American Literature and
Art
Writer or Artist
or Reformer
Their Work-1
Interesting Fact-2
Writer or Artist
or Reformer
Their Work-1
Interesting Fact-2
Writer or Artist or
Reformer
Their Work-1
Interesting Fact-2
Put notes here
Leaving Europe
Behind…
• In the 1800’s, excited by
nationalism and Jacksonian
democracy, Americans closed
the door on European influence
in the arts and initiated their
own style to produce great
American works of art.
•
•
•
•
Romanticism
The movement believed that art and books should
cause a strong emotion. It placed new emphasis on
such emotions as love, fear, horror, terror and awe.
It stressed the individual. Our ability to
imagine, create, and feel deep emotion. It drew
inspiration from nature.
A romantic character would be a character that
was a gifted, perhaps misunderstood loner,
creatively following his heart rather than the
things society would tell him to do.
American writers turned their interest in nature
into a celebration of the American wilderness
An example of this is The Last of the Mohicans. A
story of man alone in the wilderness
Transcendentalism
• Transcendentalism is a quest for truth.
• It taught that people could find the truth
within themselves – through feeling and
intuition.
• And one of the best ways to find this
truth is to communicate with Nature, and
also to search inside one's self.
• It stressed individual introspection and
found society as a whole to be a destructive
force towards personal freedom. Another
belief is that God can be found in all things,
especially Nature.
Basic Beliefs:
1. Quest for truth
2. Individualism
3. Strong connection to Nature
4. Dislike of materialism
5. Must rely on intuition
6. Self-Reliance
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go
instead where there is no path and leave a
trail." -Emerson
"Men for the sake of getting a living forget to
live." -Margaret Fuller
Authors
• Most authors in the 1800’s lived in the Northern
states.
– Maine
• Longfellow
– Connecticut
• Stowe
– New York
• Irving, Cooper, Melville, and Whitman
– Massachusetts
• Emerson, Hawthorne, Poe, Thoreau, and
Dickinson
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1. Wrote Evangeline and The Midnight
Ride of Paul Revere
2. Brought American history to life.
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,-One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."
Harriet Beecher Stowe
1. Wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin
(1852)
2. Told Americans about the
evils of slavery. Convinced
many Americans to fight
against slavery
• “So you’re the little woman who
wrote the book that made this
great war,” said Abraham Lincoln
when he met Stowe in 1862.
Washington Irving
1. Wrote Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
2. His books showed the dignity & resourcefulness of men
and their ability to succeed despite great odds.
Considered one of America’s greatest writers. He was
America’s first writer that gained international attention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4dudHgGISE&list=PLD71A0EFB844371EE
Rip Van Winkle
At this critical moment a fresh, likely woman pressed through the throng to get a peep at the gray-bearded
man. She had a chubby child in her arms, which, frightened at his looks, began to cry. “Hush, Rip,” cried she,
“hush, you little fool, the old man won’t hurt you.” The name of the child, the air of the mother, the tone of
her voice, all awakened a train of recollections in his mind. “What is your name, my good woman?” asked
he. “Judith Gardenier.” “And your father’s name?” “Ah, poor man, his name was Rip Van Winkle; it’s
twenty years since he went away from home with his gun, and never has been heard of since—his dog came
home without him; but whether he shot himself, or was carried away by the Indians, nobody can tell. I was
then but a little girl.” Rip had but one question more to ask; but he put it with a faltering voice:— “Where’s
your mother?” “Oh, she too had died but a short time since; she broke a blood vessel in a fit of passion at a
New England peddler.” There was a drop of comfort, at least, in this intelligence. The honest man could
contain himself no longer.—He caught his daughter and her child in his arms.—“I am your father!” cried he—
“Young Rip Van Winkle once—old Rip Van Winkle now!—Does nobody know poor Rip Van Winkle!” All
stood amazed, until an old woman, tottering out from among the crowd, put her hand to her brow, and
peering under it in his face for a moment, exclaimed, “Sure enough! it is Rip Van Winkle—it is himself.
Welcome home again, old neighbor.—Why, where have you been these twenty long years?”
James Fenimore Cooper
1. Wrote The Spy, and The
Leatherstocking Tales, a series of
five tales, the most famous one being
The Last of the Mohicans.
2. His books showed the life of pioneers
and the frontier. It displayed the
dignity, resourcefulness of man, and
his ability to succeed in spite of
great odds.
Herman Melville
1. Wrote the novel Moby Dick,
2. Considered America’s greatest
novel
Walt Whitman
1. He published his poems in nine
editions called Leaves of Grass.
2. Considered America’s greatest
poet.
1861
ARM'D year! year of the struggle!
No dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses for you, terrible year!
Not you as some pale poetling, seated at a desk, lisping cadenzas
piano;
But as a strong man, erect, clothed in blue clothes, advancing,
carrying a rifle on your shoulder,
With well-gristled body and sunburnt face and hands--with a knife in
the belt at your side,
As I heard you shouting loud--your sonorous voice ringing across the
continent;
Henry David Thoreau
1. He was a transcendentalist who
wrote “Walden”, a tale about his two
year experiment of living on lake
Walden.
