{{Short description|American classical scholar (1833–1901)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = James B. Greenough | image = James Bradstreet Greenough (1833–1901).png | alt = | caption = | birth_name = James Bradstreet Greenough | birth_date = {{Birth date|1833|05|04}} | birth_place = [[Portland, Maine|Portland]], Maine | death_date = {{Death date and age|1901|10|11|1833|05|04}} | death_place = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]], Massachusetts | burial_place = | occupation = Lawyer, classical scholar | awards = | spouse = {{Plainlist| * {{Marriage|Mary Battey Ketchum|1860|1893|end=d.}} * {{Marriage|Harriet Sweetzer Jenks|1895}} }} | children = | education = [[Harvard Law School]] | signature = | party = }} '''James Bradstreet Greenough''' (May 4, 1833 – October 11, 1901) was an American [[classical scholar]].

==Life== James B. Greenough was born in [[Portland, Maine]] on May 4, 1833.<ref name=Dead>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/119044264/prof-james-b-greenough-dead/ |title=Prof James B. Greenough Dead |newspaper=[[The Boston Globe]] |page=11 |date=1901-10-12 |access-date=2023-02-18 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> He graduated at [[Harvard University|Harvard]] in 1856, studied one year at the [[Harvard Law School]], was admitted to the Michigan bar and practised in [[Marshall, Michigan]], until 1865, when he was appointed tutor in [[Latin]] at Harvard. In 1873 he became assistant professor.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

He advocated for the admission of women to Harvard, and in 1882 became a director of the society which later founded [[Radcliffe College]].<ref name=Dead/>

He married Mary Battey Ketchum in 1860. She died in 1893, and he remarried to Harriet Sweetzer Jenks two years later.<ref name=Dead/>

In 1883 he became a professor of Latin, a post which he resigned hardly six weeks before his death at his home in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] on October 11, 1901.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref name=Dead/>

He was survived by two sons; surgeon and cancer specialist Dr. [[Robert B. Greenough]] and James Jay Greenough of [[Noble and Greenough School]].<ref name=Dead/>

==Works== Following the lead of Goodwin's ''Moods and Tenses'' (1860), he set himself to study Latin historical [[syntax]], and in 1870 published ''Analysis of the Latin [[Subjunctive mood|Subjunctive]]'', a brief treatise, privately printed, and in many ways coinciding with [[Berthold Delbrück]]'s ''Gebrauch des Conjunctivs und Optativs in Sanskrit und Griechischen'' (1871), which, however, quite overshadowed the ''Analysis''.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 1872 appeared ''A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges, founded on Comparative Grammar, by Joseph H. Allen and James B. Greenough'', a work done with great critical care with [[Joseph Henry Allen]]. His theory of cum-constructions is that adopted and developed by [[William Gardner Hale]]. In 1872-1880 Greenough offered the first courses in [[Sanskrit]] and [[comparative philology]] given at Harvard.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

His able scholarship was evident in his editing of the Allen and Greenough Latin Series of text-books. Also, he occasionally contributed to ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'' (founded in 1889 and endowed at his instance by his own class) papers on Latin syntax, [[Prosody (linguistics)|prosody]] and [[etymology]] &mdash; a subject on which he planned a long work on Roman archaeology and on Greek religion at the time of the [[New Comedy]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

He assisted in the founding of [[Radcliffe College]]. An able English scholar and an excellent [[etymologist]], he collaborated with Professor George L Kittredge on ''Words and their Ways in English Speech'' (1901).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

===Light verse=== * ''The Blackbirds'', a comedietta, first published in ''The Atlantic Monthly'' (vol. xxxix. 1877); *''The Rose and the Ring'' (1880), a [[pantomime]] adapted from [[William Makepeace Thackeray]]; *''The Queen of Hearts'' (1885), a dramatic fantasia; *''[[Old King Cole]]'' (1889), an operetta.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

===Other publications=== *''Selections from the Poems of Ovid'' (1882) *''Select Orations of Cicero'' (1886)

==References== {{Reflist}} *See the sketch by [[George Lyman Kittredge|George L. Kittredge]] in ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', vol. xiv. (1903), pp 1–17 (also printed in ''Harvard Graduates Magazine'', vol. x., December 1901, pp.&nbsp;196–201). *{{EB1911|wstitle = Greenough, James Bradstreet|volume=12|page=550}}

==External links== * {{DBCS}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greenough, James Bradstreet}} [[Category:1833 births]] [[Category:1901 deaths]] [[Category:Harvard Law School alumni]] [[Category:American philologists]] [[Category:Etymologists]] [[Category:American classical scholars]] [[Category:Classical scholars of Harvard University]]