DR. JOHN AIKIN 1747 January 15, Thursday (1746, Old Style): John Aikin was born at Kibworth-Harcourt in Leicestershire, England, son of the Reverend John Aikin and Jane Jennings Aikin. He would obtain his elementary education in the Nonconformist academy at Warrington at which his father, along with the Reverend William Enfield, and Joseph Priestley, was a tutor. He would study medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and then in London in the practice of Dr. William Hunter, and then travel to Leiden for more such study. Afterward he would practice as a surgeon at Chester and Warrington. Eventually he would abandon medicine for literature.1 1773 While the fmall-pox struck in the town of Warrington, John Aikin was keeping careful count of thofe who died, and their ages. The1st meeting of the Medical Society of London, held in this year, caused the creation of a commemorative painting — and in this commemorative painting one can see, with others, John Aikin and Edward Jenner. 1. John’s older sister was Anna Letitia Aikin, who would become a poet and marry a Huguenot, Rochemont Barbauld, becoming known as Anna Laetitia Aikin Barbauld. HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. JOHN AIKIN DR. JOHN AIKIN 1777 George Heriot travelled from Edinburgh to London, having it would seem the intention of beginning an artistic career. In this year, however, his father’s business failed and his younger brother John quit the university and joined the Army, so instead of beginning this artistic career, we find him embarking on a voyage to the West Indies (during his time in the New World islands, he would write and sketch extensively). At some point during this decade, Anna Laetitia Aikin Barbauld’s brother John Aikin had published a work he had entitled AN ESSAY ON THE APPLICATION OF NATURAL HISTORY TO POETRY. His sister wrote to him of it: I hope your Essay will bring down our poets from the garrets, to wander about the fields and hunt squirrels. I am clearly of your opinion, that the only chance we have of novelty is by a more accurate observation of the works of nature, though I think I should not have confined the track quite so much as you have done to the animal creation, because sooner exhausted than the vegetable.... I think too, since you put me on criticizing, it would not have been amiss if you had drawn between the poet and natural historian, and shown how far, and in what cases, the one may avail himself of the knowledge of the other ... that knowledge becomes so generally spread as to authorize the poetical describer to use it without shocking the ear by the introduction of names and properties not sufficiently familiar.... I have seen some rich descriptions of West Indies flowers and plants, but unpleasing merely because their names were uncouth, and forms not known generally enough to be put into verse. 2 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. JOHN AIKIN DR. JOHN AIKIN 1780 At Leiden, John Aikin was awarded the M.D. degree. He published his BIOG. MEMOIRS OF MEDICINE. 1784 Dr. John Aikin established himself as a physician in Great Yarmouth. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 3 HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. JOHN AIKIN DR. JOHN AIKIN 1785 In a letter she wrote to her brother John Aikin, Anna Laetitia Aikin Barbauld wrote: “the fields are full of lavender, thyme, mint, rosemary ... the young corn is above half a foot high ... the trees which are not evergreens have mostly lost their leaves ... a single tree, of cypress, shooting up its graceful spire of a deeper and more lively green far above the deeds of its humbler but more profitable neighbours ... there are likewise a vast number of mulberry-trees.” 4 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. JOHN AIKIN DR. JOHN AIKIN 1791 Dr. John Aikin’s POEMS included a few ballads in what is now known as the Gothic style, including a ballad “Arthur and Matilda” (this would be part of the APOLOGY) that was accompanied by a note: “The idea of this piece was taken from a ballad translated by an ingenious friend from the German of Buirgher [sic]. The story and scenery are however totally different, and the resemblance only consists in a visionary journey.” (His “ingenious friend” was William Taylor, whose “Lenora” had been composed perhaps as early as the previous year although it would not be published until later. Aikin’s ballad differs from others in the APOLOGY in its reliance upon the so-called “explained supernatural,” in which seemingly otherworldly events are discovered later on in the writing to have been entirely natural in origin — this situates Dr. Aikin as having played a small role in the development of the Gothic genre.) “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 5 HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. JOHN AIKIN DR. JOHN AIKIN 1792 Dr. John Aikin’s VIEW OF THE LIFE, TRAVELS AND PHILANTHROPIC LABORS OF THE LATE JOHN HOWARD, ESQUIRE. In this year one