Tid-bit of information of each author
please note Poe and Hawthorne are NOT on this page, due to the fact they have their own site.
Washington Iviring
(1783-1859)
pseudonyms: Dietrich Knickerbocker, Jonathan Oldstyle, Geoffrey Crayon
Washington Irving was born in New York City as the youngest of 11 children. His father was a wealthy merchant, and his mother, an English woman, was the granddaughter of a clergyman.
Early in his life he had a passion for books. He studied law but his love for writing overcame his future and so he became an author.
Early in his life he had a passion for books. He studied law but his love for writing overcame his future and so he became an author.
William Cullen Bryant
(1794-1878)
His father was Peter Bryant, a physician of considerable literary culture, and a person who had traveled quite extensively. Bryant's mother was Miss Sarah Snell, of Mayflower stock, being a descendant of John Alden.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1807-1882)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine. His father, Stephen Longfellow, was a Portland lawyer and congressman, and mother, Zilpah, was the daughter of General Peleg Wadsworth. He developed a fond for reading at a very young age.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1809-1894)
Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on August 29, 1809, to a well-established New England family. His father, Abiel Holmes, was a reverend in the First Congregational Church. His mother, Sarah Wendell, daughter of a Boston merchant, came from a long line of Dutch ancestors who settled in New England. Oliver was the fourth of five Holmes' children, with three older sisters and one younger brother.
James R. Lowell
(1819-1891)
James R. Lowell came from a family of six kids. His father was Reverend Charles Russell Lowell, Sr. He was married to Maria White , who died along with three of their four kids.He often contemplated suicide writing to a friend that he thought "of my razors and my throat and that I am a fool and a coward not to end it all at once". He later remarried but continued to mourn the loss of his family.
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1807-1892)
John Greenleaf Whittier was born to John Whittier and Abigail Hussey at their rural homestead near Haverhill, Massachusetts on December 17, 1807. He grew up on the farm in a household with his parents, a brother and two sisters, a maternal aunt and paternal uncle, and a constant flow of visitors and hired hands for the farm. He was introduced to poetry by his school teacher.
