CZ:Literature Workgroup/American literature

American literary figures

Colonial America

William Bradford: (1590-1657) First governor, long-time leader, and historian of the Plymouth Colony. ^[e]
Anne Bradstreet: (c. 1612 - 1672) Colonial American poet, considered the first English poet in the New World. ^[e]
Samuel Sewall: Add brief definition or description
Edward Taylor: Add brief definition or description
Cotton Mather: (1663-1728) New England Puritan clergyman whose writings on witchcraft helped spark the Salem witch hunts in1692. ^[e]
Jonathan Edwards: (1703-58) Puritan theologian who helped spark the religious revival known as the Great Awakening. ^[e]
Phillis Wheatley: (1753 or 1754 - 1784) African-American slave whose poems and letters are among the earliest writings of blacks in America. ^[e]
Sarah Kemble Knight: Add brief definition or description
William Byrd: Add brief definition or description
John Woolman: A prominent 18th century American Quaker and abolitionist, and the author of a classic Journal. ^[e]
St. Jean de Crevecoeur: Add brief definition or description

Early Republic to Civil War

Benjamin Franklin: 1706-1790, American statesman and scientist, based in Philadelphia. ^[e]
Thomas Paine: (1737-1809) English writer, intellectual and revolutionary whose works were influential during the Enlightenment in the United States and Europe. ^[e]
Thomas Jefferson: (1743-1826) Third U.S. President (from 1801 to 1809), first U.S. Secretary of State (from 1789 to 1793), author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and founder of the University of Virginia. ^[e]
Philip Freneau: Add brief definition or description
Joel Barlow: Add brief definition or description
Royall Tyler: Add brief definition or description
Charles Brockden Brown: Add brief definition or description
Meriwether Lewis: Add brief definition or description
Washington Irving: (1783-1859) American writer, considered the first American man of letters, best known for his short stories, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. ^[e]
James Fenimore Cooper: (1789-1851) The first major American novelist, most famous for his adventuresome Leather-Stocking Tales set in the American frontier. ^[e]
William Cullen Bryant: Add brief definition or description
Francis Parkman: Add brief definition or description
Nathaniel Hawthorne: (1804-64) American novelist and short story writer, best known for The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. ^[e]
Edgar Allan Poe: (1809–1849) American poet, short story writer, playwright, editor, critic, essayist, and one of the most prominent figures in the American Romantic Movement in literature. ^[e]
Herman Melville: (1819-91) American fiction writer, author of Moby Dick, one of the masterpieces of world literature. ^[e]
Ralph Waldo Emerson: (1803-82) American poet, essayist, and lecturer; leading exponent of New England transcendentalism. ^[e]
Henry David Thoreau: (1817-62) New England transcendentalist philosopher, naturalist, and writer; one of key inspirations for the modern conservation movement. ^[e]
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: (1807-82) US poet and essayist whose ballads and verses made him the best-loved American poet of the 19th century. ^[e]
John Greenleaf Whittier: Add brief definition or description
Oliver Wendell Holmes: Add brief definition or description
James Russell Lowell: American poet, abolitionist and man of letters (1819 - 1891); older second cousin of Amy Lowell ^[e]
Frederick Douglas: Add brief definition or description
Abraham Lincoln: (1809-65) Sixteenth U.S. President (from 1861 to 1865) who prosecuted the American Civil War to reclaim 11 seceding states and abolish slavery; assassinated in 1865 near the beginning of his second term. Considered the greatest of all American presidents. ^[e]
Walt Whitman: (1819-92) American poet and essayist, famous for his flowing free verse in Leaves of Grass, including 'A Noiseless Patient Spider' ^[e]

Works of literature

Late 19th century to WW I

Works of literature

Interwar years

Highest priority: Black Elk - Willa Cather - Robert Frost - Carl Sandburg - Ezra Pound - Eugene O'Neill - T.S. Eliot - F. Scott Fitzgerald - William Faulkner - Ernest Hemingway - Langston Hughes - John Steinbeck

Works of literature

Post WWII

Works of literature

CZ:Literature Workgroup/American literature

Contents

American literary figures

Colonial America

Early Republic to Civil War

Late 19th century to WW I

Interwar years

Post WWII

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CZ:Literature Workgroup/American literature

American literary figures

Colonial America

Early Republic to Civil War

Late 19th century to WW I

Interwar years

Post WWII

Navigation menu

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