"Calvin Stowe, whose father died when he was six years old, obtained an education against all odds. The deaths in childhood of seven brothers and sisters left only Calvin, his mother, and one brother. With the financial support of local ministers in Natick, Massachusetts, he graduated from Bowdoin College in 1824, valedictorian of his class. During the next few years, he studied at Andover Theological Seminary and learned French, Spanish, Hebrew, Greek, German, and Arabic, determined to be "a literary man." In 1829, he was 27 years old, had two scholarly books to his credit, and had been editor of the Boston Recorder."