Henry Wadsworth Longfellow enjoyed many happy years with his wife, Fanny, and their five children living in the Craigie House, which overlooked the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He worked as a professor at Harvard College and was a prolific author of lyric poetry as well. Longfellow and Nathaniel Hawthorne were lifelong friends. Widely known and popular, Longfellow was one of the best known poets of his time.
Then a turn of events beginning in 1861 brought tragedy to the family.
Years of Sorrow
The Civil War began on April 12, 1861. A couple of months later on July 10th, there was an accidental fire in the Craigie House library.
The previous day, Fanny wrote the following entry in her journal:
"We are all sighing for the good sea breeze instead of this stifling land one filled with dust. Poor Allegra is very droopy with heat, and Edie has to get her hair in a net to free her neck from the weight."
The accident occurred while Fanny was preserving the hair clippings of her daughter, Edith, in wax. The windows were open allowing the welcome breeze to blow through the room. It blew some of the melted wax onto her dress, which burst into flames engulfing her.
She tried to protected her daughters, Edith and Allegra, by running into Henry's study. Horrified, he frantically attempted to beat out the flames with a small throw rug. This only fanned the fire. Then he tried to smother the flames with his body by throwing himself on Fanny and rolling. As a result his ownhands, arms and face were severely burned.
After a night of excruciating pain, Fanny found relief when she died the next morning. Henry was in critical condition with his own burns and could not attend her funeral. The disfiguring burns on his face caused Longfellow to grow his famous beard in an effort to cover the scars.
Christmas, 1861
This was the first Christmas after Fanny's death and a devastated Henry Longfellow recorded in his diary: "How inexpressibly sad are all holidays." On the anniversary of the accident, he wrote again: "I can make no record of these days. Better leave them wrapped in silence. Perhaps someday God will give me peace."
Christmas, 1862
His journal posting on December 25th read as follows:
"'A merry Christmas' say the children, but that is no more for me."
During that year, his oldest son, Charles, joined the Army of the Potomac to fight for the Union. This added even more grief to his father's load of sorrow.
Christmas, 1863
Longfellow received word that his son, had been critically injured in battle. When he found him, he found that Charles had been severely wounded with a bullet passing under his shoulder blades and injuring his spinal vertebrae.
Henry's journal at Christmas was empty. He had nothing to say.
Christmas 1864
The end of the war was in sight and Abraham Lincoln had been re-elected President. Charles was still alive at Christmas; however he died a few weeks later.
But on December 25, 1864, Longfellow's Christmas entry consisted only of the verses for "I Heard The Bells." This marked the beginning of a healing process, but he never fullly recovered physically or mentally from his wife's death. Pain plagued him and he was forced to seek relief with ether and laudanum. In addition, he was afraid of encroaching insanity and begged his children not to abandon him to a mental hospital.
Things made a turn for the better for the nation during the coming months when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in April, 1865. Although Lincoln was assassinated later, the country was coming to peace at last.
In 1872, the poem was converted to a Christmas carol, "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day" by John Baptiste Calkin who wrote the music.
Cross of Snow
In 1879, Longfellow expressed his grief in the sonnet "The Cross of Snow" written eighteen years after Fanny's death.
"Such is the cross I wear upon my breast
These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes
And seasons, changeless since the day she died."
His other poems included "The Ride of Paul Revere" and "The Song of Hiawatha," as well as many other literary works.
Other Christmas Literature
Other writers such as Charles Dickens, with "A Christmas Carol" and Clement Moore, with "Twas The Night Before Christmas" have contributed memorable stories for the season.
Sources:
The Complete Poetical Works of Longfellow; Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co.; 1893
The Home Book of Verse for Young Folks edited by Burton Egbert Stevenson; Henry Holt and Company; 1915
Diane Evans - I am a retired civil engineer as well as a member of Sisters in Crime and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.
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