The American Literary Blog

A relatively small group of 35 mourners gathered at Neshonoc Cemetery in West Salem, Wisconsin on March 14, 1940 to celebrate the life of...

When Paul Laurence Dunbar died in Dayton, Ohio in 1906 , several gathered for a memorial service. One who could not attend was a friend of ...

Oscar C. McCulloch moved to Indianapolis from Wisconsin at a terrible time in the state's history. Hurt by a bank panic, its citizens w...

Lucy Stone was a well-known and respected abolitionist and suffragist. She became the first woman in Massachusetts to earn a college degree...

After the death of Irish-born poet John Boyle O'Reilly (pictured), the " Hoosier Poet " James Whitcomb Riley was moved to w...

After the famous actor Edwin Booth 's death, he was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts (the rest of his family,...

Late in 1905, a close friend of Paul Laurence Dunbar died suddenly. The Ohio-born poet felt that his own days were numbered and, though his...

The poet Fitz-Greene Halleck died at the age of 77 of a "bronchial disease." Though virtually forgotten today, Halleck was a m...

After an accomplished career as a writer and a proponent of reform movements (including abolitionism), Lydia Maria Child died at the age ...

The activist William Lloyd Garrison died after a sudden illness. A funeral was held on May 28, 1879 that drew an impressive crowd of admire...

The end of Emily Dickinson 's life was full of grief. In April 1882, a minister she befriended named Charles Wadsworth died and, six mo...

Albert Pike gave up on writing poetry long before his death and turned his attention particularly to his role with the Freemasons; he earn...

After the death of Walt Whitman , his friend Thomas Eakins and an assistant created his death mask as well as a plaster cast of the poet...

Nathaniel Parker Willis outlived his own soaring reputation. His funeral (and, perhaps, that of his literary reputation) was held on Januar...