John Henry Wright

Who was John Henry Wright?

John Henry Wright was an American classical scholar born at Urumiah, Persia. He earned his Bachelors and Masters at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. After junior appointments in 1886 he joined Johns Hopkins as a professor of classical philology. In 1887, he became a professor of Greek at Harvard, where, from 1895 to 1908, he was also Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Some of Wright's most notable works are A History of All Nations from the Earliest Times, a 24–volume history of the world; the translations Masterpieces of Greek literature; and The Origin of Plato's Cave. He was active in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philological Association, and similar organizations. From 1889 to 1906 he co-edited the Classical Review and from 1897 to 1906 he was chief editor of the American Journal of Archaeology.

In 1893 Wright met the Indian Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda, who greatly influenced him; Wright described Vivekananda as "more learned than all our learned professors put together."

Wright received LL.D.s from Dartmouth and Case Western Reserve University in 1901. He died on 25 November 1908 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.