Edgar Allan Poe once wrote that Daniel K. Whitaker was one of the best essayists in North America and in the foremost rank of elegant writers. Upon Whitaker's death, the New Orleans Daily Picayune ran a page-one story on 26 March 1881 which said in part, "He was a thorough classical scholar, a student throughout a long life, devoted to diligent inquiry, and fond of analyzing political and historical problems. He was a writer of rare merit."

Daniel Kimball Whitaker was born in Sharon, Massachusetts, to the Reverend Jonathan and Mary Kimball Whitaker. He was the second of ten children. His father was a Harvard graduate and Congregationalist minister. Whitaker's studies began at home under his father's tutelage. He subsequently attended Bradford Academy on the Merrimac River, then Derby Academy, Hingham, Massachusetts. His namesake uncle, the Reverend Daniel Kimball, also a Harvard graduate and, for a time, a Latin tutor...