was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels, The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams. He is one of only three novelists (the others being William Faulkner and John Updike) to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once. He was named after his maternal uncle Newton Booth, then the governor of California.

was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, historical novels, plays, romances, poetry, and non-fiction. Arthur Conan Doyle was born one of ten siblings.

was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic --from the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story. He is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre and a contributor to the emerging genre of science fiction. His most famous poem is "The Raven".

was an American novelist and short story writer. Much of Hawthorne's writing centers around New England. His fiction works are considered part of the Romantic movement. His themes often center on the inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological complexity. Two of his most famous works are The Scarlet Letter and "The Ambitious Guest".

was an American poet and educator. Longfellow predominantly wrote lyric poems which are known for their musicality and which often presented stories of mythology and legend. He became the most popular American poet of his day and also had success overseas. He is best known for these works: "Paul Revere's Ride", "The Courtship of Miles Standish", "Poem of Hiawatha", and "Evangeline".

was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters whose novels are English literature standards. She wrote Jane Eyre under the pen name Currer Bell. Charlotte's mother died and then Charlotte's two oldest sisters died in childhood of tuberculosis.

was an American author, poet, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, philosopher, and leading transcendentalist. He is best known for his book, Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, "Civil Disobedience", an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.

was a popular 19th-century French writer, considered one of the fathers of the modern short story and one of the form's finest exponents; he also wrote six novels. A protégé of Flaubert, Maupassant's stories are characterized by their economy of style and efficient, effortless dénouement. Maupassant wrote in the genres of Naturalism and Realism. His most famous short story is "The Necklace".

was an American physician, professor, lecturer, and author. Regarded by his peers as one of the best writers of the 19th century, he is considered a member of the Fireside Poets. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858). He is recognized as an important medical reformer.

was an American lecturer, essayist, and poet, best remembered for leading 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 thought through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.