henry wadsworth longfellow.pptVIP

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882) Biography of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth-Longfellow was a powerful figure in the cultural life of nineteenth century America. Born in 1807, he had become a national literary figure by the 1850s and a world-famous personality by the time of his death in 1882 Henrys grandfather, Peleg Wadsworth (1748-1829), was a Revolutionary War general who later served seven terms in the United States Congress. The family home in Portland was built for Peleg in 1785-6. Father Stephen Longfellow (1776-1849) was a lawyer and legislator who helped found many of Maines early cultural institutions, including the Maine Historical Society (1822). Henrys mother and early encourager was Zilpah Wadsworth Longfellow (1778-1851), direct descendant of Plymouths John and Priscilla Alden, and a woman of learning, wit, and liberal religious convictions. Longfellow attended Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine, where he met Nathaniel Hawthorne, his lifelong friend and literary colleague. After graduation in 1825 and three years of touring and study in Europe, he assumed the professorship of modern languages — then a relatively new field — at Bowdoin. His publishing record (six foreign language textbooks in as many years) finally earned him a similar post at Harvard in 1834, beginning his long association with the city of Cambridge. Longfellow published his first poem at age thirteen in the Portland Evening Gazette — a precocious sign of an astounding literary career as editor, anthologist, translator, playwright, novelist, and, above all, poet. His many published works sold in phenomenal numbers and multiple editions. Most important are Ballads and Other Poems (1841), Poems on Slavery (1844), Evangeline (1847), The Song of Hiawatha (1855), The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858), Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863), his translation of Dantes Divine Comedy (1867), and Keramos (1878). One of Longfellows favorite metaphors is the backward glance.