Get in eight different groups! You may move chairs, but not desks. Bell Ringer Get in eight different groups! You may move chairs, but not desks.

20 Facts: American Renaissance Authors Your Assignment 20 Facts: American Renaissance Authors Table 1: Washington Irving Table 2: Nathanial Hawthorne Table 3: Edgar Allan Poe Table 4: Ralph Waldo Emerson Table 5: Henry David Thoreau Table 6: Emily Dickinson Table 7: Herman Melville Table 8: Henry Wordsworth Longfellow

My comments about Washington Irving: First American to achieve an international literary reputation Used fiction to comment upon American society (Example: Rip Van Winkle’s 20-year nap ended after the Revolutionary War) Created “Diedrich Knickerbocker.” Dedicated the last years of his life to completing a biography of George Washington ... Considered by many to have “worked himself to death.”

My comments about Nathanial Hawthorne: Descendant of Puritan immigrants, one of which was a judge at the Salem Witch Trials (changed his name to disassociate with that heritage) Most famous for the novel The Scarlet Letter, but mostly wrote short stories Considered to be one of the Dark Romantics (works focused upon themes of guilt and sin)

My comments about Edgar Allan Poe: Lost his mother and step-mother at a young age to tuberculosis Married his first cousin when he was 26 and she was 13 … she also died of TB Famous but always poor due to terrible decisions Death most likely due to being the victim of a “political kidnapping”

My comments about Ralph Waldo Emerson: Considered the “Father of the Transcendental Movement” in America Transcendentalism: an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century Mentor to Henry David Thoreau Became an abolitionist in later years Tragically senile the last ten years of his life

My comments about Henry David Thoreau: Lived for two years next to Walden Pond, isolated from society Famous for encouraging people to “march to the beat of their own drummer” Jailed for refusing to pay poll tax as a protest to Mexican-American War Wrote Resistance to Civil Government, which influenced Gandhi and Martin Luther King

My comments about Emily Dickinson: Lived as a recluse in her family’s home … called the “climax of all the family’s oddity” Many theories of her isolation, but contemporary accounts claim no one really knew the cause Strange story of “treats on a fishing line” Desperately did not want her poems published – kept them folded up in shoeboxes/tied in bundles

My comments about Herman Melville: Author of what many consider to be the greatest American novel: Moby-Dick Not appreciated during his life as much as he was later In addition to novels, he also wrote some short stories and an edition of poetry focused upon the Civil War Considered a Dark Romantic

My comments about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Most popular poet America has ever produced First American to be buried in Westminster Abbey Classmate of Nathaniel Hawthorne at Bowdoin College Tragically lost two wives (miscarriage; dress catching on fire)