During his long career, Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in a variety of genres and attained considerable popularity among his nineteenth-century contemporaries. Though interest in his work has declined, he is still remembered for four significant works, three of them literary, the fourth scientific. Even these four works reveal the range of Holmes's authorial abilities, for each is in a different genre. Two of them--his poem "Old Ironsides" (1830) and his medical investigation of puerperal fever (1843)--appeared early in his career. The other two--his collection of essays The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858) and his novel Elsie Venner: A Romance of Destiny (1861)--were published in mid career, just as Holmes entered his most productive period. Taken together, the four works represent Holmes's versatility and his dedication to writing.

The fourth of five children and a descendant of Anne Bradstreet, Oliver Wendell Holmes was born to Abiel Holmes and his second wife...