author
Doris Hayman
A storyteller who helped bring classic poetry to younger readers, she is best known for retelling Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s work in clear, approachable prose. Her surviving public record is slim, which gives her small body of work a quietly mysterious quality.
1 Audiobook
The Children's Longfellow Told in Prose
by Doris Hayman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
About the author
Doris Hayman is a little-documented writer whose name is most clearly connected with The Children's Longfellow, a prose retelling of poems and stories by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Public-domain library records and book listings consistently identify her as the author or adapter of that volume.
What stands out about the book is its purpose: making Longfellow’s writing easier for children to enjoy. Rather than presenting the poems in their original form alone, Hayman reshaped well-known pieces into narrative prose, helping younger readers enter a world of legend, history, and adventure.
Because reliable biographical sources on her life are scarce, not much can be confirmed beyond her published work. Even so, her contribution fits into a long tradition of writers who opened the door to classic literature for new generations of readers.