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States and Colonial America. For more specific discussions of poetry and theater, see
Poetry of the United States and Theater in the United States.
Contents
[hide]
1 Overview
2 Colonial literature
3 Early U.S. literature
4 Unique American style
5 American lyric
6 Realism, Twain, and James
7 Turn of the century
8 Post-World War II
9 Contemporary American fiction
10 Minority focuses in American literature
11 Additional genres
12 References
13 External links
[edit] Overview
During its early history, America was a series of British colonies on the eastern coast of
the present-day United States. Therefore, its literary tradition begins as linked to the
broader tradition of English literature. However, unique American characteristics and the
breadth of its production usually now cause it to be considered a separate path and
tradition.
History of modern
literature
Humorous writers were also popular and included Seba Smith and
Benjamin P. Shillaber in New England and Davy Crockett,
Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, Johnson J. Hooper, Thomas Bangs
The early modern
Thorpe, Joseph G. Baldwin, and George Washington Harris
period
writing about the American frontier.
16th century in
The New England Brahmins were a group of writers connected to literature | 17th
Harvard University and its seat in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The century in literature
European literature
core included James Russell Lowell, Henry Wadsworth
in the 18th century
Longfellow, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
1700s | 1710s | 1720s
| 1730s | 1740s |
In 1836, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), an ex-minister,
published a startling nonfiction work called Nature, in which he 1750s | 1760s | 1770s
| 1780s | 1790s |
claimed it was possible to dispense with organized religion and
1800s
reach a lofty spiritual state by studying and responding to the
natural world. His work influenced not only the writers who
Modern Literature,
gathered around him, forming a movement known as
19th century
Transcendentalism, but also the public, who heard him lecture.
1800s | 1810s | 1820s
| 1830s | 1840s |
Emerson's most gifted fellow-thinker was perhaps Henry David 1850s | 1860s | 1870s
Thoreau (1817-1862), a resolute nonconformist. After living
| 1880s | 1890s |
mostly by himself for two years in a cabin by a wooded pond,
1900s
Thoreau wrote Walden, a book-length memoir that urges
Modern Literature,
resistance to the meddlesome dictates of organized society. His
20th century
radical writings express a deep-rooted tendency toward
Modernism |
individualism in the American character. Other writers influenced Structuralism |
by Transcendentalism were Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller,
Deconstruction |
George Ripley, Orestes Brownson, and Jones Very.
Poststructuralism |
Postmodernism | PostThe political conflict surrounding Abolitionism inspired the
colonialism |
writings of William Lloyd Garrison and his paper The Liberator, Hypertext fiction
along with poet John Greenleaf Whittier and Harriet Beecher
1900s | 1910s | 1920s
Stowe in her world-famous Uncle Tom's Cabin.
| 1930s | 1940s |
1950s | 1960s | 1970s
In 1837, the young Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) collected
| 1980s | 1990s |
some of his stories as Twice-Told Tales, a volume rich in
2000s
symbolism and occult incidents. Hawthorne went on to write fullModern Literature
length "romances," quasi-allegorical novels that explore such
in Europe
themes as guilt, pride, and emotional repression in his native New
England. His masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter, is the stark drama of European literature
Modern Literature
a woman cast out of her community for committing adultery.
in the Americas
American literature |
Hawthorne's fiction had a profound impact on his friend Herman Argentine literature |
Brazilian literature |
Melville (1819-1891), who first made a name for himself by
Canadian literature |
turning material from his seafaring days into exotic novels.
Colombian literature |
Cuban literature |
Jamaican literature |
Mexican literature |
Peruvian writers
Australasian
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), on the other hand, lived the sheltered life of a genteel
unmarried woman in small-town Amherst, Massachusetts. Within its formal structure, her
poetry is ingenious, witty, exquisitely wrought, and psychologically penetrating. Her
work was unconventional for its day, and little of it was published during her lifetime.
Many of her poems dwell on death, often with a mischievous twist. "Because I could not
stop for Death" one begins, "He kindly stopped for me." The opening of another
Dickinson poem toys with her position as a woman in a male-dominated society and an
unrecognized poet: "I'm nobody! Who are you? / Are you nobody too?"
England. Many of his novels center on Americans who live in or travel to Europe. With
its intricate, highly qualified sentences and dissection of emotional and psychological
nuance, James's fiction can be daunting. Among his more accessible works are the
novellas Daisy Miller, about an enchanting American girl in Europe, and The Turn of the
Screw, an enigmatic ghost story.
Education of Henry Adams also depicted a stinging description of the education system
and modern life.
Experimentation in style and form soon joined the new freedom in subject matter. In
1909, Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), by then an expatriate in Paris, published Three Lives,
an innovative work of fiction influenced by her familiarity with cubism, jazz, and other
movements in contemporary art and music. Stein labeled a group of American literary
notables who lived in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s as the "Lost Generation".
The poet Ezra Pound (1885-1972) was born in Idaho but spent much of his adult life in
Europe. His work is complex, sometimes obscure, with multiple references to other art
forms and to a vast range of literature, both Western and Eastern. He influenced many
other poets, notably T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), another expatriate. Eliot wrote spare, cerebral
poetry, carried by a dense structure of symbols. In "The Waste Land" he embodied a
jaundiced vision of post-World War I society in fragmented, haunted images. Like
Pound's, Eliot's poetry could be highly allusive, and some editions of The Waste Land
come with footnotes supplied by the poet. In 1948, Eliot won the Nobel Prize in
Literature.
