{{Short description|American Unitarian minister and Transcendentalist (1805-1890)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox writer | name = Frederic Henry Hedge | image = Frederic Henry Hedge.jpg | birth_date = {{birth date|1805|12|12}} | birth_place = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1890|8|21|1805|12|12}} | death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts | resting_place = [[Mount Auburn Cemetery]] | education = [[Harvard Divinity School]] | signature = Signature of Frederic Henry Hedge (1805–1890).png }} '''Frederic Henry Hedge''' (December 12, 1805 – August 21, 1890) was a [[New England]] [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] minister and [[Transcendentalism|Transcendentalist]]. He was a founder of the [[Transcendental Club]], originally called Hedge's Club,<ref>Cheever, Susan. ''American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau; Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work'' (2006). Detroit: Thorndike Press. Large print edition. {{ISBN|0-7862-9521-X}}. p. 33</ref> and active in the development of Transcendentalism, although he distanced himself from the movement as it advanced.
He was also one of the foremost scholars of German literature in the United States.
==Biography== Born in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], Hedge was the son of [[Harvard University]] professor of logic and metaphysics [[Levi Hedge]]. At the age of 12, he traveled to Germany and studied music for five years under the care of [[George Bancroft]]. He then entered Harvard as a junior and graduated in 1825.<ref name=acab>{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Hedge, Levi|year=1892}}</ref><ref name=nie>{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Hedge, Frederic Henry|year=1905}}</ref> His knowledge of German was to serve him well both in hymnody — he translated Luther's "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("[[A Mighty Fortress Is Our God]]") into the most popular English version — and in philosophy, where it allowed him a greater familiarity with [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]] than most of the Americans of his day.
After graduating as valedictorian, he enrolled in [[Harvard Divinity School]], where he met his intimate friend [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]]. After graduating from the Divinity School in 1828, Hedge was ordained as a Unitarian minister in 1829, and became minister at a Unitarian church in West Cambridge. In 1835 he took charge of a church in [[Bangor, Maine]]; in 1850, after spending a year in Europe, he became pastor of the Westminster Church in [[Providence, Rhode Island]], and in 1856 of the [[First Parish in Brookline|Unitarian church]] in [[Brookline, Massachusetts]].<ref name=acab/><ref name=nie/>
He was central to the development of Transcendentalism in the 1830s. In March 1833, he wrote, "the first word, so far as I know, which any American had uttered in respectful recognition of the claims of Transcendentalism."<ref>Coleridge, Christian Examiner (March 1833).</ref> On September 8, 1836, Hedge met with Ralph Waldo Emerson, [[George Putnam (minister)|George Putnam]] (1807-1878), and [[George Ripley (transcendentalist)|George Ripley]] in Cambridge to discuss the formation of a new club.<ref name=Packer47>Packer, Barbara L. ''The Transcendentalists''. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 2007: 47. {{ISBN|978-0-8203-2958-1}}</ref> Eleven days later, Ripley hosted their first official meeting at his house on September 18, 1836; the group would eventually be known as the [[Transcendental Club]]. Its first official meeting was attended by [[Amos Bronson Alcott]], [[Orestes Brownson]], [[James Freeman Clarke]], and [[Convers Francis]] as well as Hedge, Emerson, and Ripley.<ref>Hankins, Barry. ''The Second Great Awakening and the Transcendentalists''. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2004: 23. {{ISBN|0-313-31848-4}}</ref> Future members would include [[Henry David Thoreau]], [[William Henry Channing]], [[Christopher Pearse Cranch]], [[Sylvester Judd]], and [[Jones Very]].<ref>Gura, Philip F. ''American Transcendentalism: A History''. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007: 7–8. {{ISBN|0-8090-3477-8}}</ref> The group planned its meetings for times when Hedge was visiting from [[Bangor, Maine]], leading to the early nickname "Hedge's Club".<ref name=Packer47/> Hedge wrote: "There was no club in the strict sense... only occasional meetings of like-minded men and women", earning the nickname "the brotherhood of the 'Like-Minded'".<ref>Gura, Philip F. ''American Transcendentalism: A History''. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007: 5. {{ISBN|0-8090-3477-8}}</ref> He became alienated from the group's more extreme positions in the 1840s and did not publish in the Transcendental journal ''[[The Dial]]'', despite his friendship with its editor [[Margaret Fuller]], saying he did not want to be associated with the movement in print.<ref>Packer, Barbara L. ''The Transcendentalists''. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 2007: 115. {{ISBN|978-0-8203-2958-1}}</ref> He gave a Phi Beta Kappa Address on Harvard in 1843.<ref>Alfred L. Brophy, The Jurisprudence of Antebellum Phi Beta Kappa Addresses, Brophy, Alfred L., The Jurisprudence of Antebellum Phi Beta Kappa Addresses (December 10, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5052591 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5052591 </ref>
