Important American Writers
Washington 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 Cooper
• Wrote about frontier
life in “The
Pioneers” and “The
Last of the
Mohicans.”
• Credited with
creating the first
western hero.
Ralph 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 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 Alcott
• Best known for her
books about
growing up in a
family of three
sisters called Little
Women.
Nathaniel 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
Longfellow
• Longfellow was a
poet best
remembered for
“Paul Revere’s
Ride.”
• Paul Revere warned
the colonists that
the “Red coats are
coming!”
Herman Melville
• Melville is best
known for his book
on a giant man-
eating whale called
Moby Dick.
Laura 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 Stowe
• Harriet Beecher
Stowe is best known
for Uncle Tom’s
Cabin, a book about
the evils of slavery.