ANTOLOGA DE LITERATURA AMERICANA

Por

Daysi Carolina Romero Marrufo

Trabajo Correspondiente a
Literatura Americana

Licenciatura en Lenguas Cuarto semestre

Divisin de estudios de licenciatura

Universidad del Valle de Guadiana

08 de junio de 2017

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 RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Philosopher, Journalist, Poet (18031882)

He was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the transcendentalist
movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism
and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he
disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than
1,500 public lectures across the United States.
Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his
contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of transcendentalism
in his 1836 essay "Nature". Following this work, he gave a speech entitled "The
American Scholar" in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. considered to be
America's "intellectual Declaration of Independence".
Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures first and then revised
them for print. His first two collections of essays, Essays: First Series (1841)
and Essays: Second Series (1844), represent the core of his thinking. They
include the well-known essays "Self-Reliance", "The Over-Soul", "Circles", "The
Poet" and "Experience". Together with "Nature", these essays made the decade
from the mid-1830s to the mid-1840s Emerson's most fertile period.
Emerson wrote on a number of subjects, never espousing fixed
philosophical tenets, but developing certain ideas such as individuality, freedom,
the ability for humankind to realize almost anything, and the relationship between
the soul and the surrounding world. Emerson's "nature" was more philosophical
than naturalistic: "Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature
and the Soul". Emerson is one of several figures who "took a
more pantheist or pandeist approach by rejecting views of God as separate from
the world."
He remains among the linchpins of the American Romantic Movement, and his
work has greatly influenced the thinkers, writers and poets that followed him.
When asked to sum up his work, he said his central doctrine was

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"the infinitude of the private man." Emerson is also well known as a mentor and
friend of Henry David Thoreau, a fellow transcendentalist.
NATURE

Nature was created by Ralph Waldo Emerson and was published in 1836, and
this is a truly, truly brilliant piece of work, very complex, sometimes a little bit
frustrating, but also it can be really good if you put the time in is going to be more
rewarding that pretty much anything else.

Emerson was one of the most famous intellectuals of the 19th century in the
world. He's most famous for this piece "Nature", also for this others pieces "Self-
reliance" and "The American Scholar", including others minors works. He's
definitely somebody who has lived very compelling life, is pretty much the
founder of the school of thought, known as transcendentalism. The idea of this is
that you can achieve some sort of a greater connection to the absolute via
communion with "Nature" and that can give you the opportunity to transcend to a
great world.

Emerson had a difficult life, he came from a long life, a long line of preachers,
his father died when he was very young, he was married and after he'd been
married for fewer under two years, his wife died of tuberculosis. The point to
consider is that this essay is a brilliant piece of work that we have before us, this
sort of essay that we have it's a grand document. It sort of is an example of
Emerson's aphoristic style. The things that he bill, it's a lot of his wisdom around.

He's just basically a quote machine, he just constantly is turning out brilliant little
pieces of wisdom. He'd be great working in a fortune cookie factory with his
quotes, for example, the structure of this work, it's broken into a lot of pieces, the
main thing is he's going to discuss nature, obviously, and what exactly means.
The structure here is he has the introduction in the first chapter nature, and then,
he goes into the uses of nature, the beauty language and discipline, and these
are the things that we gather from nature and then he wraps it up by talking
about idealism, saying that the material world is actually real, spirit, and the
relationship to God. Also he's talking about the prospects, ideas and possibilities
for the future and this is the basic layout of this piece of work.

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 HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Philosopher, Journalist, Poet (18171862)

He was an American essayist, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax

resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian. A leading transcendentalist,
Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in
natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience" (originally published as
"Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust
state.
Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20
volumes. Among his lasting contributions are his writings on natural history and
philosophy, in which he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology
and environmental history, two sources of modern-day environmentalism.
His literary style interweaves close observation of nature, personal experience,
pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic
sensibility, philosophical austerity, and Yankee attention to practical detail. He
was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements,
historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning
waste and illusion in order to discover life's true essential needs.
He was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave
Law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending the
abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau's philosophy of civil disobedience later
influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as Leo
Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Thoreau is sometimes referred to as an anarchist. Though "Civil Disobedience"
seems to call for improving rather than abolishing government"I ask for, not at
once no government, but at once a better government" the direction of this
improvement points toward anarchism: "'That government is best which governs

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not at all;' and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government
which they will have."
CIVIL DESOBEDIENCE:

Thoreau brings out the power exercised by government. In civil Disobedience he

says that the all men are men small with movable forts or magazines at the
service of someone scrupulous power. Basically he is stating that the
government has enough power to make men to anything that they want them to
do. Thoreau refers to men as machines for the government, he also says that the
government can harass people without ain't, the government uses excessive
amounts to power, a power to control people and make them slaves for the
government. Thoreau even states that our soldiers have the same worth as dogs
and horses to the government, so many men and women are fighting for our
freedom and to protect the country which include the politicians that live in the
country, so why are men being mistreated by the government.
Thoreau also explains the relationship between an individual at state, he says
there will never be a really free and enlightened until the state comes to
recognize the individual as a hire an independent power from which all its power
and authority are derived and treats him accordingly, in reality it will take a long
time before the state recognizes the individual as a higher power, this idea ties
into the central ideas of ethics and the government's exercise of power, as with
ethics the government doesn't use any moral decisions to govern them people,
creating an unpleasant relationship between individual and state as the power
exercised by the government makes the people grow even more distant and
hateful to the men and women running the country.
The relationship that has already been developed between an individual and
state is poor and unjust. To wrap up all of these central ideas, Thoreau basically
believes that the government has to tide of a whole long as people, the way the
government exercises power people to lose respect with unjust and more
politicians that people begin to lose trust for the government.

