"Sweet and Beautiful Souls: Longfellow and the Concord Writers" with Richard Smith

Maine Historical Society - Programs Podcast

Recorded March 27, 2024 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the most popular and successful poet of his day. Living in Cambridge, Massachusetts he was a member of the literati that made Boston the literary hub of the country; Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and John Greenleaf Whittier were all Longfellow friends or associates. But 20 miles west of Boston was a small town filled with its own poets, writers and philosophers. Concord, Massachusetts was home to not only Ralph Waldo Emerson, but Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the Alcott family; they too all had a deep friendship or close association with Longfellow. Concord public historian Richard Smith explored the friendships between Longfellow and the Concord writers in this talk, sharing his opinions about their lives and writings.