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Beecher, Henry Ward

clergyman, author, was born June 24, 1813, in Litchfield, Conn., and was a son of Lyman Beecher. He was a congregational clergyman widely famous as the pastor of Plymouth church of Brooklyn in 1847- 87. He was an earnest, large-hearted man, though not a deep thinker, and his cheerful influence upon middle-class American thought was very extensive.

His literary work can hardly be said to possess enduring excellence, and much of it is already forgotten, graphic and picturesque as it often is. He was the author of Eyes and Ears; Life Thoughts; Star Papers; Yale Lectures on Preaching; Lectures to Young Men; Speeches on the American Rebellion; Doctrinal Beliefs and Unbeliefs; and Life of Jesus the Christ. His only novel, Norwood, is a collection of successful character studies rather than a finished story. He died March 8, 1887.