Thoreau brings out many debatable points and causes that we as readers to
think and evaluate how the government treats us as an individuals and the
negligence politicians used to run the country.

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 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
Author (18041864)

He was an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer.

He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, to Nathaniel Hathorne and the
former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, the only
judge involved in the Salem witch trials who never repented of his actions.
Nathaniel later added a "w" to make his name "Hawthorne" in order to hide this
relation. He entered Bowdoin College in 1821, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in
1824, and graduated in 1825. Hawthorne published his first work, a novel
titled Fanshawe, in 1828; he later tried to suppress it, feeling it was not equal to
the standard of his later work. He published several short stories in periodicals,
which he collected in 1837 as Twice-Told Tales. The next year, he became
engaged to Sophia Peabody. He worked at the Boston Custom House and
joined Brook Farm, a transcendentalist community, before marrying Peabody in
1842. The couple moved to The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, later
moving to Salem, the Berkshires, then to The Wayside in Concord. The Scarlet
Letter was published in 1850, followed by a succession of other novels. A political
appointment as consul took Hawthorne and family to Europe before their return
to Concord in 1860. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864, and was survived by his
wife and their three children.
Much of Hawthorne's writing centers on New England, many works featuring
moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered part
of the Romantic Movement and, more specifically, dark romanticism. His themes
often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have
moral messages and deep psychological complexity. His published works include

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novels, short stories, and a biography of his college friend Franklin Pierce, the
14th President of the United States.
HERMAN MELVILLE
Author, Poet (18191891)

He was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American
Renaissance period. His best known works include Typee (1846), a romantic
account of his experiences in Polynesian life, and his whaling novel Moby-
Dick (1851). His work was almost forgotten during his last thirty years. His writing
draws on his experience at sea as a common sailor, exploration of literature and
philosophy, and engagement in the contradictions of American society in a period
of rapid change. He developed a complex, baroque style: the vocabulary is rich
and original, a strong sense of rhythm infuses the elaborate sentences, the
imagery is often mystical or ironic, and the abundance of allusion extends
to Scripture, myth, philosophy, literature, and the visual arts.
Born in New York City as the third child of a merchant in French dry goods,
Melville's formal education ended abruptly after his father died in 1832, leaving
the family in financial straits. Melville briefly became a schoolteacher before he
took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship. In 1840 he signed
aboard the whaler Acushnet for his first whaling voyage, but jumped ship in
the Marquesas Islands. After further adventures, he returned to Boston in 1844.
His first book, Typee (1846), a highly romanticized account of his life among
Polynesians, became such a best-seller that he worked up a
sequel, Omoo (1847). These successes encouraged him to marry Elizabeth
Shaw, of a prominent Boston family, but were hard to sustain. His first novel not
based on his own experiences, Mardi (1849), is a sea narrative that develops into
a philosophical allegory, but was not well received. Redburn (1849), a story of life
on a merchant ship, and his 1850 expose of harsh life aboard a Man-of-
War, White-Jacket yielded warmer reviews but not financial security.
In August 1850, Melville moved his growing family to Arrowhead, a farm
near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he established a profound but short-lived
friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne, to whom he dedicated Moby-Dick. Moby-
Dick was another commercial failure, published to mixed reviews. Melville's
career as a popular author effectively ended with the cool reception

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of Pierre (1852), in part a satirical portrait of the literary scene. His Revolutionary
War novel Israel Potter appeared in 1855. From 1853 to 1856, Melville published
short fiction in magazines, most notably "Bartleby, the Scrivener" (1853), "The
Encantadas" (1854), and "Benito Cereno" (1855). These and three other stories
were collected in 1856 as The Piazza Tales. In 1857, he voyaged to England,
where he reunited with Hawthorne for the first time since 1852, and then went on
to tour the Near East. The Confidence-Man (1857), was the last prose work he
published during his lifetime. He moved to New York to take a position
as Customs Inspector and turned to poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the
War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the Civil War. In
1867 his oldest child, Malcolm, died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Clarel:
A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land, a metaphysical epic, appeared in 1876.
In 1886, his second son, Stanwix, died and Melville retired. During his last years,
he privately published two volumes of poetry, left one volume unpublished, and
returned to prose of the sea: the novella Billy Budd, left unfinished at his death,
was published in 1924.
Melville's death from cardiovascular disease in 1891 subdued a reviving interest
in his work. The 1919 centennial of his birth became the starting point of the
"Melville Revival". Critics discovered his work, scholars explored his life, his
major novels and stories have become world classics, and his poetry has
gradually attracted respect.

MOBY DICK:
I knew basically nothing about this story going into it, at least as little as you can
know about a classic. I knew it had to do with a whale named Moby Dick. I knew
it had to deal with Ahab who was a sailor who was obsessed with Moby Dick and
killing him for some reason, I wasn't completely sure why. But this story turned
out to be so much more than that in both the best and worst possible way. First of
all, I knew that there were parts in here that were very heavily about whaling and
I knew that those bits were a little bit drier. But there were points in here where I
literally just felt like I was seeing an encyclopedia about whaling and an out
whales themselves. I wasn't prepared for the depth of like factual information to
be in this story. I assumed that all story was about the actual plot of this sailor
going out there and trying to find this white whale and that actually isn't true. I feel
like, maybe to half of this story, and the other half is really like non-fiction, very
dry, very difficult to get through. If I wasn't listening to this on audiobook as well
as reading this, I probably would've stopped following this story pretty early on
because it was very, very dry and it was very difficult to become interested in it
because I don't have a very strong interest in whaling. Again, if I wasn't doing the
anthology, I probably would've stopped hearing this audiobook pretty early on,
which I think would've been a deterrent to me because in the end I did like this
story. But I liked it because of the plot, not because of those sections. I was

