About the Author

HenryWadsworth Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807, in Portland,Maine. He spent most of his youth in this quiet and charming townthat inspired a number of his poems. When he was a young adolescent,he left for Bourdoin College, located about thirty miles fromPortland. One of his classmates was Nathaniel Hawthorne, the futurenovelist who was to play a major role in the genesis of Evangeline. Afterhe graduated, Longfellow spent three years in Europe. He returned tothe United States in 1829 to take a position at his alma mater, wherehe taught literature for several years. In 1835, he and his wifedecided to tour Europe. In the course of their travels, his wife tooksick and died in Rotterdam. In 1836, Longfellow accepted a positionas a professor of modern languages at Harvard University inCambridge, Massachusetts. During the seventeen years that he taughtat Harvard, he continued to write poetry and translated a number ofFrench and Spanish literary works. In1842, he left once again for Europe and remarried after he returnedto Massachusetts. Several years after the publication of Evangeline,A Tale of Acadiein 1847, he resigned from his position at Harvard in order to devotehimself exclusively to writing. The 1860s left Longfellow shatteredby the events of the Civil War, the tragic death of his second wifeand the death of his great friend Nathaniel Hawthorne. After anothertrip to Europe, where he was received with full honours, he returnedto Cambridge where he spent the last twenty years of his lifesurrounded by friends. He died on May 24, 1882.