About the Longfellow Big Read ...

Longfellow’s Wayside Inn was honored to be the first grant recipient in a pilot initiative created by the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Poetry Foundation to celebrate great American poets and the nation’s historic poetry locales. From Longfellow’s birthday on February 27, 2008, to Patriot’s Day, April 19, 2008, the Wayside Inn sponsored a community read of the works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Our goals were to reenergize community interest in the importance of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as this country’s greatest poet and to educate the Sudbury community about the importance of the Tales of a Wayside Inn within the larger context of all of Longfellow’s works. Programming included book discussions, lectures, classes, cultural assemblies in the schools, and a special concert of Longfellow’s poetry set to music.

Public events began at the Martha-Mary Chapel at the Wayside Inn on February 27th with Dana Gioia, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, speaking on the poet’s life and works. Events were held at the Wayside Inn as well as at the Goodnow Library, the Sudbury Public Schools, and the Sudbury Senior Center. Check out the Upcoming Events calendar to the right for an overview of what the scheduled events were, or the more detailed Events page.

The anthology Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Favorite Poems (Dover Thrift Edition) was distributed free at all events. This short, comprehensive anthology of Longfellow’s most beloved poems was the basis for the book discussion groups that were held around town. The Book Discussion Group page lists resources for group leaders and participants who want to learn more about Longfellow. This page lists titles suitable for adults, young adults, and children. We encouraged everyone to read Longfellow during their lunch hour, to their families at night, before the start of community meetings, and together at one of the many book discussion groups that we held.

Teacher Resources included Reader’s Guides and Teacher's Guides that were made available to all program participants. Longfellow educational materials were made possible through the generous support of the Poetry Foundation.

We hope that everyone will continue reading and learning about Longfellow and his works. To that end copies of the Dover Thrift Edition as well as the other recommended Longfellow titles are still available at the Wayside Inn Giftshop. Please help support the ongoing historic preservation of the oldest Inn in the country by buying your Longfellow books at the Inn!

We hope that you will explore the resources we have made available on this site: read the poem of the week and don’t forget to browse the audio files in our online audio library of Longfellow recordings. Because our goal was to make Longfellow accessible to everyone, all lecture events and the Longfellow concert were recorded and broadcast on Sudbury Cable Channel 8.  We will post information shortly about how to view these recordings.