Biography of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born February 27, 1807, in Portland, Maine. He was the son of Stephen Longfellow and Zilpah Wadsworth Longfellow. The lives of the harbor workers and fisherman surrounding him as a boy in the Portland Seaport made him very curious about what exactly goes on. Henry was sent to start his education at the age of three. At the age of 6, his family received a letter from the school concerning Henry’s academic ability, …

…His wife’s hair caught fire packaging their children’s hair and was killed. The years following that tragedy were filled with honors. He was given honorary degrees at the Oxford and Cambridge universities, invited to Windsor by Queen Victoria, and called by request upon the Prince of Wales. He was also chosen to be a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and of the Spanish Academy. He died on March 24, 1882 of natural cause.