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The Life Story of
Major Henry Lee
Higginson
"Practical
Idealism and the Gift for Friendship"
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Preface
The story that follows has
been adapted primarily from the book The Life and
Letters of Henry Lee Higginson by Bliss Perry.
This book contains Henry Lee Higginson's
reminiscences dictated in 1918 at the age of 84, journal
entries, and correspondence by Higginson and other
writers. In order for you, the reader, to fully
appreciate Mr. Higginson's story, I thought it best
to let him tell as much of it as possible to you. Mr.
Higginson's original words from his reminiscences
are presented in serif type face (Times
New Roman) with the
exception of text in brackets [ ] that I have included
for clarification and reference. To fill in portions of
the story where no original words exist, I have written
sections of text in sans serif font (Arial).
Additionally, to add to your appreciation of Mr.
Higginson's story, links to other pages on this site
are provided. These pages contain images and further
information about Higginson and significant persons from
his life.
Part I: A Search for Self in a World of Music
Days of Boyhood and Youth
I was born in...New York City, on the 18th of
November 1834, my father and mother being George and Mary
[Cabot Lee] Higginson. In my fourth year we moved to
Boston, as my father, who had been in business with his
cousin as a small commission merchant, failed in the
great panic of 1837. Then we lived in a very small
house...and father carried on a very small commission
business on India Wharf in Boston. We lived in the
narrowest way, and got on very well; went into a house a
little bit larger in Bedford Place where I had a pleasant
boyhood [with my older brother George, younger brothers
James (Jim) and Francis (Frank), and sister Mary
(Molly)].
My father and mother both worked pretty hard [in a
household that upheld the spirit of patriotism, along
with piousness, bravery, honor, and integrity]. My father
was a very kindly, industrious, sensible man, [a Whig and
Unitarian] with a remarkable "nose" for
character, scrupulously honest, and disinterested to a
high degree. When he was earning very little money, he
passed much of his time and any spare pennies possible in
charitable work. My mother was unusually intelligent and
attractive, as I now know from the various older men and
younger men who used to come to our house and dine....
We used to play on the [Boston] Common [park] or in
the little court in Bedford Place, where we lived, and I
kept up with most of the boys, seeing chiefly the three Paine boys who lived close
by us, and various others, among them Charles (Russell) Lowell(, Jr.), who was
just my age and as bright as I was stupid. He and I went
everywhere together, coasted on the Common, skated, cut
up all sorts of pranks; and with him James Savage(, Jr.), who was a
year or two older, but who was with us all the time.
I did fairly well at the [Boston] Latin School [that I
entered in 1846]...but was presently taken away
because of colds and headaches, which came very often and
which interfered with my work. After one year at a
private school, I was sent back to the Latin School, and
did much better. I remember studying hard and getting my
lessons with effort, but still with determination,
because it pleased my mother.... I got two prizes, but
I cannot remember that I ever cared about it
myself....
In the year 1849, when I was fifteen years old, my
mother died, in August. She had had tuberculosis for some
time, and it had increased and increased, and nothing
could be done to save her. It was a terrible blow to my
father, and of course very bad for us all, but we lived
along and did the best we could.
[Following my graduation from the Latin School in
1851], I went to [Harvard] college [that year] with a
very good lot of fellows. After six months...my eyes
were too sick to study and...I was sent to Europe
[—a common prescription for this type of condition
during the time—and placed under the guardianship of
Reverend Eliot of Northampton, Massachusetts who also was
staying overseas].
[On my first trip abroad] I was a very green boy, saw
a few people, and did not know what to do—that is,
had no "shape" at all. In Boston, before going
away, we had been to the Italian opera, getting seats for
twenty-five cents in the upper gallery, and enjoying it
highly. I had an inborn taste for music, which was
nourished by a few concerts in Boston and by the opera.
It was really a great pleasure to us. In London of course
the opera was better and delighted me.
