Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Born in Portland, Maine, in 1807, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow became one of the best-known American writers of his time. He studied at Bowdoin College, later taught modern languages at Bowdoin and Harvard, and built a reputation not only as a poet but also as a skilled translator and man of letters.

Longfellow wrote poems that generations of readers came to know by heart, including Paul Revere’s Ride, The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. His work often blended storytelling with a gentle, musical style, drawing on American history, European literature, and themes of home, loss, faith, and endurance.

He remained a major literary figure until his death in 1882. Longfellow’s popularity was extraordinary in his own lifetime, and his poems still endure for their warmth, clarity, and strong sense of rhythm.