Friends
Craigie House was at the center of an extraordinary nexus of relationships, the hub of a social life that, in the middle of what was then still little more than a village, spanned different cultures, national traditions, and continents. Longfellow not only maintained an enormous correspondence, he also regularly had friends visit him for dinner, supper, and overnight stays.
Longfellow's deep commitment to friendship is far more than an incidental biographical fact. Understanding how relationships fostered and shaped his writing and the writing of others in his circle helps us depart from the persistent focus in literary history on the solitary writer's "individual talent" (T. S. Eliot).
