Fell into a most sentimental reverie about W.W. The scenes of last spring came back to me with sadness – in short I mused myself into a most romantic melancholy. I have thought a good deal about him of late in my musings – and sometimes feel as if I should go crazy when I think of last year. I don’t think I ever made a greater sacrifice of inclination to a sense of duty – but it was not a hearty one – I was reluctant then; I have been sorry at times ever since. It was a strange infatuation. And yet after all my fears might we not have been happy together – I loved him & think he liked me.
Samuel Longfellow, in one of his only surviving journals, February 24, 1837
My special project for my park this year has been focusing on the LGBTQ history of the site, from posting on social media to doing special talks on the subject. This led to my current pet project and future specialty tour: The Life of Samuel Longfellow.
Sam Longfellow, Henry Longfellow's little brother, was a radical Unitarian, a fierce abolitionist, a transcendentalist, and an advocate for women's rights.
He was also also very much a gay man, and seemed to struggle with those feelings for most of his life.
In the 1880s, he wrote a letter to a friend saying that he had destroyed most of his journals out of fear of people discovering what they contained. In the 1850s, he found himself included in Walt Whitman's bohemian circle in New York, as well as finding a close-knit community of gay Brooklyn ministers who helped guide one another as they attempted to balance their faith with their sexualities.
And in 1836, Sam fell madly in love with a man named William Winter, who he wrote about in the entry above.