Longfellow Celebrates Longfellow: Readings Connect Relative to Poet
Layne Longfellow is celebrating his famous literary relative's 200th birthday onFEbruary 27, 2007 by giving poetry readings and newspaper interviews in Maine and around the US.
On Tuesday, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a Bowdoin College alumnus and author of "Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie," was 200 years old.
Longfellow's poetry is ageless, helped by his relative who keeps the writer's talents in the public's ears with readings and a CD recording. Although Longfellow carries the family's famous name, he's actually the great-great-grandson of the writer's cousin, Michael. The poet's direct descendant is great-granddaughter Dr. Ann Guest, 85, who calls Layne Longfellow her cousin.
They are close friends.
"It's not my familial connection but my connection with the poetry that brings me close to my family name," says Longfellow. "It brings great meaning to my life when I can read my relative's poetry with almost a sense of being a channel. It comes through me. The history of my readings and recordings has been one of metaphysical coincidences, and I sense this is a result of the familial connection."
"Longfellow Reads Longfellow" is a charmingly mellow recorded expression of Longfellow's enduring poetry. The poet's great granddaughter, Guest, says her famous ancestor would appreciate Layne Longfellow's CD as a sensitive expression of some of America's favorite poetry.
Included in the CD are verses from the epic "Evangeline," the historic story put to poetry about the 1755 expulsion of the French-Acadians out of Nova Scotia or Acadie, the result of years of conflagrations between France and Great Britain over control of Canada. Historians could easily have overlooked the tragic French-Acadian expulsion were it not for the 1847 epic poem "Evangeline," says Longfellow.
In the story, the Acadians' eternal longing to return to their beloved homeland in Nova Scotia is immortalized by Evangeline Bellefontaine, the heroine who searches seaports to which the expelled French settlers were deported in a futile attempt to find her beloved fiancĂ, Gabriel Lajeunesse.
Longfellow's popular poem was a best-seller in its time and remains an American classic. For decades in the 19th century, schoolchildren throughout the United States were required to read Evangeline. Her saintly qualities, so compellingly portrayed by Longfellow's poetry, caused many people to believe Evangeline was a real person.
Her character in silent film was played by actress Dolores Del Rio (1905-1983), who was actually a native of Durango, Mexico. Longfellow lives in Tucson, Ariz., but is frequently in Maine. His poetry readings take him to historic locations, such as the Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Mass., setting for "Tales of a Wayside Inn," written in 1863.
"Our family tradition and oral stories relay Longfellow as a sweet and sensitive person," says Longfellow. Celebrating his relative's birthday, Longfellow was scheduled to read at Sudbury's Wayside Inn on Tuesday, at a sold out $75-a-plate dinner event. He is preparing to record a reading of "Evangeline" with Francoise Paradis of Saco, author of a recent annotated publication of the poem.
Longfellow will be at the film showing of the "Acadians" at the University of Maine in Orono with Brenda Jepson, the film's producer. He will also read at the Maine Historical Society. Longfellow is the poetry ambassador from the Friends of the Longfellow House in Cambridge, Mass., a National Historic Site where the poet's personal effects are maintained.
Juliana L'Heureux can be contacted at:
Juliana@MaineWriter.com
On Tuesday, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a Bowdoin College alumnus and author of "Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie," was 200 years old.
Longfellow's poetry is ageless, helped by his relative who keeps the writer's talents in the public's ears with readings and a CD recording. Although Longfellow carries the family's famous name, he's actually the great-great-grandson of the writer's cousin, Michael. The poet's direct descendant is great-granddaughter Dr. Ann Guest, 85, who calls Layne Longfellow her cousin.
They are close friends.
"It's not my familial connection but my connection with the poetry that brings me close to my family name," says Longfellow. "It brings great meaning to my life when I can read my relative's poetry with almost a sense of being a channel. It comes through me. The history of my readings and recordings has been one of metaphysical coincidences, and I sense this is a result of the familial connection."
"Longfellow Reads Longfellow" is a charmingly mellow recorded expression of Longfellow's enduring poetry. The poet's great granddaughter, Guest, says her famous ancestor would appreciate Layne Longfellow's CD as a sensitive expression of some of America's favorite poetry.
Included in the CD are verses from the epic "Evangeline," the historic story put to poetry about the 1755 expulsion of the French-Acadians out of Nova Scotia or Acadie, the result of years of conflagrations between France and Great Britain over control of Canada. Historians could easily have overlooked the tragic French-Acadian expulsion were it not for the 1847 epic poem "Evangeline," says Longfellow.
In the story, the Acadians' eternal longing to return to their beloved homeland in Nova Scotia is immortalized by Evangeline Bellefontaine, the heroine who searches seaports to which the expelled French settlers were deported in a futile attempt to find her beloved fiancĂ, Gabriel Lajeunesse.
Longfellow's popular poem was a best-seller in its time and remains an American classic. For decades in the 19th century, schoolchildren throughout the United States were required to read Evangeline. Her saintly qualities, so compellingly portrayed by Longfellow's poetry, caused many people to believe Evangeline was a real person.
Her character in silent film was played by actress Dolores Del Rio (1905-1983), who was actually a native of Durango, Mexico. Longfellow lives in Tucson, Ariz., but is frequently in Maine. His poetry readings take him to historic locations, such as the Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Mass., setting for "Tales of a Wayside Inn," written in 1863.
"Our family tradition and oral stories relay Longfellow as a sweet and sensitive person," says Longfellow. Celebrating his relative's birthday, Longfellow was scheduled to read at Sudbury's Wayside Inn on Tuesday, at a sold out $75-a-plate dinner event. He is preparing to record a reading of "Evangeline" with Francoise Paradis of Saco, author of a recent annotated publication of the poem.
Longfellow will be at the film showing of the "Acadians" at the University of Maine in Orono with Brenda Jepson, the film's producer. He will also read at the Maine Historical Society. Longfellow is the poetry ambassador from the Friends of the Longfellow House in Cambridge, Mass., a National Historic Site where the poet's personal effects are maintained.
Juliana L'Heureux can be contacted at:
Juliana@MaineWriter.com
Labels: Evangeline, Longfellow, Waside Inn
posted by Juliana L'Heureux at 4:42 PM
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