Timothy Dwight
Timothy Dwight was a prominent early-American clergyman, educator, president of Yale University, and a notable poet born in 1752 in Northampton, Massachusetts. He was the grandson of the influential theologian Jonathan Edwards and exhibited exceptional intellectual abilities from a young age, entering Yale College at just thirteen. After graduating in 1769, Dwight became a tutor at Yale, where he developed important relationships with fellow writers, forming a group known as the Connecticut Wits. His contributions to American literature include his epic poem "The Conquest of Canaan," which draws parallels between the biblical narrative of Joshua and the American Revolutionary War, as well as "The Triumph of Infidelity," a satirical work addressing the challenges of democratic ideals.
In addition to his literary achievements, Dwight served as a chaplain in the Continental Army and was active in local politics, representing Northampton in the Massachusetts assembly. He founded Greenfield Academy, where he broke traditional educational norms by admitting women and eschewing corporal punishment. His presidency at Yale from 1795 to 1817 was marked by efforts to enhance the university's reputation, establish new academic departments, and strengthen its financial standing. Dwight's legacy includes his four volumes of travel writings, which were published posthumously and offer insights into New England life.
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Timothy Dwight
Educator
- Born: May 14, 1752
- Birthplace: Northampton, Massachusetts
- Died: January 11, 1817
- Place of death: New Haven, Connecticut
Biography
Educator, Yale president, prominent early-American clergyman, and poet Timothy Dwight was born in 1752, in Northampton, Massachusetts. Dwight’s mother was the daughter of colonial theologian Jonathon Edwards. A gifted learner who could read at age four, Dwight entered Yale College at thirteen already armed with a classical foundation in Latin and Greek, thanks largely to his mother’s tutelage and his father’s well-appointed library.
After graduating in 1769, Dwight stayed on at Yale as a tutor and candidate for a M.A. Dwight showed the breadth of his intellect with his mastery of physics in Newton’s Principia. While at Yale, Dwight forged significant relationships with budding writers such as John Trumbull and David Humphreys. Collectively, they became known as the Connecticut Wits. Although Dwight flourished academically, he drove himself to the point of exhaustion and left Yale in1774 to recover at home.
An ardent patriot, Dwight became a chaplain in the Continental Army in 1777, the same year he married. In 1778, Dwight published “Columbia, Columbia, to Glory Arise,” a war song that became popular with Washington’s troops. Dwight resigned his commission in 1778, following his father’s death, and again returned home to Northampton to help with the care of his many siblings.
Dwight represented Northampton in the Massachusetts assembly in 1781 and 1782 and farmed and preached to support his family. He founded Greenfield Academy in Connecticut in 1783. Dwight broke with tradition by admitting women to his school; he used the same methods to instruct both sexes and eliminated corporeal discipline. His renown as an educator began to spread, and Dwight began to siphon students from Yale. At this time, Dwight assured his place in early American literature with his 1785 epic poem The Conquest of Canaan: A Poem in Eleven Books. The Conquest of Canaan is a rendering of the Book of Joshua in which Dwight cast Washington as Joshua and the fledgling America as Israel.
The Triumph of Infidelity, published anonymously in 1788, was a satirical but pessimistic poem in which Dwight warned of the loss of social order if democratic ideals went too far. Dwight’s aims with The Triumph of Infidelity were not just political; he hoped to establish a neoclassical American idiom. Dwight also used The Triumph of Infidelity to argue against Universalist theology, which had taken hold in New England. His ardor for his beloved New England way of life was expressed in his epic pastoral poem Greenfield Hill: A Poem in Seven Parts, published in 1794.
In 1795, Dwight was hired as the eighth president of Yale. Before his death in 1817, he reversed the college’s faltering reputation, using his formidable drive to shore up Yale’s coffers, establish several new departments (including a medical school), and maintain his title as professor of divinity. Dwight was regarded as a valuable chronicler of New England life based on his four volumes of travel writings, Travels in New-England and New-York, which were published posthumously in 1821 and1822.