Presents a biographical sketch of nineteenth-century American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, and features a series of essays that examine his works within specific contexts that show how Hawthorne's writing reflected his concerns with issues such as women's rights, the status of children, and mesmerism.
Contains six essays in which the authors examine the historical context of the literary works of early twentieth-century American author F. Scott Fitzgerald, focusing on the cultural and intellectual climate of the 1920s and 1930s, and its influence on his writing.
Presents a short biography on Ralph Waldo Emerson, and historical essays written on the social, cultural, and political relevance of his thinking on natural science, individualism, religion, slavery, and women's rights.
Contains essays by various authors in which they examine poems of Emily Dickinson in a historical context, discussing how her works reflect the political, social, and economic circumstances of the era in which they were written.
Offers a historical overview of the short stories and novels of Edith Wharton, discussing how her writings transformed American fiction in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.
Presents an introduction to the life and literary career of nineteenth-century American writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau, features a selection of essays that examine various aspects of Thoreau's thought and work, and includes a chronology.
Presents a brief biography of nineteenth-century American poet Walt Whitman, and features five essays in which the authors examine his life and work in the context of his times.
Contains four critical essays that examine nineteenth-century American author Edgar Allan Poe's works from a historical perspective, and includes biographical and bibliographical essays, and an illustrated chronology.
