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Biography of Edith HamiltonName: Edith HamiltonBirth Date: August 12, 1867 Death Date: May 31, 1963 Place of Birth: Dresden, Germany Nationality: American Gender: Female Occupations: educator, writer, classicist Edith Hamilton Edith Hamilton (1867-1963) was an excellent teacher, scholar, and writer. She was a gifted storyteller and had a phenomenal memory. Starting at the age of 63, Hamilton published a number of acclaimed books on Greek and Roman culture, was made an honorary citizen of Athens, and was awarded several honorary doctorates.Edith Hamilton was born in Dresden, Germany, on August 12, 1867, while her mother was visiting relatives. After two months her mother returned with her to the United States, but thereafter, many people thought that she was of German extraction. Her great grandfather, the first of the family to come to North America, was the youngest son of a branch of the wealthy Hamilton family of Northern Ireland. Realizing that as the youngest son, he would not inherit much, he immigrated to Canada. His genteel status was not suited to manual labor, but he finally landed a job as a deck hand on …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…by the University of Rochester (1949), the University of Pennsylvania (1953), Yale University (1959), and Goucher College (1962).Near the end of her life, she suffered a stroke from which her doctor said she would never recover. He told Reid, "You must face the fact that Miss Hamilton will never walk again and never talk again." At that instant, Hamilton opened her eyes and said "Pooh!" She recovered. She spent the following summer at Sea Wall in Maine, where she celebrated her 95th birthday. A week before she died, Hamilton decided to try to finish a book on the Greek philosopher, Plato. She passed away peacefully on May 31, 1963, in Washington, D.C. Further Reading Reid, Doris Fielding, Edith Hamilton: An Intimate Portrait, W.W. Norton and Co., 1967.Browning, Benita, "Edith Hamilton," Department of History at IPFW, http://www.ipfw.edu (November 8, 2001)."Edith Hamilton," Distinguished Women of Past and Present, http://www.distinguishedwomen.com (November 8, 2001). |