Thomas Sergeant Perry

Lilla Cabot Perry, Thomas Sergeant Perry, 1889

Thomas Sergeant Perry (1845–1928) was an American editor, academic, literary critic, literary translator, and literary historian. He was a lifelong friend and associate of Henry James and a member of the faculty at Harvard University.

Early life

Thomas Sergeant Perry was born on January 23, 1845 in Newport, Rhode Island. His parents were Christopher Grant Perry and Frances Sergeant Perry. His paternal grandparents were Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, brother of Commodore Matthew C. Perry, and Elizabeth Champlin Mason Perry.[1][2] His maternal grandparents were Thomas Sergeant, a judge of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, and Sarah Bache Sergeant. His father's family line goes back to Edward Perry and Mary Freeman Perry who lived in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1635. On his mother's side, one of his ancestors is Benjamin Franklin;[1] Perry was his great-great-grandson.[2]

He was a childhood friend of Henry James, with whom he attended Reverend W.C. Leverett's school in Newport, Rhode Island,[3] before the Civil War.[4] Perry met John LaFarge, who later married his sister Margaret, through James.[2]

Education

Perry earned his Bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1866 and his Masters in 1869. He studied in Paris and Berlin between 1866 and 1868.[1]

Marriage

He married Lilla Cabot, an American painter who was an important figure in Impressionism in the United States, on April 9, 1874.[5][6]

Career

Between 1868 and 1872, he was a tutor in German at Harvard. He was an English instructor in English for 1877 to 1881 and an English literature lecturer from 1881 to 82. In 1898, he became professor of English literature in the Keiogijku University, in Tokyo, Japan.[1]

He was a prolific essayist, writing on a wide variety of authors, including Alfred de Musset, Arthur Hugh Clough, Berthold Auerbach, Fritz Reuter, George Sand, Ivan Turgenev, Mark Twain, Edward Fitzgerald, Sir Walter Scott, Victor Cherbuliez, Victor Hugo, William Blake, and William Dean Howells, for a variety of American literary publications, including North American Review and The Century.[7]

Edwin Arlington Robinson dedicated his book of poetry, The Three Taverns, to Lilla and Thomas Perry.[8] Thomas Sergeant Perry died on May 7, 1928 after having been sick with pneumonia.[9]

Works

His published works include:[1]

Editor
Author
Translator

He also made translations from French and German.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 John Howard Brown (1903). Lamb's Biographical Dictionary of the United States: Newton-Sears. VI. James H. Lamb Company. p. 224.
  2. 1 2 3 James L. Yarnall; John La Farge (2012). John La Farge, a Biographical and Critical Study. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-4094-1172-7.
  3. ↑ James Henry (2 January 2014). Henry James: A Life in Letters. Penguin Books Limited. p. PT37. ISBN 978-0-14-192213-3.
  4. ↑ Henry James; Leon Edel. Letters. Harvard University Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-674-38780-5.
  5. ↑ Carol Kort; Liz Sonneborn (January 1, 2002). A to Z of American Women in the Visual Arts. Infobase Publishing. p. 178. ISBN 978-1-4381-0791-2.
  6. ↑ American Women Artists 1830-1930. Washington, D.C.: The National Museum of Women in the Arts. 1987. p. 50. ISBN 0-940979-02-0.
  7. ↑ "Thomas Sergeant Perry (1845-1928)". American Literature sites, Washington State University. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
  8. ↑ Edwin Arlington Robinson (1920). The Three Taverns: A Book of Poems. Macmillan. p. 11.
  9. ↑ Eric L. Haralson; Kendall Johnson (2009). Critical Companion to Henry James: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. Infobase Publishing. p. 429. ISBN 978-1-4381-1727-0.

Further reading

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