Robert Herrick (novelist)

Robert Welch Herrick (* April 21, 1868 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, † December 23 1938 in Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands) was an American writer. In 1935 he was appointed acting governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Career

Robert Herrick studied until 1890 at Harvard University. Later he lectured at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Between 1905 and 1923 he served on the faculty of the University of Chicago, where he taught the literature. During this time, he wrote 13 novels. His most famous work was the novel Web of Life. His works describe the impact of industrial society on sensitive and lonely people. The psychologist and philosopher William James praised Herrick's literary work and compared it with the British George Robert Gissing.

In 1935 he entered the political arena for a short time, when he was appointed as Acting Governor of the Virgin Islands. Background was a series of scandals that led to the dismissal of his predecessor Paul Martin Pearson. His appointment was necessary because the real Lieutenant Governor Lawrence William Cramer for hearings concerning the aforementioned scandals before the U.S. Senate in Washington DC and therefore was absent for some time from the Virgin Islands. After completion of the hearings Herrick ended tenure as governor again because Cramer was appointed in the meantime to the regular new incumbent.

Robert Herrick died on December 23, 1938 in Charlotte Amalie on Saint Croix on the consequences of a heart attack. He was married since 1894 with Harriett Peabody Emery, with whom he had one son and two daughters.

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