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American literature
Table of Contents
References & Edit History Related Topics
Images, Videos & Interactives
John Smith: Map of Virginia The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America Movements in American poetry Poor Richard's almanac Common Sense
How did Phillis Wheatley become a poet?
Washington Irving, 19th-century print
Discover science fiction writer Ray Bradbury's views on Edgar Allan Poe's “The Fall of the House of Usher”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Henry David Thoreau: Walden Pond cabin
Quizzes
4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul
Famous Poets and Poetic Form
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:
Poetry: First Lines
Emily Dickinson, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right
Emily Dickinson
Related Questions
Read Next
Girl Reading On Turquoise Couch
9 American Countercultural Books
Close up of books. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society
12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written”
Chapter 4 pg 42 - Chapter header of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Published in 1884 by The American Publishing Company
Periods of American Literature
Discover
A mug shot taken by the regional Colombia control agency in Medellin
Pablo Escobar: 8 Interesting Facts About the King of Cocaine
Franklin D. Roosevelt, who formulated the Four Freedoms.
7 Alphabet Soup Agencies that Stuck Around
Bar graph of the United States Death Toll during major events. Infogram chart.
U.S. Death Toll During Major Events
Moonrise over Tucson, Arizona
Why Doesn’t Arizona Observe Daylight Saving Time?
Young boys working in a thread spinning mill in Macon, Georgia, 1909. Boys are so small they have to climb onto the spinning frame to reach and fix broken threads and put back empty bobbins. Child labor. Industrial revolution
The Rise of the Machines: Pros and Cons of the Industrial Revolution
Aphrodite. Greek mythology. Sculpture. Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love and beauty.
12 Greek Gods and Goddesses
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. Engraving by Cosomo Colombini (d. 1812) after a Leonardo self portrait. Ca. 1500.
10 Famous Artworks by Leonardo da Vinci

American literature: Media

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Videos

How did Phillis Wheatley become a poet?
Learn about the life and career of poet Phillis Wheatley.
Video: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Discover science fiction writer Ray Bradbury's views on Edgar Allan Poe's “The Fall of the House of Usher”
Learn about Edgar Allan Poe's place in the Gothic literary tradition and his influence...
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Robert Frost: Most famous poet in America? 
Ever attended a poetry reading in an arena?
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Reading and interpretation: “The Onset” by Robert Frost
What do a frog and a poet have in common? Ask Robert Frost.
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The Great Gatsby: From flop to Great American Novel
How did Gatsby become so…great?
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Images

John Smith: Map of Virginia
Map of Virginia from John Smith's The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England,...
Image courtesy of Documenting the American South, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries
The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America
Title page of Anne Bradstreet's The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America,...
From The Works of Anne Bradstreet in Prose and Verse, edited by John Harvard Ellis, 1867
Poor Richard's almanac
Title page for Poor Richard's almanac for 1739, written, printed, and sold...
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Common Sense
Title page from Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense, 1776.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Washington Irving, 19th-century print
Described as the “first American man of letters,” Washington Irving is best known...
Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes was a physician, but he achieved his greatest fame as a humorist...
Prints and Photographs Division/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. LC-USZ61-1761)
Henry David Thoreau: Walden Pond cabin
Henry David Thoreau's cabin, illustration from the title page of an edition of his...
From Walden; or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau, 1854
Harriet Beecher Stowe, c. 1880
Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) was credited with...
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (neg. no. LC-USZ62-11212)
Walt Whitman, c. 1870
One of the most important American literary figures of the 19th century, Walt Whitman...
Feinberg-Whitman Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-USZ62-82781)
American humorists, 1868
Three prominent humorists of the 19th century were (from left) Josh Billings, Mark...
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (neg. no. LC-USZ62-57976)
Mark Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Title page from the 1885 edition of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry...
Project Gutenberg (Text 76)
Henry James, glass plate negative, c. 1910
Novelist Henry James's great works include Daisy Miller (1879), The...
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ggbain-04703)
Ida Tarbell, 1904
Journalist Ida Tarbell was one of several “muckrakers” who sharply criticized American...
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; neg. no. LC USZ 62 68572
Emily Dickinson, c. 1847
Poet Emily Dickinson is one of American poetry's most singular and influential voices.
Amherst College Archives & Special Collections (Public Domain)
Robert Frost, 1954
“Good fences make good neighbors.” Robert Frost crafted some of the most indelible...
Ruohomaa/Black Star
Langston Hughes, photograph by Jack Delano, 1942
Poet, playwright, and novelist Langston Hughes was a giant of the Harlem Renaissance,...
Jack Delano—OWI/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZ62-43605)
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald skewered the American Dream in such works...
Public Domain
Zora Neale Hurston, photograph by Carl Van Vechten, 1938
In the 1930s Zora Neale Hurston published some of her most acclaimed works, including...
Carl Van Vechten Estate/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-van-5a52142)
Ernest Hemingway hunting in Kenya
Novelist Ernest Hemingway with a dead Cape buffalo, on safari in Kenya, 1953.
Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library
William Faulkner, photograph by Carl Van Vechten, c. 1954
Novelist William Faulkner was known for baroque fiction that created a rich social...
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Carl Van Vechten Collection (Digital file no. 5a51970)
Dust jacket of The Grapes of Wrath
First-edition dust jacket of The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck;...
Viking Press/Penguin Group; Between the Covers Rare Books, Inc., Merchantville, NJ
Willa Cather
Novelist Willa Cather's lyrical works included O Pioneers (1913) and My...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Gravity's Rainbow
Cover of an edition of Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow published in 2013...
Vintage Publishing Press Office/The Random House Group
Eudora Welty
American author Eudora Welty, 1980.
Bernard Gotfryd Photograph Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ppmsca-12450)
Ralph Ellison, 1952
Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man (1952) is considered by many critics...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Toni Morrison, 1994
Toni Morrison was the first Black female writer in history to be honored with the...
Kathy Willens—AP/Shutterstock.com
Joyce Carol Oates, 1992
Novelist and short-story writer Joyce Carol Oates experimented with urban naturalism,...
AP/REX/Shutterstock.com
Louise Erdrich in Minneapolis, 2010
Since her first novel, Love Medicine (1984), Louise Erdrich has won the...
Allen Brisson-Smith—The New York Times/Redux
Jamaica Kincaid, 1999
Caribbean American writer Jamaica Kincaid's essays, stories, and novels evocatively...
MDCarchives
Adrienne Rich, 1966
Beginning as a poet with a formal and imitative style, Adrienne Rich later produced...
© Bettmann/Getty Images
Rita Dove
Poet Rita Dove in front of Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, near Charlottesville,...
Eduardo Montes-Bradley
Tennessee Williams
Playwright Tennessee Williams wrote dramas that combined passionate lyricism, strong...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Amiri Baraka, c. 1964
Poet and playwright Amiri Baraka was an important figure of the Beat movement, the...
AP/REX/Shutterstock.com
David Henry Hwang, 2008
Playwright David Henry Hwang achieved critical and commercial success on Broadway...
Lia Chang
Suzan-Lori Parks, 2006
In 2002 Suzan-Lori Parks became the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer...
Eric Schwabel
Edmund Wilson
Literary critic Edmund Wilson was one of America's most versatile and distinguished...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 2016
Literary critic and scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. became known for his pioneering...
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
The White Album
Joan Didion's collection of essays The White Album (1979) incisive social...
ruelleruelle/Alamy

Interactives

Movements in American poetry
A timeline showing significant movements in American poetry.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
U.S. poet laureates
Interactive showing a selection of U.S. poet laureates.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
VIEW MORE in these related Britannica articles: