Longfellow: Common Man, American Poet


Game of Authors playing card, ca. 1900

Game of Authors playing card, ca. 1900
Item 10592   info
Maine Historical Society

Victorian Americans were hungry to read poetry, which they believed was the highest literary form.

The market also was filled with seamy fiction, brash American humor, and accounts of crime in cheap editions known as "penny dreadfuls."

Longfellow, who understood the cultural nuances of his time, successfully used the new publishing opportunities.

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