Notes on Longfellow in Spanish America

LONGFELLOW, Poe, and Whitman constitute the trilogy of North American writers most widely translated and read in Spanish America.' Emerson is the only other figure of nineteenth-century letters esteemed on a plane with these favored three, albeit not as a poet but rather as one of the New World's few inspired and inspiring philosophers. In the opinion of many Spanish American critics Emerson should occupy the place held by the Cambridge bard as one of our three great writers of the past. And actually, if rated according to a more severe test, that of the influence he has exerted on Spanish American literature and thought, and not according to his vogue as judged from the number of Spanish translations of his works-in which case he would trail in four or fifth place with Bryant and Lowell-Emerson would be entitled incontestably to a permanent place in the company of Poe and Whitman. Of American poets, however, Longfellow has earned the distinction of being the one who has had the largest number of his poems translated by the greatest number of translators. But even on this score, he is rapidly losing ground to Poe. As we shall see below, the former reached the pinnacle of his fame in the '90s of the last century, at about the very time that Poe's star was looming bright in the Modernist sky. From that time down to the present Poe has been gaining steadily on Longfellow, who has had few translators in the last thirty years. The table herewith will give the present relative standing of the two poets with respect to the number and spread of their works translated into Spanish; in order to afford a clearer picture of the extent of Poe's advance over Longfellow in recent years, I have included in parentheses the figures given by Paul Thomas Manchester in 1927.2

Linguistics · History · Philosophy · Poetry Analysis and Criticism

• Longfellow and Spanish America

  Charlotte A Pearce•Hispania•1975

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• Longfellow, Sarmiento, and Two Unpublished Letters

  Open Access•John M Fein•The Americas A Quarterly Review…•1956

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