Literature

  • Oct 12, 1492

    Christopher Columbus allegedly discovers America

    Established the New World to become America, named after Amerigo Vespucci.
  • Period: Dec 14, 1492 to

    beginnings to 1700

  • Jan 14, 1493

    Letter from First Voyage of Columbus

  • Feb 14, 1503

    Letter to Ferdinand on Fourth Voyage of Columbus

  • Dec 14, 1542

    De Vaca's Journal

    A series of excerpts that gave the reader a glimpse into the life he and his team lead with the indian tribes they encountered. Vast differences from Columbus' approach and findings.
  • Jamestown established: colonization begins

    Gave potential for American country.
  • WOMEN ARE HERE!!!!

    Allows the population to grow and produce leaders and writers.
    (not sure about day)
    This is referring of course to the "shipment" of women recieved in Jamestown.
  • Plymouth founded

    (day unknown)
    Established what would become New England where most of our authors were from.
  • John Smith's life

    A series of stories of his life from the 3rd and 4th books of Virginia's history. The series is The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles.
  • William Bradford's diary

    Excerpts taken from Book One and Book Two of OF Plymouth Plantation. The works were designed to increase funding.
  • Anne Bradstreet

    Multiple Poems on everything from being criticized to the burning of her house. All were written by 1678, but not all were done in 1678.
  • Roger Williams Letter to friends and Country men

    (rough estimation on the date of the work)
  • Period: to

    1700-1820

  • Edward Taylor

    A series of poems and meditations, mostly dealing with Scripture.
  • Jonathan Edwards

    Sinners in the hands of an angey God has to be one of the most riveting, yet theologically unstable, sermons I have ever her....read.
  • French and Indian War begins

    Any war breaking out changes the view of the opposing force and changes the culture. This would have been stressful for the colonies.
  • Ben Franklin

    Wayto Wealth was written in 1757 and depicted a narrative wherein the author quotes himself. Franklin also gave his take on the savages in the following pice which was written in 1784
  • French and Indian War ends

    The end of the war would determine the changes made socially and politically. This will affect literary work.
  • Phyllis Wheatley

    Another series of poems written by 1773 regarding God, subtle hints at oppression, and slavery in general.
  • Thomas Paine

    He shared with us his disdain for the British monarchy in Common Sense.
  • Constitution made.

    This is one of the longest lasting and recently scrutinized pieces of American literature.
  • Olaudah Equino

    Three chapters of a narrative of his life.
  • Occom and Jacket diaries?

    The pieces have no listed date, though Occom must have been before 1792 and Jacket before 1830.
  • Washington Irving

    Rip Van Winkle was an awesome piece I remembered from early age. The piece was much more complex than I ad ever dreamed and this class showed me the other facets.
  • Period: to

    1820-1865

  • Thomas Jefferson

    His Autobiography
  • James Fenimore Cooper

    The Last of the Mohicans
  • William Cullen Bryant

    Thanatopsis, To A Waterfowl, and The Praries were all written by 1834.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson

    Self-Reliance Showed a line of thinking that we should be entirely relient on self. What we see, what we hear, etc.
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne

    In 1835 he gave is the tale of Young Goodman Brown. In 1841 He gave us the legend of the Birth-Mark. Both with potentially interesting points behind them, not necessarilly from his intent though.
  • Edgar Allen Poe

    The Purloined Letter, Annabel-Lee, The Raven, The Philosophy of Composition. Again 1849 was whe the last one was written.
  • Henry David Thoreau

    Resistence to Cicvil Government clearly showed a paradigm shift in thinking towards the authority over man.
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe

    Uncle Tom's Cabin excerpt
  • Herman Melville

    Bartleby the Scrivener
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

    The Psalm of Life, The Slaves Dream, Jewish Cemetary at Newport, My Lost Youth, Rainy Days, and Paul Revere's Midnight Ride. Of all of these The Slave's Dream was the most interesting to disect, but the Psalm of Life depicted a great visual.All were written by 1855.
  • Emily Dickenson

    A series of poems whose names were nubers, and others. All were apparently written by 1865.
  • Mark Twain

    The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
  • Period: to

    1865-1914

  • John Whittier A Snow-Bound Winter Idyl

  • Walt Whitman

    Ones' Self I Sing, Shut Not Your Doors, When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer, The Dalliance of the Eagles, Beat!Beat! Drums!, Cavalry Crossing a Ford, The Wound-Dresser.
  • Emma Lazarus

