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Examples of 19th Century Authors
- Alcott, Louisa May
Novelist best known as author of the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys
- Bellamy, Edward
Author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, Looking Backward, a Rip Van Winkle-like tale set in the distant future of the year 2000
- Bierce, Ambrose
American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist. Today, he is probably best known for his short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and his satirical lexicon The Devil's Dictionary.
- Bryant, William Cullen
Romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post
- Child, Lydia Maria
Abolitionist, women's rights activist, opponent of American expansionism, Indian rights activist, novelist, and journalist and Unitarian
- Chopin, Kate
Author of short stories and novels. She is now considered by some to have been a forerunner of feminist authors of the 20th century.
- Cooke, John Esten
Novelist and poet. He was the brother of poet Philip Pendleton Cooke.
- Cooper, James Fenimore
Prolific and popular writer of the early 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature.
- Dickinson, Emily
Poet born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life
- Douglass, Frederick (or other slave narratives)
Social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing.
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century
- Fuller, [Sarah] Margaret
Journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement
- Harris, Joel Chandler (compiler of African American folktales)
Journalist, fiction writer, and folklorist best known for his collection of Uncle Remus stories. Harris was born in Eatonton, Georgia, where he served as an apprentice on a plantation during his teenage years.
- Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Novelist and short story writer. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning.
- Hayne, Paul Hamilton
Southern American poet, critic, and editor
- Jewett, Sarah Orne
Novelist and short story writer, best known for her local color works set along or near the southern seacoast of Maine
- Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
Poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", “The Song of Hiawatha”, and “Evangeline”
- Pike, Albert
Attorney, Confederate officer, writer, and Freemason. Pike is the only Confederate military officer or figure to be honored with an outdoor statue in Washington, DC.
- Poe, Edgar Allan
Author, poet, editor and literary critic; considered part of the American Romantic Movement
- Sedgwick, Catharine Maria
Novelist of what is sometimes referred to as “domestic fiction”. She promoted Republican motherhood.
- Simms, William Gilmore
Poet, novelist and historian from the American South. His writings achieved great prominence during the 19th century, with Edgar Allan Poe pronouncing him the best novelist America had ever produced.
- Thoreau, Henry David
Author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist.
- Timrod, Henry
Poet, often called the poet laureate of the Confederacy
- Whitman, Walt
Poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his work.
- Whittier, John Greenleaf
Influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. He is usually listed as one of the Fireside Poets.
