Important American WritersImportant American Writers

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.