 
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library will celebrate the publication of "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Poems and Other Writings" with a poetry reading and song recital at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 4.
The book, which was published by The Library of America in August, was edited by J.D. McClatchy, editor of the Yale Review. It contains such well-known works as "Evangeline" and "The Song of Hiawatha," as well as a large selection of Longfellow's poems, prose works, translations and verse dramas.
Joining McClatchy in reading from Longfellow's works will be Harold Bloom, the Sterling Professor of Humanities; and Penelope Laurans, associate dean in Yale College and lecturer in poetry in the English Department. Baritone Richard Lalli, associate professor of music, will perform songs set to Longfellow's words, accompanied by Yale students Christina Schmidt, Marina Lin and Jessica Chen. A reception will follow the performance. The event is free and open to the public.
"No American writer of the 19th century was more universally admired than Longfellow" (1807-1882), says McClatchy. Longfellow's books were bestsellers, achieving fame both in the United States and abroad. He counted among his fans Queen Victoria (who invited him to tea), Abraham Lincoln (who wept while listening to recitations of the poet's works) and the Emperor of Brazil (whose only request during a state visit was to have dinner with the bard). The poet's 70th birthday was a day of national celebration.
Longfellow's poems created and popularized American mythology, says McClatchy, noting that such images as Evangeline in the forest primeval, Hiawatha by the shores of Gitchee Gumee, the midnight ride of Paul Revere, the wreck of the schooner Hesperus, the village blacksmith under the spreading chestnut tree and the strange courtship of Miles Standish endure today.
In fact, phrases from Longfellow's poems have become part of the national culture, says McClatchy. These include "ships that pass in the night," "into each life some rain must fall," "the mills of God grind slowly" and "the patter of little feet."
Erudite and fluent in many languages, Longfellow was fascinated with the byways of history and legend. As a verse storyteller he had no peer, contends McClatchy, whether in the book-length narratives such as "Evangeline" and "The Song of Hiawatha" or the stories collected in "Tales from a Wayside Inn." He was also a dramatist, essayist and novelist.
Longfellow "had a narrative gift both sweeping and canny, along with a near perfect ear, that made his work memorable and gave it thereby an enormous popular appeal. ... [H]e held himself to the highest literary standards," says McClatchy, who is a distinguished poet and critic in his own right, as well as a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
"Longfellow is not a poet of startling originality," continues McClatchy, "but he is a much better poet than is now supposed. ... [T]he grand narrative poems ... have a dramatic thrust and vivid portraiture that can evoke one's first, enthralled experiences with stories, the high adventurous romance of those books that helped shape our desires and still abide in our memories."
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