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seeing a video on YouTube where the guy was mentioning the fact that all of
those non-fiction sections were particularly impressive when you consider the
date that this book was published and written and how Melville was able to
gather all of that information without the modern resources that we have today,
and that is definitely for sure. Like I can definitely appreciate the amount of
research and effort that Herman Melville must've put into this book in order to
gather all of that information. But, at the same time, that doesn't mean that it's
easy to read by any means. When it comes down to the actual main plot of the
story, this is actually a lot of fun. I didn't expect it to be quite as funny or exciting
as it was, but it turned out to be. The sailors in here are kind of crazy in the best
possible way. They're all like super entertaining, super over the top. They're all
exactly what you would expect out of a stereotypical sailor. There's one point
where one of the people on the ship starts preaching to the sharks. That was by
far the best and most surreal moment in this book because I had to go back and
re-read that section and be like, is this actually happening? And it was. But I
definitely think the highlight of this book far and away is the ending. And I really
enjoyed the way that Herman Melville just sort of depicted Ahab as he seems to
be going crazy obsessing over this whale and wanting to kill this whale despite
the people around him are telling him or warning him about or anything like that. I
really liked it. I shouldn't say I really liked it. I liked it. I liked it more than I thought
I was going to. But yeah, I'm really glad that I heard this book. But also because
this story wasn't anything that I thought it was going to be. If I have any advice for
people who want to read Moby Dick it would be to pick up the audiobook. The
audiobook that I picked up, the narrator was really fantastic. His like sailor voices
were just superb and it definitely made it significantly easier to get through the
drier sections because I would just listen at a slightly faster speed to just like
push through and keep going. So yeah, those are my thoughts on Moby Dick.

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 FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Author, Government Official, Journalist, Civil Rights Activist (c. 18181895)

He was an African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer,

and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national
leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, gaining note
for his dazzling orator, and incisive antislavery writings. In his time, he was
described by abolitionists as a living counter-example to slaveholders' arguments
that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American
citizens. Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator
had once been a slave.
Douglass wrote several autobiographies. He described his experiences as a
slave in his 1845 autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an
American Slave, which became a bestseller, and was influential in promoting the
cause of abolition, as was his second book, My Bondage and My
Freedom (1855). After the Civil War, Douglass remained an active campaigner
against slavery and wrote his last autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick
Douglass. First published in 1881 and revised in 1892, three years before his
death, it covered events during and after the Civil War. Douglass also actively
supported women's suffrage, and held several public offices. Without his
approval, Douglass became the first African American nominated for Vice
President of the United States as the running mate and Vice Presidential
nominee of Victoria Woodhull, on the Equal Rights Party ticket.
Douglass was a firm believer in the equality of all peoples,
whether black, female, Native American, or recent immigrant. He was also a
believer in dialogue and in making alliances across racial and ideological divides,
and in the liberal values of the American Constitution. When radical abolitionists,
under the motto "No Union with Slaveholders", criticized Douglass' willingness to

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dialogue with slave owners, he famously replied: "I would unite with anybody to
do right and with nobody to do wrong."
In 1948, biographer Joseph W. Holley, argued: The most influential African
American of the nineteenth century, Douglass made a career of agitating the
American conscience. He spoke and wrote on behalf of a variety of reform
causes: women's rights, temperance, peace, land reform, free public education,
and the abolition of capital punishment. But he devoted the bulk of his time,
immense talent, and boundless energy to ending slavery and gaining equal rights
for African Americans. These were the central concerns of his long reform career.
Douglass understood that the struggle for emancipation and equality demanded
forceful, persistent, and unyielding agitation. And he recognized that African
Americans must play a conspicuous role in that struggle. Less than a month
before his death, when a young black man solicited his advice to an African
American just starting out in the world, Douglass replied without hesitation:
"Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!"

NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AN AMERICAN

SLAVE:

The life of Frederick Douglass this is a painful book, for the life of
slaves that had many of the men and women of dark skin. Having to
be a slave to someone for whatever reason, speaks of the ego and
the lack of love that came to exist, and I dare to say that it still exists,
in all those people who were participants in having slaves. That's why
I think Frederick Douglass was a great person with exceptional value,
with a great zeal for people suffering from abuse and a clear
inequality for their skin color. The most incredible thing is that
Douglass was the most suitable to fight for the rights of the slaves,
since he could live what to be one. When I had to expose about his
life, I could feel impotence for all those people who died in the slave
yoke. And I'm glad that the book "Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass, an American Slave" is very explicit when sharing how
things happened. His writing and speaking skills are really good, he
never uses a crude or low insult, he always uses words that really
make you think, and I think that's the best way to beat o someone
who is in favor of slavery.

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 HARRIET HANSON ROBINSON
Author (18251911)

Harriet Hanson Robinson was born on August 2, 1825, in Boston,

Massachusetts, the second of four children born to William and Harriet Hanson.
When she was six years old, her father died, leaving her mother with the difficult
task of feeding and caring for four young children. At the time, it was not unusual
for a family to break up because of financial need, but Robinson's mother was
determined to keep her family together. When a concerned neighbor offered to
ease her burden by adopting young Harriet, Mrs. Hanson said, "No; while I have
one meal of victuals a day, I will not part with my children." These words stayed
with Robinson, who wondered for many years what the word "victuals" meant.
With help from her husband's friends, Mrs. Hanson set up a small shop in
Boston, selling food, candy, and firewood. The family lived in a room behind the
shop, sleeping in one bed, and two at the foot and three at the head." In spite of
their poverty, the children went to school every day and Robinson also attended
a sewing school on Saturdays.
Mrs. Hanson's struggle to support her family became increasingly difficult. When
her sister suggested she join her in Lowell, a booming mill town about twenty
miles northwest of Boston, to manage a boardinghouse for mill workers, Mrs.
Hanson did not hesitate. In 1832, she piled her four children into a canal boat
and traveled the short journey up the Middlesex Canal to Lowell.

