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His preparatory education was acquired in private schools in Cambridge and Boston, and he was graduated from Lawrence Scientific school, Harvard, S.B., 1865. He studied art in Paris under Hèbert, and after visiting Italy and Germany he returned to America in 1866. After his marriage in 1868 he again went abroad, studying under Bonnat in Paris, 1868-69. On his return in 1869 he opened a studio in Boston. He exhibited "The Old Mill" at the Centennial exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876; studied under Goutare near Paris, 1876-77, returning to America in 1879. He was vice-president of the Boston Art club, 1880-82, and was later elected a member of the Century Association. His earlier works include: Italian Phiferari (1877); Choice of Youth (1878); Evening on the Nile (1880); Morning on the Ægean (1881), and three portraits of Henry W. Longfellow: 1, at Craigie House (1876); 2, at Bowdoin college (1881); 3, finished after the poet's death. His later works consist chiefly of small landscapes and ideal nude subjects.³

He was named for his maternal uncle, a lieutenant in the American navy, who when nineteen years of age perished gallantly at Tripoli in the fire-ship Intrepid. He spent his boyhood on Congress street, Portland, his mother's ancestral home, and began his school life at the age of three, attending a school kept by Mrs. Fellows. He entered a public school in Love Lane, Portland, in 1812, where he remained for a week, when he was removed by his parents to a private school kept by Mr. Wright and later by Mr. N.H. Cartar. After attending Portland academy, 1812-21, he entered Bowdoin college and during his course there contributed occasional poems to periodicals, his first printed verses, "The Battle of Lovell's Pond," appearing in the Portland Gazette of Nov. 17, 1820. At the senior examination he made a translation from Horace which was warmly approved by one of the college trustees, Mr. Benjamin Kerr, who recommended young Longfellow for a proposed chair of modern languages. The trustees provisionally approved the proposal, stipulating that Longfellow fit himself for the position in Europe. Accordingly after spending the winter of 1825-26 in rest at his portland home, reading a little in his father's law office, on May 15, 1826, he sailed for Havre-de-Grâce. He studied and traveled in France, Spain, Germany, Italy and England, and returned home in July, 1829, on receiving the news of the death of his sister Elizabeth. On the opening of the term at Bowdoin college in 1829, instead of the expected professorship he was offered the position of instructor, which he rejected. At a meeting of the board of trustees on Sept. 1. 1829, it was voted to create the chair and elect him professor with a salary of $800, which was afterward raised to $1000, a full professor's salary. He was also appointed librarian for one year with a salary of $100. He held both of these positions until 1835, taught four modern languages and prepared his own text-books in French, Spanish and Italian. He began to contribute to the North American Review in April, 1831, articles on the origin and progress of the French, Spanish and Italian languages and literature and also original translations. On the establishment of the New England Magazine by Joseph T. Buckingham in 1831, he sent to the opening number the first of a series called "The Schoolmaster" which were scenes from his travels in France. They were the first sketches of his "Outre Mer." He married Mary Storer, she is commemorated in Longfellow' "Footsteps of Angels" as
          "the Being Beauteous
          Who unto my youth was given
          More than all things else to love me,
          And is now a saint in heaven."
They began housekeeping on Federal street, Brunswick, Maine, where Professor Longfellow attended his classes and continued his literary work. In 1833 he published his first book "Coplas de Don Jorge Manrique," a translation from the Spanish, with an original essay. His second book, "Outre-Mer," was written somewhat after the style of Irving's "Sketch-Book" which had been Longfellow's favorite book when a boy. In December, 1834, he received a letter from President Josiah Quincy, offering him the professorship of modern languages at Harvard college, Professor Ticknor, who was about to resign his chair, having recommended him as his successor. When Longfellow accepted, it was suggested that he visit Europe for the purpose of perfecting himself in the German and Scandinavian tongues and he resigned from Bowdoin and in April, 1835, set sail with his wife for England, and thence, a few weeks later, went to Norway and Sweden. Late in the autumn he settled in Rotterdam, Holland, where his wife and child died Nov. 29, 1835. He passed the winter of 1835-36 in Heidelberg, Germany, where he met Bryant and his family. The spring and summer of 1836 were spent chiefly in Switzerland and the Tyrol, and at Interlachen he met Frances Appleton, who afterward became his wife. He reached home in November, 1836, and in December was established as Smith professor of French and Spanish languages and literatures and belles-lettres at Harvard. He continued his contributions to the periodicals, and in 1839 published "Hyperion: a Romance" which was inspired by Miss Appleton, who is pictured therein as "Mary Ashburton." In March, 1837, Nathaniel Hawthorne, a classmate of Longfellow's at Bowdoin, sent to Longfellow his "Twice-told Tales" which he noticed in the North American Review of July, 1837, and was thus among the first to recognize Hawthorne's genius. In this year he also formed a strong and lasting friendship with Cornelius C. Felton, George S. Hilliard, Henry R. Cleveland and Charles Sumner. They called themselves the "Five of Clubs" and earned for themselves the sobriquet of the "Mutual Admiration Society." "The Psalm of Life" appeared anonymously in The Knickerbocker Magazine, in 1838, and was republished in Longfellow's first volume of poems, "The Voices of the Night," in 1839. He became a contributor to Graham's Magazine in 1841. In the spring of 1842 he obtained a six months' leave of absence and made a third visit to Europe. He was entertained in London for two weeks by Charles Dickens, and at Marienberg-on-the-Rhine, where he spent the summer, He made the acquaintance of the German poet Freiligrath, which ripened into friendship and lasted until the latter's death. On his marriage to Frances, as a wedding gift Mr. Appleton presented to them Caigie House and estate, where the poet had lived since 1837. The subject of "Evangeline, a Tale of Acadia" (1847), was a gift from Hawthorne to Longfellow. This is considered Longfellow's representative poem and was his favorite among Iris 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 vacancy. "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 recognition 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 enveloped in flames and died on the following day. Her husband in trying to smother the flames received serious injuries himself. The shock of her death sadly affected the poet, who once remarked to a friend "I was too happy. I might fancy the gods envied me, if I could fancy heathen gods."
Mrs. Longfellow left five children: Charles Appleton, a lieutenant in the 1st Massachusetts 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 entertained 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 children of Cambridge presented him with an armchair 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 birthday was generally celebrated all over the United States, especially by the school children. Charles Kingsley said of Longfellow: "His face was the mirror of his harmonious and lovely mind — I do not think I ever saw a finer human face." He 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 Massachusetts Historical society. A bust to his memory 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 principal 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); Evangeline (1847); Kavanagh (1849); Seaside and the Fireside (1850); Golden Legend (1851); Hiawatha (1855); Miles Standish (1858); Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863); Flower-de-Luce (1867); Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri (1867-70); New England Tragedies (1868); Divine Tragedy (1871); Three Books of Song (1872); Christus (1872); Aftermath (1873); Hanging of the Crane (1874); Masque of Pandora (1875); Kéramos (1878); Ultima Thule (1880); In the Harbor (part II. of Ultima Thule (1883); Michael Angelo (1884). Biographies of Longfellow have been written by Thomas Davidson (1882); Francis H. Underwood (1882); W. Sloane Kennedy (1882); George Lowell Austin (1883); Samuel Longfellow (1885); Eric S. Robertson (London, 1887), and others.⁵

He was a saddler by trade and had a large family who settled in the northern part of New Hampshire and Machias, Maine.⁴