Edward Tyrrel Channing was, arguably, the most influential American rhetorician of the nineteenth century. A roster of Channing's students reads like a "Who's Who" of nineteenth-century American letters. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Richard Henry Dana Jr., Francis Parkman, Edward Everett Hale, and many others shared in common the tremendous influence of Channing's rhetorical instruction at Harvard College during the middle decades of the century. Though neither an educational innovator nor a revolutionary in the field of rhetorical theory, Channing's devotion to demanding standards of style and organization and his passionate views on the role of the orator and writer in a democratic society left indelible impressions upon an entire generation of American writers and statesmen.

Edward Tyrrel Channing was born on 12 December 1790 in Newport, Rhode Island, to William and Lucy (Ellery) Channing. The youngest of nine children, Edward (or "Ned" as he was...