Henry's fondness of
music flourished after attending several operas in
London, England and in Germany. While in Dresden, the
philosophical, analytical, and introspective young man
wrote in a letter to his father at the end of 1852:
...For amusements I want no money but for music,
and that is not very expensive here: even that I would
not indulge in to the extent I have and shall, did I not
try to learn something by it, did I not consider it as a
study in a measure: indeed I have already learned
something and would know more. My desire has only
increased very much since I've been abroad, and I
shall certainly study it with a master, if I have
the eyes, and if not, at least I can play somewhat, and
amuse my otherwise idle hours....
...I know I learn something every day; that I need
not and do not depend on those around me for occupation
and amusement, but that I can always help myself; that my
mind has something to do, to occupy itself with, and that
is a most important thing for everyone. It is an
occupation in itself to watch people and talk with them,
to learn what they think, feel, and do, to study their
national character, and compare it with our own and with
what I know of theirs....
In March 1853, Henry wrote to his father about his progress and personal growth;
condition of his eyes; schooling; the possibility of
leaving Europe to continue his studies at home, and
concerns about selecting a career path:
...I have striven to understand myself, my own
nature, character, feelings, all as hard, nay harder than
for anything, and if I have not succeeded, it is not my
fault; but I think I have. Since I have left home, it
appears to me I have changed, I have grown older, I have
found my way, and can see more clearly thro' the
mist that envelopes one's youth; I feel more as if I
had an object in life, and consequently happier and
better satisfied with myself....
...I have been waiting some time to tell you what I
can now, that my eyes are decidedly better.... I can
study six hours a day, and today have been writing and
practising with notes seven or more without any suffering
to speak of.... I think it would be well to take
chemistry, physics to a certain degree, perhaps history,
and to continue with music....
...There is one thing, as I before said, that makes
me very, very sorry to leave Europe: the loss of music. I
do think it makes and has made a real and a great change
in me, since I first began with it; and if I continue to
hear and to cultivate it, so will the change go on and
the advantage increase. I do not believe there is
anything more refining than music, no greater or stronger
preservative against evil, and at least for me it has
done much. I am almost thankful that I have had weak
eyes; indeed I am quite so, for it has given me the time
and opportunity to find out how much music is to me, and
it has opened pleasures to me that otherwise would very
possibly have never been discovered. I am afraid to trust
to my feelings within, to my own ideas, or I should study
music for a profession. I know not how one finds that he
has a talent for any one thing without trying: but
everyone has a particular faculty for something, everyone
has a decided turn and talent for a particular branch,
and it is his duty to try to find this out, and to turn
to it. If one may trust what he hears within himself, in
his own heart, and be sure that it is right, I should say
that my talent was for music, and that, if I studied it
properly and persevered, I could bring out something
worth having, worthy of a life thus spent, worthy of a
man, worthy of my mother and of you....
Work at Home and Continuing
Self-Discoveries Abroad
Henry's reminiscences
continue with his return home to Boston:
In March 1855, my father secured for me a place in the
office of Messrs. Samuel and Edward Austin, India
merchants on India Wharf, and there I served nineteen
months as sole clerk and bookkeeper.... During all
this time I used to go into society a good deal, went to
the parties, made many acquaintances, saw many girls,
with whom I made friends and who added very much to the
happiness of my life. [One day] I...remember saying to
Mr. Edward Austin—who was very bright—something
about future employment. He asked me what I wanted to do,
and I said I did not know; that work on the wharf did not
seem to me to require any mind; that I wanted something
which would use my mind and would give me a chance to
take hold of life more seriously. He muttered: "I
guess when you have some notes to pay, you will find that
your mind is busy enough"; which struck me as true.
[Outside of work] I had seen a great deal of certain
classmates, and a great deal of my friends Stephen (George) Perkins, Charles Lowell, James Savage, and many others. We had walked and
talked together, discussed all sorts of problems, been
deeply interested in many things—and they had plenty
of new ideas. Charles Lowell and Stephen Perkins were
among the most brilliant men I ever have known—very
thoughtful, and fond of taking up everything and
discussing it from the bottom—not content with the
affairs of this world, being what one now would call real
reformers or radicals, and measuring everything by their
own footrule. The slavery questions were more and more
important at that time, and the question of Kansas came
up. Men were sent to Kansas and Nebraska to keep the
States out of Slavery....
