AUTHORS and WRITERS2ndWEEK

First Month
AUTHORS
1 William Shakespeare
2 Washington Irving
3 Ralph Waldo
4 Walt Whitman
5 Emily Dickinson
6 Kate Chopin
7 Frederick Douglass
8 Herman Melville
9 Mary Shelley
10 Ben Johnson
11 Oscar Wilde
12 Lewis Carroll

5- EMILY DICKINSON
Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on December 10, 1830 into
an influential family with a strong social reputation. She lived her whole life in
Amherst except for a short period of time when she went to Mount Holyoke Female
Seminary in South Hadley and a few other short trips out of Amherst. However,
Emily returned home only after a year due to severe homesickness. Before
attending the Holyoke Seminary, Dickinson underwent education at the Amherst
Academy for seven years. An introvert by nature, Dickinson spent most of her life in
recluse. Dickinson hardly ever left her house and did not have many visitors either.
However, the few people she did have an encounter with left a deep impact on her
which is evident in her poetry. During a trip to Philadelphia in 1854, Dickinson met
Reverend Charles Wadsworth who is believed to be an inspiration of many poems
Dickinson composed. According to some critics, when Charles Wadsworth left after
a visit to Dickinson’s home in 1860, Emily was left heartbroken; the heartsickness
caused an immense flow of verses from Emily’s mind for many years to come. It is
known for sure Charles Wadsworth held a very special place in Dickinson’s life,
however, it cannot be said for certain whether the feelings were of romantic love.
Dickinson referred to Charles as her closest earthly friend. Other possible
inspirations and reasons of romance in her poems include a Supreme Court judge,
Otis. P. Lord and Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield Republican. Another
significant figure in Emily Dickinson’s life was Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a
former minister and author who served as Dickinson’s literary mentor. Their
relationship is apparent from an extended correspondence between the two which
began in 1862. 1860s onwards, Dickinson spent her time in almost complete
isolation. Dickinson was close to her siblings Austin and Lavinia who also shared
her interest of reading and admiring literature. While Dickinson refrained from any
unnecessary physical social contact with other people, she, however, maintained
active correspondences. Dickinson’s work has seen to be deeply influenced by the
Metaphysical poets of seventeenth-century England and a conservative and
orthodox approach to Christianity. Although Dickinson was a very prolific poet, her
poetry, unfortunately did not gain the deserving recognition during her lifetime. The
first collection of her poems was published posthumously in 1890. Emily Dickinson
died on May 15, 1886. After her death, Emily’s sister Lavinia discovered many
volumes of around 1800 poems by Dickinson. These poems were written neatly into
handmade booklets. These poems were arranged into selections and published
1890 onwards. The first of these selections was entitled The Poems of Emily
Dickinson. The first and other following early volumes did quite well. Emily
Dickinson’s profoundly emotional and touching poetry has greatly influenced 20th
century poetry and has maintained a fan following even long after it was written.
6- KATE CHOPIN
Kate Chopin (/ˈʃoʊpæn/,[1][2]alsoUS: /ʃoʊˈpæn,ˈʃoʊpən/;[3] born Katherine O'Flaherty; February 8, 1850 –
August 22, 1904)[4] was an American author of short stories and novels based in Louisiana. She is now
considered by some scholars[5] to have been a forerunner of American 20th-century feminist authors of
Southern or Catholic background, such as Zelda Fitzgerald, and is one of the most frequently read and
recognized writers of Louisiana Creole heritage.

Of maternal French and paternal Irish descent, Chopin was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She married and
moved with her husband to New Orleans. They later lived in the country in Cloutierville, Louisiana. From
1892 to 1895, Chopin wrote short stories for both children and adults that were published in such national
magazines as Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, The Century Magazine, and The Youth's Companion. Her stories
aroused controversy because of her subjects and her approach; they were condemned as immoral by some
critics.

Her major works were two short story collections: Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897). Her
important short stories included "Désirée's Baby" (1893), a tale of miscegenation in antebellum Louisiana,[6]
"The Story of an Hour" (1894),[7] and "The Storm" (1898).[6] "The Storm" is a sequel to "At the Cadian
Ball," which appeared in her first collection of short stories, Bayou Folk.[6]

Chopin also wrote two novels: At Fault (1890) and The Awakening (1899), which are set in New Orleans
and Grand Isle, respectively. The characters in her stories are usually residents of Louisiana, and many are
Creoles of various ethnic or racial backgrounds. Many of her works are set in Natchitoches in north-central
Louisiana, a region where she lived.