American writers also expressed the disillusionment following upon the war. The stories
and novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) capture the restless, pleasure-hungry,
defiant mood of the 1920s. Fitzgerald's characteristic theme, expressed poignantly in The
Great Gatsby, is the tendency of youth's golden dreams to dissolve in failure and
disappointment. Sinclair Lewis and Sherwood Anderson also wrote novels with critical
depictions of American life. John Dos Passos wrote about the war and also the U.S.A.
trilogy which extended into the Depression.
The period in time from the end of World War II up until, roughly, the late 1960s and
early 1970s saw to the publication of some of the most popular works in American
history. The last few of the more realistic Modernists along with the wildly Romantic
Beatniks largely dominated the period, while the direct respondents to Americas
involvement in World War II contributed in their notable influence.
From J.D. Salingers Nine Stories and The Catcher in the Rye to Sylvia Plaths The Bell
Jar, Americas madness was placed to the forefront of the nations literary expression.
migr Authors such as Vladimir Nabokov, with Lolita, forged on with the theme, and, at
almost the same time, the Beatniks took a concerted step away from their Lost
Generation predecessors.
The poetry and fiction of the "Beat Generation," largely born of a circle of intellects
formed in New York City around Columbia University and established more officially
some time later in San Francisco, came of age. The term, Beat, referred, all at the same
time, to the countercultural rhythm of the Jazz scene, to a sense of rebellion regarding the
conservative stress of post-war society, and to an interest in new forms of spiritual
experience through drugs, alcohol, philosophy, and religion, and specifically through Zen
Buddhism. Allen Ginsberg set the tone of the movement in his poem Howl a
Whitmanesque work that began: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
madness...." At the same time, his good friend Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) celebrated the
Beats' rollicking, spontaneous, and vagrant life-style in, among many other works, his
masterful and most popular novel On the Road.
Regarding the war novel specifically, there was a literary explosion in America during the
post-World War II era. Some of the most well known of the works produced included
Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead (1948), Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (1961) and
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Slaughterhouse-Five (1969).
Other notable authors of the period included Zora Neale Hurston, and Willa Cather,
confronting the African American condition and the condition of the immigrant,
respectively, in Their Eyes were Watching God and My Antonia.
Flannery O'Connor (b. March 25, 1925 in Georgia d. August 3, 1964 in Georgia) also
explored and developed the theme of 'the South' in American literature that was dear to
Mark Twain and other leading authors of American literary history (Wise Blood 1952 ;
The Violent Bear It Away 1960 ; Everything That Rises Must Converge - her best known
short story, and an eponymous collection published posthumously in 1965).
and mass media have influenced the average American's perception and experience of the
world, which is quite often criticized along with the American government, and, in many
cases, with America's history, but especially with the average American's perception of
his or her own history.
Many Postmodern authors are also well known for setting scenes in fast food restaurants,
on subways, or in shopping malls; they write about drugs, plastic surgery, and television
commercials. Sometimes, these depictions look almost like celebrations. But
simultaneously, writers in this school take a knowing, self-conscious, sarcastic, and
(some critics would say) condescending attitude towards their subjects. David Eggers,
Chuck Palahniuk, and David Foster Wallace are, perhaps, most well known for these
particular tendencies.
Southern literature
African American literature
Jewish American literature
Gay literature
List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
List of Asian American Writers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_literature
The poetry of the United States naturally arose first during its beginnings as the
Constitutionally-unified thirteen colonies (although prior to this, a strong oral tradition
often likened to poetry existed among Native American societies[1]). Unsurprisingly, most
of the early colonists' work relied on contemporary British models of poetic form,
diction, and theme. However, in the 19th century, a distinctive American idiom began to
emerge. By the later part of that century, when Walt Whitman was winning an
enthusiastic audience abroad, poets from the United States had begun to take their place
at the forefront of the English-language avant-garde.
This position was sustained into the 20th century to the extent that Ezra Pound and T.S.
Eliot were perhaps the most influential English-language poets in the period during
World War I.[2] By the 1960s, the young poets of the British Poetry Revival looked to
their American contemporaries and predecessors as models for the kind of poetry they
wanted to write. Toward the end of the millennium, consideration of American poetry had
diversified, as scholars placed an increased emphasis on poetry by women, African
Americans, Hispanics, Chicanos and other subcultural groupings. Poetry, and creative
writing in general, also tended to become more professionalized with the growth of
creative writing programs in the English studies departments of campuses across the
country.
Contents
[hide]
9 External links
Phillis Wheatley
One of the first recorded poets of the British colonies was Anne Bradstreet (16121672),
who remains one of the earliest known women poets who wrote in English.[3] The poems
she published during her lifetime address religious and political themes. She also wrote
tender evocations of home and family life, and of her love for her husband, many of
which remained unpublished until the 20th century. Edward Taylor (16451729) wrote
poems expounding Puritan virtues in a highly wrought metaphysical style that can be
seen as typical of the early colonial period.[4]
This narrow focus on the Puritan ethic was, understandably, the dominant note of most of
the poetry written in the colonies during the 17th and early 18th centuries.
Another distinctly American lyric voice of the colonial period was Phillis Wheatley, a
slave whose book "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral," was published in
1773. She was one of the best-known poets of her day, at least in the colonies, and her
poems were typical of New England culture at the time, meditating on religious and
classical ideas.[5][6]
The 18th century saw an increasing emphasis on America itself as fit subject matter for
its poets. This trend is most evident in the works of Philip Freneau (17521832), who is
also notable for the unusually sympathetic attitude to Native Americans shown in his
writings, sometimes reflective of a skepticism toward Anglo-American culture and
civilization.[7] However, as might be expected from what was essentially provincial
writing, this late colonial poetry is generally somewhat old-fashioned in form and syntax,
deploying the means and methods of Pope and Gray in the era of Blake and Burns.
