Barrett Wendell (August 23, 1855 – February 8, 1921) was an American academic known for a series of textbooks including English Composition, studies of Cotton Mather and William Shakespeare, A Literary History of America, The France of Today, and The Traditions of European Literature.
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Early life
Wendell was born in Boston on August 23, 1855. He was the son of Jacob and Mary Bertodi (née Barrett) Wendell. His parents married in Boston in 1854, about a year after his father had moved from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and joined the firm of J.C. Howe & Co. Among his three younger brothers were Gordon Wendell, philanthropist and athlete Evert Jansen Wendell, and actor Jacob Wendell.
His paternal grandparents were Jacob Wendell Sr. and Mehitable Rindge (née Rogers) Wendell. The first Wendell, Evert Jansen, left the Netherlands in 1640 and settled in Albany, New York. His maternal grandparents were Boston merchant Nathaniel Augustus Barrett and Sally (née Dorr) Barrett. Both the Barrett and Dorr families had deep roots in colonial America, with the Dorrs making their fortune in the fur trade.
Wendell graduated from Harvard in the class of 1877 with Abbott Lawrence Lowell, who was later a president of Harvard. At Harvard, Wendell was a member of The Lampoon.