Author Biography Literature Notes on Each Reading

Poe (1809)
 orphan—never knew
his parents
 lived with a wealthy
merchant and his
wife
 went to college only
to come back in debt
and to find his
fiancee was engaged
to someone else
 went to west point
military academy—
which he was kicked
out of
 moved around
 strugged with
alcohol
 publishes some of his
greatest works in
Tales of the
Grotesque and
Arabesque
 (1845) Publishes The
Raven
 Explains his
methodology in The
Philosophy of
Composition, The
Poetic Principle and
The Rationale of
Verse
o The Cask of
Amontillad
o
 Virginia does
Mysteriously in 1847
 He dies in 1849
Ralph  Transcendentalist
Waldo  Born on May 25th in
Emerson Boston MA
 Wrote, "Goodbye"
 Wrote essays like
"Self-Reliance" and
"The American
Scholar"
 Died in Concord MA
in 1182
 Was a clergyman
early in life—
minister
 Found friends in a
circle of writers in
Concord MA;
Margaret Fuller,
Henry David Thoreau
etc
 His lectures became
Essays—on
 transcendentalism
 Three essays, Nature
—encorage writers
to find their own
voice instead of
imitating their
predecessors
 Became a key symbol
of American
Trascendentalists-
writers believe the
individual can move
beyond the physical
world of the senses

Whitman  Born in 1819 Leaves of  narrative voice is direct in

 aimed to transcend Grass approaching the reader
traditional epics and
avoid normaly to  written in free form (no meter)
mimic the potential
freedoms found in
America
 Wrote Leaves of
Grass to achieve that
purpose—was highly
controversial for its
overt sexuality when
it was published
 Died 1892 in New
Jersey
 Self-published and
promoted Leaves
of Grass
o Caught
the
attention
of Ralph
Waldo
Emerson
—who
praised
the book
 Henry David
Thoreau and
Bronson Alcott
venture to
brookly to meet
Whitman
 The civil war
happens and
Whitman is
thrown into
financial troubles
 
Dickinson
Franklin
Douglass
Melville
Washingto
n Irving
Nathaniel
Hawthorne