Henry Dwight Sedgwick

Henry Dwight Sedgwick (1861–1957) was an American lawyer and author, brother of Ellery Sedgwick. He was born on September 24 at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, second child of Henry Dwight Sedgwick II and Henrietta Ellery (Sedgwick). Graduated from Harvard College in 1882, he then studied law in Boston until 1884. Admitted to the bar in 1884, he practiced law in New York City from 1885 to 1898. He married Sarah Minturn, daughter of Robert Bowne Minturn, Jr. (part owner of the Flying Cloud clipper ship) and Susanna (Shaw) Minturn of New York City, in 1895 (Susanna was the sister of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw). He was widowed in 1919, and did not remarry until 1953, when he married Gabriella May Ladd, a young lady in her forties. The full front page of the Boston Herald pictured them walking down the aisle on May 18, 1953. She had never been married before, nor did she ever marry again. He was honored with membership in the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and was further honored by being elected in 1893 as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, whose members were chosen from the National Institute - they have since become one entity. He also was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Boston) and the Massachusetts Historical Society. He wrote these books:
* "The Letters of Captain Cuellar" (1896)
* "The Life of Father Hecker" (1897)
* "The Life of Samuel Champlain" (1901)
* "Essays on Great Writers" (1902)
* "The Life of Francis Parkman", in the "American Men of Letters Series" (1904)
* "A Short History of Italy" (1905)
* "The New American Type and Other Essays" (1908)
* "Italy in the Thirteenth Century" (1912)
* "An Apology for Old Maids, and other Essays" (1916)
* "Marcus Aurelius: A Biography told as may by Letters, together with some Account of the Stoic Religion..." (1921)
* "Cortes the Conqueror: The Exploits of the Earliest and Greatest of the Gentleman Adventurers in The New World" (1926)
* "Spain: A Short History of its Politics, Literature, and Art from Earliest Times to the Present" (1926)
* "La Fayette" (1928)
* "France: A Short History of its Politics, Literature, and Art from Earliest Times to the Present" (1929)
* "Henry of Navarre" (1926)
* "Alfred De Musset, 1810-1857" (1931)
* "The Life of Edward the Black Prince, 1330-1376: the Flower of Knighthood out of All the World" (1932)
* "Dan Chaucer: An Introduction to the Poet, his Poetry, and his Times" (1934)
* "Vienna: The Biography of a Bygone City" (1939)
* "Memoirs of an Epicurian" (1940)
* "Horace: A Biography" (1947)

Henry D. Sedgwick and Sarah Minturn Sedgwick are buried in the Sedgwick Pie in Stockbridge Cemetery, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Henry Sedgwick was paternal grandfather to Edith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick (April 20, 1943 – November 15, 1971), an American socialite and heiress who starred in many of Andy Warhol's short films in the 1960s. He is also a paternal great-grandfather to actress Kyra Sedgwick.

Sedgwick was a friend to Leavitt Hunt, son of Vermont Congressman Jonathan Hunt (Vermont Representative) and, like Sedgwick, also a Harvard Law School-educated New York attorney. Hunt was also a photographer and brother of Boston painter William Morris Hunt and architect Richard Morris Hunt. Sedgwick and Leavitt Hunt frequently corresponded. [ [http://www.masshist.org/findingaids/doc.cfm?fa=fa0248 Correspondence between Henry Dwight Sedgwick and Leavitt Hunt, Sedgwick Family Papers 1717-1946, Massachusetts Historical Society, masshist.org] ]

References

*"Cat Angels" Jeff Rovin Harper Paperbacks ISBN 0-06-100972-5