Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born February 27, 1807 in Portland, Maine and died March 24, 1882 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Longfellow, America's most popular poet in the 19th century, graduated from Bowdoin College in 1825. He began publishing verses while a student, and showed so much proficiency with language that he was offered a professorship in modern languages if he would study in Europe first.
On the continent he learned French, Spanish and Italian, and returned to Bowdoin as professor and librarian. In 1835, after being offered a professorship at Harvard, he again traveled to Europe, this time visiting England, Sweden and The Netherlands.
Ater the death of his first wife in 1835, he settled in Heidelberg and fell under the influence of German romanticism. The next year he returned to Harvard and presided over the college's modern language program until 1854.
His translation of Dante was undertaken in reaction to the death of his second wife in 1861 when she accidentally set her dress on fire.