Author Investigation

Today, you will do a little bit of reading about each of the author’s whose stories and poems we’ve read
the past few weeks. Click on the author’s name to read more about them, then answer the questions
that follow.

1. Nathaniel Hawthorne: (Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment)

2. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: ( My Lost Youth)
3. John Steinbeck: ( Harvest Gypsies)
4. Claude McKay: ( America )
5. Frederick Douglass ( The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass)

Pick ONE of the authors from above and answer these questions:

1. When and where did this person live? Maryland

2. What was his education like? Douglass’ writings are several autobiographies eloquently
describing his experiences in slavery and his life after the Civil War, including the well-known
work Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.
3. What is one interesting fact you learned about his life? earned to read and write at the age of 12
from a Baltimore slaveholder's wife
4. What is a second interesting fact you learned about his life? Douglass became the first African
American nominated for vice president of the United States.

Pick ANOTHER one of the authors from above and answer these questions:

1. When and where did this person live? He lived in salem Massachusetts
2. What was his education like? While attending college, Hawthorne missed his mother and two
sisters terribly and upon graduation, returned home for a 12-year stay. During this time, he
began to write with purpose and soon found his “voice” self-publishing several stories, among
them "The Hollow of the Three Hills" and "An Old Woman’s Tale." By 1832, he had written
3. What is one interesting fact you learned about his life? Hawthorne was the only son of
Nathaniel and Elizabeth Clark Hathorne
4. What is a second interesting fact you learned about his life? two of his greatest tales and in
1837, Twice Told Tales. Though his writing brought him some notoriety, it didn’t provide a
dependable income and for a time he worked for the Boston Custom House weighing and gaging
salt and coal
Ryan Owens

4/1/2021

I picked Frederick Douglas

At a young age, Douglass was selected to live in the home of the plantation owners, one of whom may
have been his father. His mother, who was an intermittent presence in his life, died when he was around
10. Hugh Auld’s wife Sophia taught Douglass the alphabet when he was around 12. When Auld forbade
his wife to offer more lessons, Douglass continued to learn from white children and others in the
neighborhood. He shared his newfound knowledge with other enslaved people. Hired out to William
Freeland, he taught other slaves on the plantation to read the New Testament at a weekly church
service. He carried identification papers obtained from a free Black seaman. He also had 5 children.

Fun Facts

1 he was an author for Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

2 Douglass was married to his first wife Anna for 44 years before she died. They had five children.