Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Corson, Hiram

by Hiram Corson

CORSON, Hiram, educator, b. in Philadelphia, 6 Nov., 1828. After being employed for some time as a private tutor and assistant teacher in the Treemount seminary at Norristown, Pa., he became connected with the library of congress and with that of the Smithsonian institution at Washington in 1849, and continued there until 1856, when he resumed teaching. In 1859 Mr. Corson removed with his family to Philadelphia, and for some years devoted himself to teaching and lecturing on English literature. In 1865 he was elected professor of history and rhetoric in Girard college, resigning this place in 1866 to accept the professorship of rhetoric and English literature in St. John's college, Annapolis. In 1870 he was elected to the chair of English language and literature, rhetoric, and oratory in Cornell, which office he still holds. He has published Chaucer's “Legende of Goode Women,” containing an introduction on the versification of Chaucer, and glossarial and critical notes; “An Elocutionary Manual,” with an introductory essay on the study of literature and the relations of vocal culture to an æsthetic appreciation of poetry; and a “Hand-Book of Anglo-Saxon and Early English” (New York, 1871). He has also prepared a thesaurus of early English, containing a complete verbal and glossarial index of the “Canterbury Tales,” “Piers Ploughman,” Gower's “Confessio Amantis,” Wycliffe's Bible, Spenser, and Chapman's Homer.