Page 35 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Boston

BOST ON A T A GLANCE  33

physiology, but also
promulgated philosophical Authors
pragmatism, the concept that America’s first published author
the worth of an idea is based was Boston’s Anne Bradstreet
on its usefulness. His student, (1612–72). The first published
George Santayana (1863–1952) African American author was
blossomed as the 20th-century’s Phillis Wheatley (1753–84),
chief philosopher of aesthetics. born in Africa, enslaved, then
More pragmatically, the freed in Boston. Her 1778
Harvard economist John volume, Poems on Various
Edwin Land (1909–91), inventor of Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Subjects, Religious and Moral,
Polaroid instant photography investigated the sources echoed Boston authors’ moral
of societal affluence and concerns. Henry Wadsworth
1850s. Working in his advocated social policies to Longfellow (1807–82) made his
Cambridge workshop, Elias put that affluence to work fortune from best-selling verse
Howe (1819–67) created the for the common good. epics such as Evangeline and
modern sewing machine, Hiawatha, but made his mark
radically altering both the translating Dante. Although
clothing trade and the shoe Political Leaders associated with nearby
industry. Alexander Graham Boston’s most infamous Concord, popular novelist
Bell (1847–1922) had offices in politician was the “rascal king” Louisa May Alcott (1832–88)
Cambridge and Boston, and James Michael Curley (1874– also lived on Beacon Hill and
later joined the faculty of 1958), who served many was active in Boston reform
Boston University. Edwin H. terms as mayor and U.S. movements. New York-born
Land (1909–91) experimented Congressman, winning his last Henry James (1843–1916)
with polarized light election from a jail cell. was educated at Harvard and
in his Harvard lab His life was to serve often returned to Boston from
before inventing as the model for his London home, spending a
Polaroid instant the novel The Last lifetime contrasting American
photography. The Hurrah. Boston also and European culture. Former
innovators Bolt, gave the country U.S. poet laureate Robert
Beranek, and four presidents: Pinsky (born 1940) teaches
Newman also John Adams (1735– at Boston University, as does
made academic 1826) and his son novelist Leslie Epstein (born
affiliations with the John F. Kennedy John Quincy Adams 1938). The popular Boston-
Massachusetts campaign button (1767–1848); the based fictional detective
Institute of Technology, tight-lipped Spenser was the creation of
and they also sent the world’s ex-governor Calvin Coolidge Robert Parker (1932–2010),
first electronic mail message (1872–1933), who rose to and when not hanging out
in the 1970s. Facebook was prominence by crushing with Clint Eastwood, suspense
launched from a dorm room the Boston police strike in novelist and screenwriter
at Harvard University in 2004. 1919; and John F. Kennedy, Dennis Lehane (born 1966)
infamously assassinated broods at Fort Point Channel.
in Dallas in 1963.
Thinkers
Kennedy’s brothers
In addition to showing the were also prominent
world how to do things, on the national stage:
Bostonians have always been Robert F. Kennedy
adept at explaining why. In (1925–1968) served
his many essays and poems, as attorney general
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803– and then as senator,
82) first laid the philosophical when he, too, was
groundwork for an American assassinated. Edward M.
school of transcendental Kennedy (1932–2010)
religious thought. Meanwhile, served for 46 years in
his friend and fellow Harvard the U.S. Senate as a
graduate Henry David Thoreau leading advocate for
(1817–62) wrote many seminal social justice. His good
works of natural philosophy. friend, Thomas P. “Tip”
A professor at Harvard, William O’Neill (1912–94),
James (1842–1910) not only served as U.S. Speaker Author Louisa May Alcott (1832–88), part of
taught psychology and of the House. Boston’s reform movement

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