    In the Jewish Synogogue at Newport, The New Collosus, 1492
  • Ambrose Bierce

    An Occurence At Owl-Creek Bridge
  • Kate Chopin

    Desiree's Baby
  • Stephen Crane

    The Open Boat
  • Booker T. Washington

    Up From Slavery
  • W.E.B. Dubois

    From the Souls of Black Folk Chapter 1
  • Robert Frost

    Mowing, The Mending Wall, The Death of the Hired Man, The Pasture
  • Period: to

    1914-1945

  • America enter WWI

    This marks a future change in politics, alliances, and gives a different focus to some literature. In this time it would shift to the soldier, his family, and why they need support.
  • WWI ends

    Alliances and peace treaties are signed. The world is forever changed. New ideaologies and religions start to filter in creating diverse writings to come.
  • Carl Sandburg

    Chicago, Fog, Grass
  • Ezra Pound

    To Whistler, American, Portrait d'une Femme, A Pact, In a Station of the Metro, The River Merchants Wife:A Letter, From The Cantos
  • Edwin Arlington Robinson

    Most of his works which we read were written in 1896. Luke Havergal, Richard Corey, Miniver Cheevy, and Mr. Flood's Party were the ones we read.
  • Willa Cather

    Neighbor Rosicky
  • Zora Neal Hurston

    How It Feels to Be Colored Me
  • William Faulkner

    A Rose for Emily
  • T.S. Eliot

    The Hollow Men, Journey of the Magi, Burnt Norton
  • E.E. Cummings

    Thy fingers make early flowers of, anyone lived in a pretty how town, in Just-, O sweet spontaneous, Buffalo Bill's
  • America enters War

    Already bad blood between nations worsened. New alliances soon to be formed. Influences that have never been are about to come to american shores from overseas. Oppression is about to hit the Japanese in the states. It is a time of great fear. One of the busiest times for any journalist.
  • Marianne Moore

    Poetry, To a Snail, The Paper Nautilus, The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing, In Mistrust of Merits
  • WWII ends

    Again things change in regard to ideals and traditions. That which was sacred becomes common. Standards begin to deteriorate.
  • Period: to

    1945-2013

  • Langston Hughes

    The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Mother to Son, I, Too, Visitors to the Black Belt, Note on Commercial Theatre, Democracy, Theme for English B This date is out of the period, yet it is the date given for the final piece we read which is also the highest date given. I have run into this on multiple occasions. Not exactly sure what the deal is.
  • Flannery O Conner

    Good Country People
  • Theodore Rothke

    Cuttings, My Papa's Waltz, Dolor, The Waking, Elegy for Jane
  • Cold War

    Novels begin to change towards tales of spies and espionage. News headlines speak of coming apocolypse by nuclear missile.
  • Robert Hayden

    Middle Passage, Homage to the Empress of the Blues, Those Winter Sundays
  • Vietnam

    Public minds are subjected to awful images and terrible results for the soldiers for what is deemed a pointless war. Media, including writers, begin to shift their focus to the emotion felt by the people in an attempt to right a wrong.
  • Sylvia Plath

    Morning Song, Lady lazurus
  • N. Scott Momaday

    From The Rainy Way Mountain
  • Alice Walker

    Everyday Use
  • Elizabeth Bishop

    The Fish, At the Fishhouses, The Armadillo, Sestina, In the Waiting Room, One Art. This Author had quite a range....1946-1976
  • Adrienne Rich

    Storm Warnings, Snapshots of a Daughter-in-law, A Valediction Forbidding Mourning, Diving Into the Wreck, Transcendental Etude
  • Gwendolyn Brooks

    kitchenette building, the mother, The Whie Troops Had Their Orders, We Real Cool, The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till, To the Diaspora
  • Gloria Anzaldua

    How to Tame a Wild Tongue
  • Billy Collins

    Forgetfulness, I Chop Some Parsely While Listening to Art Blakey's Version of "Three Blind Mice", The Night House
  • American Lit class

    Even now the students are at work studying for an exam and putting together what they can of a timeline like they have never done before. Since this is directly related to the class, I figure it counts as an historic moment worth recording.