Background

William Wells Newell was born on January 24, 1839 in Cambridge, Massachussets, United States. He was the son of the Reverend William Newell, minister of the First Parish Church, Cambridge, and Frances Boott (Wells) Newell. He came by his studious tastes naturally, as both his father and William Wells, his mother's father, were well-known classical scholars.

Education

Newell's early education was in the Cambridge schools, from which he entered Harvard College, graduating with the class of 1859. He then studied for the ministry, taking his degree from the Harvard Divinity School in 1863. At first he served as assistant to the Reverend Edward Everett Hale at the South Congregational Church, Boston, but after a short time left to join the Sanitary Service of the War Department in Washington.

Career

Returning to ministerial work again at the close of the war, he was settled for a time at the Unitarian Church in Germantown, Pennsylvania, but later, feeling that he had mistaken his vocation, he gave up the ministry and turned to teaching. From 1868 to 1870 he was tutor in philosophy at Harvard College, leaving to open a school in New York City. In this he was very successful, but wishing to have more leisure for scholarly pursuits, he gave up teaching in the early eighties and after a year or two of travel and study in Europe, settled down in Cambridge to the pleasant life of the private scholar. His major interests had long lain in the fields of literature and the fine arts, and already his attention had been turned in the direction of folklore, of which he had acquired a wide and accurate knowledge. His more purely literary work comprised King 14dipus: The 14dipus Tyrannus of Sophocles Rendered into English Verse (1881), and Sonnets and Madrigals of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1900). In 1895 he published a small volume of original poems, entitled Words for Music, later (1904) reprinted at a small private press which he had set up at Wayland. His interest in the fine arts had always been keen, and during his residence in New York he was closely in touch with artistic circles there. An able and discerning student of painting, he discovered and acquired during his stay abroad a number of canvases of real distinction, which later found their way into the Metropolitan Museum in New York and other public and private collections.

Although his best-known studies lay largely in the European field, his interests were wide, and one of his earliest publications was Games and Songs of American Children (1883). Current superstitions, negro practices and beliefs, and those of the American Indians all strongly attracted his attention, and his enthusiasm enlisted the services of many students and collectors in gathering data. He contributed many papers on diverse topics to the Journal of American Folk-Lore and to the Publications of the Modern Language Association, but his major interest for many years was concerned with the Arthurian romances and kindred literary materials of the medieval period. In 1897 he published King Arthur and the Table Round and in 1902 issued The Legend of the Holy Grail and the Perceval of Crestien of Troyes, a collection of papers originally appearing in the Journal. A third study on which he was engaged at the time of his death, Isolt's Return (1907) was printed posthumously at his Wayland press.

Achievements

• Newell's influence in the development of folklore studies in America was great, and in the related field of anthropology he did much to inculcate the value of the historical method of approach. It was largely through his efforts and enthusiasm that the American Folk-Lore Society was founded in 1888, and he served as the permanent secretary of the organization and editor of the Journal of American Folk-Lore and the Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society until his death in 1907.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Words for music; a symphonic series

    (This reproduction was printed from a digital file created...)

  • King Arthur and the Table Round: Tales Chiefly After the Old French of Crestien de Troyes; With an Account of Arthurian Romance, and Notes Volume 1

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

  • Revivals: How and When?

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

  • Isolt's Return

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

  • Current Superstitions : Collected From The Oral Tradition Of English Speaking Folk

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

  • Sonnets and Madrigals of Michelangelo Buonarroti;

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

  • Games and Songs of American Children;

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

Personality

Newell was a fine example of the private scholar. He made no parade of his learning, gave freely of his time and energy to aid and advise other students both young and old, and inspired with his enthusiasm all with whom he came into contact. He had much charm of personality, and his wit and vivacity made him a delightful companion.

Connections

Father:

William Newell

clergyman

Mother:

Frances Boott (Wells) Newell