Charles Timothy Brooks

(20 June 1813 - 14 June 1883)

Roger Thompson

Virginia Military Institute

BOOKS: Aquidneck, a Poem, Pronounced on the Hundredth Anniversary of the

Incorporation of the Redwood Library Company, R. I. (Providence, RI: Charles Burnett, Jr., 1848);

Songs of Field and Flood (Boston: John Wilson and Son, 1853);

The Simplicity of Christ’s Teachings, Set Forth in Sermons (Boston: Crosby, Nichols,

and Company, 1859);

Poems, Original and Translated, with a Memoir by Charles W. Wendte. Selected and

Edited by W. P. Andrews. (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1885);

William Ellery Channing: A Centennial Memory (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1880).

TRANSLATIONS: William Tell, A Drama in Five Acts. From the German of Schiller

(Providence, RI: B. Cranston and Company, 1838);

Poets (Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1842);

Other German Poets (Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1847);

German Lyrics (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1853);

Faust: a Tragedy Translated from the German of Goethe with Notes (Boston: Ticknor

and Fields, 1856);

Titan: A Romance. From the German of Jean Paul Friedrich Richter (Boston: Ticknor

and Fields, 1862);

Kortum (Philadelphia: Frederick Leypoldt, 1863);

German Lyric Poets, with Notes (Philadelphia: Willis P. Hazard, 1863);

Friedrich Richter (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1865);

Leopold Schefer (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1867);

Puck’s Nightly Pranks, Translated from the German of Ludwig Bund. Illustrated by Paul

Konewka (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1871);

The World-Priest. Translated from the German of Leopold Schefer (Boston: Roberts

Brothers, 1873);

The Convicts and Their Children by Berthold Auerbach. Leisure Hour Series. (New

York: Henry Holt and Company, 1877);

Lorley and Reinhard by Berthold Auerbach. Leisure Hour Series. (New York: Henry

Holt and Company, 1877);

Aloys by Berthold Auerbach. Leisure Hour Series. (New York: Henry Holt and

Company, 1877);

Auerbach. Leisure Hour Series. (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1877);

Friedrich Rückert (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1882);

The Invisible Lodge, from the German of Jean Paul Friedrich Richter. Leisure Hour

Series. (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1883);

OTHER: The Controversy Touching the Old Stone Mill, in the Town of Newport,

Rhode-Island, with Remarks, Introductory and Conclusive (Newport, RI: Charles E. Hammett, Jr., 1851);

"Original Hymn." Services in Memory of Rev. William E. Channing, D. D. at the

Arlington-Street Church, Boston, on Sunday Evening, October 6, 1867 (Boston: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1867);

Sunday, January 10, 1875, by the First Pastor, Charles T. Brooks (Newport, RI: Davis and Pitman, Printers, 1875);

 

Charles Timothy Brooks is best known for his translations of German literature into English, gaining his reputation as an important translator upon the publication of Goethe’s Faust, part I (1856). His vocation, however, was that of Unitarian minister, being appointed by William Ellery Channing as the pastor of the Unitarian Church of Newport, Rhode Island, where he continued to preach for 35 years. He considered himself a poet who was able to transform his poetical talents into eloquent sermons and more accurate and lyrical translations of German literature. Though both his sermons and his poetry were admired, their range of influence was limited, while his translations helped to stir a growing interest in German literature, theology and philosophy in a rapidly expanding American intellectual culture. Brooks’s translations of Faust and Titan, in particular, introduced Americans to a German literary culture that was different from traditional visions of it, and the two works, among his other translations, helped to invigorate German studies in America.

Born in 1813 in Salem, Massachusetts, Charles was the second child of Timothy and Mary King (Mason). Both his father and mother were descended of old New England Puritan families, his father’s family traced to 1649 and his mother’s to 1587 and the Rev. Francis Higginson. Charles was a precocious but sensitive child, who deeply loved nature and walks in the countryside. He entered Harvard in 1828, where he was both class poet and the head of the Hasty Pudding Club. In 1832, the year Ralph Waldo Emerson preached his resignation sermon on "The Lord’s Supper," Brooks graduated Harvard and entered the Divinity School, from which he graduated in 1835. While at Harvard, Brooks heard both Emerson and Edward Everett speak, took courses from Henry Ware, and, most importantly, began his work in German studies under the tutelage of Carl Follen, the premier German scholar of the time. Brooks also became associated with a group of young intellectuals that included George Ticknor Curtis, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Theodore Parker, and Charles Sumner.