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 ABRAHAM LINCOLN
U.S. Representative, U.S. President, Lawyer (18091865)

He was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of
the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln
led the United States through its Civil Warits bloodiest war and perhaps its
greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. In doing so, he preserved
the Union, paved the way to the abolition of slavery, strengthened the federal
government, and modernized the economy.
Born in Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln grew up on the western
frontier in Kentucky and Indiana. Largely self-educated, he became a lawyer
in Illinois, a Whig Party leader, and was elected to the Illinois House of
Representatives, in which he served for eight years. Elected to the United States
House of Representatives in 1846, Lincoln promoted rapid modernization of the
economy through banks, tariffs, and railroads. Because he had originally agreed
not to run for a second term in Congress, and because his opposition to
the MexicanAmerican War was unpopular among Illinois voters, Lincoln
returned to Springfield and resumed his successful law practice. Reentering
politics in 1854, he became a leader in building the new Republican Party, which
had a statewide majority in Illinois. In 1858, while taking part in a series of highly
publicized debates with his opponent and rival, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas,
Lincoln spoke out against the expansion of slavery, but lost the U.S. Senate race
to Douglas.
In 1860, Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination as a
moderate from a swing state. Though he gained very little support in the
slaveholding states of the South, he swept the North and was elected president
in 1860. Lincoln's victory prompted seven southern slave states to form
the Confederate States of America before he moved into the White Houseno
compromise or reconciliation was found regarding slavery and secession.

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Subsequently, on April 12, 1861, a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter inspired
the North to enthusiastically rally behind the Union. As the leader of the moderate
faction of the Republican Party, Lincoln confronted Radical Republicans, who
demanded harsher treatment of the South, War Democrats, who called for more
compromise, anti-war Democrats (called Copperheads), who despised him, and
irreconcilable secessionists, who plotted his assassination. Politically, Lincoln
fought back by pitting his opponents against each other, by carefully planned
political patronage, and by appealing to the American people with his powers of
oratory. His Gettysburg Address became an iconic endorsement of the principles
of nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy.
Lincoln initially concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the war.
His primary goal was to reunite the nation. He suspended habeas corpus,
leading to the controversial ex parte Merryman decision, and he averted potential
British intervention in the war by defusing the Trent Affair in late 1861. Lincoln
closely supervised the war effort, especially the selection of top generals,
including his most successful general, Ulysses S. Grant. He also made major
decisions on Union war strategy, including a naval blockade that shut down the
South's normal trade, moves to take control of Kentucky and Tennessee, and
using gunboats to gain control of the southern river system. Lincoln tried
repeatedly to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond; each time a general
failed, Lincoln substituted another, until finally Grant succeeded. As the war
progressed, his complex moves toward ending slavery included
the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863; Lincoln used the U.S. Army to protect
escaped slaves, encouraged the Border States to outlaw slavery, and pushed
through Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,
which permanently outlawed slavery.
An exceptionally astute politician deeply involved with power issues in each
state, Lincoln reached out to the War Democrats and managed his own re-
election campaign in the 1864 presidential election. Anticipating the war's
conclusion, Lincoln pushed a moderate view of Reconstruction, seeking to
reunite the nation speedily through a policy of generous reconciliation in the face
of lingering and bitter divisiveness. On April 14, 1865, five days after the
surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was
assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer. Secretary of
War Edwin Stanton launched a manhunt for Booth, and 12 days later on April 26,
Booth was fatally shot by Union Army soldier Boston Corbett.
Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as among
the greatest U.S. presidents.

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 THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS:

Clearly although this speech is a small speech, it has much to say. I believe that
Abraham Lincoln used his words well in reciting it, and he speaks of the clear
example that everyone should have for the nation. Probably that's why he died,
for wanting a reliable and free nation. Many men from the north and south died in
the Gettysburg War, which was provoked by insurmountable differences in issues
such as slavery and economic inequalities, a war that might not have occurred
had people been nobler with blacks. I like that in the speech Abraham Lincoln
speaks well of the freedom we all deserve, and that the government really should
be in charge of that freedom. I also liked that in a few words he paid tribute to all
the men who had fallen in that war and that he would end by saying that the
government belongs to everyone.

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 MARK TWAIN
Writer (18351910)

He was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer.

Among his novels are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel,
the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "The Great
American Novel".
Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for Tom
Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He served an apprenticeship with a printer and
then worked as a typesetter, contributing articles to the newspaper of his older
brother Orion Clemens. He later became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi
River before heading west to join Orion in Nevada. He referred humorously to his
lack of success at mining, turning to journalism for the Virginia City Territorial
Enterprise. His humorous story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County", was published in 1865, based on a story that he heard at Angels
Hotel in Angels Camp, California where he had spent some time as a miner. The
short story brought international attention and was even translated into classic
Greek. His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and
peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European
royalty.
Twain earned a great deal of money from his writings and lectures, but he
invested in ventures that lost most of it, notably the Paige Compositor, a
mechanical typesetter that failed because of its complexity and imprecision. He
filed for bankruptcy in the wake of these financial setbacks, but he eventually
overcame his financial troubles with the help of Henry Huttleston Rogers. He
chose to pay all his pre-bankruptcy creditors in full, even after he had no legal
responsibility to do so.
Twain was born shortly after an appearance of Halley's Comet, and he predicted
that he would "go out with it" as well; he died the day after the comet returned.
He was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of his age", and William
Faulkner called him "the father of American literature".

