Dear Mr. Longfellow

Synopsis

A charming biography that brings to life a famous figure of American literature and a distant, simpler age in the history of our country. If you were attending school in the late-nineteenth century, it's very likely that your teacher would have taught you to memorize lines from "The Village Blacksmith" by renowned poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. And on the classroom wall you'd probably see his portrait looking down benignly on you and your classmates. Longfellow was so famous and beloved by youth in this era that he was known as "the children's poet." Students not only memorized his poetry but even knew where his house was in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Children in the vicinity often visited him, and from all over the country they wrote him hundreds of letters. A storyteller and author recounts the life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow by drawing upon the letters he received from his young admirers. In their letters, children from yesteryear reveal details about their lives that reach across the years to young people today. The letters also highlight the unique, close relationship that children shared with Longfellow. A girl from West Virginia writes, "Thank you so much for writing for children.... It makes us feel that we are not forgotten." Others ask him about what he did as a boy or a young man. In one extraordinary gesture of friendship, the schoolchildren of Cambridge celebrated his birthday by presenting him with a chair created from the wood of the "spreading chestnut tree" made famous in his poem "The Village Blacksmith." Longfellow dedicated his poem "From My Arm-Chair" to these thoughtful children.

Copyright:

2012

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9781616146399

Related ISBNs:

9781616146382

Publisher:

Prometheus Books

Date of Addition:

04/11/13

Copyrighted By:

Sydelle Pearl

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Nonfiction, Poetry, Biographies and Memoirs, Literature and Fiction

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.