LONGFELLOW
LONGFELLOW
favorifce among his own writings. Holmes likened
it to some '* exquisite symphony." He resigned
his chair at Harvard in 1854, and at his suggestion
James Russell Lowell was elected to fill the va-
cancy. ** Hiawatha ; an Indian Edda," which
appeared in 1855, is said to be his most genuine
addition to American literature, and has been
translated into nearly all of the modern languages
and into Latin. The poem won immediate rec-
ognition in Europe, and within four weeks of its
publication ten thousand copies had been sold.
When the Atlantic Monthly was established in
1857 Longfellow became a contributor. A sad
accident befell Mrs. Longfellow on the afternoon
of Tuesday, July 9, 1861. A bit of burning wax
from which she was making seals for her children,
fell on her dress and she was immediately envel-
oped in flames and died on the following day.
Her husband in trying to smother the flames re-
ceived serious injuries himself. The shock of her
death sadly affected the poet, who once remarked
to a fiiend "I was too happy. I might fancy
the gods envied me, if I could fancy heathen
gods." Mrs. Longfellow left flve children :
Charles Appleton, a lieutenant in thp 1st Massa-
chusetts cavalry during the civil war ; Ernest
Wadsworth, the artist (q.v.), and three daughters,
Alice, Edith and Annie, who were the " blye-eyed
banditti " of his " Children's Hour." The poet
had commenced a translation of Dante's '* The
Divine Comedy" during the early years of his
Harvard professorship, and after his wife's death
found solace in the completion of the work.
This was regarded by many critics as the best
translation in the English language. He visited
Europe for the fourth time in 1868, and while in
England had an interview with Queen Victoria
at Windsor Castle on July 4, 1868, and was en-
tertained by Tennyson at the Isle of Wight. He
spent the winter and spring of 1868-69 in Italy,
again made a brief stay in England ,and returned to
his home in Cambridge in August, 1869. For " The
Hanging of the Crane," which first appeared in
the New York Ledger in 1874, Longfellow received
$4000. In 1875, with the assistance of John Owen,
Mr. Longfellow began to edit a collection of
poems, to which was given the title " Poems of
Places" (1876-79), and after Senator Sumner's
death he assisted in editing the remaining six
volumes of the fifteen containing •' The Works of
Charles Sumner." On Feb. 27, 1879, the occasion
of the poet's seventy-second birthday, the chil-
dren of Cambridge presented him with an arm-
chair constructed from the wood of the old
chestnut tree, made famous by his poem "The
Village Blacksmith." He responded to this gift
in that tender and touching poem, entitled
"From My Arm-chair." His seventy-fifth birth-
day was generally celebrated all over the United
VlT.— 2
States, especially by the school children. Charles
Kingsley said of Longfellow : " His face was tl.e
mirror of his harmonious and lovely mind— I tlo
not think I ever saw a finer human face." H«
has been called the " American poet laureate "
He was an honorary member of the Historical and
Geographical society of Brazil, a corresponding
member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences.
St. Petersburg, and of the Royal Academy of
Spain ; a fellow of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences and a member of the Massa-
chusetts Historical society. A bust to his mem-
ory was placed in the poets' corner at Westminster
Abbey in March, 1884, he being the first and up to
1901 the only American author to be so honored.
Longfellow Park was given to Cambridge by
his children, and a monument to his memory
was erected in Portland, Maine. His name was
one of the twenty-three in " Class A, Authors
and Editors " submitted in October, 1900, for a
place in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans,
New York university, and received eighty-five
out of ninety-seven possible votes, Emerson alone
in the class exceeding with eighty-seven votes,
Irving and Hawthorne receiving eighty-three
and seventy-three votes respectively, and the four
names were selected. He received the degree of
LL.D. from Harvard in 1859, from Cambridge,
England, in 1868, and from Bowdoin in 1874 ;
and that of D.C.L. from Oxford, England,
in 1869. The following is a list of the prin-
cipal works of Longfellow : Coplas de Don Jorge
Manrique (1833); Outre-Mer (1835); Hyperion
(1839); Voices of the Night (1839); Ballads and
Other Poems (1841); Poems on Slavery (1842);
Spanish Student (1843); Poets and Poetry of
Europe (1845); Belfry of Bruges (1846); Evange-
line (1847); Kavanagh (1849); Seaside and the
Fireside (1850); Golden Legend (ISol); Hiawatha
(1855) ; Miles Standish (1858) ; Tales of a Wayside
Inn (1863) ; Floiver-de-Luce (1867) ; Divine Comedy
of Dante Alighieri (1867-70); New England Tra-
gedies (1868); Divine Tragedy (1871); TJiree
Books of Song (1872); Christus (1872); Aftermath
(1873); Hanging of the Crane (1874); Masque of
Pandora (1875); Keramos (1878); Ultima TJiule
(1880); In the Harbor (part II. of Ultima ThtUe
1883); Michael Angelo (1884). Biographies of
Longfellow have been written by Thomas David-
son (1882); Francis H. Underwood (1882); W.
Sloane Kennedy (1882); George Lowell Austin
(1883); Samuel Longfellow (1885); Eric S. Rob-
ertson (London, 1887), and others. Longfellow
died at his Cambridge home of peritonitis, and
at the funeral services were read the verses from
" Hiawatha" beginning : " He is dead, the sweet
musician." Fields, Holmes, Emerson and Whit-
tier were among the mourners. The date of his
death is March 24, 1882.
