- Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin (April 17 1790) was one of the most critical Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a leading author, political theorist, politician, printer, scientist, inventor, civic activist, environmentalist, and diplomat. As a scientist he was a major figure in the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As a political writer and activist he, more than anyone, invented the idea of an American nation, … - John Adams
John Adams (1704 - January 1740), was an American poet. Adams was the only son of Hon. John Adams (merchant) of Nova Scotia, and he graduated from Harvard University in 1721. He joined the ministry of the Congregational Church at Newport, Rhode Island, on April 11 1728, in opposition to the wishes of Mr. Clap, who was pastor there. Clap's friends formed a new society, and Adams was dismissed in about two years. Adams was distinguished for his intellect and piety. - Samuel Danforth
Samuel Danforth was a Puritan minister, preacher, poet, and astronomer, and an associate of the Rev. John Eliot of Roxbury, Massachusetts, known as the “Apostle to the Indians.” He was born October 17, 1626, in Framlingham, Suffolk, England, the sixth of seven children of Nicholas Danforth (1589–1639) and Elizabeth Symmes Danforth (c.1596–1629). Six surviving children— Elizabeth (1619-1673), Anna (1622-1704), Thomas (1623-1699), Lydia (1625-1686), Samuel, … - Thomas Bulfinch
Thomas Bulfinch (July 15 1796 - May 27, 1867) was an American writer, born in Newton, Massachusetts. Bulfinch belonged to a well educated Bostonian merchant family of modest means. His father was Charles Bulfinch, the architect of the Massachusetts State House in Boston and parts of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.. Bulfinch supported himself through his position at the Merchants' Bank of Boston. - Esther Forbes
Esther Forbes (June 28 1891 - August 12, 1967) was an American biographer, novelist, and children's writer who received both a Pulitzer Prize and a Newbery Medal. Forbes was born in Westborough, Massachusetts. After attending school in Wisconsin, Forbes served as a member of the editorial staff at Houghton Mifflin Company in Boston. Her first novel, "Oh Genteel Lady!", was published in 1926 and was made a selection by the then newly formed Book-of-the-Month Club. - Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862; born David Henry Thoreau) was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, and philosopher who is best known for "Walden", a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, "Civil Disobedience", an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 - March 24, 1882) was an American poet whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", "A Psalm of Life", "The Song of Hiawatha" and "Evangeline". He also wrote the first American translation of Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy" and was one of the five members of the group known as the Fireside Poets. Longfellow was born and raised in the Portland, Maine area. - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne (born Nathaniel Hathorne; July 4, 1804 - May 19, 1864) was a 19th century American novelist and short story writer. He is seen as a key figure in the development of American literature for his tales of the nation's colonial history. - Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson was an American poet. Though virtually unknown in her lifetime, Dickinson has come to be regarded, along with Walt Whitman, as one of the two quintessential American poets of the 19th century. Dickinson lived an introverted and hermetic life. Although she wrote, at the last count, 1,789 poems, only a handful of them were published during her lifetime. All of these were published anonymously and some may have been published without her knowledge. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early nineteenth century. - Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 - October 7, 1849) was an American poet, short story writer, playwright, editor, critic, essayist and one of the leaders of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of the macabre and mystery, Poe was one of the early American practitioners of the short story and a progenitor of detective fiction and crime fiction. He is also credited with contributing to the emergent science fiction genre. Poe died at the age of 40. - John Updike
John Hoyer Updike (born March 18 1932 in Shillington, Pennsylvania) is an American writer. Updike's most famous work is his Rabbit series ("Rabbit, Run"; "Rabbit Redux"; "Rabbit Is Rich"; "Rabbit At Rest"; and "Rabbit Remembered"). "Rabbit is Rich" and "Rabbit at Rest" both won Pulitzer Prizes for Updike. Describing his subject as "the American small town, … - Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist. She is best known for the novel "Little Women", published in 1868. This novel is loosely based on her childhood experiences with her three sisters. - John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 - September 7, 1892) was an American Quaker poet and forceful advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. - Jane Yolen
Jane Yolen (born February 11, 1939 in New York City) is an American author, and editor of almost 300 books. These include folklore, fantasy, science fiction, and children's books. She wrote the Nebula Award-winning "Sister Emily's Lightship" (short story) and "Lost Girls" (novelette), as well as "Owl Moon" and "The Emperor and the Kite", Caldecott Medal winners, the "Commander Toad" series and "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight". - Helen Hunt Jackson
Helen Maria Hunt Jackson (October 18, 1830 - August 12, 1885) was an American writer best known as the author of "Ramona", a novel about the ill treatment of Native Americans in southern California. - Andre Dubus III
Andre Dubus III (b. 1959 in Oceanside, California) is an American writer best known as the author of the novel "House of Sand and Fog", which was a National Book Award finalist in 1999 and was made into a movie in 2003. His other books include "Bluesman", a 1993 novel, and "The Cage Keeper and Other Stories" from 1989. Dubus's work has been awarded a Pushcart Prize and the 1985 National Magazine Award for Fiction. - Alice Hoffman