On January 1, 1837, Brooks became the first minister of the Unitarian Church in Newport, Rhode Island. In October of that same year, he married Harriet Lyman Hazard, the daughter of a Newport legislator, Benjamin Hazard, and in the following year they would have their first of five children. William E. Channing conducted the marriage ceremony, and in June of 1837 Channing ordained Brooks in the Newport Church where he would remain until poor health forced him to resign his pastorate just before Thanksgiving in 1871. He had a somewhat fragile health, both in childhood and as an adult, and illness necessitated a number of voyages during his lifetime, on two occasions to Alabama (1842-43, 1851-52), where he preached to the Unitarian Society, and to Calcutta, India (1853-4), during which he wrote several articles that were published in Harper’s Monthly. In 1865-66, he finally made a long awaited trip to Europe, where he met Carlyle, some relatives of Jean Paul Friedrich Richter, William H. Channing, and Elizabeth Gaskell.

Brooks was deeply loved by his parishioners and is praised for his compassion, sincerity, and intellectual acumen as a pastor. His achievement as a preacher is highlighted by the publication of a set of his sermons, The Simplicity of Christ’s Teachings (1859). This set of sermons demonstrates Brooks fluency with mid-nineteenth century Unitarian theology as well as Brooks interest in addressing issues such as the rise of the natural sciences and the role of religious education in a democratic society. Having attended Harvard Divinity School as American Transcendentalism was taking shape and while Unitarianism was enjoying a period of primacy in the religious culture of New England, Brooks’s theology as displayed in his sermons illustrates well the integration of diverse fields of knowledge that increasingly characterize Unitarianism and Transcendentalism of the time. Eventually, Brooks would compose 1350 sermons, numerous lectures, and a large body of religious poetry, though many remain unpublished.

Even in his work as a preacher, Brooks viewed himself as a poet, and though neither his sermons nor his poetry has received much critical attention (indeed almost none), he was a prolific writer. Much of his poetry was published in periodicals of the time, such as a series of "Entomological Alphabet" poems, which appeared in The Dayspring. Reflecting the themes of most of his periodical poetry, these alphabetic poems were essentially lessons in moral and religious living. His initial book of poetry, Songs of Field and Flood (1853) illustrates the themes of moral living but place them frequently in the frame of occasional poems or nature poems. Poems, Original and Translated, published posthumously in 1885 by his biographer, Charles Wendte, is the most important collection of his poetry and reflects Brooks’s focus on moral instruction. It contains numerous occasional poems that are important in showing his connection to seminal events and people of the nineteenth century, including ones that commemorate his visit to St. Peters, his stays in Alabama, his relationship with Channing, and the death of Jones Very. Images of nature and its power to facilitate the redemption of humankind often drive the religious themes of the poems, suggesting Brooks’s interest in some of the central tenets of Transcendentalism. Even so, his poetry, as well as his sermons, remains largely uninvestigated by current scholarship, and he remains largely regarded as a regional poet whose importance rests most significantly in his translations of German poetry.

Brooks’s stature as one of the premier translators in New England overshadows his regional reputation as the kindly and pious preacher/poet of Newport. When he first came into contact with German while studying at Harvard under Follen, he expressed an exuberance for German poetry that continued to drive his work until his death. Indeed, Brooks envisioned his poetic ability as well suited to providing more accurate translations of German lyric poetry than was available at the time, and he saw the entire act of translation as an act of poetry.

His initial translation, William Tell (1838), came as an edition of George Ripley’s Specimens of Foreign Literature. The translation came to a public already familiar with the drama, and its importance is probably as much in its indication of Brooks’s own enjoyment of Schiller as much as its positive reception. Indeed, Brooks’s earnestness to translate the lesser known lyric work of Schiller led to the publication of Schiller’s Homage of the Arts (1847), in which Brooks began the work of presenting to the American public the German lyrics of Schiller, Rückert, and Freiligrath, whom he would meet in London years later during his voyage to Europe. The work went through three editions and met with considerable public praise.

The initial success of his early translations helped to ensure publication of what would be the most important translation of his career, Faust. Brooks’s translation was the first English version to be published in America, and it solidified his reputation as one of the premier literary translators of the time. Indeed, his translation was the most widely respected until the publication of Bayard Taylor’s, and Wendte argues that Brooks’s might even be a better translation than Taylor’s, but that Taylor’s assumed preeminence because he published the entirety of Faust, whereas Brooks only published part one. Regardless, Brooks says in his preface that his goal is the creation of the finest translation of the work, the most true to the poetic qualities of the original German, and majority of scholarship suggests that he accomplished his goal.

