Sculptor

Legal Profession.

As the son of a respected Supreme Court justice, William Wetmore Story appeared to be headed toward a distinguished career in law. But he became sidetracked from that profession and chose to seek fame in the arts, publishing several literary works and becoming the most celebrated American sculptor of his time, patronized by European royalty, American businessmen, and Pope Pius IX. Born on 12 February 1819 in Salem, Massachusetts, Story earned his law degree in 1840 from Harvard College and began practicing law in Boston. Here he became part of an intellectual coterie that included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Washington Allston, and James Russell Lowell. In addition to publishing two legal treatises, he served as an art critic and literary editor. His two collections of poetry from this period (published in 1847 and 1856) were undistinguished.

New Career.

When his father died in 1845, Story was commissioned, somewhat...