John Henry Wright

John Henry Wright (February 4, 1852 – November 25, 1908) was an American classical scholar born at Urumiah (Rezaieh), Persia. He earned his Bachelors and Masters (1876) at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. After junior appointments (first in Ohio and then at Dartmouth) in 1886 he joined Johns Hopkins as a professor of classical philology. In 1887, he became a professor of Greek at Harvard, where, from 1895 to 1908, he was also Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Some of Wright's most notable works are A History of All Nations from the Earliest Times (1905), a 24–volume history of the world; the translations Masterpieces of Greek literature (1902); and The Origin of Plato's Cave (1906). He was active in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philological Association, and similar organizations. From 1889 to 1906 he co-edited the Classical Review (later Classical Quarterly) and from 1897 to 1906 he was chief editor of the American Journal of Archaeology.

In 1893 Wright met the Indian Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda, who greatly influenced him; Wright described Vivekananda as "more learned than all our learned professors put together." and an Oriental scholar. In the same year, he translated A manual of Greek archaeology written by Maxime Collignon to English. In 1892, Wright wrote The Date of Cylon. Though Wright wrote it in 1892, it remained unpublished until Aristotle's work on the Constitution of the Athenians was discovered; this resulted in confirming his recording of the "Chronology of Events in Athens" of the seventh century. In 1904, he read a paper "Present Problems of the History of the Classical Literature'" at the Congress of Arts and Sciences at the St. Louis Exposition.

In 1905, he served as editor, translator and supervisor on A History of All Nations from the Earliest Times in twenty-four volumes.

In 1906, Wright published "The Origin of Plato's Cave," an outgrowth of his interest in the archaeological excavations of the Cave of Vari on Mt. Hymettus near Athens.

Other activities In 1893, he became a fellow of American Association of Arts and Sciences. In the same year he was a member of Archaeological Institute of America. In 1894, he became president of the American Philological Association. He was also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Wright died on 25 November 1908 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was survived by his wife and sons.

On August 25, 1893, at Boston, Vivekananda met Wright for the first time. Even after the conclusion of the Parliament, they kept in touch with each other through correspondence. Vivekananda remained ever thankful to Wright for his help and kindness. In a letter written on 18 June 1894, Vivekananda addressed Wright as brother and wrote — "Stout hearts like yours are not common, my brother. This is a queer place — this world of ours. On the whole I am very very thankful to the Lord for the amount of kindness I have received at the hands of the people of this country — I, a complete stranger here without even 'credentials'. Everything works for the best."