Biography: Fanny Kemble was born Frances Ann Kemble in London, England on the 27th of November 1809 to Charles Kemble and Maria Theresa De Camp. She became one of New York City’s most famous actresses in the 1830’s, along with her father. Kemble’s career began as a necessary form of earning money in order to …
Category: Authors
Djuna Barnes
Djuna Barnes was born in Cornwall-upon-Hudson in New York, on June 2, 1892. She was born to an unconventional family, comprised of her parents, her father’s mistresses (he was a practicing polygamist), some siblings, and her grandmother. In her youth, she attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, followed by the Artist’s Student League. Barnes developed …
Washington Irving
Washington Irving was born on April 3rd, 1783, in New York City, mere months before the Treaty of Paris closed out the American Revolutionary War. Six years later, when George Washington came to New York City for his inauguration, Irving received the President-Elect’s blessing. The Founding Father’s gesture turned out to be oddly prescient; the …
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was one of the most famous of the Gothic writers that came about at the end of the American Renaissance. Famous for his short stories and poetry about murders and mystery such as “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Raven,” his literary criticism …
Margaretta (Bleecker) Faugères
Margaretta Faugères, daughter of John and Ann Eliza Bleecker, was born in New York City in 1771. After her birth, the family move their country estate in Tomhannock, presently known as Troy, New York. After the death of Ann Eliza Bleecker in 1783, twelve-year-old Faugères and her father moved back to New York City. There, …
Ann Eliza Bleecker
Bleecker was born in October 1752 in New York City. Being raised among the aristocracy of New York City, she developed a love for poetry as a young girl and gained a reputation for her precocious aptitude for her verse early in life. Although she never published them, she showed her poems to her closest friends …
Stephen Crane
Crane was born on November 1, 1871, in Newark, NJ. His major works are the novels, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Red Badge of Courage and the short stories “The Open Boat”, “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky”, and “The Blue Hotel.” Crane was an American short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He …
Mark Twain
November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910 Biography Mark Twain, an American writer, publisher, lecturer, and entrepreneur, was born on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri. He grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, before moving to Manhattan for the first of many times in 1853. During his time in New York, Twain worked as a publisher …
Willa Cather
(December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) Biography: Willa Cather was a modern American writer most recognized for her regionalist and landscape writing. Cather was born as Wilella on December 7, 1873, in Back Creek Valley, Virginia and moved with her family to Nebraska at age nine. Cather initially entered University of Nebraska, aspiring to be a …
Henry David Thoreau
July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862 About the author: Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1817 and lived there for the majority of his life. After attending Harvard University, he was unsure of what he wanted to do with his life. A two week teaching stint and the quick and …