Charles Timothy Brooks
1813 - 1883
Unitarian
Biography
Charles Timothy Brooks was an American Unitarian minister, poet, Transcendentalist, and prolific translator of German literature. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, on June 20, 1813, he graduated from Harvard College in 1832 and studied at Harvard Divinity School, completing his theological education in 1835. After preaching in several New England communities, he became minister of the Unitarian congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1837 and remained associated with that ministry for more than three decades.
Brooks became especially important as a mediator of German literature to American readers. His translations included works by Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Jean Paul Richter, Friedrich Rückert, and other German writers. Among his major publications were a translation of Schiller’s William Tell, German Lyrics, and an English version of Goethe’s Faust in the original metres. He also contributed to The Dial, the periodical closely associated with New England Transcendentalism.
While studying for the ministry in Cambridge during the early 1830s, Brooks produced the earliest American English form that stands behind God Bless Our Native Land. Hymnological authorities usually date it about 1833, while some Lutheran sources give 1834. It was a free translation or adaptation of portions of Siegfried August Mahlmann’s German patriotic song rather than a literal translation. John Sullivan Dwight later reshaped it in 1844 into the standard form familiar from many hymnals.
Brooks became especially important as a mediator of German literature to American readers. His translations included works by Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Jean Paul Richter, Friedrich Rückert, and other German writers. Among his major publications were a translation of Schiller’s William Tell, German Lyrics, and an English version of Goethe’s Faust in the original metres. He also contributed to The Dial, the periodical closely associated with New England Transcendentalism.
While studying for the ministry in Cambridge during the early 1830s, Brooks produced the earliest American English form that stands behind God Bless Our Native Land. Hymnological authorities usually date it about 1833, while some Lutheran sources give 1834. It was a free translation or adaptation of portions of Siegfried August Mahlmann’s German patriotic song rather than a literal translation. John Sullivan Dwight later reshaped it in 1844 into the standard form familiar from many hymnals.
Hymns by Charles Timothy Brooks
God Bless Our Native Land
Role: Translator