A New Kind of Literary Pulse

Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist and poet, best known for her novel, Little Women. She grew up surrounded by intellectuals of her time, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and under the influence of her transcendentalist parents. Alcott was an abolitionist and an avid feminist for her time. She was part of a group of female writers during the Gilded Age who avidly ... [+]

Mark Twain is the pen name of the American journalist, humorist, lecturer and novelist Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He is best known for his book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A son of the Frontier, he has overcome the apparent limitations of his origins to become a popular figure and one of America’s best and most beloved writer.

American writer of the local colour movement, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman was a self taught woman who started writing as a teenager to help support her family.
She is very famous for her stories about frustrated lives in New England villages and for her strong female characters who contested contemporary ideas concerning what female roles, values and relationships should be in society ... [+]

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer. Even though he was aquainted with the transcendantalists, he was part of the Romantic movement, and more specifically of Dark Romanticism. Hawthorne was the master of allegorical and symbolic tales. His main themes were focused on the inherent evil and sin of humanity. His works often have a moral message and a deep psychological ... [+]

O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter, an American short story writer who is known for his tales about the life of ordinary people, especially in New York. His stories generally expressed the effect of coincidence on character through humour, grim or irony. Above anything else, he is known for his surprise endings. Once his trademark, it finally cost him critical favour.

American author, poet and journalist of African-American and Montaukett Native American heritage, she celebrated both of her heritages in her work. After being noticed by Paul Laurence Dunbar, she published two volumes of poetry and became a member of the early Harlem Renaissance.

The Irish playwright, novelist, essayist an d poet, Oscar Wilde, is considered a spokesman for the late 19th century Aesthetic movement in England. His best known work, The Picture of Dorian Gray, reflects the Aesthetic rallying call: art for art’s sake. Many of his works are designed around the exposure of a secret sin on curiosity and consequent disgrace and decadence.

Paul Laurence Dunbar was an American poet, novelist and playwright whose reputation was based on his verses and short stories written in black dialect. He is known as the first African American writer who tried to live off of his writings. Dunbar was also one of the first black authors to gain national fame and international reputation in the United States.

Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose wife Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, was one of the major English Romantic poets. He was not famous during his lifetime because of his radical views on poetry, but also because of his fight for social justice. His thoughts about economics and morality and his writings on non violent resistence influenced 20th century thinkers such as Karl Marx, Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma ... [+]