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 contrition on its side year-round—a cross of snow—which he compared to the figurative one he wore around his neck in unending grief, “changeless since the day she died.” The 14-line poem was so deeply personal, he placed it among his private papers, where it was found after his death, and published posthumously by his younger brother Samuel. Nicholas A. Basbanes is the author of ten critically acclaimed works of cultural history, with a particular emphasis on various aspects of books and book culture. A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books, his first book, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction in 1995, and was a New York Times Notable Book. On Paper: The Everything of Its Two Thousand Year History (2013, Knopf) was one of three finalists for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, and was named a best book of the year by seven major publications. In 2016, he was awarded a Public Scholar research fellowship by the National Endowment for the Humanities, his second NEH grant, for work on Cross of Snow: A Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow..  He also writes the “Gently Mad” column for Fine Books & Collections magazine, lectures widely on book related subjects, and is a frequent contributor to Humanities magazine and other publications. He and his wife Constance live in North Grafton, Massachusetts.