The stirring poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow have become an integral part of our national heritage.  His picture, which has hung in many American schoolrooms for generations, portrays him as a kindly patriarch with a full, flowing beard.  He looks reassuring, but rather dull.

But far from being dull, his life was eventful and rich.  In this biography Ruth Holberg tells the fascinating story of Longfellow's life.  He was indeed a kindly and gentle soul—a contemporary remarked that he had no meanness or pettiness or bitterness.

He was respected and revered as both a teacher and a poet during his own lifetime.  His poetic beginnings were inauspicious: at the age of thirteen he sent off an anonymous poem to the Portland Gazette and waited apprehensively to see if his father would like it.  He didn't.  However, Henry's talent was soon obvious, and he went on to a brilliant academy career, holding chairs at both Bowdoin and Harvard, and greatly influencing the literature of his day.

Mrs. Holberg has woven selections from Long fellow's poetry and journals into her story; the book is illuminated by an understanding of the times that influenced Longfellow's writings. His friends included many prominent literary figures of the day, and they are all part of the fabric of this book.

With the insight that this biography brings into Longfellow's life, the reader is made more deeply aware of the meaning of his poetry.  Longfellow was the relaxed and happy historian who recorded Hiawatha, The Courtship of Miles Standish, Paul Revere's Ride,  and Evangeline with stunning rhythm and vigorous emotion.  He was also a man whose life knew sorrow and tragedy; this was the poet who wrote such deeply religious and moving poems as The Cross of Snow and Christus.

This is a full and rich book, written by an author who has an unusual understanding of the motivations and disciplines that go to make up the life of a poet. 

From the dust jacket