Dana, RICHARD HENRY

Dana, RICHARD HENRY, an American poet and prose writer, was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 15th November 1787. He was educated at Harvard College, and was admitted to the bar at Boston in 1811. In 1818 he became associate editor of the North American Review, to which he contributed largely. Some of his poems, such as The Dying Raven (1821), and The Buccaneer (1827), were warmly praised by critics on both sides of the Atlantic. The American public, however, received them coldly, partly because it was not at that time educated up to the standard of Dana's work, but chiefly because that work, with all its literary merits, such as learning, neatness of execution, and precision in verbal expression, lacked the elements which most appeal to the popular feelings. Dana's best literary work was done in the field of criticism. His abilities as a critic were very decided; and though many of his best efforts were not duly appreciated in his day, they did much to educate and elevate the literary taste of New England. A collection of his prose and verse appeared in 1833. He was for a time in 1821–22 connected with The Idle Man, a meritorious though ill-supported literary periodical. He died at Boston, 2d February 1879.—His son, RICHARD H. DANA, author and lawyer, was born 1st August 1815, and graduated at Harvard College in 1837. During an interval in his collegiate career, occasioned in part by a troublesome affection of the eyes, he shipped as a common sailor, and made a voyage to California and back. This voyage he described in Two Years before the Mast (1840), the best book of the kind in the language; in 1840 he was admitted to the Massachusetts bar. As a lawyer he attained great distinction, especially in the department of maritime law. Among his works are The Seaman's Friend (1841) and To Cuba and Back (1859). He also published an edition of Wheaton's International Law, and was prominent as a Free-soiler and Republican. In 1879 he was nominated minister to England, but after a long contest the senate failed to confirm the appointment. He died in Rome, 7th Jan. 1882. See Life by C. F. Adams (2 vols. 1890).