Longfellow

After 4 years of study in France, Spain, Italy, Germany and England. He returned to serve as professor of modern languages at Bowdoin College from 1829 to 1835. During this period he taught, edited textbooks, and wrote articles on European literature, which appeared in the North American Review and other periodicals. During 1835 and 1836 he was in Europe for the second time to study German and Scandinavian literature, in preparation for the Smith professorship of Modern Languages at Harvard.
In 1831, he married Mary Storer Potter, whom he had known as a schoolmate. When he saw her at church upon his return to Portland, he was so struck by her beauty that he followed her home without courage enough to speak to her. With his wife, he settled down in a house surrounded by elm trees. He expended his energies on translations from Old World literature and contributed travel sketches to the New England Magazine, in addition to serving as a professor and a librarian at Bowdoin.
Birthplace of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, corner of Fore and Hancock Streets, Portland, 1896
Longfellow's father was eager to have his son become a lawyer. But when Henry was a senior at Bowdoin College at 19, the college established a chair of modern languages. The recent graduate was asked to become the first professor, with the understanding that he should be given a period of time in which to travel and study in Europe.
Flowers blooming in the historic garden at Longfellow National Historic Site.
He is the best known of the fireside poet. He is now remembered as the gray old poet of “ the children’s hour”.
Longfellow was the most widely read poet in the Englishspeaking world for more than 100 years, memorized by mill workers and royalty alike.
Generations of children learned to enjoy poetry through Longfellow’s carefully composed verse.
His life and his works
He was born in Portland, Maine, of a well-to-do and strongly Federalist family.
He was educated in private schools and at Bowdoin College. His literary career began early. When his poem was published he was only 13 years old.
In May of 1826, the fair-haired youth with the azure blue eyes set out for Europe to turn himself into a scholar and a linguist. He had letters of introduction to men of note in England and France, but he had his own idea of how to travel. Between conferences with important people and courses in the universities, Longfellow walked through the countries.
He was also an outstanding scholar and a distinguished professor. He was so revered that his 75th birthday was celebrated in schoolrooms across the country. When he died, a memorial bust was placed in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey in England. His is the only American so honored.
He travelled in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and England, and returned to America in 1829. At 22, he was launched into his career as a college professor. He had to prepare his own texts, because at that time none were available.
Birthplace in c. 1910
Tragedy
wife #1 (Mary) died of miscarriage wife #2 (Fanny) died in a fire from which he tried to rescue her. Scars on his face are covered by beard in his later years. He wrote & translated sonnets to help ease pain of wife’s death.
But she read widely and well, and her library contained complete sets of Voltaire and other French masters. Longfellow entered the beautiful old elm-encircled house as a lodger, not knowing that this was to be his home for the rest of his life. Seven years after he came to Cambridge, Longfellow married Frances Appleton, daughter of Nathan Appleton, and Craigie House was given to the Longfellows as a wedding gift.
Did You Know?
In 1867, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow became the first American to complete a translation of Dante Alighieri's "Inferno".
Longfellow National Historic Site
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
ห้องสมุดไป่ตู้The most influential American poet of his day.
The Poet
Most popular poet of the 19th century Famous for his long narrative poems (“The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”, “Hiawatha,” “The Courtship of Miles Standish”) First American to have his bust put in Poet’s Corner Westminster Abbey
The Village Blacksmith (manuscript page 1)
His Life
Born in Portland, Maine Attended Bowdoin Professor of modern language @ Harvard Went to college with Franklin Pierce and Nathaniel Hawthorne