Alice Hoffman (born March 16 1952) is an American novelist and young-adult and children's writer, best known for her 1995 novel "Practical Magic", which was made into a 1998 film of the same name. Many of her works fall into the genre of magic realism and contain elements of magic, irony, and non-standard romances and relationships. - Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel (March 2, 1904 - September 24, 1991) was a famous American writer and cartoonist best known for his classic children's books under the pen name Dr. Seuss, including "The Cat in the Hat", "Green Eggs and Ham", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish". His books have become staples for many children and their parents. - William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells was an American realist author and literary critic. - William Cullen Bryant
William Cullen Bryant (November 3, 1794 - June 12, 1878) an American romantic poet, journalist, political adviser, and homeopath. - Samuel Eliot
Samuel Eliot (December 22 1821-September 14 1898) was a historian, educator, and public-minded citizen of Boston, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut. Eliot was born in Boston, the son of William Havard Eliot (1796 - 1831) and Margaret Boies (Bradford) Eliot. His father built the Tremont House, participated in the musical life of the city, had variants of his names including Hayward, Harvard, Havard, Howard, and Elliott, … - Frank O'Hara
Francis Russell O'Hara was an American poet who, along with John Ashbery, James Schuyler and Kenneth Koch, was a key member of what was known as the New York School of poetry. - Kurt Busiek
Kurt Busiek (born September 16, 1960) is a comic book writer. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in various towns in the Boston area, including Lexington, where he befriended another future comic book writer, Scott McCloud. - George V. Higgins
George V. Higgins was a United States author, lawyer, newspaper columnist, and college professor. He is best known for his bestselling crime novels. His full name was George Vincent Higgins, but his books were all published as by George V. Higgins. - Patricia MacLachlan
Patricia MacLachlan (born March 3, 1938 in Cheyenne, Wyoming) is a bestselling U.S. children's author, best known for winning the 1986 Newbery Medal for her book "Sarah, Plain and Tall". The book was later turned into a TV movie starring Glenn Close. Her current projects include two books she's co-written with her daughter, Emily MacLachlan: "Bittle" and "Painting the Wind". She lives in Williamsburg, Massachusetts. - Henry James Sr.
Henry James Sr. (June 3, 1811, Albany, New York - December 18, 1882, Boston, Massachusetts) was an American theologian and Swedenborgian, best known as the father of the philosopher William James, novelist Henry James, and diarist Alice James. - Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., (August 29, 1809 - October 7,1894) was a physician by profession but achieved fame as a writer; he was one of the best regarded American poets of the 19th century. - Judith Merril
Judith Josephine Grossman (January 21, 1923 - September 12, 1997), who took the pen-name Judith Merril about 1945, was an American and then Canadian science fiction writer, editor and political activist. - Phoebe Atwood Taylor
Phoebe Atwood Taylor was an American mystery author. Phoebe Atwood Taylor wrote mystery novels under her own name, and as Freeman Dana and Alice Tilton. Her first novel, "The Cape Cod Mystery", introduced the "Codfish Sherlock", Asey Mayo, who became a series character appearing in 24 novels. Taylor's work was light in tone, a bit more serious than screwball comedy, but fun and easy to read. According to critic Dilys Winn, "Mrs. - William Rivers Pitt
William Rivers Pitt (born 1971) is a writer and the current editorial director of Progressive Democrats of America, where he writes a blog titled "We the People." - Robert B. Parker
Robert B. Parker (born September 17, 1932) is an acclaimed American writer of detective fiction. His most famous works are the Spenser series, which achieved a far wider audience due to being dramatized as a television series, "Spenser: For Hire", on the ABC network during the late 1980s. His works explore aspects of human nature and incorporate considerable knowledge about the Boston metropolitan area. - Joy Williams
Joy Williams (born February 11 1944) is an American author of fiction. - Suzan-Lori Parks
Suzan-Lori Parks (b. 1964) is an award-winning American playwright and screenwriter. She was a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant in 2001, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2002. She is married to blues musician Paul Oscher. - Walter H. Hunt
Walter H. Hunt (b. 1959) is a science-fiction novelist from Massachusetts, United States. His writings currently include the "Dark Wing" series, a military science fiction space opera, as well as numerous role-playing scenarios for various gaming companies. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College. Hunt's work experience has been as a software engineer and technical writer. He also has a deep interest in history (which he studied at college), in science fiction, … - Steven Ozment
Steven E. Ozment (b. February 21 1939, McComb, Mississippi) is an American historian of early modern and modern Germany, the European family, and the Protestant Reformation. Raised in Arkansas, Ozment has lived in New England since 1960. He is the McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History at Harvard University. The father of five children, he presently lives in Newbury, Massachusetts with his wife, Susan Schweizer, … - Molly Bang
Molly Bang was born in Princeton, New Jersey, on December 29th. She has written about folklore from many cultures, and has lived in Japan, India, and Mali. She has received Caldecott Honors for Sophie Gets AngryReally, Really Angry (2000), Ten, Nine, Eight (1984), and The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher (1981). Her book Common Ground won the Giverny Award for Best Children's Science Picture Book in 1998. Ms. Bang lives in Massachusetts and California. - Peter Elbow
Peter Elbow is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst--where he directed the Writing Program. He taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Franconia College, Evergreen State College, and State University of New York, Stony Brook--where he also directed the Writing Program. - Scott Heim
Scott Heim (born 1966) is an American novelist from Hutchinson, Kansas, currently living in Massachusetts. Heim's first novel, "Mysterious Skin", was published in 1995. - Francisco Goldman
Francisco Goldman (born 1954) is an American novelist. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to a Guatemalan mother and Jewish-American father. His first novel, "The Long Night of White Chickens" (1992), won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, and his second, "The Ordinary Seaman" (1997), was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and The "Los Angeles Times" Book Prize, …
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