The American Literary Blog

1837 wasn't a good year for Edward Vernon Sparhawk . He had likely contracted tuberculosis while caring for his wife, Julia , who lost a...

American literary history doesn’t feature too many significant villains, but Thomas Wentworth Higginson would certainly seem to qualify. ...

Image Source Though he is most famous for his role as a Justice of the Supreme Court, an appointment which was made December 15, 1882,...

May 6, 1862: Henry David Thoreau died 150 years ago today. Throughout the winter of 1861-62 Thoreau was confined to the house as his hea...

Fanny Fern ’s famous first novel, Ruth Hall , was released amid much hoopla in December 1854. Fern, the pseudonym for Sara Willis Eldredge ...

Sketch of Fern by her daughter. From collection of Smith College . Fanny Fern 's first published article was " The Model Husban...

On June 18, 1861, Sarah Morgan Bryan married John James Piatt . In the early months of the Civil War, the marriage of the daughter of Kentu...

It is difficult to think of Stephen Crane 's The Red Badge of Courage as anything less than one of the great American works of the late...

New Orleans in 1873 Mardi Gras has always been a serious business in New Orleans – fun, yes. But fun freighted with meaning. Amid the pro...

Take a quart of stewed pumpkin. Put it into a sieve, and press and strain it as dry as possible. Then set it away to get cold. Beat eight ...

*Today's guest blog is by novelist Matthew Pearl , whose historical fiction mysteries include The Dante Club and The Poe Shadow . His...

Mount Auburn Cemetery , a National Historic Landmark, was consecrated on September 24, 1831. In his consecration address, Justice Joseph S...

The youngest of eight children, Washington Irving was part of an exceptionally close and devoted New York family. Considered the least pr...

The second to last chapter of Walden ends: Thus was my first year's life in the woods completed; and the second year was similar t...