The works of Longfellow (1807-1882) are far less familiar and beloved than they were a hundred years ago.
Well-educated (he was the first American to translate the “Divine Comedy” into English) and well- traveled. Longfellow wrote long narrative poems and romances that were familiar to school children well into the twentieth century.
His fame was world-wide, and he was acclaimed as a literary “great” throughout Europe.
No other writer in the US had achieved the level of popular admiration (and financial success) that Longfellow achieved.
He was also an eminent professor, teaching at Bowdoin College and at Harvard.
(I have other postcards depicting the Longfellow residence in Maine).
(My mother could recite whole poems or stanzas that she had memorized in school.)
Today, unless students take survey courses in American literature, they are unlikely to encounter Evangeline, The Courtship of Miles Standish, Paul Revere’s Ride, or The Song of Hiawatha.
Before an era of mass communication, the poet “spoke” through poems learned in schools or read in small groups around the hearth.
On-line, one can find a history of Longfellow that explains some details of his life.
Longfellow was born in what is now the state of Maine, then a part of Massachusetts.
His personal life was marked by tragedy, his first wife died in childbirth, his second wife died from burns suffered when her dress caught fire.
After the death of his second wife, the poet struggled to write for a time and focused on translating books into English. His translations filled several volumes.
Although remembered now largely for the rhythmical, romantic poems, Longfellow was a master of metrical styles and experimented with free verse.
Edgar Allen Poe was once a fervent admirer of Longfellow (before precipitating an unusual public controversy); Nathaniel Hawthorne was a life-long friend. Ralph Waldo Emerson eulogized him.
Longfellow’s home in Cambridge was once the headquarters of George Washington and is preserved as an Historic National Site.
