Thomas Bulfinch

• 1. A Dictionary for the Parlor

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  Thomas Bulfinch hoped his book would become "a Classical Dictionary for the parlor." The American author was born on the 15th of July 1796 and died on the 27th of May 1867. He never saw the volume that carries his name today. Bulfinch's Mythology reached print in 1881, assembled after his death from three earlier works. It went on to find a lasting audience among readers who had never studied the ancient world. Who was the man behind it? What did he want ordinary readers to gain from these old stories? Whose versions of the tales did he follow, and why do schoolchildren still meet them?

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• 2. Family and Schooling

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  Charles Bulfinch, the architect behind the Massachusetts State House in Boston, was the father of the future author. Thomas was born in Newton, Massachusetts, into a well-educated merchant family of modest means. His father also designed parts of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The son's schooling ran through Boston Latin School and Phillips Exeter Academy, and then on to Harvard College. He graduated from Harvard in 1814. His main career was at the Merchants' Bank of Boston, so the man who later explained the gods to American readers was a banker by trade. Alongside that work he turned out books, and one of them took a book of the Bible as its raw material.

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• 3. Three Works, One Book

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  One of Bulfinch's publications reorganized the biblical book of Psalms in order to illustrate the history of the Hebrews. His lasting reputation, though, rests on three other works. The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes appeared in 1855. The Age of Chivalry, or Legends of King Arthur followed in 1858. Legends of Charlemagne, or Romance of the Middle Ages came out in 1863. Edward Everett Hale later gathered all three into one volume. Each work draws on a different body of legend, known respectively as the Matter of Rome, the Matter of Britain and the Matter of France. The original volume was dedicated to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

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• 4. Mythology as Relaxation

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  On the title page, Bulfinch called his work an "attempt to popularize mythology and extend the enjoyment of elegant literature." He made clear that scholars were not his audience. "Our work is not for the learned, nor for the theologian, nor for the philosopher," he wrote in the preface. Instead he pictured a reader of English literature, of either sex. That reader might hear public speakers, lecturers, essayists and poets refer to old tales, or meet such references in polite conversation. Bulfinch wanted to tell the stories as "a source of amusement" while staying faithful to the ancient authorities. A reader who later met a reference would then recognize it. Myth was to be taught "not as a study, but as a relaxation from study," with the charm of a story-book. An index at the end would let readers look things up.

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• 5. Sources and Softening

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  For the tales of Greece and Rome, Bulfinch followed the versions found in Ovid and Virgil. His Norse myths came from a different route. They were abridged from a work by Paul Henri Mallet, who lived from 1730 to 1807 and was a professor at Geneva. Bishop Thomas Percy had translated that work as Northern Antiquities, published in London in 1770 and often reprinted. Bulfinch also shaped the material for his readers. His obituary noted that the contents were "expurgated of all that would be offensive." A later scholar would describe the book's role in American schools in very different terms.

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• 6. Still in the Classroom

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  Marie Sally Cleary examined the book in The Bulfinch Solution: Teaching the Ancient Classics in American Schools, published in 1990. She placed it in the context of "democratizing" classical culture for a wider American antebellum readership. Bulfinch's Mythology became the standard popular retelling for more than a century and is still in print. His versions of these myths are still taught in many American public schools. In American high schools, however, his retellings were largely superseded by the mythology books of Edith Hamilton. Hamilton's works were based directly on classical Greek texts.

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