Book Bearings
Cover of The song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The song of Hiawatha

  • 215 pages ยท about 4 hours
  • First published 1855
  • 154 editions
  • Free to read

Bookshop.org links may earn us a commission. It supports independent bookstores and costs you nothing.

1 About this book

From the book:The Song of Hiawatha is based on the legends and stories of many North American Indian tribes, but especially those of the Ojibway Indians of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. They were collected by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, the reknowned historian, pioneer explorer, and geologist.

He was superintendent of Indian affairs for Michigan from 1836 to 1841. Schoolcraft married Jane, O-bah-bahm-wawa-ge-zhe-go-qua (The Woman of the Sound Which the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky), Johnston.

Jane was a daughter of John Johnston, an early Irish fur trader, and O-shau-gus-coday-way-qua (The Woman of the Green Prairie), who was a daughter of Waub-o-jeeg (The White Fisher), who was Chief of the Ojibway tribe at La Pointe, Wisconsin. Jane and her mother are credited with having researched, authenticated, and compiled much of the material Schoolcraft included in his Algic Researches (1839) and a revision published in 1856 as The Myth of Hiawatha.

Good for readers who want: a classic and a book they can read free online.

  • Classics
  • Animals
  • Human-animal relationships
  • Nature
  • Natural history
  • Children's poetry
  • Children's stories
  • Folklore

2 Read it free, right here

A free scan from the Internet Archive opens right here on the page, with no sign-up.

Read it on the Internet Archive

3 About Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1807โ€“1882

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 โ€“ March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was the first American to completely translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and was one of the fireside poets from New England. Longfellow was born in Portland, District of Maine, Massachusetts (now Portland, Maine).

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

4 Similar books

Find a book that fits your moment