North American Scholar

HARKNESS, Albert

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  • Date of Birth (YYYY-MM-DD): 1822-10-06
  • Born City: Mendon
  • Born State/Country: MA
  • Parents: Southwick & Phebe Thayer Harkness.
  • Date of Death (YYYY-MM-DD): 1907-05-27
  • Death City: Providence
  • Death State/Country: RI
  • Married: Maria Aldrich Smith, 28 May 1849.
  • Education:

    B.A. Brown, 1842; Ph.D., Bonn, 1854; study at Berlin, Bonn, & Göttingen, 1853-5; LL.D. Brown, 1869.
  • Professional Experience:

    Lat. tchr. Providence (RI) HS, 1843-53; sr. mstr., 1846-53; prof. Gk. lang. & lit. Brown, 1855-92; pres. Franklin Lyceum, 1849; pres. APA, 1875-6; mng. comm. ASCSA, 1880-1907; memb. Board of Fellows, Brown, 1904-7.
  • Dissertation:

    “Comparantur Studia Graeca et Latina quae in Nova Anglia cum eis quae in Borussia sunt” (Bonn, 1854).
  • Publications:

    Second Latin Book (New York, 1853); First Greek Book (New York, 1861); Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges (New York, 1864; rev. ed. 1898); An Introductory Latin Book (New York, 1866); Latin Reader (New York, 1865); A Practical Introduction to Latin Composition for Schools and Colleges (New York, 1869); Elements of Latin Grammar for Schools (New York, 1869); Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War (New York, 1870, 1886; rev. ed. with C. H. Forbes, 1901); Select Orations of Cicero (New York, 1873, 1882; rev. ed. 1906); “On the Formation of the Tenses for Completed Action in the Latin Finite Verb,” TAPA 5 (1874) 14-25; “On the Formation of the Tenses for Completed Action in the Latin Finite Verb—Second Paper,” TAPA 6 (1875) 5-19; A New Latin Reader (New York, 1877); “On the Development of the Latin Subjunctive in Principal Clauses,” TAPA 10 (1879) 76-91; A Complete Course in Latin for the First Year (New York, 1883); The Military System of the Romans (New York, 1887); An Easy Method for Beginners in Latin (New York, 1890); A Short Latin Grammar (New York, 1898); Nine Orations of Cicero, with J. C. Kirkland, Jr. (New York, 1906); Sallust's Catiline (New York, 1906).
  • Notes:

    Albert Harkness was one of the founders of the American Philological Association, of which he was first vice president (1869-70), and of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Valedictorian of his class at Brown, he spent a distinguished career at his alma mater. Though he was a professor of Greek, his publications were mostly on Latin literature, including text editions of Caesar, Cicero, and Sallust. His most lasting work was his Latin Grammar, often reprinted.
  • Sources:

    Brown Univ. Alum. Monthly 8 (1907) 31-32; CJ 3 (1907-8) 35; F. G. Allinson, DAB 8:265-66; NatCAB 6:23; NYTimes (27 May 1907) 7; Sandys 457-8; WhAm 1:520.
  • Author: Meyer Reinhold