View source for The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table

{{Infobox book  | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name           = The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table
| title_orig     =
| translator     =
| image          = Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table.jpg
| author         = [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.]]
| cover_artist   =
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| series         =
| genre          = [[Essay]]s
| publisher      =
| release_date   = 1858
| media_type     =
| pages          = 271
| isbn           =
| preceded_by    =
| followed_by    =
}}
'''''The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table''''' (1858) is a collection of essays written by [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.]] The essays were originally published in ''[[The Atlantic Monthly]]'' in 1857 and 1858 before being collected in book form. The author had written two essays with the same name which were published in the earlier ''[[The New-England Magazine]]'' in November 1831 and February 1832, which are alluded to in a mention of an "interruption" at the start of the first essay.
==Overview==
The essays take the form of a chiefly one-sided dialogue between the unnamed Author and the other residents of a [[New England]] [[boarding house]] who are known only by their profession, location at the table, or other defining characteristics. The topics discussed range from an essay on the unexpected benefits of old age to the finest place to site a dwelling to comments on the nature of conversation itself. The tone of the book is distinctly [[Yankee#Contemporary uses|Yankee]] and takes a [[seriocomic]] approach to the subject matter.
Each essay typically ends with a poem on the theme of the essay. There are also poems ostensibly written by the fictional disputants scattered throughout.
==Publication history==
[[File:Oliver Wendell Holmes - Portrait.jpg|thumb|left|Holmes first published ''The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table'' in book form in 1858.]]
In 1830, Holmes moved out of his childhood home in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], and stayed in a boardinghouse in Boston while attending the city's medical college.<ref>Hoyt, Edwin Palmer. ''The Improper Bostonian: Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes''. New York: Morrow, 1979: 47. {{ISBN|0-688-03429-2}}</ref> During this time, he wrote two essays detailing life at his boardinghouse. They were published under the title ''The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table'' in November 1831 and February 1832 in ''The New England Magazine''.<ref>Hoyt, Edwin Palmer. ''The Improper Bostonian: Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes''. New York: Morrow, 1979: 48. {{ISBN|0-688-03429-2}}</ref> Years later, Holmes was instrumental in establishing ''[[The Atlantic|The Atlantic Monthly]]'' in 1856, even providing the magazine's title.<ref>Broaddus, Dorothy C. ''Genteel Rhetoric: Writing High Culture in Nineteenth-Century Boston.'' Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina, 1999: 46. {{ISBN|1-57003-244-0}}.</ref> For its first issue, Holmes published new versions of his prior essays based on fictionalized breakfast table talk and including poetry, stories, jokes and songs.<ref>Novick, Sheldon M. ''Honorable Justice: The Life of Oliver Wendell Holmes''. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989: 19. {{ISBN|0-316-61325-8}}.</ref> These essays were not collected in book form until 1858.<ref name=Sullivan237>Sullivan, Wilson. ''New England Men of Letters''. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972: 237. {{ISBN|0-02-788680-8}}.</ref>
===The ''Breakfast-Table'' series===
In addition to ''Autocrat'', there are two further volumes in the series drawing on later essays along similar themes. The first sequel, ''The Professor at the Breakfast-Table'', was published in 1859. Its second sequel, ''The Poet at the Breakfast-Table'', was published much later in 1872.<ref>Westbrook, Perry D. ''A Literary History of New England''. Philadelphia: Lehigh University Press, 1988: 181. {{ISBN|978-0-934223-02-7}}</ref> The original "Autocrat" of the first series dies and is replaced by a physician who trained in Paris who is also a faculty member of a well-known medical school in the sequel.