It was a period of ferment for all of us young people.
I was wild about slavery and anti-slavery, did not like
the Abolitionists, could not bear the disgrace to our
country of slavery, believed that we should have sooner
or later a great struggle, and that we should get rid of
it in some way. At that time several fugitive slaves in
Boston were taken and sent back under the Fugitive Slave
Act, which Mr. Webster had helped pass, being merely a
strengthening of a law which had stood for many
years....
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Our
class graduated in 1855 and [though I did not
graduate with them, they] let me partake in the
festivities of Class Day and Commencement, for I
had many friends there. After another year of
work in the office on the wharf, I wished much to
go abroad. Charles Lowell had broken down [with a disease that caused his lungs to bleed] and had been sent abroad, and I
proposed to join him. Stephen Perkins and Powell
Mason were going with me, and we sailed about the
first of November. At that time I had inherited
about $13,000 from an old uncle who had
just died, and I expected to live on the interest
of that.
In
November 1856, just before his 22nd birthday,
Henry returned to Europe with Perkins and Mason
where the three were eventually reunited with
Lowell. Nearly a year later, Henry wrote to his
father in September 1857 about his decision to
remain in Vienna, Austria, and explained his
reasons for continuing his studies and practice
of music:
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 Henry's class photo of 1855
from Bliss Perry's book,
Life and Letters of Henry Lee Higginson.
Image courtesy of Brian Pohanka.
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...Here one can get good enough, if
not the best, instruction in the theory of music, and
also in instrumental music; and in singing far better
instruction than in any other German city....
As everyone has some particular object of supreme
interest to himself, so I have music. It is almost my
inner world; without it, I miss much, and with it I am
happier and better....
On my return home other studies took up my time so
much that music had to be neglected much against my will.
The same was true when in the store. It is quite true
that I had plenty of spare hours during my
apprenticeship, but it is, in my opinion, very false to
suppose that a knowledge of anything so difficult as
music can be gained, when the best hours of the day and
the best energies of the man are consumed by the
acquiring of another knowledge. Of course men more busily
employed than I was have applied themselves to and
conquered great things in science, in art, etc., etc.,
but they are exceptions certainly, and I
nothing of the kind. At any rate, I did not learn
anything more of music during those nineteen months. I
felt the want of it greatly, and was very sorry to give
up the thing dearest to me. When I came out here, I had
no plans, as you know. Trade was not satisfying to the
inner man for a life-occupation. Out here I have
consulted, and have decided to try to learn something of
music ex- and internally, i.e., of playing arid of
harmony or thorough-bass. If I find that I am not
profiting at all by my work, I shall throw it up and go
home. If I gain something, I shall stick to it.
You will ask, "What is to come of it all if
successful?" I do not know. But this is clear. I
have then improved my own powers, which is every man's
duty. I have a resource to which I can always turn with
delight, however the world may go with me. I am much the
stronger, the wider, the wiser, the better for my duties
in life. I can then go with satisfaction to my business,
knowing my resource at the end of the day. It is already
made, and has only to be used and it will grow. Finally,
it is my province in education, and having cultivated
myself in it, I am fully prepared to teach others in it.
Education is the object of man, and it seems to
me the duty of us all to help in it, each according to
his means and in his sphere. I have often wondered how
people could teach this and that, but I understand it
now. I could teach people to sing, as far as I know, with
delight to myself. Thus I have a means of living if other
things should fail. But the pleasure, pure and free from
all disagreeable consequences or afterthoughts, of
playing, and still more of singing myself, is
indescribable. In Rome I took about eight lessons of a
capital master, and I used to enjoy intensely the singing
to his accompaniment my exercises and some little
Neapolitan songs.
