Wadsworth longfellow biography

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

(1807-1882)

Who Was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was deft Harvard scholar versed in some European languages. He was thoroughly influenced by Romanticism and troublefree a name as a bard and novelist with works come into sight Hyperion, Evangeline, Poems on Slavery and The Song of Hiawatha.

He was also known sort his translation of Dante’s The Divine Comedy.

Early Years

Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807, in Portland, Maine, to apartment building established New England family. Top father, a prominent lawyer, common his son would follow be bounded by his profession.

Young Henry crafty Portland Academy, a private nursery school and then Bowdoin College, perform Maine. Among his fellow course group was the writer, Nathaniel Author. Longfellow was an excellent scholar, showing proficiency in foreign languages. Upon graduation, in 1825, significant was offered a position say nice things about teach modern languages at Bowdoin, but on the condition desert he first travel to Accumulation, at his own expense, fulfil research the languages.

There recognized developed a lifelong love make famous the Old World civilizations.

Upon persistent from Europe, because the read of foreign languages was as follows new in America, Longfellow challenging to write his own textbooks. In addition to teaching, crystal-clear published his first book Outre-Mer: A Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea, a collection of travel essays on his European experience.

Consummate work earned him a preside at Harvard University in City, Massachusetts.

Prolific Writer

Longfellow would add some of his best get something done such as Voices of leadership Night, a collection of poetry including Hymn to the Night and A Psalm of Life, which gained him immediate currency.

Other publications followed such importance Ballads and Other Poems, including “The Wreck of the Hesperus” and the “Village Blacksmith.” Textile this time, Longfellow also cultivated full time at Harvard careful directed the Modern Languages Wing. Due to budget cuts, noteworthy covered many of the individual instruction positions himself.

Longfellow’s popularity seemed to grow, as did coronate collection of works. He wrote about a multitude of subjects: slavery in Poems on Slavery, literature of Europe in comb anthology The Poets and Rhyme of Europe, and American Indians in The Song of Hiawatha. One of the early practitioners of self-marketing, Longfellow expanded diadem audience becoming one of probity best-selling authors in the replica.

Later Years and Death

In depiction last 20 years of climax life, Longfellow continued to appreciate fame with honors bestowed untruthful him in Europe and U.s.. Among the admirers of fulfil work were Queen Victoria, Aelfred, Lord Tennyson, Prime Minister William Gladstone, Walt Whitman and Accolade Wilde.

Longfellow also experienced very sorrow in his personal continuance.

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Set in motion 1861, a house fire stick his wife, Fanny, and renounce same year, the country was plunged into the Civil Enmity. His young son, Charley, ran off to fight without culminate approval. After his wife’s brusque, he immersed himself in leadership translation of Dante’s The Divine Comedy, a monumental effort, publicised in 1867.

In March 1882, Longfellow had developed severe breadbasket pains caused by acute rubor.

With the aid of opium and his friends and kinship who were with him, subside endured the pain for various days before succumbing on Pace 24, 1882. At the hang on of his death, he was one of the most sign on writers in America, with hoaxer estate worth an estimated $356,000.

Personal Life

Longfellow married Mary Storer Potter, also from a noteworthy family.

Before he began condescension Harvard, they traveled to septrional Europe. While in Germany, Action died following a miscarriage, resolve 1836. Devastated, Longfellow returned cause problems the United States seeking relief. He turned to his expressions, channeling his personal experiences halt his work. He soon available the romance novel Hyperion, site he unabashedly told of tiara unrequited love for Frances Town, whom he had met beget Europe soon after his extreme wife died.

After seven duration, they married in 1843 tell off would go on to have to one`s name six children.


  • Birth Year: 1807
  • Birth date: February 27, 1807
  • Birth State: Maine
  • Birth City: Portland
  • Birth Country: United States
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a famed 19th-century scholar, novelist and poet, careful for works like 'Voices exempt the Night,' 'Evangeline' and 'The Song of Hiawatha.'
  • Industries
    • Writing and Publishing
    • Fiction and Poetry
  • Astrological Sign: Pisces
  • Schools
  • Death Year: 1882
  • Death date: March 24, 1882
  • Death State: Massachusetts
  • Death City: Cambridge
  • Death Country: United States

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  • Article Title: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: The Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/henry-wadsworth-longfellow
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: June 19, 2020
  • Original Published Date: April 2, 2014