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 THE CELEBRATED JUMPING FROG OF CALAVERAS COUNTY:

For me, this story is very comfortable. It really makes you wonder what Leonidas
W. Smiley's bets were like. And although it is something short, Twain makes
somehow the story becomes tedious, since the protagonist does not care about
this Leonidas W. Smiley. The end really did not expect me to, but okay, I do not
think it's bad either.

From what I could investigate, Twain heard this story in a mining camp, and after
that, he published the story. So I think there may be the possibility that Leonidas
W. Smiley has existed, and I think that gives a complete return to the story,
because now it can be read with another context, with the context that Leonidas
W. Smiley really did all those things that tell the story. And the guy was kind of
weird, but even so, one as a reader wants to know what else he was doing.
Twain wrote the story well. I like the way you read, even if you half want to stop.
But it's a very uneven unusual book, like some of the pieces are very straight
forward some of them are very abstracted.

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 WALT WHITMAN
Journalist, Diplomat (17351813)

He was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of

the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views
in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon,
often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time,
particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as
obscene for its overt sexuality.
Born in Huntington on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a
government clerk, and (in addition to publishing his poetry) was a volunteer nurse
during the American Civil War. Early in his career, he also produced
a temperance novel, Franklin Evans (1842). Whitman's major work, Leaves of
Grass, was first published in 1855 with his own money. The work was an attempt
at reaching out to the common person with an American epic. He continued
expanding and revising it until his death in 1892. After a stroke towards the end
of his life, he moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined.
When he died at age 72, his funeral became a public spectacle.

18
 LEAVES OF GRASS:

Leaves of Grass is really extraordinary. The truth though are thousands of

poems, each and every one of them are really good. I loved the way he wrote all
those things, from writing to life, like writing to death.

Walt Whitman spent his entire life writing for this book. That attracts me and
makes me think a lot. At this moment it makes me want to have the book in
physical to be able to read it completely. The book is characterized by the joy and
praise to the senses of a moment in which the manifestations in the first person
and the expression of the self was considered immoral. What I like best is that
"Leaves of grass" exalts the body and the material world, something that is more
real in life. Since almost all the poetry that was written before this book exalted
more the symbolism and allegory of the religious and spiritual things.

I also remember that Whitman was influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson with his
transcendental movement, since Whitman's poetry praises nature and the human
within it. I am even attracted to the way in which he adores and elevates the
human mind and the spirit.

I even gave myself the task of reading "Song of Myself" and I liked it to a certain
extent, since it obviously speaks of himself, how much it loves and admires his
body, his extremities, and his head. And the truth is that we are all like this. Even
when we do something good we do it to feel good about ourselves. We love
ourselves under a good or bad circumstance. Maybe we all carry the ego in
greater or lesser quantity, but we carry it. Many of his writings speak of a reality.

Whitman's style created a union in the nation and dissolved oppositions between
individuals.

I think it's good to try to enjoy the poem "Song of Myself" without worrying about
anything else.

19
 LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
Author (18321888)

She was an American novelist and poet best known as the author of the
novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Little Men (1871) and Jo's
Boys (1886). Raised by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May and Amos
Bronson Alcott in New England, she also grew up among many of the well-known
intellectuals of the day such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne,
and Henry David Thoreau.
Alcott's family suffered financial difficulties, and while she worked to help support
the family from an early age, she also sought an outlet in writing. She began to
receive critical success for her writing in the 1860s. Early in her career, she
sometimes used the pen name A. M. Barnard, under which she wrote novels for
young adults.
Published in 1868, Little Women is set in the Alcott family home, Hillside, later
called the Wayside, in Concord, Massachusetts and is loosely based on Alcott's
childhood experiences with her three sisters. The novel was very well received
and is still a popular children's novel today, filmed several times.
Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist and remained unmarried throughout her
life. She died in Boston on March 6, 1888.

20
 LITTLE WOMEN:

I think it's an entertaining novel, because sometimes it's funny, but that does not
mean that there are times when it becomes really silly (I think that happens
because the historical context is lost). And as many people say, I think Little
Women is a feminist book because it defends quite well to have options and,
above all, to be able to decide without imposition.
I think this book reads better if your age ranges from 13 to 16, since it is usually
quite cheesy and mellow.

The style of Lou May Alcott is also good, as it is very direct when addressing the
issues of the book.

I really enjoyed Little Women in the sense that it showed me a lot of the
household life of an American family in the 19th century. I loved the thorough
description of their chores, games, and pastimes, and those beautiful letters. As
for the little lessons, I did like the fact that all girls had a flaw to overcome,
however, I was really confused about the emphasis on being a good wife and
conforming to the rules of being a woman because I heard that Alcott herself was
a feminist and a suffragist. In fact, I even read somewhere that she wrote it as a
crowd pleaser as opposed to a showcase of her beliefs. So even though I loved
the read, I'm still a little ambivalent about it.

