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.
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.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson
• Important works were the essays “Nature” and “Self Reliance.”
• “Nature” is about living in nature. “Self Reliance” is about being responsible for yourself.
Henry David ThoreauHenry David Thoreau
• Important works were the book Walden and the essay “Civil Disobedience.”
• Walden is about a year that Thoreau spent living alone in the forest. Civil Disobedience is about doing what is right regardless of the law.
Louisa May AlcottLouisa May Alcott
• Best known for her books about growing up in a family of three sisters called Little Women.
Nathaniel HawthorneNathaniel Hawthorne
• Best known for The Scarlet Letter, a book about an adulterous woman Hester Prynne who has to wear a red A on her clothing.
Henry Wadsworth Henry Wadsworth LongfellowLongfellow
• Longfellow was a poet best remembered for “Paul Revere’s Ride.”
• Paul Revere warned the colonists that the “Red coats are coming!”
Herman MelvilleHerman Melville
• Melville is best known for his book on a giant man-eating whale called Moby Dick.
Laura Ingalls WilderLaura Ingalls Wilder
• Laura Ingalls Wilder is best known for her “Little House” stories.
• The Little House stories were about growing up on the prairie of the Midwest.
Harriet Beecher StoweHarriet Beecher Stowe
• Harriet Beecher Stowe is best known for Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a book about the evils of slavery.