Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1807–1882
By far the most widely known and best-loved American poet of his time, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow achieved a level of national and international prominence possibly unequaled in the literary history of the United States. Poems such as "Paul Revere's Ride," Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie (1847), and "A Psalm of Life" became mainstays of national culture, long remembered by generations of readers who studied them in school. Longfellow's celebrity in his own time, however, has yielded to changing literary tastes and to reactions against the genteel tradition of authorship he represented. The only American writer honored in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey (his bust was installed there with due ceremony in 1884) has suffered an eclipse of reputation nearly as unparalleled as his original success. Still, Longfellow's achievements in fictional and nonfictional prose, in a striking variety of poetic forms and modes, and in translation from many European languages resulted in a remarkably productive and influential literary career—one achieved despite pressures of college teaching and repeated personal tragedies. Even if time has proved him something less than the master poet he never claimed to be, Longfellow made pioneering contributions to American literary life by exemplifying the possibility of a successful authorial career, by linking American poetry to European traditions beyond England, and by developing a surprisingly wide readership for romantic poetry.
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