American Literary Giants: Building a National Identity

Literature: The Building of America

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

• He was one of America's greatest poets.
• He was born in Portland, Maine, and lived near the coast.
• The Battle of Lovell's Pond was his first poem.
• He graduated from Bowdoin College and later worked there as a teacher; he also traveled through Europe.
• He married Mary Potter, but she died.
• He later married Frances Appleton, and they had six children. She subsequently died when her dress caught on fire.
• He translated Dante's Divine Comedy.
• He was received by Queen Victoria.
• His topics were based on the history of America, family, translations, teaching, and philosophy.
• He was the author of The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls, The Children's Hour, The Cross of Snow, and A Psalm of Life.
• His work is characterized by simple syntax, vocabulary, diction, topics, and language, as well as accessible figurative language.
• He also wrote Evangeline and The Song of Hiawatha.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

• He was a well-known writer and lecturer.
• He was a Transcendentalist writer.
• He believed strongly in the need for every person to develop his or her potential as an individual.
• He was the writer of Nature and Self-Reliance. The latter is a collection of his thoughts on the importance of the individual and the need to think independently.
• He founded the Transcendental Club in 1833 along with Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller. Nature, which was published in the same year, became the club's unofficial manifesto.
• His topics were philosophical and nature-oriented. He focused on the philosophical aspects of life, believing that nature is meant to inspire, that there is a transcendental relationship between mankind and nature, and that one can reach God.
• His work features a high level of writing, complex syntax, complex diction, a fluid explanation of topics, the use of figurative language, and a sophisticated level of vocabulary.

Henry David Thoreau

• He was a Transcendentalist writer.
• On July 4, 1845, he began an experiment based on "essential living"—living simply, studying the natural world, and seeking the truth within himself.
• He built a cabin at Walden Pond, where he lived for two years. This land was owned by Emerson near Concord, Massachusetts. He wrote Walden during this time.