Within a decade of her death, Chopin was widely recognized as one of the leading writers of her time.[8] In
1915, Fred Lewis Pattee wrote, "some of [Chopin's] work is equal to the best that has been produced in
France or even in America. [She displayed] what may be described as a native aptitude for narration
amounting almost to genius."[8]

Works
 "Bayou Folk" Read "Bayou Folk"
 "A Night in Acadie" Read "A Night in Acadie"
 "At the Cadian Ball" (1892) Read "At the Cadian Ball"
 "The Story of an Hour" (1894) Read "The Story of an Hour"
 "Désirée's Baby" (1895) Read "Désirée's Baby"
 "Emancipation: A Life Fable" Read "Emancipation: A Life Fable"
 "The Storm" (1898) Read "The Storm"
 "A Pair of Silk Stockings" Read "A Pair of Silk Stockings"
 "The Locket"
 "Athenaise" Read "Athenaise"
 "Lilacs" Read "Lilacs"
 "A Respectable Woman" Read "A Respectable Woman"
 "The Unexpected" Read "The Unexpected"
 "The Kiss" Read "The Kiss"
 "Beyond the Bayou" Read "Beyond the Bayou"
 "An No-Account Creole" Read "An No-Account Creole"
 The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories
 "Fedora"
 "Regret" Read "Regret

 "Madame Célestin's Divorce" Read "Madame Célestin's Divorce"

 At Fault (1890), Nixon Jones Printing Co, St. Louis Read "At Fault"
  The Awakening (1899), H.S. Stone, Chicago Read "The Awakening"

7- Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey; c. February 1817[1] – February 20,
1895[5]) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from
slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New
York, gaining note for his oratory[6] and incisive antislavery writings. In his time, he was described by
abolitionists as a living counter-example to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual
capacity to function as independent American citizens.[7][8] Northerners at the time found it hard to believe
that such a great orator had once been a slave.[9]

Douglass wrote several autobiographies. He described his experiences as a slave in his 1845 autobiography,
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, which became a bestseller, and was
influential in promoting the cause of abolition, as was his second book, My Bondage and My Freedom
(1855). After the Civil War, Douglass remained an active campaigner against slavery and wrote his last
autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. First published in 1881 and revised in 1892, three
years before his death, it covered events during and after the Civil War. Douglass also actively supported
women's suffrage, and held several public offices. Without his approval, Douglass became the first African
American nominated for Vice President of the United States as the running mate and Vice Presidential
nominee ofVictoria Woodhull, on the Equal Rights Party ticket.[10]

Douglass was a firm believer in the equality of all peoples, whether white, black, female, Native American,
or Chinese immigrants.[11] He was also a believer in dialogue and in making alliances across racial and
ideological divides, and in the liberal values of the U.S. Constitution.[12] When radical abolitionists, under
the motto "No Union with Slaveholders", criticized Douglass' willingness to engage in dialogue with slave
owners, he replied: "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."[13]

Works
Writings

 A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845)

 "The Heroic Slave". Autographs for Freedom. Ed. Julia Griffiths, Boston: Jewett and Company, 1853.
pp. 174–239.
 My Bondage and My Freedom (1855)
 Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881, revised 1892)
 Douglass founded and edited the abolitionist newspaper the North Star from 1847 to 1851. He merged the
North Star with another paper to create the Frederick Douglass' Paper.
 In the Words of Frederick Douglass: Quotations from Liberty's Champion . Edited by John R. McKivigan and
Heather L. Kaufman. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-8014-4790-7

Speeches

 "The Church and Prejudice",[166] 1841

 What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? ,[167] 1852
 Self-Made Men, 1859
 "Speech at National Hall, Philadelphia July 6, 1863 for the Promotion of Colored Enlistments" [168]
 8- Herman Melville

Herman Melville (born Melvill;[a] August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short
story writer and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick
(1851), Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia, and Billy Budd, a
posthumously published novella. Although his works were not widely appreciated at the time of his death,
the centennial of his birth in 1919 was the starting point of a Melville revival in which critics re-evaluated
his work and his novels became recognized as world classics.

Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant. His formal education ended
abruptly after the death of his father in 1832 left the family in financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a
common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet but jumped ship in the Marquesas
Islands. Typee, his first book and its sequel, Omoo (1847) were travel-adventures based on his experiences
there. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth "Lizzie" Shaw, a daughter of a
prominent Boston family. His first book not based on his own experience, Mardi (1849), was not well
received. His novels Redburn (1849) and White Jacket (1850) were given better reviews but did not provide
financial security.

Moby-Dick (1851), although now considered one of the great American novels, was not well received by
contemporary critics. His psychological novel, Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852) was also scorned by
reviewers. From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, which was collected in 1856
as The Piazza Tales. In 1857, he traveled to England and then toured the Near East, and that same year
published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863 to take a
position as Customs Inspector. From that point, he focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and
Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In an
emotionally jarring incident, in 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot.

Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In
1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he
privately published two volumes of poetry, left one volume unpublished, and returned to prose of the sea.
The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville
died from cardiovascular disease in 1891.