When Edward Everett Hale died in 1909 at the age of eighty-seven, he was one of the most revered Americans living in the first years of the twentieth century. Along with Theodore Roosevelt and Susan B. Anthony, Hale commanded public respect for his civic spirit and work on behalf of others. A century later, his position in American life and letters has altered drastically. If remembered at all, he is known only as the author of "The Man Without a Country" (1863); his diminished status reflects the spiritual and literary interests of a changed population. Though he was a Unitarian clergyman with responsibility for large congregations his entire professional life, he found the time to write voluminously on diverse topics. Virtually all of his writing aims at inculcating democracy, patriotism, and tolerance in his audiences-characteristics that Hale amply demonstrated in his personal life.

Edward Everett Hale was born in Boston...