Excerpt from Selected Literary Essays From James Russell Lowell
"One is sometimes asked by young men to recommend to them a course of reading. My advice would always be to confine yourself to the supreme books in whatever literature; still better, to choose one great author and grow thoroughly familiar with him. For as all roads lead to Rome, so they all likewise lead hence; and you will find that in order to understand perfectly and weigh exactly any really vital piece of literature, you will be gradually and pleasantly persuaded to studies and explorations of which you little dreamed when you began and will find yourselves scholars before you are aware."
Thus spoke Lowell, the reader, professor, and man of letters. This was his advice in his day and serves as well in our time, when there are so many books and so few good readers. How well he followed his own teaching may be seen by watching him grow from early childhood to advanced maturity. His life was one long search for the "supreme books," one quest for a deeper familiarity with the "really vital pieces of literature."
James Russell Lowell was born in Cambridge within the shadow of Harvard University at a time when America was breaking the soil for a new intellectual and spiritual life.
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