Hedge visited [[Thomas Carlyle]] in 1847, who described him to Emerson as "one of the sturdiest little fellows I have come across for many a day. A face like a rock; a voice like a howitzer; only his honest kind grey eyes reassure you a little."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Carlyle |first=T. |date=1847-07-01 |title=Tc to Ralph Waldo Emerson |url=http://carlyleletters.dukejournals.org/cgi/doi/10.1215/lt-18470831-TC-RWE-01 |journal=The Carlyle Letters Online |language=en |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=47–50 |doi=10.1215/lt-18470831-TC-RWE-01 |doi-broken-date=July 1, 2025 |issn=1532-0928|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
In 1849 he preached a sermon, published as a pamphlet, on [[Joshua Young]]'s ordination as pastor to his first parish, Boston's [[St. Stephen's Church (Boston, Massachusetts)|New North Church]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Hedge |first=Frederic Henry. |authorlink=Frederic Henry Hedge |location=Boston |year=1849 |title=Leaven of the Word. A Sermon Preached at the Ordination of Rev. Joshua Young, as Pastor of the New North Church in Boston, Thursday, Feb. 1, 1849. |url=https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:DIV.LIB:26526407 |access-date=2021-07-09 |archive-date=2021-07-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711082303/https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:421565800$1i |url-status=live }}</ref>
He was noted as a public lecturer as well as a pulpit orator. In 1853-1854, he lectured on [[Middle Ages|medieval]] history before the [[Lowell Institute]].<ref name=acab/>
In 1858, Hedge returned to Harvard Divinity School as a professor of ecclesiastical history; that year, he also became editor of the ''[[Christian Examiner]]'', a role he held for three years.<ref name=Packer168>Packer, Barbara L. ''The Transcendentalists''. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 2007: 168. {{ISBN|978-0-8203-2958-1}}</ref> The next year, Hedge began a four-year term as president of the [[American Unitarian Association]].<ref name=Packer168/> In 1872, he resigned his pastorship in Brookline to become professor of [[German literature]] at Harvard.<ref name=acab/> He retained this position until 1881.<ref name=nie/> Deeply read in philosophy, ecclesiastical history, and German literature, he ranked as perhaps the foremost German literary scholar in the United States.<ref name=ea>{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Hedge, Frederic Henry}}</ref>
He died in Cambridge on August 21, 1890, and was buried at [[Mount Auburn Cemetery]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/100061606/deaths/ |title=Deaths |newspaper=[[Boston Evening Transcript]] |page=4 |date=1890-08-23 |access-date=2022-04-19 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
==Works== Besides essays on the different schools of philosophy, notably magazine articles on [[St. Augustine]], [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|Leibniz]], [[Arthur Schopenhauer|Schopenhauer]], and [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Coleridge]], and other contributions to periodicals in prose and poetry, he published:<ref name=acab/>
* [https://archive.org/details/prosewritersofge00hedguoft/page/n3/mode/1up ''The Prose Writers of Germany'', extracts and biographical sketches] (Philadelphia, 1848) * ''A Christian Liturgy for the Use of the Church'' (Boston, 1856) * ''Reason in Religion'' (Boston, 1865) * ''The Primeval World of Hebrew Tradition'' (1870) * ''[https://archive.org/details/hourswithgerman00hedggoog/page/n9/mode/2up Hours with German Classics]'' (1886) * ''[https://archive.org/details/metricaltranslat00hedg/page/n5/mode/2up Metrical Translations and Poems]'' (with [[Annis Lee Wister]]; Boston, 1888) * ''Martin Luther and Other Essays'' (1888)
He also wrote hymns for the Unitarian church, and assisted in the compilation of a hymn-book (1853), and published numerous translations from the German poets, including [[Martin Luther]]'s {{lang|de|Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott}} ("[[A Mighty Fortress is Our God]]").
==Legacy== His chief significance to American thought was his introduction of German scholarship and literature.<ref name=nie/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Wikisource author-inline}} * [https://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/frederichenryhedge.html Biography] in the ''Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography'' (uudb.org) * [https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:DIV.LIB:div00110 Letters to Ralph Waldo Emerson] and [https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:DIV.LIB:div00384 Papers of Frederic Henry Hedge] at the Harvard Divinity School Library, [[Harvard Divinity School]] * [http://www.americanunitarian.org/reasoninreligion.htm ''Reason in Religion''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041217223334/http://www.americanunitarian.org/reasoninreligion.htm |date=December 17, 2004 }} (incomplete text)] at American Unitarian Conference * {{Librivox author |id=12719}} * {{LCAuth|n84225038|Frederic Henry Hedge|47|ue}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hedge, Frederic}} [[Category:1805 births]] [[Category:1890 deaths]] [[Category:Members of the Transcendental Club]] [[Category:American Unitarians]] [[Category:19th-century American Christian clergy]] [[Category:Harvard Divinity School alumni]] [[Category:Harvard Divinity School faculty]] [[Category:Harvard University faculty]] [[Category:People from Bangor, Maine]] [[Category:Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery]]