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Longfellow House Bulletin, Vol. 8, No. 1

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Longfellow House Bulletin, Vol. 8, No. 1 on fellow ous L g ulletinH e Volume 8 No. 1 A Newsletter of the Friends of the Longfellow House and the National Park Service June 2004 First New Biography of Henry WadsworthB Longfellow in Forty Years n order “to discover the real Longfellow,” ents who suffered mid-life ICharles C. Calhoun has written the first breakdowns, among oth- new biography of the poet since 1964. ers. “He could have suc- Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life will be published cumbed to the depression this month by Beacon Press. that haunted him, but he “Henry Longfellow had a voluminously didn’t,”says Calhoun. “His documented life, but the paradox is that the poetry held him together. more documentation there is, the harder it He used it to deal with the is to know the real person,” says Calhoun, sorrow of life, and he dis- who is a staff member of the Maine covered that his readers Humanities Council in Portland, former found a similar solace in Rhodes Scholar, and a newspaper reporter his work.” by training. The idea for this biogra- After six years of research at the Long- Charles Sumner and Henry W. Longfellow, 1863 phy grew out of Calhoun’s fellow House and other archives including He later lost an infant daughter and his work in the late 1980s at Longfellow’s alma Harvard’s Houghton Library—thanks to a beloved second wife, Fanny, who is said to mater, Bowdoin College, when he was com- grant from the National Endowment for have died from burns after her daughter missioned to write a bicentennial history of the Humanities—Calhoun describes the Annie dropped a match which ignited her the college. This introduction to archival poet as someone beset by losses and famil- mother’s dress. For years, Henry Longfel- research instilled in Calhoun a desire to write ial responsibilities. He was wounded early low took care of his extended and troubled the new book. He found himself asking: in life by the death of his first wife, Mary. family—an alcoholic brother and his par- (continued on page 2) Teachers as Scholars Program Comes to the Longfellow House hirteen Boston-area teachers attended Ta seminar entitled “Longfellow and the Question of American Identity” as part of a two-day Teachers as Scholars professional development program held at the Longfellow NHS on March 22 and April 2. A diverse group of teachers from nine different school districts—second-grade teachers alongside middle school English teachers and high school science teachers —analyzed Longfellow’s poetry, learned about his life and times, and grappled with questions of the poet’s waxing and waning popularity and influence. “If Longfellow has an unsteady place in the poetic canon, Park Ranger Nancy Jones leads Mr. Sousa’s class from Cambridge’s Kennedy-Longfellow School through the House why do we still pay attention to him?” teacher had received J.D. McClatchy’s on the life of Longfellow and his family asked Charles Calhoun, the seminar’s Longfellow: Poems and Other Writings and had and information about the House and leader and Longfellow’s most recent biog- been assigned twelve poems to read, includ- archives. Following morning lectures and rapher, of his audience. ing anti-slavery poems from 1842.The Park discussion, Park Rangers Nancy Jones and In preparation for the seminar, each Service prepared packages with background (continued on page 6) 1 - First New Longfellow Biography in Forty Years (continued from page 1) VWX “Why was so much written about Nathaniel in my book,” says Calhoun, “are that Hawthorne, Longfellow’s classmate at Bow- Longfellow was deeply rooted in New Eng- Friends of the Longfellow House doin, and hardly anything about Longfellow land, but at the same time was extremely Board of Directors for the past half century?” cosmopolitan. He championed the study of Barclay Henderson, President Calhoun says his book is not a tradi- modern languages and brought European Susan Wood, Vice President Robert Mitchell, Clerk tional comprehensive biography but rather culture to Americans. There was a kind of Gene A. Blumenreich, Treasurer is designed to “re-introduce Longfellow to transatlantic exchange going on because Frances Ackerly the public” and remind them that he was Longfellow was hugely popular in England, Peter Ambler one of America’s first powerful cultural for example, where they could publish his Hans-Peter Biemann forces, a poet and teacher who helped define works without copyright and in cheap edi- Polly Bryson American Victorian life. tions. In turn, foreign Charlotte Cleveland Although Cecil B. Wil- writers and artists of all Dick Dober liams wrote the most kinds visited Longfellow Diana der Hovanessian recent biography entitled at the Craigie House when Carol Johnson Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, they came to America.” Linda Kime Calhoun feels the last