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William Bradford
Biography: Born March 19, 1590, and died May 9, 1657. He was an English leader of settlers to the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. There, he served as governor for 30 years. He became the reason why we celebrate Thanksgiving.
Text read: Of Plymouth Plantation
Summary: A leader who was highly respected y his followers to the Plymouth Colony. -
Anne Bradstreet
Biography: Was born as Anne Dudley in 1612 in Northampton, England. She grew up as one of the well-educated women of her time; tutored in history, world language, and literature. She was known as the first published poet. She died September 16, 1672.
Text read: To My Dear and Loving Husband
Summary of text: It is about a wife who loves her husband and claims that no other woman will ever love their husband as much as she loves hers. Believer in God and the afterlife. -
Edward Taylor
Biography: He was born in Leicestershire, England in 1642. Edward Taylor worked as a minister for sixty years. He died on June 29, 1729.
Text Read: Huswifery
Summary of Text: He narrates it himself, he is asking god to turn him into a spinning wheel in a concite. -
Jonathon Edwards
Biography: Born on October 5, 1703 and studied at Yale University. His writings embraced the belief of Free Will. He was the greatest theologian and philosopher in British American Puritanism. He died on March 22, 1758.
Text read: Sinners In The Hands Of And Angry God
Summary: Talks about the vengeance of God on the unbelieving Israelites who lived under the means of grace. In this sermon he claims they were always exposed to destruction. -
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Biography: He was born on May 25, 1803. He was a Philosopher, Minister, and Journalist throughout his life. He died on April 27, 1882.
Text Read: Nature
Summary of Text: He uses imagery about nature, it is mainly his forbidden reference to the idea of transcendentalism. -
Edgar Allen Poe
Biography: Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston on January 19th 1809. In 1825 Poe gets secretly engaged to Sarah Elmira Royster. Poe died on October 7th of 1849.
Text Read: The Raven
Summary of Text: Edward is mourning over the loss of his late love Lenore and a raven appears to bother and question him. -
Emily Dickinson
Biography: Regarded as one of America’s greatest poets. Born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. As a young child, she was able to create many original writings of rhyming stories. Never got along with her father, and felt disgruntled with male figures. She died May 15, 1886.
Text Read: I Could Not Stop For Death
Summary: Goes from life to afterlife. Explaining that no one can stop what they’re doing for death, but it will come and take you regardless if you’re ready or not. -
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald
Biography: Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on September 24, 1896. His first writing was a detective story in the school newspaper when he was thirteen. He died of a heart attack in an apartment on December 21, 1940.
Text Read: The Great Gatsby
Summary of Text: Set in the roaring twenties. It is about attaining the American Dream and doing whatever it takes to achieve it. -
Langston Hughes
Biography: February 1, 1902 to May 22, 1967. was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. He famously wrote about the period that "the negro was in vogue" which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue".
Text read: Let America be America
Summary: Describing America as having opportunities but not being what people expected. -
John Hersey
Biography: was born on June 17, 1914 in China to US missionary parents and died March 24, 1993. Graduated Yale University and became correspondent in the Far East for Times Magazine. In 1944 he covered World War II in the Pacific; one of his articles was about the heroism of Lieutenant John F Kennedy.
Text read: Hiroshima
Summary of text: After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Americans decided to attack Japan killing 200,000 people. -
John F. Kennedy
Biography: Born May 29, 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts to Joseph Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald. He was a strong advocate for welfare and Civil rights. He was of the Democratic Part and won elections into the House of Representatives of 1946. He became the 35th President.
Text Read: Inauguration
Summary of the text: Have everyone in America to become one. -
Flannery O’Connor
Biography: Born in Savannah, Georgia. Studied at the University of Iowa for a master's degree. Her first story was published in 1946. She died on August 3, 1964 after battling lupus for more than a decade. Text Read: The Life You Save May Be Your Own Summary of Text: A mother of a deaf child named, Lucynell has a handyman over and wants him to marry her daughter. The man named Tom worked on the car most of the time while he was there, but leaves the daughter at a rest stop and steals the car. -
Anne Sexton
Biography: She was born November 9th 1928 in Newton, Massachusetts. She committed suicide October 4, 1974 when she asphyxiated herself with carbon monoxide in her garage in Boston.
Text Read: Courage
Summary of Text: She describes the metaphors during the stages of life and shows the human’s ability to overcome any obstacle. -
Martian Luther King Jr.
Biography: Born in January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference He was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.
Text Read: I Have A Dream Speech
Summary of Text: A speech in which he states he wants whites and blacks to be equal and be able to coexist. -
Sylvia Plath
Biography: Born October 27, 1932 to middle class parents, and died February 11, 1963. Lived in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Was a perfectionist, model student, and model daughter, and won a scholarship to Smith College in 1950. She wrote over 400 poems.
Text Read: Mirror
Summary of text: This poem is depressing, showing her real life feelings and emotions. She expresses that she’s truthful and not like others who are fake. She doesn’t like to love.
