ICONIC AMERICAN WRITERS

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)

Cooper, who grew up in Cooperstown, N.Y., is best known for his five-book Leatherstocking series, including The Last of the Mohicans, first published in 1826. In his frontier tales, Cooper introduces the first American hero, Natty Bumppo, a white child raised by Delaware Indians who matures into an adventurous, honorable and fearless woodsman.

Washington Irving (1783-1859)

One of the earliest American fiction writers, New York City-born Irving wrote the famous and timeless tales Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, first published in 1819 and 1820, respectively.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

A literary critic in his time, Boston-born Poe may have been the nation's first published horror, mystery and science fiction writer. Poe wrote eerie, grim and cryptic tales exemplified in his 1839 short story "The Fall of the House of Usher," 1843 short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" and 1845 poem "The Raven."

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

An ordained minister, Boston-born Emerson was a philosopher, essayist and poet whose insightful prose explored the mind of man and his relationship with nature. Emerson's uniquely American vision and writing style is illustrated in the 1836 essay Nature and the 1841 essay Self-Reliance.

Herman Melville (1819-1891)

New York City-born Melville is best remembered for his 1851 masterpiece Moby-Dick, an epic novel about a ferocious whale that destroys a whaling ship, its vengeful captain and crew.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

One of America's greatest poets, the West Hills, N.Y.-born Whitman is best known for Leaves of Grass, his Emerson-inspired 1855 poetry collection, and his 1865 poem "O Captain! My Captain!" about the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

An author, philosopher and naturalist, the Concord, Mass., native is best known for his writings about independence, spiritual discovery and self-reliance depicted in his 1849 essay "Civil Disobedience" and 1854 book, Walden, written about a two-year retreat to the woods near Walden Pond.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

One of the nation's most prolific poets, Dickinson wrote nearly 1,800 poems while leading a reclusive life at her family's home in Amherst, Mass. Few of Dickinson's poems about art, gardens, joy, love, death and grief were published during her lifetime, and most of her work was discovered in her bedroom after her death.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

Known for his stories about sin, guilt and witchcraft in Puritan New England, the Salem, Mass.-born Hawthorne is revered for his 1837 short story collection, Twice-Told Tales; his 1850 masterpiece The Scarlet Letter; and the 1851 classic The House of the Seven Gables.

Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Born Samuel Clemens in Florida, Mo., Twain was inspired to write his classic novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884, based on his childhood experiences in Hannibal, Mo., and his job as a Mississippi River steamboat pilot. Known for his witty and satirical prose, and the colloquial dialogue of his characters, Twain has been dubbed the Father of American Literature.

Jack London (1876-1916)

Drawing on his experiences as a sailor, gold prospector and adventurer, San Francisco-born London wrote a profusion of stirring stories, including tales about canines in the frozen North and voyages on the high seas in his best-selling novels: The Call of the Wild, 1903; The Sea-Wolf, 1904; and White Fang, 1906.

Willa Cather (1873-1947)

Born in Virginia's Back Creek Valley in 1873, Cather was 9 years old when her family moved to Red Cloud, Neb., where she drew inspiration for some of her most famous works — O Pioneers!, 1913; and My √Åntonia, 1918—about life on the American frontier.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

A native of St. Paul, Minn., Fitzgerald wrote novels and short stories about the optimism, aspirations and excesses of the Jazz Age, including This Side of Paradise, 1920; The Beautiful and the Damned, 1922; and The Great Gatsby, his 1925 masterpiece. While sales of its initial printing were disappointing, The Great Gatsby is considered among the greatest novels of the 20th century.

Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949)

Atlanta-born Mitchell authored Gone with the Wind, the best-selling romantic novel set in the Civil War South. Published in 1936, the novel won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize and since has sold more than 30 million copies.

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Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

Considered among the best writers of his generation, the Oak Park, Ill., native is renowned for his action-packed stories about boxing, bullfighting, big-game hunting, fishing, war and human relationships, including the novels The Sun Also Rises,

1926; A Farewell to Arms, 1929; For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1940; and The

Old Man and the Sea, 1952.

