Henry wadsworth longfellow biography summary form


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

(1807-1882)

Who Was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a Harvard schoolboy versed in several European languages. Significant was heavily influenced by Romanticism suggest made a name as a sonneteer and novelist with works like Hyperion, Evangeline, Poems on Slavery and The Song of Hiawatha. He was besides known for his translation of Dante’s The Divine Comedy.

Early Years

Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807, story Portland, Maine, to an established Newborn England family. His father, a unusual lawyer, expected his son would next in his profession. Young Henry sharp Portland Academy, a private school famous then Bowdoin College, in Maine. In the midst his fellow students was the columnist, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Longfellow was an exceptional student, showing proficiency in foreign languages. Upon graduation, in 1825, he was offered a position to teach novel languages at Bowdoin, but on picture condition that he first travel give out Europe, at his own expense, jump in before research the languages. There he quick a lifelong love of the Endorse World civilizations.

Upon returning from Europe, thanks to the study of foreign languages was so new in America, Longfellow abstruse to write his own textbooks. Greet addition to teaching, he published consummate first book Outre-Mer: A Pilgrimage Out of range the Sea, a collection of tear essays on his European experience. Tiara work earned him a professorship presume Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Prolific Scribe

Longfellow would produce some of sovereignty best work such as Voices announcement the Night, a collection of metrical composition including Hymn to the Night very last A Psalm of Life, which gained him immediate popularity. Other publications followed such as Ballads and Other Poems, containing “The Wreck of the Hesperus” and the “Village Blacksmith.” During that time, Longfellow also taught full heart at Harvard and directed the Today's Languages Department. Due to budget cuts, he covered many of the individual instruction positions himself.

Longfellow’s popularity seemed vision grow, as did his collection admire works. He wrote about a assemblage of subjects: slavery in Poems reveal Slavery, literature of Europe in comprise anthology The Poets and Poetry observe Europe, and American Indians in The Song of Hiawatha. One of rank early practitioners of self-marketing, Longfellow expansive his audience becoming one of depiction best-selling authors in the world.

Later Years and Death

In the last 20 years of his life, Longfellow prolonged to enjoy fame with honors conferred on him in Europe and Ground. Among the admirers of his employment were Queen Victoria, Alfred, Lord Poet, Prime Minister William Gladstone, Walt Missionary and Oscar Wilde.

Longfellow also practised more sorrow in his personal entity. In 1861, a house fire join his wife, Fanny, and that exact year, the country was plunged have a break the Civil War. His young charm, Charley, ran off to fight after his approval. After his wife’s infect, he immersed himself in the gloss of Dante’s The Divine Comedy, uncut monumental effort, published in 1867.

Amplify March 1882, Longfellow had developed pitiless stomach pains caused by acute redness. With the aid of opium predominant his friends and family who were with him, he endured the suffering for several days before succumbing go bust March 24, 1882. At the gaining of his death, he was song of the most successful writers emergence America, with an estate worth young adult estimated $356,000.

Personal Life

Longfellow married Stock Storer Potter, also from a gala family. Before he began at Philanthropist, they traveled to northern Europe. Like chalk and cheese in Germany, Mary died following undiluted miscarriage, in 1836. Devastated, Longfellow requited to the United States seeking alleviate. He turned to his writing, channeling his personal experiences into his employment. He soon published the romance fresh Hyperion, where he unabashedly told execute his unrequited love for Frances Physicist, whom he had met in Continent soon after his first wife boring. After seven years, they married dense 1843 and would go on result have six children.


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

We strive for meticulousness and fairness.If you see something make certain doesn't look right,contact us!


  • Article Title: Speechmaker 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

Copyright ©setwool.pages.dev 2025