Background

He was born on December 13, 1870 in Haleyville, New Jersey, United States, the son of Reuben Lore and Mary Den (Bradway) Sharp.

Education

Receiving his early education in the public schools of his native district, he graduated from the South Jersey Institute in Bridgeton, New Jersey, before he was eighteen.

However, he decided that he needed a college education and entered Brown University, a natural choice since his interest in nature study had already brought him into contact with J. W. P. Jenks of Brown. He did not neglect undergraduate activities, including track athletics, and he was class poet on graduation in 1895. He entered the theological school of Boston University and completed the course for the S. T. B. degree in 1899.

Career

He made an attempt to become a surveyor, which was unsuccessful because his interest in nature distracted his attention from his duties as chain bearer, and he also went to Georgia to engage in business.

He supported himself at college by working in the biological laboratory and by acting as pastor of a Methodist Episcopal Church at Wakefield, receiving ordination as deacon in 1895. He acted as pastor for churches in Brockton and East Weymouth, Massachussets. In 1899, however, he became assistant librarian of the college of liberal arts of Boston University and the next year he was also an instructor in English.

As assistant professor of English after 1902 and professor after 1909, he was probably the best known man in the institution both to the student body and the outside public. He gave up his regular teaching in the university in 1922 but was again scheduled to teach a non-credit course for the year 1929-30. In 1900 he joined the editorial staff of the Youth's Companion, and he remained on it three years, still continuing his academic work and literary activities.

In 1901 he published his first book, Wild Life Near Home, and this and succeeding volumes and articles gave him a considerable reputation that was not affected when President Roosevelt fulminated against "nature fakers, " for John Burroughs endorsed him as a true naturalist, and the public found his work attractive and convincing.

He wrote many striking articles for the Atlantic Monthly, the most characteristic one, perhaps, being "Turtle Eggs for Agassiz, " published in the issue of February 1910, which is probably the best example of his ability to present effectively aspects of nature or the study of nature for which he had enthusiasm. In the August 1925 issue of Harper's Magazine he published "Five Days and an Education, " which was his comment on his own educative process.

He also entered politics in 1922, seeking the Democratic nomination for federal senator, but he was defeated in the primaries. He made a trip to California by automobile, lecturing along the way, and he has left an account of this in his book, The Better Country (1928). The last seven years of his life were devoted to public lecturing and literary work.

He died at his farm, "Mullein Hill, " in Hingham, Massachussets, from a tumor on the brain.

Achievements

• Dallas Lore Sharp has more than twenty distinct volumes to his credit, and his contributions to periodicals run into the hundreds. His two famous books, A Watcher in the Woods (1903) and Beyond the Pasture Bars (1914), are said to have been sold to the extent of more than 100, 000 copies each. Of his many striking articles for the Atlantic Monthly, the most characteristic one was "Turtle Eggs for Agassiz".

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Hills of Hingham

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • The Lay of the Land

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • Patrons of Democracy

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

  • A Watcher in the Woods

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • The Spring of the Year

    (HardPress Classic Books Series)

Views

He was a vigorous advocate of the democracy of the public school, and, as such, disapproved of private schools, attacking them repeatedly as educationally ineffective and undemocratic.

Connections

On August 4, 1895 he was married to Grace Hastings, of Detroit, Michigan. They had four sons.

Father:

Reuben Lore Sharp

Mother:

Mary Den (Bradway) Sharp

Spouse:

Grace Hastings

child:

Huntington Sharp

child:

Morrison Sharp

child:

Dallas Lore Sharp II

child:

Waitstill Sharp