Nicholas Basbanes- CROSS OF SNOW: A Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The first major biography of “a poet of the people” in 50 years, CROSS OF SNOW: A Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow by Nicholas Basbanes.
Cross of Snow gets its title from a sonnet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(1807-1882) wrote toward the end of his life to commemorate the devastating loss eighteen years earlier of his beloved wife Fanny, the victim of a frightful domestic accident that in an instant turned an idyllic relationship into a scene of unspeakable horror. For his central image, Longfellow described a massive mountain “in the distant west” that displays a snow-encrusted symbol of…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.