Longfellow: A Rediscovered LifeBeacon Press, 2004 - 317 pages Charles C. Calhoun's Longfellow gives life, at last, to the most popular American poet who ever lived, a nineteenth-century cultural institution of extraordinary influence and the "one poet average, nonbookish Americans still know by heart" (Dana Gioia). Calhoun's Longfellow emerges as one of America's first powerful cultural makers: a poet and teacher who helped define Victorian culture; a major conduit for European culture coming into America; a catalyst for the Colonial Revival movement in architecture and interior design; and a critic of both Puritanism and the American obsession with material success. Longfellow is also a portrait of a man in advance of his time in championing multiculturalism: He popularized Native American folklore; revived the Evangeline story (the foundational myth of modern Acadian and Cajun identity in the U.S. and Canada); wrote powerful poems against slavery; and introduced Americans to the languages and literatures of other lands. Calhoun's portrait of post-Revolutionary Portland, Maine, where Longfellow was born, and of his time at Bowdoin and Harvard Colleges, show a deep and imaginative grasp of New England cultural history. Longfellow's tragic romantic life-his first wife dies tragically early, after a miscarriage, and his second wife, Fannie Appleton, dies after accidentally setting herself on fire-is illuminated, and his intense friendship with abolitionist and U.S. senator Charles Sumner is given as a striking example of mid-nineteenth-century romantic friendship between men. Finally, Calhoun paints in vivid detail Longfellow's family life at Craigie House, including stories of the poet's friends-Hawthorne, Emerson, Dickens, Fanny Kemble, Julia Ward Howe, and Oscar Wilde among them. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 21
Page xii
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Page xiii
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Page 24
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Page 38
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Page 44
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Acadian American amid Appleton Beacon Boston Bowdoin College British brother Brunswick Cambridge career Carlyle Casco Bay century Charles Charley Clara Courtesy National Park Craigie House Crowninshield culture Dana Dante Dante Club early England European Evangeline famous Fanny Fanny's father Felton French George Washington Greene German Golden Legend Göttingen Harvard Hawthorne Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Hiawatha Hilen Houghton Indian Italian Journal Julia Margaret Cameron languages later lectures letter Library literary literature live LNHS Longfel Longfellow National Historic Maine Historical Society Mary Massachusetts modern National Park Service night nineteenth-century North Outre-Mer poem poet poet's poetic poetry political Portland Preble professor published readers Samuel Colman seemed sketch Song of Hiawatha Spanish Stephen Longfellow story Street Sumner survives thought Ticknor tion took town translation University Press village Washington writing wrote York young Zilpah