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One of America's most well known and celebrated poets, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine. He was the son of Zilaph Wadsworth and Steven Longfellow, a lawyer. Henry excelled at school from a young age in all ways and grew to love reading, thanks to his mother Zilaph. Longfellow was heard to say that one of the books that inspired him the most when he was young, and captured his imagination, was Washington Irvine's Sketch book.

Henry's father hoped that his son would follow in his footsteps to become a lawyer but at the age of 19 and a senior at the Bowdoin College he was asked to become the first Professor of Modern Languages and he was given a period time to travel and study Europe

In May 1826 Henry set out for Europe traveling around England, France, Spain Italy, and Germany, mixing not only with important people but the common people of those countries and establishing himself as a scholar and a Linguist. In 1829 he then began his career as a college Professor when he returned to his Native America and had to prepare his own texts for at that time there were none available.

In 1831 he married Mary Storer Potter, a young woman he had known from his school days, and settled down translating Old World Literature and in addition served as a Professor and Librarian at Bowdion College. By 1934 he was appointed as a Professer at Harvard and this time accompanied by his wife he once more traveled Europe however the journey ended in tragedy in Rotterdam, where his young wife died.

Henry then took up a new professorship in Cambridge, where he settled for the rest of his life, remarrying here to his second wife Frances Appelton. He became a rather romantic figure in Cambridge with flowing hair, yellow gloves and flowered waistcoats, Here he started to write his poems and had them published. One of his favorite's he composed was Evangeline which was published in 1847 and the poem The Childrens Hour which was written about his own happy brood of children which consisted of two boys and three girls.

Longfellow had interest in other cultures including the Native American Indians which inspired him to write The Song of Hiawatha which he wrote in 1854, after resigning from Havard to concentrate on writing his poetry. In 1861 tragedy struck again and the happy family life came to an end when Henry's second wife died after getting burnt when the package of children's curlers she was sealing burst into flames. After this other bitter blow Henry found solace in translating Dante into English and once again traveled Europe.

In his lifetime he was given many honors including honorary degrees from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. He was also invited to Windsor to meet Queen Victoria and her son The Prince of Wales. In 1884 a bust of Longfellow was placed in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey in London making him the first American Poet to be honored in such a way.