Bedtime Stories, The Oregon Trail, Chapter 3, part-1

Francis Parkman enrolled at Harvard College at age 16!  In his second year he conceived the plan that would become his life's work- writing a history of forests. In 1843, at the age of 20, he traveled to Europe for eight months in the fashion of the Grand Tour. Parkman made expeditions through the Alps and the Apennine mountains, climbed Vesuvius, and even lived for a time in Rome.  Upon graduation in 1844, he was persuaded to get a law degree, his father hoping such study would rid Parkman of his desire to write his history of the forests. It did no such thing, and after finishing law school Parkman proceeded to fulfill his great plan.