Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935) Wendell Holmes, Jr. was born
on March 8, 1841, in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the eldest of
three children born to his parents. His father, for whom he was
named, was a medical doctor and writer who was a co-founder of
The Atlantic Monthly. His mother, Amelia Jackson, was an
abolitionist, and Massachusetts then was the home of
abolitionism. As an adult, Holmes was tall and handsome, and
wore a military mustache (as you can see in the picture). Holmes
had a difficult relationship with his father, who often used
Holmes as the recipient of his barbs in his Atlantic Monthly
column, "The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table." He was his
mother's favorite child, and received his self-confidence from
her. Wendell, as he was called, attended Harvard College
beginning in 1857. Shortly before he graduated, the Civil War
began. Holmes left Harvard to join the Twentieth Massachusetts
Regiment when the Civil War broke out. Because the Regiment
didn’t do any fighting before graduation, Holmes