On the whole, the development of poetry in the American colonies mirrors the
development of the colonies themselves. The early poetry is dominated by the need to
preserve the integrity of the Puritan ideals that created the settlement in the first place. As
the colonists grew in confidence, the poetry they wrote increasingly reflected their drive
towards independence. This shift in subject matter was not reflected in the mode of
writing which tended to be conservative, to say the least. This can be seen as a product of
the physical remove at which American poets operated from the center of Englishlanguage poetic developments in London.
writers are united by a common search for a distinctive American voice to distinguish
them from their British counterparts. To this end, they explored the landscape and
traditions of their native country as materials for their poetry.[8]
The most significant example of this tendency may be The Song of Hiawatha by
Longfellow. This poem uses Native American tales collected by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft,
who was superintendent of Indian affairs for Michigan from 1836 to 1841. Longfellow
also imitated the meter of the Finnish epic poem Kalevala, possibly to avoid British
models. The resulting poem, while a popular success, did not provide a model for future
U.S. poets.
Emily Dickinson
Another factor that distinguished these poets from their British contemporaries was the
influence of the transcendentalism of the poet/philosophers Emerson and Thoreau.
Transcendentalism was the distinctly American strain of English Romanticism that began
with William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Emerson, arguably one of the
founders of transcendentalism, had visited England as a young man to meet these two
English poets, as well as Thomas Carlyle. While Romanticism transitioned into
Victorianism in post-reform England, it grew more energetic in America from the 1830s
through to the Civil War.
Edgar Allan Poe was probably the most recognized American poet outside of America
during this period. Diverse authors in France, Sweden and Russia were heavily
influenced by his works, and his poem "The Raven" swept across Europe, translated into
many languages. In the twentieth century the American poet William Carlos Williams
said of Poe that he is the only solid ground on which American poetry is anchored.
Walt Whitman.
The final emergence of a truly indigenous English-language poetry in the United States
was the work of two poets, Walt Whitman (18191892) and Emily Dickinson (1830
1886). On the surface, these two poets could not have been less alike. Whitman's long
lines, derived from the metric of the King James Version of the Bible, and his democratic
inclusiveness stand in stark contrast with Dickinson's concentrated phrases and short lines
and stanzas, derived from Protestant hymnals.
What links them is their common connection to Emerson (a passage from whom
Whitman printed on the first edition of Leaves of Grass), and the daring originality of
their visions. These two poets can be said to represent the birth of two major American
poetic idiomsthe free metric and direct emotional expression of Whitman, and the
gnomic obscurity and irony of Dickinsonboth of which would profoundly stamp the
American poetry of the 20th century.[9]
The development of these idioms can be traced through the works of poets such as Edwin
Arlington Robinson (18691935), Stephen Crane (18711900), Robert Frost (1874
1963) and Carl Sandburg (18781967). As a result, by the beginning of the 20th century
the outlines of a distinctly new poetic tradition were clear to see.
Archibald Macleish called John Gillespie Magee, Jr. "the first poet of the war".[10]
World War II saw the emergence of a new generation of poets, many of whom were
influenced by Wallace Stevens. Richard Eberhart (19042005), Karl Shapiro (1913
2000) and Randall Jarrell (19141965) all wrote poetry that sprang from experience of
active service. Together with Elizabeth Bishop (19111979), Theodore Roethke (1908
1963) and Delmore Schwartz (19131966), they formed a generation of poets that in
contrast to the preceding generation often wrote in traditional verse forms.
After the war, a number of new poets and poetic movements emerged. John Berryman
(19141972) and Robert Lowell (19171977) were the leading lights in what was to
become known as the confessional movement, which was to have a strong influence on
later poets like Sylvia Plath (19321963) and Anne Sexton (19281974). Both Berryman
and Lowell were closely acquainted with modernism, but were mainly interested in
exploring their own experiences as subject matter and a style that Lowell referred to as
"cooked", that is consciously and carefully crafted.
Denise Levertov
In contrast, the Beat poets, who included such figures as Jack Kerouac (19221969),
Allen Ginsberg (19261997), Gregory Corso (19302001), Joanne Kyger (born 1934),
Gary Snyder (born 1930), Diane Di Prima (born 1934), Denise Levertov (19231997),
Amiri Baraka (born 1934) and Lawrence Ferlinghetti (born 1919), were distinctly raw.
Reflecting, sometimes in an extreme form, the more open, relaxed and searching society
of the 1950s and 1960s, the Beats pushed the boundaries of the American idiom in the
direction of demotic speech perhaps further than any other group.
Around the same time, the Black Mountain poets, under the leadership of Charles Olson
(19101970), were working at Black Mountain College. These poets were exploring the
possibilities of open form but in a much more programmatic way than the Beats. The
main poets involved were Robert Creeley (19262005), Robert Duncan (19191988), Ed
Dorn (19291999), Paul Blackburn (19261971), Hilda Morley (19161998), John
Wieners (19342002), and Larry Eigner (19271996). They based their approach to
poetry on Olson's 1950 essay Projective Verse, in which he called for a form based on the
line, a line based on human breath and a mode of writing based on perceptions juxtaposed
so that one perception leads directly to another. Cid Corman (19242004) and Theodore
Enslin (born 1925) are often associated with this group but are perhaps more correctly
viewed as direct descendants of the Objectivists.
