Born: February 27, 1807, Portland, Maine
Died: March 24, 1882, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Occupation: Poet / Professor
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was an American educator and poet whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and "Evangeline". He was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy {NOT Included} and was one of the five members of the group known as the Fireside Poets.
The Fireside Poets (also known as the Schoolroom or Household Poets) were a group of 19th-century American poets from New England.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882
William Cullen Bryant
November 3, 1794 – June 12, 1878
John Greenleaf Whittier
December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892
James Russell Lowell
February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894
Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine and studied at Bowdoin College. After spending time in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and, later, at Harvard College. His first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841). Longfellow retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing, living the remainder of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts in a former headquarters of George Washington. His first wife, Mary Storer Potter, died in 1835 after a miscarriage. His second wife, Frances Appleton, died in 1861 after sustaining burns from her dress catching fire. Longfellow himself died in 1882.
Longfellow predominantly wrote lyric poetry, known for its musicality, which often presented stories of mythology and legend. He became the most popular American poet of his day and also had success overseas. He has been criticized, however, for imitating European styles and writing specifically for the masses.
