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The Accidental Masterpiece: A Profile of Richard Henry Dana Jr.
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19215 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
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12 / 2000 |
3,250 Words |
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J.B. Cheaney
J.B. Cheaney is an author who lives in the Ozarks of Missouri.
Her second novel for young adults, The True Prince, was
published last fall by Knopf. She last wrote for The World
& I.
on Larry Woiwode. |
When Richard Henry Dana Jr. posed for a daguerreotype in 1840, this scion of a distinguished family had just begun a promising law career after graduating with highest honors from Harvard. Most young Bostonians with these credentials would never think of dressing for posterity in anything other than the stiff collar, high cravat, and tight frock coat of their social class. But Dana's contrary streak asserted itself, not for the first or last time: he wore the loose-collared blouse and full tie of a common sailor.
The outfit was not inappropriate, as he had recently written a book about his seafaring adventures. But he expected nothing from it beyond a little revenue and recognition; as far as this earnest and forward-looking young man was concerned, his greatest achievements lay ahead. He never suspected, at the age of twenty-five, that as far as history was concerned his most notable work was already accomplished. For Dana is best known today for the two unforgettable years that made a man of him.
His birth had launched him on the well-beaten path of his forefathers, who were distinguished Americans as long as there was an America. From 1640, when the first Richard Dana settled in Boston, the family included judges, teachers, lawyers, officeholders, and one Massachusetts supreme court justice. But by 1815, when Richard Henry Dana Jr. was born, the family fortune had dwindled. Dana Sr. enjoyed a minor reputation as a poet, literary critic, and all-around nice fellow, but his approach to life seemed tenuous. James Russell Lowell, in his "Fable for Critics," summed up his colleague in sly couplets as a man "who is so well aware of how things should be done / that his own works displease him before they've begun."
... (1983 of 18851 Characters)
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