LONGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth, American poet: b. Portland, Me., 27 Feb. 1807; d. Cambridge, Mass., 24 March 1882. He was the second son of Stephen Longfellow, lawyer and congressman, and Zilpah, daughter of Gen. Peleg Wadsworth — thus coming from excellent stock on both sides. He seems to have combined the best characteristics of both parents and to have passed an ideal kind of childhood in the beautiful seaport town. His disposition was gentle, sympathetic and studi ous, and his education was such as to bring out his finest qualities. He was encouraged to read the best English poetry and early began to write verses on his own account, doubtless finding in the success of his favorite volume, Irving s (Sketch-Book,> encouragement to be lieve that a bright future lay in store for Amer ican writers.
In 1822 he entered Bowdoin College, of which his father was a trustee. He continued to lead much the same wholesome life he had led at home, avoiding rough sports, showing a chivalrous regard for women, especially his mother, reading and writing poetry, and per forming faithfully his academic duties. Some of his poems were published in The United States Literary Gazette, of Boston, and brought him in a tiny sum of money besides an amount of notice altogether out of proportion to their merits. He also gave much thought to the choice of a profession, and, rejecting the law and, despite his and attachment to his faith, the Unitarian ministry, he fixed his mind upon the calling of a man of letters. His father prudently did not altogether thwart him, and soon another but not alien calling offered itself. He stood so well in his class — of which Nathaniel Hawthorne (q.v.) was a member that the trustees proposed to him that he should go to Europe to fit himself to be the first in cumbent of a chair of modern languages they had determined to establish. Their offer was accepted, and after a few months of study at home he sailed for Havre, landing there on 15 June 1826.
His friend George Ticknor (q.v.) had ad vised him to get all he could from the systema tized scholarship of Germany, but Ticknor was in advance of his fellow-countrymen, and Long fellow wisely followed his own instinct to steep himself in the color and movement and romance of the Old World's life and literature. He was not idle — for in France, Spain, Italy and Ger many he cultivated his exceptional linguistic gifts and prepared himself for the main duties of his chair; but the end he proposed to him self was plainly culture, not scholarship. It was Old-World culture and romance that the new world needed, and these Longfellow later showed that he could transmit even better than Irving had done, and much better than his light hearted contemporary N. P. Willis (q.v.) was to do. Although his popular reputation will always be that of a poet, Longfellow's import ant place in the history of American literature is partly due to his eminent services as a trans lator and a transmitter of culture.
Although very young, the traveler made friends everywhere, both with natives and with fellow Americans, and although his precocious Muse was singularly silent for some years, he laid up a valuable stock of poetic impressions. There was a slight hitch with regard to his pro fessorship, but this was overcome and he re turned to America in August 1829 and entered upon his duties at Bowdoin. These he fulfilled with great success, acting also as librarian. He translated and edited textbooks for his students, with whom he always stood in friendly rela tions, he prepared his lectures carefully, he wrote articles for The North American Review on topics of foreign literature, and he pub lished, in another magazine, sketches of travel, which were collected in 1835 under the title of