People read Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in high school and generally not in their spare time. That's why I'm a bit of an odd bird. I've enjoyed reading his old short stories even more than his poetry. What they don't teach you in high school literature class is that these old writers had a sense of humor, and you're allowed to laugh at what they write. Teachers often put each writer in a bubble: this writer did x, this writer did y, and that writer did z. I didn't discover that Longfellow wrote short stories until I got "The Continental Tales of Longfellow" as a gift. His stories are strange, often with absurd conclusions, and not at all like his poetry, which is why I like this book so much. Most of all, I like the broad pages with large open spaces.
This book was printed in 1948. The rims of the pages were painted blue to match the cover, and the binding is engraved in copper. What makes this book of prose so special is that Longfellow published most of his short stories anonymously. The creators of this book, over sixty years after Longfellow's death, wanted to show his works that were never studied or observed much during his career. That's an interesting concept - will that happen to some writers of today, sixty years down the road? Will someone be unearthing their ebooks from a digital stockpile and resuscitating them?
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