Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 29, 2009



Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894) was an American physician, professor, lecturer and author. Regarded by his peers as one of the best poets of the 19th century, he is considered a member of the Fireside Poets. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858). Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Holmes was educated at Phillips Academy and Harvard College. He began writing poetry at an early age; one of his most famous works, "Old Ironsides", was published in 1830. Following training at the prestigious medical schools of Paris, Holmes was granted his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1836. He taught at Dartmouth Medical School before returning to teach at Harvard and, for a time, served as dean there. During his long professorship, he became an advocate for various medical reforms and notably posited the then-controversial idea that doctors were responsible for carrying puerperal fever from patient to patient. Holmes retired from Harvard in 1882 and continued writing poetry, novels and essays until his death in 1894. Surrounded by Boston's literary elite&mdash;which included friends such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James Russell Lowell&mdash;Holmes made an indelible imprint on the 19th century literary world. Holmes's writing often commemorated his native Boston area, and much of it was meant to be humorous or conversational. Holmes also coined several terms that are now popular, including "anesthesia" and "Boston Brahmin". (more...)

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