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Henry was the son of Stephen Longfellow and Zilpah Wadsworth Longfellow. He was born in Portland, Maine. His father was a lawyer and his maternal grandfather a general in the American Revolutionary War. He was descended from the Longfellow family who came to America in 1676 from Otley in Yorkshire, England and from Priscilla and John Alden on his father's side.
He studied at Bowdoin CollegeBowdoin College is a liberal arts college located in Brunswick, Maine. Founded in 1794, Bowdoin is intimately connected with the American Civil War. Some have said the war began and ended in Brunswick, as Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin whil and went on to become librarian and the first professor of modern languages there after touring Europe between 1826Events February 11 University College London is founded, under the name University of London''. April 1 Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine. June 14- 15 The Auspicious Incident: Mahmud II, sultan of Ottoman Empire, crushes the last mutiny and 1829Events January 8 Hanging of body-selling murderer William Burke his associate William Hare, who testified against him, is released January 19 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust premieres March 4 Andrew Jackson succeeds John Quincy Adams as the President o.
In 1831Events February- March Revolts in Modena, Parma and the Papal States are put down by Austrian troops February 20 Battle of Grochow. Polish rebel forces divide a Russian army. March 1 Democrat Samuel Smith becomes President Pro Tempore of the United States, he married Mary Storer Potter who died a few years later ( 1835Events January 1 Ole Pedersen Hoiland breaks into the Bank of Norway and steals 64. 000 dalers January 7 HMS Beagle anchors off the Chonos Archipelago. January 30 Unsuccessful assassination attempt against President Andrew Jackson in the United States Cap) in RotterdamRotterdam is the second largest city in the Netherlands (after Amsterdam), located in the province of South Holland. The city is situated on the banks of the Nieuwe Maas River. The name "Rotterdam" is derived from a dam in a small river, the Rotte, which while the couple was travelling. He took up a professorship at Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and a member of the Ivy League. It was founded on September 8, 1636 by a vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, making it the oldest post-secondary s and later married Frances "Fanny" Appleton, living at Craigie House, overlooking the Charles RiverThe Charles River is a Massachusetts river that separates Boston from Cambridge and Charlestown. It flows snakelike for 80 miles, starting at Echo Lake in Hopkinton, through 58 cities and towns in eastern Massachusetts, before emptying into Boston Harbor..
While he was courting Miss Appleton, he frequently walked from Harvard to her home in Boston, crossing the river via the West Boston Bridge. That bridge was subsequently demolished and replaced in 1906 by a new bridge, which was eventually renamed as the Longfellow Bridge.
He retired from Harvard in 1854, devoting himself entirely to writing. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from Harvard in 1859. In 1861, Frances died in a household fire, devastating Longfellow. He commemorated her with the sonnet "The Cross of Snow" ( 1879). He died on March 24, 1882.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1884 he was the first American poet to have a bust of him placed in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey in London.
His work was immensely popular during his time and is still somewhat today, but many modern critics consider him too sentimental. His poetry is based on familiar and easily understood themes with simple, clear, and flowing language. His poetry created an audience in America and contributed to creating American mythology.
Longfellow's home in Cambridge is a National Historic Site, National Historic Landmark, and on the National Register of Historic Places. A 2/3 scale replica was built in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Minnehaha Park in 1906 and once served as a centerpiece for a local zoo.