The American Literary Blog

"Job Potter died of death," according to the listing for June 22, 1873 in the almanac Old Probability (Perhaps Rain —Perhaps Not...

Jadis , Hammock and Fan , and Spanish Moss were among the titles suggested but, ultimately, George Washington Cable and his publisher Sc...

Richard Henry Dana, Sr. had lived through most of the early history of the United States. Born only two months after the adoption of the ...

Though The Devil's Dictionary eventually became one of Ambrose Bierce 's most well-known works, the book had a difficult beginnin...

William Cullen Bryant was busy in the fall of 1872. His day job as editor-in-chief of the New-York Evening Post was hectic amidst a pres...

Born in Newark, New Jersey, on November 1, 1871, Stephen Crane went on to live a life where he seldom kept in one place for long. His par...

John Pendleton Kennedy was 74 years old when he died in Rhode Island on August 18, 1870, so the Baltimore newspaper was rounding up when ...

Weary after the sudden success of Little Women after years of hard work as a writer , Louisa May Alcott traveled to Europe with her sis...

Tom Hood , editor of the British humor magazine Fun , asked Ambrose Bierce to contribute something appropriate for that publication. The ...

Though born in New Hampshire, it was in Cambridge, Massachusetts that Samuel Burnham died on June 22, 1873. The son of a deacon and nephe...

Sarah Josepha Hale was 89 years old when she finally retired as "editress" from the extremely popular Godey's Lady's Bo...

Both Christopher Pearse Cranch and William Wetmore Story dabbled in art and poetry — and were successful in each field. They became par...

It was not until March 7, 1876, that Ella Elvira Gibson received payment from the United States Treasurer for her services as a chaplain ...

Alice Cary was 51 when she died on February 12, 1871, never able to finish her final poem . Her last words were recorded as, "I want...

As she was on her death bed, Alice Cary allegedly wished she could live only ten more years. "I wouldn't ask for more time [than...

"I suppose it is natural for every parent to weep for his child," wrote Indiana poet Noah J. Clodfelter in a footnote, "b...

Though Robert E. Lee had died in October 1870, Virginia poet Daniel Bedinger Lucas did not write his poem to the former General of the ...

Mark Twain was not too happy to be accused of writing "a feeble imitation" of Bret Harte 's poem " The Heathen Chinee ...

The first descriptions of the Lunarians, the native inhabitants of the moon, were described by a 9-year old boy named Johnny Palmer in San...

Noah Clodfelter wrote that he wished his name always be remembered with the name of his brother, A. N. Clodfelter .* His brother died of...