Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as a rock star?
"He was like the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Diana Ross and the Supremes rolled into one," said Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts.
But Longfellow’s fame was even bigger than today’s superstars, said Gioia, in a speech at the Martha Mary Chapel on Feb. 27, the poet’s 201st birthday.
Longfellow was an international literary icon, said Gioia, beloved by young and old, rich and poor, because his poetry touched the human condition at its core.
Gioia was in Sudbury to kick off the Longfellow Big Read, a six-week celebration of the poet who made the town famous as the setting of "Tales of a Wayside Inn." Gioia said it was fitting that the celebration began on the historic property of the Wayside Inn which will also host many of the events including a Patriot’s Day Family Brunch at 10 a.m. on April 19 that will feature a read-aloud of Longfellow’s "Paul Revere’s Ride."
The nation-wide Big Read program was launched by the NEA in 2006 and is the largest literary program in the history of the federal government. More than 400 cities are participating in the Big Read by honoring specific books and authors in a national festival to celebrate reading.
The Sudbury events are planned to involve the entire community from town’s schoolchildren to its seniors.
"This is a program to revive and encourage serious engaged reading in the United States and to do it on the basis of community to community," said Gioia. "We have to create a conversation in this country about literature that is intergenerational."
The Longfellow Big Read is the first to put the spotlight on poetry.
Longellow "spoke to every class" and became "the voice of the intellectual and the voice of the common American."
The most popular poet in the history of the United States, Longfellow was also the best-selling author of the 19th century.
"He was the first American poet to have an international reputation," said Gioia.
Longfellow’s poem "Psalm of Life" became a huge hit in China, and he became the first poet to be translated into Chinese. The poem was also a particular favorite of Henry Ford who bought the financially-strapped inn in the 1920s and the surrounding property that is today held as an educational and historic trust.
"Longfellow gave Americans the stories by which they knew themselves," said Gioia, stories about Hiawatha, Evangeline and the Courtship of Miles Standish. "It’s not the stories of kings or knights or mythological heroes. He talks about the Puritans and he tells us the stories of the Native Americans."
Gioia compared Longfellow’s "Tales of a Wayside Inn" to Chaucer’s "Canterbury Tales" and Boccaccio’s "The Decameron," classics where characters come together to tell tales about diverse backgrounds and countries.
In fact, said Gioia, "Tales of a Wayside Inn" is the first collection to define American multiculturalism in its tales told by a new type of American pilgrim as they sat by the fireside of the inn.
"It’s fairly safe to say that by the end of the 19th century every American not only had read Longfellow, but had memorized some of his work," said Gioia. "Kids loved him as well as adults."
Longfellow was particularly loved by schoolchildren.
"There are not a lot of statues of poets in Washington, D.C., but there is a statue of Longfellow paid for by pennies given by schoolchildren from Virginia, the federal city and Maryland," said Gioia.
By the end of his life the poet’s birthday was almost like a national holiday in this country.
Gioia, an award-winning poet himself, approached the Wayside Inn trustees to launch the first poetry Big Read in the country associated with an historic locale. In Aug., 2007 the NEA awarded the inn a $15,000 Chairman’s Extraordinary Action Grant to start the Sudbury Big Read. The grant was matched by the Sudbury Foundation.
Cynthia Hall Kouré, development consultant for the Wayside Inn, solicited the grant funding and organized the events.
The Parent Teacher Organization of Sudbury’s four elementary schools and middle school, the Friends of the Goodnow Library and Roche Brothers all contributed to fund events including a speaker series at the Goodnow Library and at the Inn and a three-part lifelong learning course on Longfellow at the Sudbury Senior Center.
The Longfellow Chamber Chorus from Longfellow’s home Unitarian church in Portland, Maine will also perform vocal settings of Longfellow’s poems at 4 p.m. March 16 at the Martha Mary Chapel, and is the only fee-based performance aside from the final brunch at the inn.
The Chicago-based Poetry Foundation supported the development and publication of teaching materials and a poetry volume that will be given to participants throughout the Longfellow Big Read.
All events will be broadcast by Sudbury Cable Comcast Channel 8 and Verizon Channel 32. For a complete listing of Longfellow Big Read Events, teaching materials and the poem of the week visit: www.longfellow.wayside.org