<ref>Dowling, William C. ''Oliver Wendell Holmes in Paris: Medicine, Theology, and'' The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2006: 120. {{ISBN|978-1-58465-579-4}}</ref> Holmes also included a character nicknamed "Little Boston", the last surviving member of a well-established Massachusetts family that was known to be a satirical version of Holmes himself.<ref name=Dowling123>Dowling, William C. ''Oliver Wendell Holmes in Paris: Medicine, Theology, and'' The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2006: 123. {{ISBN|978-1-58465-579-4}}</ref> The final installment, ''The Poet at the Breakfast Table'', focuses on a character referred to as The Master, who advocates modern scientific ideas.<ref>Dowling, William C. ''Oliver Wendell Holmes in Paris: Medicine, Theology, and'' The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2006: 110–111. {{ISBN|978-1-58465-579-4}}</ref> The fifteen-year gap between the original ''Breakfast-Table'' book and its final installment allowed a very different tone which was more mellow and nostalgic than its predecessors. Holmes wrote of it: "As people grow older ... they come at length to live so much in memory that they often think with a kind of pleasure of losing their dearest possessions. Nothing can be so perfect while we possess it as it will seem when remembered".<ref>Hoyt, Edwin Palmer. ''The Improper Bostonian: Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes''. New York: Morrow, 1979: 237. {{ISBN|0-688-03429-2}}</ref>
==Critical response==
Holmes's essays were well received by critics and readers alike and their inclusion in ''The Atlantic Monthly'' in 1857 helped secure that magazine's early success.<ref>Tilton, Eleanor M. ''Amiable Autocrat: A Biography of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes''. New York: H. Schuman, 1947: 236.</ref> In book form, ''The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table'' sold ten thousand copies in only three days.<ref>Hoyt, Edwin Palmer. ''The Improper Bostonian: Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes''. New York: Morrow, 1979: 193. {{ISBN|0-688-03429-2}}</ref> It has become Holmes's most enduring work.<ref name=Sullivan237/>
Holmes's friend and fellow writer [[James Russell Lowell]] believed the protagonist's switch from "Autocrat" to "Professor" in the sequel was a good change, writing to Holmes, "I like the new Professor ... better than the old Autocrat". But Lowell warned him about some of the theological commentary in the book: "The Religious Press ... will be at you, but after smashing one of them you will be able to furnish yourself with a [[Samson|Sampson's]] {{sic}} weapon for the rest of the [[Philistines]]".<ref name=Dowling123/>
==Image gallery==
;Illustrations by [[Augustus Hoppin]] in 1858 edition (Phillips, Sampson Co.)
<gallery>
Image:1858 schoolmistress byAugustusHoppin AutocratBreakfast byOWHolmes.png
Image:1858 port byAugustusHoppin AutocratBreakfast byOWHolmes.png
Image:1858 relation byAugustusHoppin AutocratBreakfast byOWHolmes.png
Image:1858 Franklin byAugustusHoppin AutocratBreakfast byOWHolmes.png
Image:1858 gentleman byAugustusHoppin AutocratBreakfast byOWHolmes.png
Image:1858 fellow byAugustusHoppin AutocratBreakfast byOWHolmes.png
Image:1858 daughter byAugustusHoppin AutocratBreakfast byOWHolmes.png
Image:1858 deacon byAugustusHoppin AutocratBreakfast byOWHolmes.png
</gallery>
== See also ==
* ''[[Holmes v. Hurst]]'': U.S. Supreme Court case over whether the essays were copyrighted
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Further reading==
* Autocrat of the breakfast-table (Boston: Phillips, Sampson, Co., 1858). [https://books.google.com/books?id=z68IAAAAQAAJ Google books] Printed by H.O. Houghton & Co. Illustrations by Augustus Hoppin.
==External links==
{{wikisource|The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table|''The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table''}}
* [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/751 Project Gutenberg edition of ''The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table'']
* [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2665 Project Gutenberg edition of ''The Professor at the Breakfast Table'']
* [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2666 Project Gutenberg edition of ''The Poet at the Breakfast Table'']
{{DEFAULTSORT:Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, The}}
[[Category:1858 essays]]
[[Category:Essay collections]]
[[Category:Works by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.]]
[[Category:Works originally published in The Atlantic (magazine)]]
[[Category:Works originally published in The New-England Magazine]]
[[Category:1858 books]]