Back to Collection Connections

[Detail] United States Capitol [ca 1846]

Literary Biography

This collection contains portraits of literary figures from the nineteenth century including poet, William Cullen Bryant, authors, Samuel Goodrich, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Washington Irving, and publisher, James Brown of Little, Brown & Company. The lives of these people can be researched and serve as the basis for a biographical sketch that includes a discussion of the subject's major contribution to nineteenth-century American literature.

• What is the social and educational background of the writer?
• Do you think that the writer's personal life is reflected in his or her work?
• If so, to what extent does it influence the story or poem? Does it play out in a semi-autobiographical fashion or is it merely reflected in the work's themes?