Mayo Williamson Hazeltine

Background

Mayo Williamson Hazeltine was born on April 24, 1841, at Boston, Massachusetts, United States, the son of Mayo and Frances A. (Williamson) Hazeltine.

Education

After graduating at Harvard in 1862 Mayo studied at Oxford and traveled widely in Europe.

Returning to America he studied law and was admitted to the bar in New York City.

Career

After graduation Mayo Hazeltine practised law in partnership with a former classmate, William Tucker Washburn. His interest and his success in the law were small. Lawyers said of him that he could draw a will conforming to every principle of Roman jurisprudence, of the common law, of the Code Napoléon, and of the laws of inheritance in every state of the union - and then would forget to have it properly witnessed.

In 1878 he submitted to Charles A. Dana, the editor of the New York Sun, specimens of essays and book criticisms and was at once offered the literary editorship, a position which he held until his death more than thirty years later. His legal training was reflected in his reviewing: his writing was clear, impersonal, and judicial. He was convinced that the reader was interested in the book and its author and not in the personality of the reviewer.

Skilful in paraphrasing, Hazeltine usually brought out the best qualities of the book under notice and with these he quietly merged his own scholarship and knowledge. His reviews became a feature of the Sunday edition of the Sun and often occupied an entire page. His trenchant notice of Henry James’s Life of Hawthorne, his critical estimate of Longfellow, and his appreciation of Zola are noteworthy among articles marked by their subtlety and penetration.

Hazeltine wrote slowly but with a tireless energy. He worked year after year with no vacations except those infrequently necessitated by illness. Though he was always on space compensation his prolific pen brought him moderate wealth. While writing book reviews, special articles, and editorials for the Sun he contributed to the North American Review, Harper’s Weekly, and Collier’s. His articles were frequently reprinted, the American Woman in Europe (1879) and British and American Education (1880) achieving a considerable popularity. Few things disturbed the even tenor of his life. He died some eight years later in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Achievements

• Mayo Hazeltine was famous for his literary reviews. In 1883 a collection of his reviews was published under the title of Chats About Books: Poets and Novelists.

Works

More photos

• book

  • France Volume 3

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • China

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Orations from Homer to William Mckinley, Volume 18

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Masterpieces of Eloquence: Famous Orations of Great World Leaders from Early Greece to the Present Time, Volume 14

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Japan

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

  • Scotland

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

Connections

Hazeltine married Sophie B. Dallas.

Father:

Mayo Hazeltine

Mother:

Frances A. (Williamson) Hazeltine

Spouse:

Sophie B. (Dallas) Hazeltine

Partner:

William Tucker Washburn