James Bright facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
James Bright
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| Born | 1852  |
| Died | 1926 (aged 73–74) |
| Occupation | Philologist, Germanist, scholar of English |
James Wilson Bright (1852–1926) was an American philologist. A philologist is a scholar who studies languages, especially their history. He was very active in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Bright became a professor of English Philology at Johns Hopkins University. He was an expert in early Germanic languages. He also specialized in Old English and Middle English. These are older forms of the English language.
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Bright's Early Life and Education
James Bright finished his college studies at Lafayette College. This college is located in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Winning the Fowler Prize
In 1861, Lafayette College started a special competition. It was called the Fowler Prize. The prize was for the best student in English Philology. Students had to write about the language of a famous English book. The winner received $30, which was a good amount of money back then!
In 1876, James Bright was a student at Lafayette. The competition focused on the American poet William Cullen Bryant. Bright entered the contest and won the Fowler Prize that year. What was even cooler? William Cullen Bryant himself gave Bright the award at the graduation ceremony!
Becoming a Professor
Bright was the first person to earn a PhD in English from Johns Hopkins University. He received his degree in 1882. After that, he taught for a short time at Cornell University.
In 1885, he returned to Johns Hopkins. There, he helped build up the English language program.
The Caroline Donovan Chair
In 1905, a special teaching position was created. It was called the Caroline Donovan Chair of English. James Bright was the very first person to hold this important position. He kept this role until he retired in 1925.
Bright's Published Works
One of James Bright's well-known books was an Anglo-Saxon Reader. This book helped students learn about Old English. Another famous British language expert, Henry Sweet, also wrote a similar book. Sweet even joked that Bright's book looked a lot like an earlier version of his own!
The James Wilson Bright Collection
After James Bright passed away in 1926, his amazing collection of books was bought. This collection had about 4,000 books. It included texts from Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, and Early Modern English periods.
Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, bought these books. The collection shows how the study of English grew as a subject in universities. Today, these books are still used by researchers. They help people study old and new literature, religion, politics, law, and languages.
