Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1809–1894)

US physician, writer, and poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes, who was a professor of anatomy and physiology at Harvard, USA, in the mid-19th century. He wrote The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, a series featured in the magazine Atlantic Monthly between 1857 and 1858.

US writer and physician. In 1857 he founded Atlantic Monthly with the poet J R Lowell, in which were published the essays and verse collected 1858 as The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, a record of the imaginary conversation of boarding-house guests.

This was followed by The Professor at the Breakfast-Table 1860 and other ‘Breakfast-Table’ collections, and the novels Elsie Venner 1861 and The Guardian Angel 1867. The Chambered Nautilus includes some of his best-known poems. He also published a life of Ralph Waldo Emerson 1885.

He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and studied medicine at Harvard and in Paris. He was professor of anatomy and physiology at Harvard 1847–82. His medical writings include the essay ‘The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever’ 1843, which pointed out that the disease was frequently conveyed to the patient by the physician. His findings were confirmed by Ignaz Semmelweis five years later.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1841–1935)

US jurist and Supreme Court justice 1902–32, noted for the elegance of his written opinions. Holmes was appointed to the US Supreme Court by President T Roosevelt, and during his office handed down landmark decisions in a number of antitrust, constitutional First Amendment, and labor law cases. He retired from the Court in 1932.

Holmes was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of the writer and physician of the same name. He was educated at Harvard University. After service in the American Civil War 1861–65, he studied law and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1867. Holmes established a private practice in Boston and gained a reputation as an author and lecturer on legal subjects. He was appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Court in 1882.