They were among the most cultivated men of the
century, and are the most cosmopolitan of American writers. That they
should not have possessed greater influence was largely owing to the
tendencies of their time. The current of the age was too strong for
them, and in their later years they both expressed gloomy forebodings of
the future, both for their own country and the rest of the civilized
world.
Wasson went to Concord in 1859 intending to make it his permanent abode,
but the offer of a philanthropic gentleman who wished to take him into
his own house for a year and care for him, as Mr. Badams of Manchester
entertained Carlyle, induced him to emigrate again. He continued however
in friendly communication with the literary people there, often visited
them, and now lies buried in Sleepy Hollow cemetery, so that he deserves
to be classed among them, rather than with any other group of literary
men.
He was born in Brooksville, Maine, on the fourteenth of May, 1823. He
was named David for his father, and Atwood for Miss Harriet Atwood, a
female preacher and missionary who was at that time his mother's devoted
friend,--and it has been said that Wasson attributed his unusual mental
activity largely to her influence. His mother died while he was still
too young to recollect her, but her place was fortunately supplied by a
kindly and sensible stepmother; not such a rare phenomenon as some
people think.
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