of his pamphlets got Dr. Aikin into some local hot water, and therefore he relocated to London, where he would practise as a consulting physician. During this year and the following one he would be producing LETTERS FROM A FATHER TO HIS SON, ON VARIOUS TOPICS, RELATIVE TO LITERATURE AND THE CONDUCT OF LIFE. WRITTEN IN THE YEARS 1792 AND 1793 (the author did in fact have a son). From this year into 1795, also, he and his sister Anna Laetitia Aikin Barbauld would be producing an immensely popular series of six volumes of readings, EVENINGS AT HOME. 6 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. JOHN AIKIN DR. JOHN AIKIN 1793 Dr. John Aikin co-wrote with his sister Anna Laetitia Aikin Barbauld “On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror, with Sir Bertrand, a Fragment,” an early defense of the sort of literary production we now characterize as “Gothic.” 1795 Dr. John Aikin’s A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY FROM THIRTY TO FORTY MILES ROUND MANCHESTER. 1796 From this year into 1807, Dr. John Aikin would be editing the Monthly Magazine. He introduced the poetry of Gottfried August Bürger through publication of William Taylor’s “Lenora.” “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 7 HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. JOHN AIKIN DR. JOHN AIKIN 1798 John Aikin retired from his practice of medicine to devote himself to his various literary undertakings, among which would be his 10-volume GENERAL BIOGRAPHY: OR LIVES, CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL, OF THE MOST EMINENT PERSONS OF ALL AGES, COUNTRIES, CONDITIONS AND PROFESSIONS. 8 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. JOHN AIKIN DR. JOHN AIKIN 1799 Publication of the initial volume of John Aikin’s GENERAL BIOGRAPHY: OR LIVES, CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL, OF THE MOST EMINENT PERSONS OF ALL AGES, COUNTRIES, CONDITIONS AND PROFESSIONS. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 9 HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. JOHN AIKIN DR. JOHN AIKIN 1802 John Aikin’s THE WOODLAND COMPANION OR A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF BRITISH TREES, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THEIR USES. 10 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. JOHN AIKIN DR. JOHN AIKIN 1807 From this year into 1809, John Aikin would be editing a gazette, The Athenaeum. 1812 Dr. John Aikin’s THE LIVES OF JOHN SELDEN, ESQ. AND ARCHBISHOP USHER; WITH NOTICES OF THE PRINCIPAL ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS WITH WHOM THEY WERE CONNECTED (London: Mathews and Leigh). “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 11 HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. JOHN AIKIN DR. JOHN AIKIN 1815 Publication of the 10th and final volume of John Aikin’s GENERAL BIOGRAPHY: OR LIVES, CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL, OF THE MOST EMINENT PERSONS OF ALL AGES, COUNTRIES, CONDITIONS AND PROFESSIONS. 1816 The beginning of the multiple volumes of John Aikin’s ANNALS OF THE REIGN OF KING GEORGE THE THIRD. 12 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. JOHN AIKIN DR. JOHN AIKIN 1820 John Aikin’s SELECT WORKS OF THE BRITISH POETS IN A CHRONOLOGICAL SERIES FROM BEN JONSON TO BEATTIE. WITH BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL PREFACES BY DR. AIKIN. JOHN AIKIN’S POETS Also, in this year, completion of the multiple volumes of his ANNALS OF THE REIGN OF KING GEORGE THE THIRD: FROM ITS COMMENCEMENT IN THE YEAR 1760, TO THE DEATH OF HIS MAJESTY, IN THE YEAR 1820. 1822 December 7, Saturday: John Aikin died. 1823 The daughter Lucy Aikin published a MEMOIR OF JOHN AIKIN, WITH SELECTIONS OF HIS MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 1830 John Aikin’s THE ARTS OF LIFE, DESCRIBED IN A SERIES OF LETTERS: 1. PROVIDING FOOD.—2. PROVIDING CLOTHING.—3. PROVIDING SHELTER. FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF YOUNG PERSONS. / BY THE AUTHOR OF EVENINGS AT HOME. / FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. (Boston: Carter & Hendee, and Waitt & Dow). THE ARTS OF LIFE This would be one of the books in the personal library of Henry Thoreau. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 13 HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. JOHN AIKIN DR. JOHN AIKIN 1840 The 10th edition of John Aikin’s SELECT WORKS OF THE BRITISH POETS IN A CHRONOLOGICAL SERIES FROM BEN JONSON TO BEATTIE. WITH BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL PREFACES BY DR. AIKIN. JOHN AIKIN’S POETS This would be one of the books in the personal library of Henry Thoreau. Waldo Emerson would comment unfavorably on this volume in his “Poetry and Imagination,” in LETTERS AND SOCIAL AIMS, misspelling Dr. Aikin’s name, “When people tell me they do not relish poetry, and bring me ... Aiken’s Poets ... I am quite of their mind.” 1855 Sept. 24. P.M. — Up river to Conantum with C. A very bright and pleasant fall day.