The Beats and some of the Black Mountain poets are often considered to have been
responsible for the San Francisco Renaissance. However, as previously noted, San
Francisco had become a hub of experimental activity from the 1930s thanks to Rexroth
and Gleason. Other poets involved in this scene included Charles Bukowski (19201994)
and Jack Spicer (19251965). These poets sought to combine a contemporary spoken
idiom with inventive formal experiment. Jerome Rothenberg (born 1931) is well-known
for his work in ethnopoetics, but he was also the coiner of the term "deep image". Deep
image poetry is inspired by the symbolist theory of correspondences. Other poets who
worked with deep image include Robert Kelly (born 1935), Diane Wakoski (born 1937)
and Clayton Eshleman (born 1935).
The Small Press poets (sometimes called the mimeograph movement) are another
influential and eclectic group of poets who also surfaced in the San Francisco Bay Area
in the late 1950s and are still active today. Fiercely independent editors, who were also
poets, edited and published low-budget periodicals and chapbooks of emerging poets who
might otherwise have gone unnoticed. This work ranged from formal to experimental.
Gene Fowler, A.D. Winans, Hugh Fox, street poet and activist Jack Hirschman, Paul
Foreman, John Bennett, Stephen Morse (born 1945), Judy L. Brekke, and F. A.
Nettelbeck are among the many poets who are still actively continuing the Small Press
Poets tradition. Many have turned to the new medium of the Web for its distribution
capabilities.
Just as the West Coast had the San Francisco Renaissance and the Small Press
Movement, the East Coast produced the New York School. This group aimed to write
poetry that spoke directly of everyday experience in everyday language and produced a
poetry of urbane wit and elegance that contrasts strongly with the work of their Beat
contemporaries. Leading members of the group include John Ashbery (born 1927), Frank
O'Hara (19261966), Kenneth Koch (19252002), James Schuyler (19231991), Richard
Howard (born 1929), Ted Berrigan (19341983), Anne Waldman (born 1945) and
Bernadette Mayer (born 1945).
John Cage (19121992), one-time Black Mountain College resident and composer, and
Jackson Mac Low (19222004) both wrote poetry based on chance or aleatory
techniques. Inspired by Zen, Dada and scientific theories of indeterminacy, they were to
prove to be important influences on the 1970s U.S avant-garde.
James Merrill (19261995), off to the side of all these groups and very much sui generis,
was a poet of great formal virtuosity and the author of the epic poem The Changing Light
at Sandover (1982).
Tomas O'Leary published Fool at the Funeral in 1975 and The Devil Take a Crooked
House in 1990. These two critically acclaimed books established O'Leary as a renowned
poet in the New England States.
Nikki Giovanni
The 1970s saw a revival of interest in surrealism, with the most prominent poets working
in this field being Andrei Codrescu (born 1946), Russell Edson (born 1935) and Maxine
Chernoff (born 1952). Performance poetry also emerged from the Beat and hippie
happenings, and the talk-poems of David Antin (born 1932) and ritual events performed
by Rothenberg, to become a serious poetic stance which embraces multiculturalism and a
range of poets from a multiplicity of cultures. This mirrored a general growth of interest
in poetry by African Americans including Gwendolyn Brooks (born 1917), Maya
Angelou (born 1928), Ishmael Reed (born 1938) and Nikki Giovanni (born 1943).
The most controversial, avant-garde grouping during this period has been the Language
poets (or L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets, after the magazine that bears that name).
Language-centered writing is extremely theoretical, discounting speech as the basis for
verse, and dedicated to questioning the referentiality of language and the dominance of
the sentence as the basic unit of syntax. The idea appears to be that language, when
stripped of its normal associative and denotative meanings, becomes closer to the source
of language and may actually provide insights that might not otherwise be possible.
Those critical of the Language movement point out that taken to its logical conclusion
this abandonment of sense and context creates a poetry that could be just as well be
written by the proverbial infinite sized room full of monkeys with an infinite number of
word processors.
The Language poets movement includes a very high proportion of women, which mirrors
another general trend; the rediscovery and promotion of poetry written both by earlier
and contemporary women poets. In addition to Language poets, a number of the most
prominent African American poets to emerge are women, and other prominent women
writers include Adrienne Rich (born 1929) and Amy Gerstler (born 1956).
The Language group also contains an unusually high proportion of academics. Poetry has
tended to move more and more into the campus, with a growth in creative writing and
poetics programs providing an equal growth in the number of teaching posts available to
practicing poets. This increased professionalization and abundance of academic presses
combined with a lack of any coherent process for critical evaluation is one of the clearest
developments and one which seems likely to have unpredictable consequences for the
future of poetry in the United States.
The 1980s also saw the emergence of a group of poets who became known as the New
Formalists. These poets, who included Molly Peacock, Brad Leithauser, Dana Gioia and
Marilyn Hacker, write in traditional forms and have declared that this return to rhyme and
more fixed meters is the new avant-garde. Critics of the New Formalists have compared
their traditionalism with the conservative politics of the Reagan era. It is intended as an
insult.
Many poets (A growing group of poets loosely called Outlaw Poets or Small Press Poets)
ignore what they see as the extremes and academic elitism of the self-proclaimed avantgarde of both poetic groups, choosing to use both traditional and experimental
approaches to their work.
Concurrently, a Chicago construction worker named Marc Smith was growing bored with
increasingly esoteric academic poetry readings. In 1984, at the Get Me High Lounge,
Smith devised the format that has come to be known as slam poetry. A competitive poetry
performance, poetry slam opened the door for a new generation of writers, spoken word
performers, and audiences by emphasizing a style of writing that is edgy,topical, and
easily understood.
