Born on February 27, 1807, in Portland, Maine, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow became a Harvard scholar versed in several European languages. He was heavily influenced by romanticism and made a name as a poet and novelist with works like Hyperion, Evangeline, Poems on Slavery and The Song of Hiawatha. Known for his translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy as well, Longfellow died on March 24, 1882, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.