Among My Books was published by Fields, Osgood in 1870 (a second series followed in 1876), and it established Lowell’s reputation as the leading American literary critic of his generation — the man who, more than any other, determined which European writers would be taken seriously by the American intellectual class.
The essays cover a range of subjects: Dryden (a major reassessment that influenced subsequent criticism), Shakespeare (focusing on the late plays), Dante, Spenser, Wordsworth, and the role of literature in a democratic society. Lowell’s method combines close reading (attentive to language, structure, and historical context) with personal response (his own pleasure in the texts is always visible) and cultural criticism (he is always aware of what these works mean for American intellectual life).
Lowell’s prose style — leisurely, allusive, digressive, witty — belongs to the tradition of the gentleman-critic: the man of letters for whom criticism is a branch of conversation rather than a branch of science. This approach has its limitations (it can seem impressionistic, subjective, and insufficiently rigorous by modern academic standards), but it also has its strengths: Lowell communicates the pleasure of reading in a way that more analytical critics often cannot.
Collecting Among My Books
First edition (Fields, Osgood, Boston, 1870): Cloth binding.
Market values:
- First series (1870): $30–$80
- Second series (1876): $25–$60
- Both series together: $50–$120