Poetry slam has produced noted poets like Alix Olson, Taylor Mali, and Saul Williams, as
well as inspired hundreds of open mics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry_of_the_United_States
The poets listed below were either born in the United States or else published much of
their poetry while living in that country.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
[edit] A
[edit] B
Jean Boese
Louise Bogan
Katherine Bond
Arna Bontemps
Bruce Boston
Jenny Boully
Kay Boyle
William Brandon (author)
Beth Brant
Richard Brautigan (19351984)
Kate Braverman
Donari Braxton
Joseph Payne Brennan (19181990)
Ken Brewer (19412006)
Sarah Brinklow
John Malcolm Brinnin (19161999)
James Brock (born 1958)
Joseph Brodsky (1940 1996),
Louis Daniel Brodsky (born 1941)
William Bronk (19181999)
Charles Timothy Brooks
Gwendolyn Brooks (19172000)
Maria Gowen Brooks (1795?1845)
"Brother Antoninus" William Everson (19121994)
Alice Brown (writer)
Rita Mae Brown
Francis Fisher Browne
William Cullen Bryant (17941878)
Jack Buck
Charles Bukowski (19201994)
David R. Bunch
Henry Cuyler Bunner
Graham Burchell
Jos Antonio Burciaga
Stanley Burnshaw
Amelia Josephine Burr
William S. Burroughs (19141997)
Maxwell Struthers Burt
Ray Buttigieg (born 1955)
W. E. Butts
Witter Bynner
Gilbert Byron
Su Byron
[edit] C
John Cage
Scott Cairns
Andrew Calimach
Joseph N. Cameron
Julia Cameron
James Edwin Campbell (poet)
Mary Baine Campbell
Melville Henry Cane
Skipwith Cannell
Joe Cardarelli
Jim Carroll
Hayden Carruth
Guy Wetmore Carryl (18731904)
Jared Carter
Carolyn Joyce Carty (born 1957)
Raymond Carver (19381988)
Phoebe Cary
Sandra M. Castillo
Ana Castillo
Madison Cawein
Joseph Ceravolo
Richard Wayne Chambliss, Jr.
William Ellery Channing (18181901)
Arthur Chapman (18741935)
John Jay Chapman
Fred Chappell
Alexander Chee
Neeli Cherkovski (born 1945)
Maxine Chernoff
Bob Cherry
Chrystos
Anglico Chvez
John Ciardi
Noah Cicero
Sandra Cisneros
Amy Clampitt
Tom Clark (poet)
John Clarke (poet)
Pearl Cleage
Shihan van Clief(born 1975)
Lucille Clifton
Joshua Clover
Stanton A. Coblentz
Andrei Codrescu
Robert P. T. Coffin
Ira Cohen
Nan Cohen
Henri Cole
Norma Cole
Wanda Coleman
Billy Collins (born 1941)
Betsy Colquitt (born 1927)
Shanna Compton (born 1970)
Hilda Conkling
Evan S. Connell
Leo Connellan (19282001)
Gillian Conoley
Matt Cook
Rose Terry Cooke
Ina Coolbrith
Clark Coolidge
Dennis Cooper
Jake Copass
William Corbett
Billy Corgan
Cid Corman (19242004)
Gregory Corso (19302001)
Jayne Cortez
Joe Cottonwood
Henri Coulette
John Cournos
Elise Cowen
Louis O. Coxe
Christopher Pearse Cranch
Hart Crane, (18991932)
Stephen Crane, (18711900)
Adelaide Crapsey
Gary William Crawford
Robert Creeley (19262005)
Harry Crosby (18981929)
Countee Cullen (19031946)
E. E. Cummings (1894-1962)
Bloodgood Cutter
[edit] D
S. Foster Damon
Jim Daniels (born 1956)
Tina Darragh
Robert von Dassanowsky
Guy Davenport
Donald Davidson (poet)
Gustav Davidson
Michael Davidson (born 1944)
Alan Davies (poet)
Dale Davis (poet)
Gwen Davis
Clarence Day
Jaime de Angulo
Caridad de la Luz
William F. DeVault (born 1955)
Philip F. Deaver
Edwin Denby (poet)
Richard Denner
Reuel Denney
Carl Dennis
Tory Dent
Babette Deutsch
Ray DiPalma
George Dickerson
James Dickey (19231997)
Emily Dickinson (18301886)
R. H. W. Dillard (born 1937)
George Dillon
Linh Dinh (born 1963)
Ray DiPalma (born 1943)
Diane Di Prima (born 1934)
Thomas M. Disch (1940)
Patricia Dobler
Stephen Dobyns (1941)
Owen Dodson
John Dolan (writer)
Nathan Haskell Dole
Sonya Dorman
Ed Dorn (19291999)
Julia Caroline Dorr
Mark Doty
Franz Douskey
Rita Dove (1952)
Kirby Doyle
Joseph Rodman Drake (17951820)
[edit] E
Cornelius Eady
Pliny Earle (physician)
Richard Eberhart (1904-2005)
David Edelstadt
Russell Edson
Kari edwards
Max Ehrmann
Larry Eigner (19271996)
Loren Eiseley
Che Elias
T. S. Eliot (18881965)
Ana Elsner
Lynn Emanuel
Claudia Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
R. M. Engelhardt
Paul Engle
Theodore Enslin (born 1925)
Daniel Mark Epstein
Clayton Eshleman (born 1935)
Martn Espada
Willard R. Espy
Maggie Estep
David Allan Evans
Mari Evans
William Everson Brother Antoninus (19121994)
[edit] F
Ruth Fainlight
B.H. Fairchild
William Clark Falkner
Roger Fanning
Norma Farber
Patricia Fargnoli
John Chipman Farrar
Jessie Redmon Fauset
Kenneth Fearing
Frederick Feirstein
Irving Feldman (born 1928)
Paul Fericano
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, (born 1919)
Eugene Field
Rachel Field
James Thomas Fields
Fireside Poets
Ann Fisher-Wirth
Tom Fitzgerald (poet)
Bob Flanagan
Terrence Fleming
John Gould Fletcher
Roland Flint
Douglas Florian
Nick Flynn
Jack Foley (poet)
Carolyn Forch (born 1950)
John M. Ford
Gary Forney
Sam Walter Foss (18581911)
Skip Fox
