John Greenleaf Whittier

Poet and writer, born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, USA. Although he had little formal education, he studied for one year at Haverhill Academy (1827) and then taught there (1827–8). He began writing poetry as a youth, but started making his living as a newspaper editor (1829–32). A devout Quaker, he thereafter directed much of his energies throughout the Civil War to promoting abolitionism, both as an editor of several anti-slavery periodicals, and through his poetry, such as his collection, Voice of Freedom (1846). He also spent one term in the Massachusetts legislature (1835–7) and ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives (1842). He opposed the Mexican War, and was among those who proposed founding the Republican Party. A founder of the Atlantic Monthly (1857), he remained a contributor, and after the Civil War he lived (from 1876) in Amesburg and Denvers, MA. Although he wrote a fair amount of critical essays and some fiction, he was highly popular in his day as one of the so-called ‘household poets’, and several of his ballads and genre poems, such as ‘Barefoot Boy’ (1856), ‘Barbara Fritchie’ (1864), and ‘Snow-Bound’ (1866), survive as classic Americana.

He was born to John and Abigail (Hussey) Whittier at the rural Whittier homestead in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Highly regarded in his lifetime and for a period thereafter (several New England states had holidays in his honor, and Whittier, California, was named for him), he is now remembered largely for the patriotic poem Barbara Frietchie, as well as for a number of poems turned into hymns, some of which remain exceedingly popular. Best known is probably Dear Lord and Father of Mankind taken from his poem The Brewing of Soma, but Whittier's Quaker thought is better illustrated by the hymn that begins:

It also shows in his poem "To Rönge" in honour of Johannes Ronge, the German religious figure and rebel leader of the 1848 rebellion in Germany:

His words still reverberate today, particularly through his poem "Maud Muller" with its famous line: "For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: 'It might have been!'"

Whittier died at Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, and is buried in Amesbury, Massachusetts. His birthplace, the John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead in Haverhill, is now a museum open to the public, as is the John Greenleaf Whittier Home in Amesbury, his residence for 56 years.

A bridge named for Whittier, built in the style of the Sagamore and Bourne Bridges spanning Cape Cod Canal, carries Interstate 95 from Amesbury to Newburyport over the Merrimack River. The city of Whittier, California and the town of Greenleaf, Idaho were named in his honor. Both Whittier College and Whittier Law School are also named in his honor.

Whittier's hometown of Haverhill, Massachusetts has named many buildings and landmarks in his honor including J.G. Whittier Middle School, Greenleaf Elementary, and Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School. Whittier's family farm, John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead aka "Whittier's Birthplace" is now a historic site open to the public.

The alternate history story P.'s Correspondence (1846) by Nathaniel Hawthorne, considered the first such story ever published in English, includes the notice "Whittier, a fiery Quaker youth, to whom the muse had perversely assigned a battle-trumpet, got himself lynched, in South Carolina".