Edward Everett was central to the development of American criticism at a critical turning point in its history. Judicial criticism was waning; rhetorical criticism was still strong in the universities, but otherwise beginning to lose its hold; romantic criticism was just beginning its ascendancy. Everett positioned himself to advance the "new" criticism through both editorial policy and personal contributions. Possessed of cautious common sense and a basically conciliatory temperament, within five years of its founding he became the fourth editor of the North American Review (founder William Tudor, Jared Sparks, and Edward Tyrrell Channing preceded him). In the four years during which he edited the journal, Everett was instrumental in making it a respected voice for New England intellectualism, and he himself had contributed to that voice by publishing 110 articles in the earlier years of his career.

Everett was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1794, the fourth son of...