21
 STEPHEN CRANE
Author, Journalist (18711900)

He was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his
short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early
examples of American Naturalism and Impressionism. He is recognized by
modern critics as one of the most innovative writers of his generation.
The ninth surviving child of Protestant Methodist parents, Crane began writing at
the age of four and had published several articles by the age of 16. Having little
interest in university studies, he left college in 1891 to work as a reporter and
writer. Crane's first novel was the 1893 Bowery tale Maggie: A Girl of the Streets,
generally considered by critics to be the first work of American literary
Naturalism. He won international acclaim in 1895 for his Civil War novel The Red
Badge of Courage, which he wrote without having any battle experience.
In 1896, Crane endured a highly publicized scandal after appearing as a witness
in the trial of a suspected prostitute, an acquaintance named Dora Clark. Late
that year he accepted an offer to travel to Cuba as a war correspondent. As he
waited in Jacksonville, Florida for passage, he met Cora Taylor, with whom he
began a lasting relationship. En route to Cuba, Crane's vessel
the SS Commodore sank off the coast of Florida, leaving him and others adrift for
30 hours in a dinghy. Crane described the ordeal in "The Open Boat". During the
final years of his life, he covered conflicts in Greece (accompanied by Cora,
recognized as the first woman war correspondent) and later lived in England with
her. He was befriended by writers such as Joseph Conrad and H. G. Wells.
Plagued by financial difficulties and ill health, Crane died of tuberculosis in
a Black Forest sanatorium in Germany at the age of 28.
At the time of his death, Crane was considered an important figure in American
literature. After he was nearly forgotten for two decades, critics revived interest in
his life and work. Crane's writing is characterized by vivid intensity,
distinctive dialects, and irony. Common themes involve fear, spiritual crises and
social isolation. Although recognized primarily for The Red Badge of Courage,
which has become an American classic, Crane is also known for his poetry,

22
journalism, and short stories such as "The Open Boat", "The Blue Hotel", "The
Bride Comes to Yellow Sky", and The Monster. His writing made a deep
impression on 20th-century writers, most prominent among them Ernest
Hemingway, and is thought to have inspired the Modernists and the Imagists.

MAGGIE, A GIRL OF THE STREETS:

Stephen Crane was an extraordinary writer who died too soon.

Maggie is a very short novel that tells the life of a girl who is born in a family in
which abounding misery, hypocrisy, alcohol and violence both physical and
verbal. Maggie's life is not good, as she grows up in an unfavorable environment.
It is very interesting because Stephen Crane writes the story with a realistic style,
a style that represents the dark side that could have the country or the city of
those times.

Seeing all this, I realized that we are a representation of our family and our
friends. Maggie's life is really painful.

In addition, Stephen Crane develops well the way he describes the neighborhood
of Bowery in New York, which also allows us to see the model of urban literature.

23
 EMILY DICKINSON
Poet, Writer (18301886)

She was an American poet. With the possible exception of Walt Whitman,
Dickinson is now recognized as the most important American poet of the 19th
century.
Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. Although part of a prominent
family with strong ties to its community, Dickinson lived much of her life in
reclusive isolation. After studying at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her
youth, she briefly attended the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning
to her family's house in Amherst. Considered an eccentric by locals, she
developed a noted penchant for white clothing and became known for her
reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, to even leave her bedroom. Dickinson
never married, and most friendships between her and others depended entirely
upon correspondence. Dickinson was a recluse for the later years of her life.
While Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly
1,800 poems were published during her lifetime. The work that was published
during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the
conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in
which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant
rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Many of her
poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters
to her friends.
Although Dickinson's acquaintances were most likely aware of her writing, it was
not until after her death in 1886 (when Lavinia, Dickinson's younger sister,
discovered her cache of poems) that the breadth of her work became apparent to
the public. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal
acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, though
both heavily edited the content. A complete, and mostly unaltered, collection of

24
her poetry became available for the first time when scholar Thomas H. Johnson
published The Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1955. Despite some unfavorable
reception and skepticism over the late 19th and early 20th centuries regarding
her literary prowess, Dickinson is now almost universally considered to be one of
the most significant of all American poets.

25
 EDGAR LEE MASTERS
Author, Poet (18681950)

He was an American attorney, poet, biographer, and dramatist. He is the author

of Spoon River Anthology, The New Star Chamber and Other Essays, Songs
and Satires, The Great Valley, The Serpent in the Wilderness An Obscure
Tale, The Spleen, Mark Twain: A Portrait, Lincoln: The Man, and Illinois Poems.
In all, Masters published twelve plays, twenty-one books of poetry, six novels and
six biographies, including those of Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Vachel Lindsay,
and Walt Whitman.

26
 SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY:

The Spoon River anthology is like a purgatory. Edgar Lee Masters made a
literary purgatory and instead of people coming alone, he chose each of the
characters that appear on it. And he not only put them in the book, but wrote
about them, about his life, about what probably killed them.

Master's is Brilliant. Many times people thought his characters weren't real...or
were a mixture or real and then exaggerated. To what I know, he wrote about
many people that each of them has something to offer. That brings us to the fact
that many of the readers may be identified with the life of the dead of Spoon
River.

The interesting thing about the Spoon River Anthology is that Lee Masters wrote
it very realistically. I think he inquired into the lives of many of the characters in
the Anthology, and perhaps that is why he writes so much about them. The
anthology of Spoon River has a lyrical language with some irony, tenderness and
sarcasm, but what is more interesting is the perspective from which the poems
are written.

27
 HOWARD PHILLIP LOVECRAFT
Author (18901937)

He was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his

influential works of horror fiction. He was virtually unknown and published only
in pulp magazines before he died in poverty, but he is now regarded as one of
the most significant 20th-century authors in his genre. Lovecraft was born
in Providence, Rhode Island, where he spent most of his life. Among his most
celebrated tales are "The Call of Cthulhu" and "The Shadow over Inns mouth",
both canonical to the Cthulhu Mythos. Lovecraft was never able to support
himself from earnings as author and editor. He saw commercial success
increasingly elude him in this latter period, partly because he lacked the
confidence and drive to promote himself. He subsisted in progressively straitened
circumstances in his last years; an inheritance was completely spent by the time
that he died at age 46.

