Introduction

Biography

An 1859 gra­du­ate of Brown Uni­ver­si­ty in Pro­vi­dence, Rhode Is­land, Ban­croft served as prin­ci­pal of the Walt­ham, Mas­sa­chu­setts, high school for two years.

For a short while, he worked in bu­si­ness in Bos­ton, re­plac­ing his brother, who had died in Europe. He found aca­de­mia more to his lik­ing, though, and left bu­si­ness to once again be­come a high school prin­ci­pal, this time in New­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts.

In 1868, he be­came pro­fess­or of rhe­tor­ic and Eng­lish li­te­ra­ture at his al­ma ma­ter.

Bancroft suf­fered a breakdown in 1883 and for a while tra­veled in the Am­er­ican south and in Eur­ope, but ev­ent­ual­ly re­turned to Brown.

The stress was ap­par­ent­ly too much, though, and in De­cem­ber 1890 he sud­den­ly dis­ap­peared. His bo­dy was found two months lat­er in a pond in Crans­ton, Rhode Is­land.

Works

• Gleanings in Verse
• Historical Out­lines of the Eng­lish Lang­uag­es
• Historical Out­lines of Am­er­ican Li­te­ra­ture
• Method of Eng­lish Com­po­si­tion