Michael Frauenhofer
Robert Frazier
Philip Freneau (17521832)
Larry Friefeld (born 1941)
Robert Frost (18741963)
Gwen Frostic
Nan Fry
Alice Fulton (born 1952)
[edit] G
[edit] H
Tony Hoagland
Daniel Hoffman
Roald Hoffmann
John Hollander (born 1929)
Bill Holm (poet)
Bob Holman
M. Carl Holman
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (18091894)
Dennis Holt (born 1942)
Garrett Hongo
Edwin Honig (born 1919)
George Moses Horton
Joan Houlihan
Richard Howard (born 1929)
Fanny Howe (born 1940)
Julia Ward Howe
Marie Howe
Susan Howe
Susan Howe (born 1937)
Helen Hoyt
Lindley Williams Hubbell
Chris Huff (born 1990)
Langston Hughes (19021967)
Richard Hugo (19231982)
Constance Hunting (19252006)
Cynthia Huntington
Siri Hustvedt
[edit] I-J
[edit] K
Sheema Kalbasi
Chester Kallman
Ilya Kaminsky
Lenore Kandel
Mary Karr
Julia Kasdorf
Janet Kauffman (born 1945)
Herbert Kaufman
W. B. Keckler
John Keene (writer)
Weldon Kees (19141955)
Brigit Pegeen Kelly (born 1951)
Collin Kelley
Jamie Kennedy (poet)
Richard Kenney
Maurice Kenney
Jane Kenyon
Jack Kerouac (19221969)
Sophie Kerr
Francis Scott Key
Laurel Elizabeth Keyes
Bill Keith
D. Kildare
Aline Murray Kilmer
Joyce Kilmer
Val Kilmer
Suji Kwock Kim
Jack Kimball
Kimiko Hahn
Haven Kimmel
Amy King
Galway Kinnell (born 1927)
Susan Kinsolving
Mary Kinzie
David Kirby (poet)
Lincoln Kirstein (19071996)
Carolyn Kizer
August Kleinzahler (born 1949)
William Kloefkorn
Etheridge Knight(19331991)
Kenneth Koch (19252002)
Wayne Koestenbaum
Yusef Komunyakaa (born 1948)
Ted Kooser
Alfred Kreymborg
Maxine Kumin
Stanley Kunitz (19052006)
Laurie Kutchins
Joanne Kyger (born 1934)
[edit] L
Christine E. Laine
Philip Lamantia
Fran Landesman
Landis Everson
Joseph Langland
Sidney Lanier (18421881)
George Parsons Lathrop
Richmond Lattimore
Sanders Anne Laubenthal
James Laughlin
Ann Lauterbach
Dorianne Laux
James Lavilla-Havelin
William P. Lawrence
John Edward Lawson
Robert Lax (19152000)
Emma Lazarus
Kelly Le Fave
Li-Young Lee
Malka Lee
Samantha V. Lee
Lemon (poet)
Aya de Leon
Ben Lerner
David Lerner
Jimmy Lerner
Rika Lesser
Denise Levertov (19231997)
Dana Levin
Philip Levine (born 1928)
Larry Levis
D. A. Levy
William Levy
Alonzo Lewis
Robert W. Lewis
Charles Lillard
Shirley Geok-lin Lim
Vachel Lindsay (18791931)
Amon Liner
Linh Dinh
Sara Jane Lippincott
Jonathan Lamas
George Cabot Lodge
Ron Loewinsohn
Naomi Long Madgett (born 1923)
James Longenbach
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (18071882)
Audre Lorde, (born 1934)
Amy Lowell (18741925)
James Russell Lowell (18191891)
Maria White Lowell
Robert Lowell (19171977)
Walter Lowenfels
Mina Loy
Felipe Luciano
Tom Luffman
Lydia Lunch
Masiela Lusha
Thomas Lux
William Whittingham Lyman Jr
Thomas Lynch (born 1948)
[edit] M
Cynthia Macdonald
Jackson Mac Low
Carlyle Ferren MacIntyre
Percy MacKaye
Nathaniel Mackey
Archibald MacLeish (18921982)
MadPunK
Naomi Long Madgett
Haki R. Madhubuti
John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Frank Richard Maloney
Tom Mandel (poet)
Donna M. Marbach
Djelloul Marbrook
Sheldon James Martin (born 1945)
Joseph Moncure March
Edwin Markham
Don Marquis
David Mason (writer)
Matt Mason
Steve Mason
Edgar Lee Masters (18681950
Harry Mathews
William Matthews (19421997)
John Matthias
Kevin Max
Bernadette Mayer
Frances Mayes
Janet McAdams
Robert McAlmon
Jack McCarthy
J. D. McClatchy
Michael McClure
Michael McFee
Bryant H. McGill (born 1969)
Karyna McGlynn
Mac McGovern (poet)
Michael McGovern (poet)
Campbell McGrath
Thomas McGrath (poet)
Tayla McGregor (poet)
Louis McKee
Rod McKuen
James McMichael (born 1939)
Louise McNeill
Alexander Beaufort Meek
Abel Meeropol
Joshua Mehigan
David Meltzer
Herman Melville (born 18191890)
Samuel Menashe (born 1925)
William Meredith (born 1919)
Billy Merrell
Eve Merriam
James Merrill (19261995)
Stuart Merrill (18631915)
Thomas Merton (19151968)
W.S. Merwin (born 1927)
Tom Meschery
Sarah Messer (born 1966)
Robert Mezey
Diane Middlebrook
Josephine Miles (19111985)
Joseph Millar
Edna St. Vincent Millay (18921950)
Alice Duer Miller
Rev. Jen Miller
Joaquin Miller (18371913)
Leslie Adrienne Miller
May Miller
Tim Miller
Vassar Miller
Deborah A. Miranda
John Kearsley Mitchell
Susan Mitchell
K. Silem Mohammad
Paul Monette
Mong-Lan
Marion Montgomery (poet)
Jos Montoya
William Vaughn Moody
Clara Jessup Moore
Charles Leonard Moore
Daniel Moore
Jacqueline S. Moore
Jessica Care Moore
Julia A. Moore
[edit] N
Vladimir Nabokov
Ogden Nash (19021971)
John Neal
John Neihardt
Jill Neimark
Joel M. Nelson
Howard Nemerov
Arthur Nersesian
Kenn Nesbitt (born 1962)
F. A. Nettelbeck
Jill Neimark
Joel M. Nelson
Howard Nemerov (19201991)
Arthur Nersesian
Kenn Nesbitt
Martina Newberry
Celeste Newbrough
Aimee Nezhukumatathil (born 1974)
