Longfellow and the Occult

Maine Historical Society - Programs Podcast

Speaker: James Horrigan; Recorded May 1, 2014 - Longtime Wadsworth-Longfellow House guide James Horrigan kicked off the 2014 house season with a lecture that looks at the poet’s lifelong interest in the supernatural. In addition to touching on reincarnation, astrology, numerology, automatic writing (featuring a poem of Longfellow's that can only be read with a mirror), and dowsing, James paid special attention to what one biographer called Longfellow's "rich dream life." The poet left behind fascinating accounts of dreams he had of Charles Sumner, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and many others.