In writing this biog- Layne Longfellow Heather Moulton good study was Newton raphy, the author was Laura Nash Arvin’s Longfellow: His Life keenly interested in Lynne Spencer and Work, published in Longfellow’s friendships 1962. But it focused more with many well-known Advisory Board on Longfellow’s poetry people, particularly his Ruth Butler than on his life. In 1955 longstanding relation- LeRoy Cragwell Edward Wagenknecht’s ship with U.S. senator Diana Korzenik Longfellow: A Full-Length Por- Charles Sumner, who Richard Nylander trait followed a relatively had even accompanied Stephen D. Pratt Marilyn Richardson long drought in Longfel- the poet on his honey- Marc Shell low biographies, possibly moon with Fanny. “It Charles Sullivan because the poet’s family was more than chummi- Lowell A. Warren Jr. had not allowed authors to quote from fam- ness—there was an emotional tone to it. It Eileen Woodford ily papers until that point. In 1938 Lawrance was an intense and well-articulated rela- Thompson produced The Young Longfellow, tionship,” says Calhoun who pored over the Administrator covering only Henry’s first three decades. correspondence between the most popular J.L. Bell Samuel Longfellow—Henry’s brother who American poet of the time and one of the Newsletter Committee lived with him and his wife Fanny soon after most highly prominent politicians. Glenna Lang, Editor, Writer & Designer they married—edited and published many Calhoun read many letters in the Long- James M. Shea selections from Henry’s journals and letters fellow House archives, including those of in the late 1880s, following the poet’s death. Henry Longfellow’s parents for back- opq In an effort to preserve a certain image of ground, and found researching in the house his brother, Samuel avoided any passages where his subject lived “extraordinary.”Cal- National Park Service Myra Harrison, Superintendent suggesting conflict or strong emotion, houn remarked, “You get the feeling that James M. Shea, Museum Manager thereby creating what Calhoun refers to as he [Longfellow] just stepped out of the Nancy Jones, Education and Visitor Services an “embalmment” of the poet. rooms. You get the feeling of the rooms, of Paul Blandford, Museum Educator In his book, Calhoun seeks to answer the relationship of the House to the river. Anita Israel, Archives Specialist the question “How could someone reach It always helps a biographer to retrace the David Daly, Collections Manager such a peak of literary fame and fall so footsteps of the subject.” Lauren Malcolm, Museum Technician quickly?” Longfellow’s decline in popular- C. Sue Rigney, Planning & Communications ity actually started in his later years when Henry W. Longfellow, in his inaugural Liza Stearns, Education Specialist he began to be regarded as a children’s poet. Emo Dewitt, Horticulturalist address at Bowdoin College, 1835: By the 1930s and ’40s there was a lack of I regard the profession of teacher in a far Ed Bacigalupo, Chief of Maintenance critical interest his work, and he had been Scott Fletcher, Facility Manager more noble and elevated point of view than targeted as “an enemy of the Modernists,” many do. I cannot help believing that he who says Calhoun. “He was thought of as being Printed by Newprint Offset, Waltham, Mass. bends in a right direction the pliant disposi- too repressed, proper, elitist, patriarchal, tion of the young, and trains up the ductile didactic, and overly sentimental. Today mind to a vigorous and healthy growth, does 1234 we’re more sympathetic to Victorian visual something for the welfare of his country and All images are from the Longfellow National Historic culture, but we still haven’t overcome our something for the great interests of humanity. Site collections, unless noted otherwise. resistance to Victorian poetry.” “Some of the things I try to get across - 2 Interview with a Friend…Meet Henry Bolter, Educator Henry Bolter founded and directs Teach- have fifty-three schools in the Boston area seminar leaders? ers as Scholars, a professional development now and a couple in Rhode Island. We’ve HB: I think instructors like it, not only program for elementary and high school reached capacity, but we still have two or because they like teaching. These people teachers. We spoke to him on the afternoon three school districts that want in. [taking the seminars] really do the home- following one of the program’s seminars— LH: How do individual teachers get to work. I had a guy who taught a history sem- on Henry Longfellow held at the House. participate in the program? inar come out and say, “My God, they all Longfellow House: How did the idea HB: The districts select the teachers. read the book!” It’s not graduate level. It’s for Teachers as Scholars come about? Usually they hold lotteries, and people not adult education, it’s somewhere else. Henry Bolter: Actually, Teachers as who’ve gone in previous years are often And these people take it seriously.
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