Longfellow biography summary template

(1807-1882)

Who Was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a Harvard scholar versed in several European languages.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Biography - Notable Biographies

He was heavily influenced by Romanticism and made a name as a poet and novelist with works like Hyperion, Evangeline, Poems on Slavery and The Song of Hiawatha. He was also known for his translation of Dante’s The Divine Comedy.

Early Years

Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807, in Portland, Maine, to an established New England family.

His father, a prominent lawyer, expected his son would follow in his profession. Young Henry attended Portland Academy, a private school and then Bowdoin College, in Maine.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Poems, Childhood & Facts - Biography

Among his fellow students was the writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Longfellow was an excellent student, showing proficiency in foreign languages. Upon graduation, in 1825, he was offered a position to teach modern languages at Bowdoin, but on the condition that he first travel to Europe, at his own exp Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | Biography, Poems & Analysis WOPYJ