Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882
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Description area
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History
William Wadsworth Longfellow was a poet and educator born in 1807 to Stephen Longfellow and Zilpah (Wadsworth) Longfellow in Portland, Maine. He was educated in the private Portland Academy and at Bowdoin College, Maine. After travelling and studying in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and, later, at Harvard College. He retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing and spent the remainder of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His major works include Paul Revere's Ride, The Song of Hiawatha and Evangeline.
Longfellow's first wife, Mary Potter, died in 1835 after a miscarriage. His second wife, Frances Appleton, died in 1861 after sustaining burns from her dress catching fire. Longfellow passed away in 1882.