The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, Vol. 1

by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Excerpt from The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, Vol. 1
The early readers of The Atlantic Monthly will permit me, as an acquaintance of long standing, to speak freely with them from its pages, and, as it were, face to face. They have met me often: sometimes in my avowed personality; sometimes under a transparent mask, which might be a shield, but could not be a disguise.
Twenty-five years ago I introduced my self to them, in the first number of this magazine, as The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. Twenty-five years before that time, under the same title, in the pages of the New England Magazine, I had asked the public to sit down with me at my morning refection.

262 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2024

About the author

American physician Oliver Wendell Holmes, Senior, a professor of anatomy and physiology at Harvard from 1847 to 1882 and father of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Junior, wrote humorous conversational pieces, including The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858).

This professional nevertheless achieved fame, regard, and knowledge among the best poets of the 19th century. Holmes nevertheless wrote numerous medical treatises, essays, novels, memoirs, and table-talk books.