William Ellery Channing

Channing", while the nephew was commonly called "Ellery Channing", in print. The younger Ellery Channing was thought brilliant but undisciplined by many of his contemporaries. Amos Bronson Alcott famously said of him in 1871, "Whim, thy name is Channing." Nevertheless, the Transcendentalists thought his poetry among the best of their group's literary products.

• Name — William Ellery Channing • Born — November 29, 1817 • Birthplace — Boston, Massachusetts, United States • Died — 23 December 1901 • Place of death — Concord, Massachusetts, United States • Resting Place — Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord • Occupation — Poet • Spouse — Ellen K. Fuller Channing • Children — 5, including Edward Perkins Channing • Parents — Walter Channing • Relatives — William Ellery Channing (uncle)

Channing was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Dr. Walter Channing, a physician and Harvard Medical School professor. He attended Boston Latin School and later the Round Hill School in Northampton, Massachusetts, then entered Harvard University in 1834, but did not graduate. In 1839 he lived for some months in Woodstock, Illinois, in a log hut that he built; in 1840, he moved to Cincinnati. In the fall of 1842, he married Ellen Fuller, the younger sister of transcendentalist Margaret Fuller and they began their married life in Concord, Massachusetts, where they lived a half-mile north of The Old Manse as Nathaniel Hawthorne's neighbor. Channing wrote to Thoreau in a letter: "I see nothing for you on this earth but that field which I once christened 'Briars'; go out upon that, build yourself a hut, and there begin the grand process of devouring yourself alive. I see no alternative, no other hope for you." Thoreau adopted this advice, and shortly after built his famous dwelling beside Walden Pond. Some speculation identifies Channing as the "Poet" of Thoreau's Walden; the two were frequent walking companions. In 1843, he moved to a hill-top in Concord, some distance from the village, and published his first volume of poems, reprinting several from The Dial. Thoreau called his literary style "sublimo-slipshod". The printing of a compilation of these poems was subsidized by Samuel Gray Ward. In 1844–1845, Channing separated from his family and restarted his wandering, unanchored life. He first spent some months in New York City as a writer for the Tribune, after which he made a journey to Europe for several months. In 1846 he returned to Concord and lived alone on the main street, opposite the house occupied by the Thoreau family and then by Alcott. During much of this time he had no fixed occupation, though for a while, in 1855–1856, he was one of the editors of the New Bedford Mercury. After enumerating his various wanderings, places of residence, and rare intervals of employment, his housemate Franklin Benjamin Sanborn wrote of him: In 1873, Channing was the first biographer of Thoreau, publishing Thoreau, the Poet-Naturalist. When visiting the Emersons in 1876, the young poet Emma Lazarus met Channing and accompanied him on a tour of some of the places Thoreau had loved, stating in her journal in regard to the friendship between Thoreau and Channing that Channing gave Henry Thoreau's compass to Emma Lazarus.

• Illustration — Channing's grave Channing died December 23, 1901, in Concord, at the home of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, where he had spent the final ten years of his life. He is buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord on Authors' Ridge directly facing his longtime friend Thoreau. Frank Sanborn paid for Channing's burial plot. In a July 19, 1902, Springfield Republican article, Frank Sanborn states, In a later Republican column, Sanborn informs:

The authorities additionally record the headings William Ellery Channing II and Ellery Channing. His recorded language was English. He was the child of Walter Channing and Barbara Higginson Perkins. He married Ellen K. 4 children are recorded: Edward Channing, Walter Channing, Caroline Sturgis Channing and Margaret Fuller Channing.

William Ellery Channing is recorded as a citizen of United States. Recorded with the occupation writer. Established in Library of Congress under n50055894. Established in FAST under 18175.