born Feb. 12, 1819, Salem, Mass., U.S.

died Oct. 7, 1895, Vallombrosa, Italy

sculptor now remembered as the centre of a circle of literary, theatrical, and social celebrities and for his “Cleopatra.” A description of this work in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Marble Faun (1860) contributed to its wide popularity in the United States and Great Britain. There is a replica of it in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Henry James, William Wetmore Story and His Friends, 2 vol. (1903, reprinted 2 vol. in 1, 1969), is an entertaining account of Story's life in Rome, where he lived from 1856 until his death.