Charles Stearns Wheeler correspondence

Charles Stearns Wheeler was born in Lincoln, Massachusetts to Charles and Julia (Stearns) Wheeler on December 19, 1816. At a young age, Charles first received instruction in Latin and Greek from Reverend William L. Stearns, his uncle, and continued studying under different clergymen before attending the Concord Academy with Henry David Thoreau. In 1833, Charles entered Harvard Univerity as a member of Harvard's Class of 1837 which included Richard Henry Dana and Henry David Thoreau, Charles's close friend and roommate. In 1836, while at Harvard, Wheeler built a shanty on Flints Pond, that would later be visited Thoreau, who stayed there for much of the following summer. Thoreau would later be inspiried to build his own cabin at the nearby Walden Pond. Charles graduated from Harvard University with second honors in 1837.

Upon graduation, Charles taught at a boys' school until he accepted an appointment as a Greek tutor and history instructor at Harvard University in the winter of 1838. During this time, Charles supervised the publication of the first two volumes of Macaulay's Miscellanies and later aided Ralph Waldo Emerson in editing four volumes of Carlyle’s Miscellanies, a collection of essays by Thomas Carlyle. Emerson continued to collaborate with Wheeler, referring to him as "his Good Grecian." After the publication of Carlyle’s Miscellanies, Charles translated and completed an edition of Herodotus that was later adopted as a textbook at Harvard University. Additionally, Charles edited and aided in the republication of the Poems of Alfred Tennyson in the United States, sparking a friendship with Alfred Tennyson.

In August 1842, Charles traveled to Germany to further his studies with a desire to enter the ministry on his return. While in Germany, Charles published two letters on German books and authors in The Dial. On June 13, 1843, after combating a month-long illness, Charles Stearns Wheeler died of a fever at the age of 26.