Florentine poet Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) is best known for The Divine Comedy, a three-part epic poem that progresses from Hell (Inferno) to Purgatory to Paradise. Written in the vernacular, rather than Latin or Greek, Dante's masterpiece immediately found a wide audience; it is considered the greatest work of Italian literature and its author is regarded as the father of modern Italian.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882), author of The Song of Hiawatha and other beloved poems, was Professor of Modern Languages at Harvard University.
