John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-92), American poet, born near Haverhill, Massachusetts, and largely self-educated. The young poet's earliest work attracted the attention of the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, editor of the Free Press newspaper in Newburyport, Massachusetts, who asked him to contribute articles. Thus Whittier began a long career as contributing editor, essayist, and poet. A deeply religious man, Whittier followed the Quaker faith of his parents and is often called the Quaker poet. As a Quaker deeply concerned with politics and social welfare, he served in the Massachusetts legislature, was founder of the Liberty party in 1839, and participated in the founding of the Republican party in 1854. For more than 30 years, Whittier devoted himself to the abolition of slavery in the United States.

Whittier's earliest works, including his Legends of New England in Prose and Verse (1831), were pastoral evocations of the rugged farm life of New England. With the end of the American Civil War, Whittier returned to his pastoral themes. Often considered his masterpiece and certainly his most popular work is the narrative poem Snow-Bound (1866). Based on the poet's childhood memories, this work is representative of his sincere, moralistic, yet emotional style.

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