american writers, artists and thinkers. james fenimore cooper wrote about frontier life in “the...
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American Writers, Artists and Thinkers
James Fenimore CooperJames Fenimore Cooper
• Wrote about frontier life in “The Pioneers” and “The Last of the Mohicans.”
• Credited with creating the first western hero.
Essential Passage From Last of the Mohicans
“I cannot permit you to accuse Uncas of want of judgment or of skill,” said Duncan. “He saved my life in the coolest and readiest manner, and he has made a friend who never will require to be reminded of the debt he owes.
Uncas partly raised his body, and offered his hand to the grasp of Heyward. During this act of friendship, the two young men exchanged looks of intelligence which caused Duncan to forget the character and condition of his wild associate.”
Francis Parkman• Historian and Author• Wrote
The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life
• First person account of 2 month tour of the American West
• He hunted buffalo with the Sioux
Noah Webster• Created the Merriam-
Webster Dictionary
• Standardized English
• Favored American spellings rather than English ones.
Washington IrvingWashington Irving
• Best known for his short stories, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle.”
• Sleepy Hollow is the story of the Headless Horseman. • Rip Van Winkle is a story about a man who sleeps for
twenty years and wakes up in a new world. The moral of the story is to live your life to the fullest and never waste a moments time.
• Washington Irving’s stories are based around Dutch Folklore
They had now reached the road which turns off to Sleepy Hollow; but Gunpowder, who seemed possessed with a demon, instead of keeping up it, made an opposite turn, and plunged headlong down hill to the left. This road leads through a sandy hollow, shaded by trees for about a quarter of a mile, where it crosses the bridge famous in goblin story, and just beyond swells the green knoll on which stands the whitewashed church.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowHenry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Longfellow was a poet best remembered for “Paul Revere’s Ride.”
• Paul Revere warned the colonists that the “Red coats are coming!”
Walt Whitman• Poet
• Famous for pioneering “free verse”
• Celebrated America
• “Leaves of Grass”
• “I Hear America Singing”
I Hear America SingingI hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deck- hand singing on the steamboat deck, The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands, The woodcutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown, The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing, Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
Emily Dickinson• Poet• Recluse• Unique because her poems
had short lines, sometimes lacked titles and didn’t use correct punctuation or capitalization.
• Themes of death and immortality
DyingI heard a fly buzz when I died;The stillness round my formWas like the stillness in the airBetween the heaves of storm.
The eyes beside had wrung them dry,And breaths were gathering sureFor that last onset, when the kingBe witnessed in his power.
I willed my keepsakes, signed awayWhat portion of me ICould make assignable,-and thenThere interposed a fly,
With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz,Between the light and me;And then the windows failed, and thenI could not see to see.
Edgar Allen Poe• Author and Poet• Work is mysterious and
macabre• Father of the detective genre• First to write dark, scary
stories and poems• The Telltale Heart• The Raven
The RavenOnce upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door." 'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door;Only this, and nothing more."
Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December,And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.Eagerly I wished the morrow; vainly I had sought to borrowFrom my books surcease of sorrow, sorrow for the lost Lenore,.For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore,Nameless here forevermore.
Nathaniel HawthorneNathaniel Hawthorne
• Descendent of a judge at the Salem Witch Trials
• Felt family guilt.• Wrote about Puritans and
New England• Best known for The Scarlet
Letter, a book about an adulterous woman Hester Prynne who has to wear a red A on her clothing.
Herman MelvilleHerman Melville
• Novelist• Melville is best
known for his book on a giant man-eating whale called Moby Dick.
• An American Classic
Moby DickCall me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.
Louisa May AlcottLouisa May Alcott
• Novelist• Part of the
Transcendentalists from Concord, MA
• Best known for her books about growing up in a family of three sisters called Little Women.
Little WomenChristmas won't be Christmas without any presents, grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.
It's so dreadful to be poor! sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.
I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all, added little Amy, with an injured sniff.
We've got Father and Mother, and each other, said Beth contentedly from her corner.
The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened at the cheerful words, but darkened again as Jo said sadly, We haven't got Father, and shall not have him for a long time. She didn't say perhaps never, but each silently added it, thinking of Father far away, where the fighting was.
Harriet Beecher StoweHarriet Beecher Stowe
• Harriet Beecher Stowe is best known for Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a book about the evils of slavery.
• Inspired abolitionists• Lincoln joked that
her book started the Civil War
Artists
Hudson River School• American landscape painters
• Captured a romantic view of America
John James Audubon• He was notable for his expansive
studies to document all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in their natural habitats.
• Birds of America
David Drake• Potter• Known as “Dave the Slave” and “Dave
the Potter”• Signed his work• Included short poems on his pottery.• Seen as an early Civil Rights activist
because it was against the law for slaves to read and write
Albert Bierstadt• Painted landscapes of
the American West
• Went on several wagon trips west
• Used technique of “luminism”
George Catlin• Specialized in portraits
of Native Americans and the Old West
• Much of what we know about Native American culture comes from Catlin’s work.
Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze• Painted Scenes from
American History