Lorine Niedecker (1903[?]1970)
Audrey Niffenegger
John Frederick Nims
Nina (poet)
Lucille Nixon
Eric "Big Daddy" Nord
Jessica Nordell
Shannon Norman (born 1981)
Charles North
Jessica Nelson North
Harry E. Northup (born 1940)
Jim Northrup (writer)
Alice Notley
Naomi Shihab Nye (born 1952)
[edit] O
[edit] P
Kevin Prufer
[edit] Q
George Quasha
[edit] R
Burton Raffel
Sam Ragan
Carl Rakosi (19032004)
Lee Ranaldo
Dudley Randall (19142000)
James Ryder Randall
Julia Randall
Claudia Rankine (born 1963)
Darren B. Rankins (born 1966)
John Crowe Ransom (18881974)
Sadi Ranson
Ron Rash
David Ray (born 1932)
Wayne Ray (Alabama b. 1950, now in Canada)
Thomas Buchanan Read
Spencer Reece
Henry Reed (19141986)
Ishmael Reed (born 1938)
Lizette Woodworth Reese
John Reinhard
Paul Reps
Carter Revard
Donald Revell (born 1954)
[edit] S
Michael Salinger
Mary Jo Salter (born 1954
Francis Saltus Saltus
Frank Samperi
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)
Charles Simic
Jim Simmerman
William Gilmore Simms
Marge Simon
Louis Simpson
John Sinclair (poet)
Hal Sirowitz (born 1949)
Judith Skillman
Myra Sklarew (born 1934)
Clark Ashton Smith
Edwin E. Smith
Elizabeth Oakes (Prince) Smith
Langdon Smith
Marc Smith
Margaret Smith (poet)
Patti Smith
R. T. Smith
Rod Smith
Rolland Smith
Tracy K. Smith (born 1972)
William Jay Smith
W. D. Snodgrass (born 1926)
Eliza Roxcy Snow
Craig Snyder
Laurel Snyder
Gary Snyder (born 1930)
Gustaf Sobin (1935-2005)
Roberto Solis
Gilbert Sorrentino
Juliana Spahr
Anne Spencer (1882-1975)
Jack Spicer
James Spix (born 1974)
Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford
Kim Stafford
William Stafford (1914-1993)
Frank Stanford (19481978)
Henry Throop Stanton
George Starbuck
William Force Stead
Edmund Clarence Stedman
Elizabeth Clementine Stedman
Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)
Mattie Stepanek
George Sterling
[edit] T
Eileen Tabios
John Taggart
Amber Tamblyn
Luci Tapahonso
Mark Tardi (born 1975)
Nathaniel Tarn (born 1928)
Allen Tate (18991979)
James Tate (born 1943)
Bayard Taylor
Edward Taylor (1645-1729)
Michelle Tea
Sara Teasdale
Michael Teig
Robbie Q. Telfer
Todd Temkin (born 1964)
Lucy Terry
Steve Tesich
Celia Thaxter
Ernest Thayer (18631940)
Scofield Thayer
[edit] U-V
David Unger
Louis Untermeyer
Charles Upton (born 1948)
Catherynne M. Valente
Jean Valentine
Max Wolf Valerio
Cor Van Den Heuvel
Mark Van Doren
Mona Van Duyn
Sheldon Vanauken
Janine Pommy Vega (born 1942)
Jones Very
George Sylvester Viereck
Peter Viereck
Nick Virgilio
Gerald Vizenor
Judith Vollmer
Frederick Von Guerin
[edit] W
Buddy Wakefield
Diane Wakoski (born 1937)
Diane Wald
Anne Waldman
Rosmarie Waldrop (born 1945)
Keith Waldrop
Alice Walker (born 1944)
Lonie Walker
Margaret Walker
Ryan Walsh
BJ Ward (poet)
Sean Ward (born 1966)
Catherine Anne Warfield
Robert Penn Warren (19051989)
William John Watkins
Barrett Watten (born 1948)
Arthur Weil (born 1925)
Hannah Weiner
James Welch (poet)
Lew Welch
Joe Wenderoth
Theodore Weiss (poet) (19162003)
Paul West (poet)
Philip Whalen
Mark Whalon
John Wheatcroft
Phillis Wheatley (17531784)
Beth Wheatley
Margaret Widdemer
John Wieners
Dara Wier Wilbur
Richard Wilbur (born 1921)
Carlos Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Charlotte Wilder
Charles Willeford
C. K. Williams
Jonathan Williams (poet)
Oscar Williams (19001964)
Paul O. Williams
Randall Williams
Sarah Williams
William Carlos Williams (18831963)
Elizabeth Willis (born 1961)
Nathaniel Parker Willis
Edmund Wilson
Ian Randall Wilson
Anne Winters
Yvor Winters
Sam Witt
Larry Woiwode
John Barton Wolgamot
Nellie Wong
Merle Woo
George Edward Woodberry
Samuel Woodworth
Gamel Woolsey
Bryan Thao Worra
Patience Worth
C. D. Wright
Charles Wright (poet)
Franz Wright
Jameelah Causey Wright
James Wright (19271980)
Jay Wright (poet)
Kirby Wright
Richard Wright (author) (19081960)
Elinor Wylie
[edit] X-Z
Emanuel Xavier
Lois-Ann Yamanaka
Leo Yankevich
John Yau
Al Young (born 1939)
C. Dale Young (born 1969)
Dean Young (poet)
Kevin Young (poet)
Matthew Zapruder
Lisa Zaran
Marya Zaturenska
Louis Zukofsky (19041978)
Andrew C. Zinn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_poets_from_the_United_States
Theater of the United States is based in the Western tradition, mostly borrowed from
the performance styles prevalent in Europe. Today, it is heavily interlaced with American
literature, film, television, and music, and it is not uncommon for a single story to appear
in all forms. Regions with significant music scenes often have strong theater and comedy
traditions as well. Musical theater may be the most popular form: it is certainly the most
colorful, and choreographed motions pioneered on stage have found their way onto
