Nineteenth-Century American Writers:

Alcott, Louisa May (1832-1888). Woman novelist and story writer, author of Little Women and many sensationalist-type novels written for money.

Bryant, William Cullen (1794-1878) Once-famous American poet, author of the poem "Thanatopsis."

Cooper, James Fenimore 1789-1851. Prolific early American novelist, author of the Leatherstocking Tales.

Dickinson, Emily (1830-1886). A towering figure in American poetry, a woman who lived quietly all her life in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Douglass, Frederick (1818-1895). An African American born a slave, a writer, journalist, autobiographer, race leader, abolitionist. Author of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882). Major American essayist, speaker, and poet. Unitarian and transcendentalist, associated with Boston.

Fuller, Margaret (1810-1850) Woman writer and intellectual from New England, friend of Emerson and Thoreau, possibly the first American feminist, author of Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Early death following her efforts to aid Italian independence.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1804-1864). Great American novelist and story writer, associated with New England, America's Puritan heritage, author of The Scarlet Letter.

Irving, Washington (1783-1859). Early professional writer in America, associated with New York, author of Rip Van Winkle.

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1807-1882). American poet, in the nineteenth century he was the most famous poet of his day.

Melville, Herman (1819-1891). Important American novelist and short story writer, author of Moby Dick.

Poe, Edgar Allan (1809-1849). Major American poet and writer of sensational and detective stories, associated with Baltimore, Maryland.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1811-1896). American novelist, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, associated with abolitionism and the Beecher family. Abraham Lincoln allegedly said to her, 'So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!'

Thoreau, Henry David (1817-1862). Beloved American naturalist and writer, associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson, civil disobedience, author of Walden.

Whitman, Walt (1819-1892). The great nineteenth-century American poet, author of Leaves of Grass.

Whittier, John Greenleaf (1807-1892). Nineteenth-century American poet, remembered today primarily as an abolitionist.

Adams, Henry (1838-1918). Essayist and autobiographer, author of The Education of Henry Adams, scion of the famous Adams family.

Chestnut, Charles Waddell (1858-1932). African American novelist and story writer.

Chopin, Kate (1850-1904). American woman novelist and story writer, author of The Awakening, associated with local color writing, New Orleans, and stories about women's lives.

Crane, Stephen (1871-1900). American author of realistic novels and stories, best known for the Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage.

Dunbar, Paul Laurence (1872-1906). Nineteenth-century African American poet, considered the first important Black poet in America.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (1860-1835) American woman feminist and novelist, author of The Yellow Wallpaper.

Harris, Joel Chandler (1848-1908). White southern journalist who created folk tales about African American slaves in the pre-Civil War south, author of the Uncle Remus tales.

Howells, William Dean (1837-1920). American novelist and influential editor and critic of wide-ranging taste.

James, Henry (1843-1916). Major late-nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century novelist and story writer, American-born, who lived and wrote primarily in England, "the writer's writer."

Jewett, Sarah Orne (1849-1909). American woman novelist and short story writer.

Johnson, James Weldon (1871-1938). African American poet and writer, author of The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.

London, Jack (1876-1916). Author of adventure novels, best known for The Call of the Wild, associated with San Francisco.

Sinclair, Upton (1878-1968). American novelist and social critic, author of the famous book about the meatpacking industry, The Jungle.

Twain, Mark (1835-1910). Revered American novelist and story writer, author of Huckleberry Finn.

---

Main Page | 19th-Century Novelists | 19th-Century Poets | About LiteraryHistory.com

---

1998-2012 by Jan Pridmore