2. 1846, arrested for not paying state
poll tax. Did it to protest the
Mexican War. Civil Disobedience.
Encouraged others to do same
“If a man does not keep pace with
his companions, perhaps it is
because he hears a different
drummer. Let him step to the
music which he hears, however
measured or far away.”
- Henry David Thoreau Walden
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1. Wrote Self Reliance.
2. Leader of the
Transcendental movement.
He was America’s favorite
philosopher
Nathaniel Hawthorne
1. Wrote The Scarlet Letter.
2. The novel explores the good and
evil in a Puritan New England
town.
Edgar Allen Poe
1. Wrote The Tell-Tale Heart,
Lenore, The Raven
2. He was a master of detective and
mystery stories. He also wrote
poetry.
The Raven
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door Only this, and nothing more.'
Emily Dickinson
1. She was a poet, but only published a
few poems in her life time. 1,800
poems were published in 1890
after her death.
2. She is considered one of America’s
greatest poets.
We never know how high we are
Till we are called to rise
And then if we are true to form
Our statures touch the skies
Noah Webster
1. Created American dictionary.
Made it so that we all spelled
words alike instead of just how
they sounded to us.
2. Now we have OUR own
dictionary with OUR definitions
and OUR spellings.
Color (American)
Colour (British)
Louis Braille
1. Blind student who
invented Braille
language.
2. Now blind people can
read and write for
themselves! They can be
independent!
“The Oxbow” by Thomas Cole,
River is a fine example of Hudson
River School art
Hudson
Schools
1. Famous for painting
natural landscapes
2. Artists in the
1800s created an
American style of
painting…leaving
Europe behind.
They painted
landscapes using
the vast American
wilderness for
inspiration.
John James Audubon
1. Painted pictures
of the wild
animals in North
America. (Mostly
Birds)
2. Much of our
knowledge of
wildlife during
that time come
from his work.
Battle Hymn of the Republic
1. Written by Julia W. Howe during the Civil
War.
2. She wrote it on a dare from a friend when they
heard Union soldiers singing a popular song called
John Brown’s Body. She decided to put the tune
to more spiritual lyrics. It became the most
popular song sung by Union soldiers during the
Civil War. The line that made this a popular song
during the Civil War was “Let us die to make
men free”. A direct statement by the North
that it was time to fight to free the slaves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSvH4s-4sCQ&feature=related Sung by Whitney
Houston in a concert for our troops
http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_480212&v=OFtNVEbasO
o&feature=iv&src_vid=uFh0oy6vIt4 Sung to a montage of war movies from Patriot to
Vietnam
Put notes here
Writer or Artist or
Reformer
Their Work-1
Interesting Fact-2
Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow
Evangeline and The
Midnight Ride of Paul
Revere
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Brought American
history to life.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Washington Irving
James Fenimore Cooper
(1852)
Told Americans about
the evils of slavery.
Rip Van Winkle and The
Books showed the
Legend of Sleepy
dignity &
Hollow.
resourcefulness of men
The Spy, and The
Leatherstocking Tales,
The Last of the
Mohicans.
& their ability to
succeed despite great
odds
Also showed the dignity
& resourcefulness of
man & his ability to
succeed in spite of
great odds.
Writer or Artist or
Reformer
Their Work-1
Interesting Fact-2
Herman Melville
Moby Dick,
Considered America’s
greatest novel.
Walt Whitman
poems in nine editions
called Leaves of Grass.
Considered America’s
greatest poet.
Henry David Thoreau
Walden
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Self Reliance.
1846, arrested for not
paying state poll tax.
Did it to protest the
Mexican War. Civil
Disobedience.
Encouraged others to
do same
Leader of the
Transcendental
movement. He was
America’s favorite
philosopher
Writer or Artist or
Reformer
Their Work-1
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter.
Edgar Allen Poe
Emily Dickinson
Noah Webster
Louis Braille
Interesting Fact-2
The novel explores the
good and evil in a
Puritan New England
town.
The Tell-Tale Heart, master of detective and
Lenore, The Raven
mystery stories. wrote
poetry.
Poet. 1,800 poems were
considered one of
published in 1890 after
America’s greatest
her death.
poets.
Created American
Now we have OUR own
dictionary.
dictionary with OUR
definitions and OUR
spellings
invented Braille
Now blind people can
language.
read and write for
themselves!
Writer or Artist or
Reformer
Their Work-1
Interesting Fact-2
Hudson Valley Schools
Landscapes
John James Audubon
pictures of the wild
animals in North
America
Battle Hymn of the
Republic
Written by Julia W.
Howe during the Civil
War
Artists in 1800s
created an American
style of painting. They
painted landscapes using
the vast American
wilderness for
inspiration.
Much of our knowledge
of wildlife during that
time come from his
work.
Became the most
popular song sung by
Union soldiers during
the Civil War.