Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Was the first voice of the revolution which after 1870 swept over European literature, and much later reached the United States
Insisted on the unity of the personality and the significant importance of all experience
Extolled the values of the common
Attempted “to make illustrious” the “procreative urge of the universe,” (of human sex)
In style, he wrote symphonically, associating themes and melodies with great freedom and suggestiveness; abandoning conventional and hackneyed poetic figures ad drew his symbolism freshly from experience
Was an apostle of individualism
Worked as an office boy, journalist, teacher, newspaper editor, war nurse and correspondent, clerk in Bureau of Indian Affairs, and for the attorney general office
Described himself as “affectionate, brawny and heroic, and who would lead by the force of his magnetic personality”

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Possessed a rebellious spirit in character as well in her literary style
Constructed her own world (of her garden and the beautiful Connecticut valley scenery; of the books, many of them forbidden, smuggled to her by her brother; of her private and quite startling thoughts; and for a time, of her few congenial friends at Amherst Academy)
Two important men in her life were Ben Newton, who worked as an apprentice to her father, and who guided her reading, but who died after she had known him five years; and the Reverend Charles Wadsworth, who, in her words “tried to teach me immorality.”
Reveals a passionate impulsiveness in her poetry
Won her reputation as a powerful eccentric after her death
Enjoys the recognition of a major poet whose talent has not been equaled to this day, a greatness which sets her apart from all others
Her best instrument is the portrayal of the sharp intense image
Created melody by assonance, dissonance, and slant rhyme
Her ideas were witty, rebellious, and original, yet she confined her materials to the world of her small village, her domestic circle, her garden and a few good books
Possessed a most acute awareness of sensory experience and psychological actualities, and she expressed radical discoveries in these areas with frankness and force

Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Is the great realist and regionalist of his time, who expressed his love for humor through his works
Viewed his age with qualified affection while satirizing the economic and spiritual disorders, the narrow insularity, of mid-nineteenth-century America
Is America’s greatest humorist, not only because of his unsurpassed mastery of that essential pattern but because his humor served to point up errors in American life
His literary successes and popularity in America and abroad contrasted with his own emotional complexities, tragic loses, and business disappointments; however, his later writings evidence a skepticism saved from petulance by a great artists sincerity.
His writings center around the places and events of his childhood—from frontier community to industrial urbanity, from riverboats to railroads, from an aggressive, bumptious adolescence toward a troubled and powerful maturity.

William Dean Howells (1837-1920)

Writes in a narrative voice, inserting quiet irony in his works, while at the same time, showing an awareness of the subtle differences between the sexes; and he does so in with Victorian decorum.
Many of his writings display the neuroticism of Hawthorne, in that it reveals a psychological sensitivity to undercurrents of the motives of his characters.
His career spanned American literature from the romantics to the forerunners of Modernism.
His style is literary realism, what it means and how it came to develop in America.
His audience was primarily feminine.
His genius is often overshadowed by the sheer volume of literature he published.
While the scope of his themes was limitless, his greatest work is marked by truth and power.

Henry James (1843-1916)

Privately schooled and tutored, James is recognized as one of the most scholarly writers of his period
Made his home in England and became a British subject
His early works established the themes and techniques of materialistic cynicism of international society
His style was influenced by French and Russian realists and naturalists---he admitted a measure of determinism, but rejected the pessimistic extreme in which human character becomes a waif of chance
Developed an increasingly complex style as his literary career developed---meaningful ambiguities ad ellipses in the dialogue together with convoluted and modifier-ridden exposition
He was a pioneer in the use of psychological devices which communicated a more intense realization of character and situation, a technique that profoundly influenced later writers
He rebelled against the materialistic interpretation of human destiny, and struggled with the problem of undeniable evil (Hawthorne) He offset his portrayals of the evil tendencies of ife toward greed, treachery, and pathological dualism by the constant representation of innocence, lofty choices, and moral idealism.

Bret Harte (1836-1902)

His stories center around the regional subject of gold camps and mining towns, and the hilarious contrast of westerner and easterner dude to the fascinated attention of the eastern states and England
Sought worldly fame by seeking an appointment in the diplomatic service; served as U S consul at Crefeld, Germany and at Glasgow
His work is often sentimental, melodramatic, and mawkish; yet in his best fiction and in his collected poems, he succeeded in catching the flavor of a time and place in American History.