28
 CTHULHU MYTHOS:

His style is much overloaded, very dense to read, slow. I do not think he's a writer
for everyone. It has a very baroque style, very recharged. With many adjectives,
which makes you enter the atmosphere of history. I have not read much of other
writers who are dedicated to this type of stories, but I think Lovecraft is one of the
best, since what little I read of him, his book, makes you feel insecure, that you
are afraid of the dark, it is very strange thing, since it makes that you put much to
the history.

I think Lovecraft did more than create a horror book, I think really horrible
monsters. When I started listening to the audiobook I felt very strange, afraid, as
it gives you the feeling that these creatures are real, by the way in which you
describe them. The myths of Cthulhu are a literary cycle of horror, which H. P.
Lovecraft liked to be ambiguous.

I even read that the name of "Cthulhu" cannot be pronounced well, since it is a
name given by the aliens, and consequently no man can pronounce it well,
because it does not count on the phonetic apparatus that the aliens have.

29
 EDITH WHARTON
Author (18621937)

Novelist Edith Wharton was born to an old New York family, but is better known
for her books Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence.

She was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer,

and designer. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, 1928
and 1930.Wharton combined her insider's view of America's privileged classes
with a brilliant, natural wit to write humorous, incisive novels and short stories of
social and psychological insight. She was well acquainted with many of her era's
other literary and public figures, including Theodore Roosevelt.

A JOURNEY:

Well, to begin with Edith Wharton was a woman who for her times wrote about
controversial subjects. He wrote about sexuality, adultery, divorce, euthanasia,
and supernatural things. I completely agree that psychological realism is his
style. "A Journey" speaks very well about the unhappy life of a woman, and
expresses it well, although at times she does not notice the sadness. For me, the
principle of "A Journey" makes me a little slow and boring, but as it progresses
and with the events that are happening, it becomes something interesting. This
makes the main character take on a mysterious and entertaining tone. It may be
that "A journey" represented the unhappiness of Edith Wharton regarding her
marriage, therefore, she writes very well about the feelings of the unhappy wife of
the story, since the narrative is good. It is brilliant when it does, apart from that it
adds a funny touch.

Although speaking really, I think reading the story would have been better if it had
been narrated completely in the third person.

30
 ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Author (18991961)

He was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His economical
and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life
of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway
produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and won
the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story
collections, and two non-fiction works. Additional works, including three novels,
four short story collections, and three non-fiction works, were published
posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature.
Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school, he reported for a
few months for The Kansas City Star, before leaving for the Italian Front to enlist
with the World War I ambulance drivers. In 1918, he was seriously wounded and
returned home. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his novel A
Farewell to Arms (1929).
In 1921, he married Hadley Richardson, the first of his four wives. The couple
moved to Paris, where he worked as a foreign correspondent and fell under the
influence of the modernist writers and artists of the 1920s "Lost Generation"
expatriate community. He published his debut novel, The Sun Also Rises, in
1926. After his 1927 divorce from Richardson, Hemingway married Pauline
Pfeiffer; they divorced after he returned from the Spanish Civil War, where he had
been a journalist, and after which he wrote For Whom the Bell
Tolls (1940). Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940; they separated when
he met Mary Welsh in London during World War II. He was present at
the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris.
Shortly after the publication of The Old Man and the Sea (1952), Hemingway
went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in two successive plane
crashes that left him in pain or ill health for much of his remaining life.
Hemingway maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida, (1930s)
and Cuba (1940s and 1950s), and in 1959, he bought a house in Ketchum,
Idaho, where he killed himself in mid-1961.

31
 THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA:

I do not know what to say about this book, about this story. I really did not like it.
I can see that Ernest Hemingway is the favorite of many, but in my case, I think
"The Old Man and the Sea" is not my thing. The style is very elaborate, and uses
a direct narration, and I think that's good, because it makes you feel what
Santiago "The Old Man" feels.
In addition, even if I think it is not mine, I must accept that it is interesting that the
books he has written are based on his experiences. I even noticed that after
reading Moby Dick, this story "The Old Man and the Sea" seemed familiar, it's
as if Moby Dick and The Old Man and Sea had the same air.
Well, Santiago is a sign of success that can always be achieved.

SCOTT FITZGERALD
Author (18961940)

32
American short-story writer and novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald is known for his
turbulent personal life and his famous novel The Great Gatsby.

Hes known professionally as F. Scott Fitzgerald, was an

American novelist and short story writer, whose works illustrate the Jazz Age.
While he achieved limited success in his lifetime, he is now widely regarded as
one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered
a member of the "Lost Generation" of the 1920s. He finished four novels: This
Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, and Tender Is
the Night. A fifth, unfinished novel, The Last Tycoon, was published
posthumously. Fitzgerald also authored 4 collections of short stories, as well as
164 short stories in magazines during his lifetime.

BERNICE BOBS HER HAIR:

33
When you read this book, you read a complete telenovela drama. Even when
you read it you do not realize that a man wrote, Scott Fitzgerald.

Scott Fitzgerald has a direct and natural writing style, which gives us many
observations. What most emphasizes the behavior of the characters which tend
to want to be more than others. And although the story is usually very dramatic,
you can enjoy.

Fitzgerald put well the characteristics of the characters, giving a different touch to
each of them, which combines with the storytelling. I like the idea that the
characters are real. In real I mean the reality of his behavior.

ROBERT FROST
Educator, Poet (18741963)

34
A four-time Pulitzer Prize winner in poetry, American Robert Frost depicted
realistic New England life through language and situations familiar to the
common man.

