Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Bio

A brief biography of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine on February 27, 1807. Longfellow was a professor of Literature and an American poet. He is best known for his poems, “Paul Revere’s Ride” and “The Song of Hiawatha,” and was the first American to translate Dante’s Divine Comedy into three volumes in 1867.

On November 17, 1820, Longfellow published his first poem, “The Battle of Lovell’s Pond,” in the Portland Gazette. He continued to publish many poems over the years in different publications. Between 1824 and 1825, while in college, Longfellow managed to have forty poems published—over half were in The United States Literary Gazette, a Boston-based periodical. In 1842, he published a modest collection titled, Poems on Slavery, to publicly support abolitionism.

During his lifetime, Longfellow was considered to be the most popular poet. He was honored in 1877 on his seventieth birthday, marking it as a national holiday, complete with processions, speeches, and reading selections of poetry written by Longfellow.

Sometime in March of 1882, Longfellow developed strong abdominal pains. He suffered for days before succumbing to his death surrounded by loved ones on March 24, 1882. He is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts alongside his late wives. His estate, at the time of his death, was worth approximately $356,320. Longfellow’s last remaining years were spent translating poetical works by Michelangelo. Despite his belief that they weren’t ready to be issued, while he was alive, they were nonetheless published posthumously shortly after his death.