RARE "Rireside Poets" Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr Cut Signature COA For Sale

Up for sale a RARE! "Rireside Poets" Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr Cut Signature.

ES-3259

Oliver Wendell Holmes (/hoʊmz/; August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894) was in Boston. A member of the Fireside Poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the

best writers of the day. His most famous prose works are the

"Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat

of the Breakfast-Table (1858). He was also an important

medical reformer. In addition to his work as an author and poet, Holmes also

served as a physician, professor, lecturer and inventor and, although he never

practiced it, he received formal training in law. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts,

Holmes was educated at Phillips Academy and Harvard College. After graduating from Harvard in 1829, he

briefly studied law before turning to the medical profession. He began writing

poetry at an early age; one of his most famous works, "Old Ironsides", was

published in 1830 and was influential in the eventual preservation of the USS Constitution. Following training at the

prestigious medical schools of Paris, Holmes was granted his Doctor of Medicine degree

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 controversial idea that doctors were capable of

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—which included friends such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,

and James Russell Lowell—Holmes

made an indelible imprint on the literary world of the 19th century. Many of

his works were published in The Atlantic Monthly, a magazine that he named. For his

literary achievements and other accomplishments, he was awarded numerous

honorary degrees from universities around the world. Holmes's writing often

commemorated his native Boston area, and much of it was meant to be humorous or

conversational. Some of his medical writings, notably his 1843 essay regarding

the contagiousness of puerperal fever, were considered innovative for their

time. He was often called upon to issue occasional poetry, or poems written

specifically for an event, including many occasions at Harvard. Holmes also

popularized several terms, including Boston Brahmin and anesthesia. He was the father of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. of

the Supreme Court of the

United States.