 In the fall of 1822 , the 15 @-@ year @-@ old Longfellow enrolled at Bowdoin College in Brunswick , Maine , along with his brother Stephen . His grandfather was a founder of the college and his father was a trustee . There Longfellow met Nathaniel Hawthorne , who would later become his lifelong friend . He boarded with a clergyman for a time before rooming on the third floor of what is now Maine Hall in 1823 . He joined the Peucinian Society , a group of students with Federalist leanings . In his senior year , Longfellow wrote to his father about his aspirations : 