William Faulkner (1897-1962)

The Nobel Prize-winning novelist and short story writer depicted the people, history and settings of his native Mississippi in most of his works, including the literary classics The Sound and the Fury, 1929; Absalom, Absalom!, 1936; Go Down, Moses, 1942; and The Reivers, 1962.

J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)

Salinger's 1951 The Catcher in the Rye is one of the best-selling American novels of all time, with more than 65 million copies sold. Though the only full-length novel by the New York City-born writer, the once scandalous story about teenage angst, rebellion and lust remains a standard in American literature curriculum.

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Born in San Francisco, the four-time Pulitzer Prize winner wrote much of his poetry about rural New England. Some of his best-known poems—"After Apple-Picking," "Mending Wall," "Birches," "The Road Not Taken" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"—were inspired by his life and observations in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Harper Lee (1926- )

To Kill a Mockingbird is her only published novel, winning the Monroeville, Ala., native the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the best-seller about 1930s race relations in the South.

John Steinbeck (1902-1968)

A native of Salinas, Calif., the Nobel Prize- and Pulitzer Prize-winning author captured the social conscience of the nation with his captivating stories about California's various ethnic and immigrant groups, migrant workers and displaced sharecroppers. Among his best works are Of Mice and Men, 1937; The Grapes of Wrath, 1939; and East of Eden, 1952.

ENGLISH LIT

PERIODS

Old English (Anglo-Saxon Period):

writers:

· Caedmon

· Cynewulf

work: Beowulf (by anonymous).

1200-1500: Middle English Period :

· Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) :

(most famous) The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde and Book of the Duchess.

· Thomas Malory (1405-1471) :

(most famous) Morte d'Arthur.

· Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (by anonymous).

1500-1660: The English Renaissance 1500-1558: Tudor Period (Humanist Era)

The Humanists:

· Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) :

Utopia, The History of King Richard the Third, The Life of Pico della Mirandola, The Four Last Things, A Dialogue Concerning Tyndale, The Confutation of Tyndale's Answer, A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation and Sadness of Christ .

· John Skelton (1460-1529):

A ballade of the Scottysshe Kynge

· Sir Thomas Wyatt(1503-1542)

The Renaissance Period consists of four subsets:

1. 1558-1603: The Elizabethan Age (High Renaissance):

· William Shakespeare (1564-1616):

Comedies: All's Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, or What You Will, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Two Noble Kinsmen, The Winter's Tale

Histories: King John, Richard II, Henry IV, part 1, Henry IV, part 2, Henry V, Henry VI, part1, Henry VI, part 2, Henry VI, part 3, Richard III,Henry VIII

Tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, Coriolanus, Titus Andronicus, Timon of Athens, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, King Lear, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra.Poems: Shakespeare's Sonnets, Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Passionate Pilgrim, The Phoenix and the Turtle, A Lover's Complaint.

· Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593):

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, The Jew of Malta Massacre at Paris, Tamburlaine the Great, Edward II

· Edmund Spenser(1552-1599):

The Faerie Queene, Iambicum Trimetrum, The Shepheardes Calender.

· Sir Walter Raleigh(1552 – 1618):

What is Our Life, The Ocean to Cynthia and The Lie.

· Ben Jonson(1573-1637)

2. 1603-1625:The Jacobean Age {Mannerist Style (1590-1640) other styles: Metaphysical Poets; Devotional Poets}:

· John Donne(1572-1631):

· Francis Bacon (1561-1626):

· Thomas Middleton (1580-1627):

3.1625-1649: The Caroline Age : John Ford, John Milton

· John Milton (1608-1674):

Lycidas Paradise Lost Paradise Regained

· John Ford (1586-1640)

4. 1649-1660: The Commonwealth Period (which is also known as the Puritan & The Protectorate (Baroque Style, and later, Rococo Style)

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 1015