His maternal grandparents were Boston merchant Nathaniel Augustus Barrett and Sally ( Dorr) Barrett. Both the Barrett and Dorr families had deep roots in colonial America, with the Dorrs making their fortune in the fur trade. Wendell graduated from Harvard in the class of 1877 with Abbott Lawrence Lowell, who was later a president of Harvard. At Harvard, Wendell was a member of The Lampoon.

Career

In 1880, he was appointed Instructor in English at Harvard. He later became an Assistant Professor of English from 1888 to 1898, and a Professor of English from 1898 to 1917, after which he was a professor emeritus. He was also elected to the Harvard Board of Overseers. In 1904 to 1905, he travelled overseas, and lectured at Cambridge University in England, the Sorbonne in Paris, and other French universities. After this visit he wrote The France of Today. He was a trustee of the Boston Athenaeum, a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1916. He received honorary degrees from Harvard and Columbia University, and an LL.D. from the University of Strasbourg in France. He was an early member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Personal life

On June 1, 1880, Wendell was married to Edith Greenough (1859–1938) at Quincy, Massachusetts. Edith was a daughter of William Whitwell Greenough and Catharine Scollay ( Curtis) Greenough. Edith was a national leader of movements to preserve historical sites. Together, they were the parents of four children: Wendell died in Boston on February 8, 1921. His widow died in Boston in October 1938.

Descendants

Through his daughter Mary, he was a grandfather of Reiner Garrit Anton van der Woude Jr., who married his second cousin, Lady Anne Penelope Herbert, a daughter of Henry Herbert, 6th Earl of Carnarvon and the former Anne Catherine Tredick Wendell (Wendell's niece).

Selected works