This goal of a more poetic and true-to-the-original translation undergirds virtually all of Brooks’s work and it belies his desire to make known the lyrical sophistication of German poetry as well as the lyricism of German prose works. Titan (1862) was Brooks first attempt to bring to America the epic work of Jean Paul Richter, for whom Brooks felt a special fondness and whom he called the "Shakespeare of Germany." American literary culture had some familiarity with Richter through Carlyle and through Follen, and it is probably through the influence of both of these figures that Brooks conceived of the importance of Richter, Follen being Brooks’s German instructor and Carlyle being a person who Brooks greatly admired and would later meet on his journey to Europe. Brooks’s translation of the novel Titan and later Hesperus (1864), however, were ambitious attempts to introduce Richter’s work in its entirety in order to demonstrate its lyrical beauty and moral sense.

The moral qualities of German literature greatly appealed to Brooks and led to his translations of Leopold Schefer’s The Layman’s Breviary (1867) and The World Priest (1873). Again, Brooks saw his mission as partly the introduction to America of a lesser known German poet, but in these two works Brooks illustrates the piety of the German writers as well. The Layman’s Breviary is essentially a devotional, spun with words of wisdom for the lay people, and The World Priest is a collection of verse essays steeped in moral idealism. Both works reflect Brooks Unitarianism, especially in their appeals to a revelatory human reason, a zeal for liberty, and an embracing of the common and lowly.

The focus on the common and lowly appears with most strength in a series of translations of Berthold Auerbach for the Henry Holt and Company’s Leisure Hour Series. Lorley and Reinhard, The Convicts and Their Children, and Aloys (1877), exhibit the power of virtuous characters to overcome their circumstances, and in the case of Lorley and Reinhard, in the power of fate to level those lacking in virtue. In all these works, virtuous characters and virtuous actions are rewarded, and the world is shown a place for the potential of human goodness. These traits certainly appealed to Brooks and fit well with his Unitarian background.

Brooks’s Unitarianism would be further reflected in his translation of The Wisdom of the Brahmin (1882). This translation of Rückert, dedicated to Frederick Henry Hedge and William Henry Furness, highlights the extent to which eastern thought had entered the America philosophical and literary circles. The poem, subtitled A Didactic Poem, abounds in passages of idealism and moralizing piety and illustrates Brooks’s continued interest in idealist thought until the end of his life.

Brooks’s death, one year after the publication of The Wisdom of the Brahmin, was widely reported, and his memorial was attended by such notables as George Bancroft, testifying to his stature in the religious and literary community. Communications on the Death of Brooks, a book commemorating his life and achievements, was published in 1884 and contains reflections on his significance to New England culture and to the citizens of Newport by, among others, Charles Wendte and W. P. Andrews. Wendte’s more lengthy "Memoir," published as an introduction to Poems, Original and Translated, provides a more detailed biography, and from it comes most of the descriptions of Brooks and his significance on which current scholarship still relies. Brooks and his works, however, remain largely unexamined, his translations having only one book length study dedicated solely to them, Camillo von Klenze’s Charles Timothy Brooks: Translator from the German and the Genteel Tradition, and his sermons and poetry are generally dismissed as regional and uninspired, even in scholarship that praise his translations.

Bibliographies:

Bibliography of American Literature. Compiled by Jacob Blanck. Vol. 1. (New Haven,

CT: Yale University Press, 1955);

the University of Virginia. Compiled by Fannie Mae Elliot and Lucy Clark. (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1961).

Biographies:

Charles W. Wendte. "Memoir." Poems, Original and Translated, with a Memoir by

Charles W. Wendte. Selected and Edited by W. P. Andrews. (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1885): 3-114;

E. B. Willson, C. W. Wendte, R. S. Rantoul, and W. P. Andrews. Communications on

the Death of Charles T. Brooks, of Newport, R. I. (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1884).

References:

Cyrus Hamlin. "Transplanting German Idealism to American Culture: F. H. Hedge, W.

T. Harris, C. T. Brooks." Translating Literatures, Translating Cultures: New Vistas and Approaches in Literary Studies. Ed. Kurt Mueller-Vollmer and Michael Irmscher. (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998): 107-124;

Camillo von Klenze. Charles Timothy Brooks: Translator from the German and the

Genteel Tradition. (Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1937);

Henry A. Pochman. German Culture in America: Philosophical and Literary Influences

1600-1900. (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1957);

Stanley M. Vogel. German Literary Influences on the American Transcendentalists.

(Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1970).

Papers:

The major holdings of Brooks’s works and manuscripts are the Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Brown University, Houghton Library at Harvard University, and the Barrett Special Collections Library at University of Virginia.