He was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it
was published in America. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of
rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently
employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century,
using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. One of the
most popular and critically respected American poets of the twentieth century,
Frost was honored frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for
Poetry. He became one of America's rare "public literary figures, almost an
artistic institution." He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960 for
his poetic works. On July 22, 1961, Frost was named poet laureate of Vermont.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN:

35
I liked this poem because it speaks of what a small decision can create
something great in the future.
We all have options always, roads divided every day, paths that we can only take
once, and that is something that should serve us not to hurt ourselves and not
hurt others.

I think Robert Frost referred to doing what is unconventional.

The way to write the situation is quite good, know how to get you and how to
leave the message, what he wanted to convey. It reflects well the problem that
man has when he has to choose between two paths, and the way he solves it is
also incredible.

It is difficult to make the right decision but as he said it "the greater the obstacle,
the more glory in overcoming it."

And although many take the last part of the poem as the most important, I think
that both the beginning and the middle have something clear to say, they have a
determination, for something they were written. While one is a child, one looks at
different things, and things affect us differently, and we choose different paths,
because they are less difficult and more striking paths.

The poem talks about people and their destinies.

JOHN STEINBECK
Author (19021968)

36
John Steinbeck was an American novelist whose Pulitzer Prize-winning novel,
The Grapes of Wrath, portrayed the plight of migrant workers during the Great
Depression.

He was an American author of 27 books, including 16 novels, six non-

fiction books, and two collections of short stories. He is widely known for the
comic novels Tortilla Flat (1935) and Cannery Row (1945), the multi-generation
epic East of Eden (1952), and the novellas Of Mice and Men (1937) and The
Red Pony (1937). The Pulitzer Prize-winning The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is
considered Steinbeck's masterpiece and part of the American literary canon. In
the first 75 years after it was published, it sold 14 million copies.
The winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature, he has been called "a giant of
American letters". His works are widely read abroad and many of his works are
considered classics of Western literature.
Most of Steinbeck's work is set in southern and central California, particularly in
the Salinas Valley and the California Coast Ranges region. His works frequently
explored the themes of fate and injustice, especially as applied to downtrodden
or everyman protagonists.

TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY:

37
I remember when I first heard the name of John Steinbeck I thought I would be a
really boring man. Today I can say that I was completely wrong.

John Steinbeck has a way of writing that impresses. Reading the first few pages
of "Travels with Charley", I was very excited because everything that was written
became part of me, as if I had been there. The descriptions of an "American" are
too good, the details he shares, and the real to make his experiences visible to
the reader, everything in himself is really good.

I almost dare to say that I envied his dog Charley. The love that you have and
how the company enjoy making me want to leave right now with my pet, even if I
do not have any money in my pockets.

Well, although Steinbeck had an exquisite trip, he also did it to get into his
culture, to know her much more, and better than that, to do it with one of your
pets. Because to what he was, instead of taking to his wife, decided to take
Charley. That is very greasy.

DONALD BARTHLEME

38
 Writer, professor (19311989)

He was an American short story writer and novelist known for his
playful, postmodernist style of short fiction. Barthelme also worked as a
newspaper reporter for the Houston Post, was managing editor
of Location magazine, director of the Contemporary Arts
Museum in Houston (19611962), co-founder of Fiction (with Mark Mirsky and
the assistance of Max and Marianne Frisch), and a professor at various
universities. He also was one of the original founders of the University of
Houston Creative Writing Program.

JACK KEROUAC

39
 Author, Journalist, Poet (19221969)

He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S.

Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is
recognized for his method of spontaneous prose. Thematically, his work covers
topics such as Catholic spirituality, jazz, promiscuity, Buddhism, drugs, poverty,
and travel. He became an underground celebrity and, with other beats,
a progenitor of the hippie movement, although he remained antagonistic toward
some of its politically radical elements.
In 1969, aged 47, Kerouac died from internal bleeding due to long-term alcohol
abuse. Since his death, Kerouac's literary prestige has grown, and several
previously unseen works have been published. All of his books are in print today,
including The Town and the City, On the Road, Doctor Sax, The Dharma
Bums, Mexico City Blues, The Subterraneans, Desolation Angels, Visions of
Cody, The Sea Is My Brother, and Big Sur.

ON THE ROAD:
40
I dont know what to say about "On the Road". It is certainly like the diary of a
depressed drunkard.

I thought it would be much better for all those jazz and hippie moves, but no. This
time I had high expectations and ended up disappointed, and rightly so. Her
writing is rare, and it is not good. The things he says and does are even rarer.

I can even say that it made me so bored, because before reading Kerouac, I was
reading Steinbeck and there was much contrast in the two books, which ended
up leaving the story of Jack Kerouac.

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41
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42
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https://www.biography.com/people/edith-wharton-9528669
https://whisperinggums.com/2010/11/17/edith-wharton-a-journey/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway
https://www.biography.com/people/ernest-hemingway-9334498
https://la.utexas.edu/users/jmciver/Honors/Fiction%202013/Hemmingway_The
%20Old%20Man%20and%20the%20Sea_1952.pdf
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/oldman/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man_and_the_Sea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Scott_Fitzgerald
https://www.biography.com/people/f-scott-fitzgerald-9296261
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernice_Bobs_Her_Hair
http://www.gradesaver.com/short-stories-of-f-scott-fitzgerald/study-
guide/summary-bernice-bobs-her-hair
https://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/engl494/bernicebobs.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost
https://www.biography.com/people/robert-frost-20796091
https://www.enotes.com/topics/road-not-taken/in-depth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck
https://www.biography.com/people/john-steinbeck-9493358
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travels_with_Charley
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/books/steinbecks-travels-with-charley-gets-
a-fact-checking.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Barthelme
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kerouac
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Road

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