movie and television screens. Broadway in New York City is generally considered the
pinnacle of commercial U.S. theater, though this art form appears all across the country.
Another city of particular note is Chicago, which boasts the most diverse and dynamic
theater scene in the country. Regional or resident theatres in the United States are
professional theatre companies outside of New York City that produce their own seasons.
There is also community theatre and showcase theatre (performing arts group). Even tiny
rural communities sometimes awe audiences with extravagant productions.
Note: "theater" is the preferred spelling in the U.S., see spelling differences.
Contents
[hide]
1 History
o 1.1 Early history
o 1.2 The 19th century
o 1.3 The 20th century
2 American theater today
3 External links
[edit] History
likely that these ordinances were not strictly enforced, for we have records of
performances in many cities during this time.
John Drew, a famous American actor, playing the part of Petruchio from The Taming of
the Shrew.
Shakespeare was the most commonly performed playwright, along with other European
authors. American playwrights of the period existed, but are mostly forgotten now.
American plays of the period are mostly melodramas, often weaving in local themes or
characters such as the heroic but ill-fated Indian. The most enduring melodrama of this
period is Uncle Tom's Cabin, adapted by H. J. Conway from the novel by Harriet Beecher
Stowe.
A popular form of theater during this time was the minstrel show, arguably the first
uniquely American style of performance. These shows featured white actors dressed in
blackface and playing up racial stereotypes. These shows became the most watched
theatrical form of the era.
Throughout the 19th century, many preachers continued to warn against attending plays
as being sinful. Theater was associated with hedonism and even violence, and actors
especially female actors, were looked upon as little better than prostitutes. A serious
rivalry between William Charles Macready and Edwin Forrest mirrored the sports
rivalries of later years. The Astor Place Riot of 1849 in New York was sparked by this
rivalry, and brought about the deaths of 22 people. Then, at the end of the United States
Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was shot in Ford's Theater while watching a play.
Burlesque became a popular form of entertainment in the middle of the 19th century.
Originally a form of farce in which females in male roles mocked the politics and culture
of the day, burlesque was condemned by opinion makers for its sexuality and
outspokenness. The form was hounded off the "legitimate stage" and found itself
relegated to saloons and barrooms. The female producers were replaced by their male
counterparts, who toned down the politics and played up the sexuality, until the shows
eventually became little more than pretty girls in skimpy clothing singing songs, while
male comedians told raunchy jokes.
The Civil War ended much of the prosperity of the South, and with it, its independent
theaters. Only New Orleans was able to recover its theatrical tradition in the 19th century,
if only partially. In the North, theater flourished as a post-war boom allowed longer and
more frequest productions. The advent of railroads allowed actors to travel much more
easily between towns, making theaters in small towns more feasible. By the late 19th
century, there were thousands of cities and towns with at least a rudimentary theater for
live productions. This trend also allowed larger and more elaborate sets to travel with
players from city to city. The advent of electric lighting led to changes in styles, as more
details could be seen by the audience.
Minstrel show performers Rollin Howard (in female costume) and George Griffin, c.
1855.
By the 1880s theaters on Broadway in New York City, and along 42nd Street, took on a
flavor of their own, giving rise to new stage forms such as the Broadway musical
(strongly influenced by the feelings of immigrants coming to New York with great hope
and ambition, many of whom went into the theater). New York became the organizing
center for theater throughout the U.S.
In 1896, Charles Frohman, Al Hayman, Abe Erlanger, Mark Klaw, Samuel F. Nixon, and
Fred Zimmerman formed the Theatrical Syndicate. Their organization established
systemized booking networks throughout the United States and created a monopoly that
controlled every aspect of contracts and bookings until the late 1910s when the Shubert
brothers broke their stranglehold on the industry.
nudity and drug culture references. Musicals remained popular as well, and musicals such
as West Side Story and A Chorus Line broke previous records.