Edith Hamilton

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Edith Hamilton circa 1897

Edith Hamilton (born August 12, 1867 in Dresden , † May 31, 1963 in Washington, DC ) was a German-American teacher and writer. She is regarded as an important mediator of the ancient heritage in the USA in the 20th century .

Life

Just two months after the birth, her mother, who had visited relatives in Germany, returned with her to America. Edith Hamilton grew up as the oldest of five children in an educated family, and at the age of seven, at the urging of her father, she learned Latin and shortly afterwards Greek . At this point she had already started to learn German and French. When she was 16, she and her three sisters attended the well-known Miss Porter's School preparatory school for girls in Farmington, Connecticut , but did not feel very challenged intellectually, as all classes were free electives.

In 1894, after studying classical antiquity for two years, she graduated from Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , as a Master of Arts . As an outstanding student of her year, she received a European Fellowship grant that enabled her to study abroad for a year. 1895-1896 she went with her sister, later hygiene doctor Alice Hamilton , after Germany , where the two at the University of Leipzig and at the University of Munich participated as guest listeners at lectures.

Upon her return to the United States in 1896, Edith Hamilton became the director of the Bryn Mawr Preparatory School in Baltimore , Maryland. She led the school to great success with enthusiasm.

In 1922 she retired and began her writing career that established her fame. In 1930 she published her most important work, The Greek Way , in which she gave an overview of the birth of the West through the achievements of Classical Greece . Her most popular book, Mythology , was published in 1942 and is still in print today and is still used as a textbook in American schools.

In 1957 she was made an honorary citizen of the city of Athens . She received many awards and prizes and was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters that year .

In 1967 her official biography "Edith Hamilton: An Intimate Portrait" was published by her friend and former student Doris Fielding Reid , with whom she lived for almost 40 years in her home in Maine (during the summer months) and in Reid's apartment in New York City had lived together.

Edith Hamilton is said to be a great influence on writers, intellectuals and politicians. For example, after the murder of her husband John F. Kennedy , Jacqueline Kennedy recommended his brother Robert F. Kennedy to read Hamilton's The Greek Way ; this work is said to have deeply impressed and shaped him. From 1943 at the latest, when she began to spend the winters in Washington, DC , she maintained a lively exchange with other well-known writers , such as B. the writer Karen Blixen (pseudonym Isak Dinesen or Tania Blixen), the historian Arnold J. Toynbee and the poets Robert Frost and Ezra Pound .

Fonts (selection)

  • The Greek Way , 1930
  • The Roman Way , 1932
  • The Prophets of Israel , 1936
  • Three Greek Plays , 1937
  • Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes , 1942
  • The Golden Age of Greek Literature , 1943
  • Witness to the truth. Christ and his interpreters , 1948
  • Spokesmen for God. The great teachers of the Old Testament , 1949
  • The Echo of Greece , 1957
  • Ever-present Past , 1964

literature

  • Ward W. Briggs : Hamilton, Edith . In: Derselbe (ed.): Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists. Greenwood Press, Westport CT et al. 1994, ISBN 0-313-24560-6 , pp. 255-256.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b http://www.bookrags.com/biography/edith-hamilton
personal data
SURNAME Hamilton, Edith
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American teacher and writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH May 31, 1963
Place of death Washington, DC