My reasons for studying harmony are manifest. I cannot
properly understand music without doing so; moreover, it
is an excellent exercise for the mind. As to writing
music, I have nothing to say; but it is not my
expectation.... I am studying for my own good and
pleasure. And now...I hope you will be able to
make something out of this long letter. You should not
have been troubled with it, but I thought you would
prefer to know all about it. It is only carrying out your
own darling idea of making an imperishable capital
in education. My money may fly away; my knowledge cannot.
One belongs to the world, the other to me.
By October 1857, with the
panic of 1857 threatening financial ruin for businessmen
in the states, Henry reconsidered his plans for remaining
overseas with his friends. He offered to surrender his
musical ambitions and return home to assist his father in
the stock brokerage house of Lee, Higginson and Co., but
his father reassured him otherwise. However, a few months
later, a troubling incident eventually changed the course
of the young man's career plans. Henry's letter
to his father, written on December 1, 1857, brought
worrisome news:
When I last wrote, a fearful headache of three days'
duration was troubling me. I went to the greatest
physician here, Oppolzer, a very renowned man; he was out
of town, so I went to a bleeder, and got rid of 8 ounces
of blood—a tumblerful. He would not take any more
tho' I urged him to do so. In fifteen minutes the
pressure, which had been tremendous, was nearly gone, and
the next day (Sunday) I was quite well. On Monday and
Tuesday I played [the piano] with my left arm (the one
opened), and not considering the effect of such exercise,
lamed it badly. I have since seen Oppolzer. He says the
affliction is neuralgia (that I supposed) and gave me
quinine to take daily, forbade cold bathing, ordered cold
water on the head when in pain, and in the morning. I am
now using these remedies, and am better.... I shall
write less in future. The music demands eight hours a
day, and I must study the languages and read a bit
beside; then other necessary demands are made on my time,
such as two lectures a week, a weekly evening at the
Minister's unavoidably, etc., etc....
Despite the pain in his
arm, Henry continued pursuing his musical goals
throughout the following year, much to his father's
increasing dismay. The elder Higginson could not convince
his son to return home with the outlook for a career in
business looking less than lucrative. Henry wrote to his
father on August 30, 1858:
About my arm, I cannot say that it is better than
before coming; yet I think improvement has taken
place.... About returning home, father: I have already
written you that my arrangements are made for another
year from Sept. 1st in Vienna. How can I return when my
object is music, and I've been unable to play at
all the whole year? Besides, what is there in America
particularly tempting in business, and what is there out
of business for me?
Henry's optimism soon changed as he was confronted by the grim reality of his condition. In a letter from Vienna dated October 19, Henry disclosed disheartening news to his father:
The arm is probably injured for life, not seriously,
but so far that I shall not be able to play the piano
very long at a time.... When I look back at those six
weeks I played, I could cry heartily. It is a hard line
for me; cuts deeper than you think. What I had wished for
years was at hand, with every possible help; and in that
time I really learned much. Now it is over forever; I can
never play freely again. I almost wonder that I
managed to bear so much as I did....
With his hopes for a musical occupation no longer foreseeable, Henry
contemplated a career as a wine merchant, then considered
a clerkship in a wholesale drug business. As he searched
for a practical occupation suited to his liking, unrest
erupted on the home front in America. A day before his
26th birthday in November 1860, Henry set sail once more for Boston.
Henry's
story continues with:
Part II: The Civil War Years
Sources Used in Writing this Section of the Essay
Books:
Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner's Sons, New
York, NY, 1958-1964.
Harvard Memorial Biographies, edited by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Sever and Francis, Cambridge, MA, 1866.
Life and Letters of Henry Lee Higginson,
by Bliss Perry, The Atlantic Monthly Press, Boston, MA,
1921.
Web
Pages:
Distinguished High
School Graduates of the Boston Latin School, Boston Public Schools, copyright 2001, http://boston.k12.ma.us/textonly/bps/alumni_latin.asp (accessed February 2001).
Making of America, University of Michigan, copyright 2001, http://moa.umdl.umich.edu (accessed March 2001).
Public Latin
School Hall of Fame, Boston Latin School, copyright
2001, http://www.bls.org/blswebsite/bls_History/hall_fame.htm (accessed February 2001).
Index
to Higginson's Pages
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