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George Makepeace Towle Edit Profile

linguist translator

George Makepeace Towle, American journalist, author member Massachusetts Senate (Republican), 1890, 91.

Background

Towle, George Makepeace was born on August 27, 1841 in Washington, District of Columbia. Son of Nathaniel Carter and Eunice (Makepeace) Towle.

Education

Towle graduated in arts from Yale University in 1861 and in law from the Harvard Law School in 1863, and practised in Boston in 1863-1865.

Career

He is best known for his translations of Jules Verne" s works, in particular his 1873 translation of Around the World in Eighty Days. He was United States consul at Nantes, France, in 1866-1868, and in the latter year was transferred to the consulate at Bradford, England, where he remained until his return to Boston in 1870. Towle became president of the Papyrus club in 1880, and was a delegate to the Republican national convention at Chicago in 1888.

He was managing editor of the Boston "Commercial Bulletin" in 1870-1871, and foreign editor of the "Boston Post" in 1871-1876, and became a contributor to many foreign and American periodicals and took an active part in the literary life publishing over 50 books and articles and giving public lectures on topics of the day.

In early 1873 Towle started collaborating with the American publisher James R. Osgood on translations of Verne. He continued to translate the Verne novels until the bankruptcy of the firm in 1876.

The translations are of a uniformly high quality. On September 16, 1866 in Paris, Towle married Nellie Lane of Boston, who survived him.

Towle died in Brookline after a long illness culminating in paralysis of the brain, and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

He had no children.

Achievements

  • George Makepeace Towle has been listed as a notable journalist, author by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

All works

Membership

Member Massachusetts Senate (Republican), 1890, 91.

Connections

Married Nellie Lane, September 16, 1866, no children.

Father:
Nathaniel Carter Towle

Mother:
Eunice (Makepeace) Towle

Spouse:
Nellie Lane