George Ticknor (1 August 1791-26 January 1871), teacher, philanthropist, scholar, and author, was born in Boston. His father, Elisha Ticknor, was a strict Federalist and Calvinist whose conservative values became his greatest legacy to his son. Ticknor was technically admitted to Dartmouth College at the age of nine, although he did not officially begin attending classes until he was fourteen, when he entered as a member of the junior class. In 1807 he graduated from Dartmouth and returned to Boston to study the classics with a private tutor. By 1810 Ticknor had begun reading law, but in the same year he was invited to join the Anthology Society, a literary and social club which published The Monthly Anthology and Boston Review. In the company of these gentlemen of letters George Ticknor learned the Bostonians' ideal of a cosmopolitan scholar who, supported by a strong moral sense, refused to dabble in politics or...