Ralph Waldo Emerson
was born in Boston and spent most of his literary career in
Concord, Massachusetts
.
The
literature of New England
has had an enduring influence on
American literature
in general, with themes such as religion, race, the individual versus society, social repression, and nature, emblematic of the larger concerns of American letters.
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History
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]
New England's rich literary history begins with the oral tradition of Native American tribes. During the colonial period,
Stephen Daye
set up the first British-American printing press in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
, and, in 1640, published the
Bay Psalm Book
as the first book printed in
British North America
. England-born
Anne Bradstreet
, who had settled in
Massachusetts Bay Colony
, there composed what was soon published as
The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America
.
New England was the birthplace of many American
Romantic
authors and poets.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
was born in Boston.
Henry David Thoreau
was born in
Concord, Massachusetts
, where he famously lived, for some time, by
Walden Pond
, on Emerson's land.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
,
romantic era
writer, was born in historical
Salem
; later, he would live in Concord at the same time as Emerson and Thoreau. All three of these writers have strong connections to
The Old Manse
, a home in the Emerson family and a key center of the
Transcendentalist movement
.
Washington Irving
wrote short stories set in New England communities of dutch origin.
Emily Dickinson
lived most of her life in
Amherst, Massachusetts
.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
was from Portland, Maine, and
Edgar Allan Poe
was born in Boston.
According to some, the famed
Mother Goose
, the author of fairy tales and nursery rhymes was originally a person named Elizabeth Foster Goose or Mary Goose who lived in Boston, but there is no evidence to support this. Poets
James Russell Lowell
,
Amy Lowell
, and
Robert Lowell
, a
Confessionalist
poet and teacher of
Sylvia Plath
, were all from New England.
Anne Sexton
, also taught by Lowell, was born and died in Massachusetts. Much of the work of Nobel Prize laureate
Eugene O'Neill
is associated with the city of
New London, Connecticut
, where he spent many summers. The 14th U.S.
Poet Laureate
Donald Hall
, a New Hampshire resident, continues the line of renowned New England poets.
Noah Webster
, the Father of American Scholarship and Education, was born in
West Hartford, Connecticut
.
Pulitzer Prize winning
poets
Edwin Arlington Robinson
,
Edna St. Vincent Millay
and
Robert P. T. Coffin
were born in
Maine
. Writer
Sarah Orne Jewett
was born and died in South Berwick, Maine, and is famous for her short stories and novels set along the local seacoast.
Poets
Stanley Kunitz
and
Elizabeth Bishop
were both born in
Worcester, Massachusetts
, and Pulitzer Prize?winning poet
Galway Kinnell
was born in
Providence, Rhode Island
.
Oliver La Farge
, a New Englander of French and Narragansett descent, won the
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel
, the predecessor to the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
, in 1930 for his book
Laughing Boy
.
John P. Marquand
grew up in
Newburyport, Massachusetts
. Novelist
Edwin O'Connor
, who was also known as a radio personality and journalist, won the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
for his novel
The Edge of Sadness
. Pulitzer Prize winner
John Cheever
, a novelist and short story writer, was born in
Quincy, Massachusetts
, and set most of his fiction in old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around there.
E. Annie Proulx
was born in
Norwich, Connecticut
.
David Lindsay-Abaire
, who won the
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
in 2007 for his play
Rabbit Hole
, was raised in Boston.
Ethan Frome
, written in 1911 by
Edith Wharton
, is set in turn-of-the-century New England, in the fictitious town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. Like much literature of the region, it plays off themes of isolation and hopelessness. New England is also the setting for most of the
gothic
horror stories of
H. P. Lovecraft
, who lived his life in
Providence, Rhode Island
. Real New England towns such as
Ipswich
,
Newburyport
,
Rowley
, and
Marblehead
featured often in his stories alongside fictional locations such as Dunwich, Arkham, Innsmouth and Kingsport. Lovecraft often expressed an appreciation for New England in his personal correspondence, and believed that returning to the area was the reason that his writing improved after he left New York City.
The region has also drawn authors and poets from other parts of the U.S.
Mark Twain
thought Hartford was the most beautiful city in the U.S.
[
citation needed
]
He made it his home, and wrote his masterpieces there. He lived next door to
Harriet Beecher Stowe
, a local most famous for the novel
Uncle Tom's Cabin
.
John Updike
, originally from
Pennsylvania
, eventually moved to
Ipswich, Massachusetts
, which served as the model for the fictional New England town of Tarbox in his 1968 novel
Couples
.
Robert Frost
was born in California, but moved to Massachusetts during his teen years and published his first poem in
Lawrence
; his frequent use of New England settings and themes ensured that he would be associated with the region.
Arthur Miller
, a New York City native, used New England as the setting for some of his works, most notably
The Crucible
.
An illustration from
Herman Melville
's
Moby-Dick
Herman Melville
, originally from New York City, bought the house now known as
Arrowhead
in
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
, and there wrote his novel
Moby-Dick
. Poet
Maxine Kumin
was born in
Philadelphia
, and currently resides in
Warner, New Hampshire
. Pulitzer Prize?winning poet
Mary Oliver
was born in
Maple Heights, Ohio
, and lived in
Provincetown, Massachusetts
for over fifty years.
Charles Simic
, who was born in
Belgrade
, Serbia (at that time
Yugoslavia
) grew up in Chicago and lives in
Strafford, New Hampshire
, on the shore of
Bow Lake
. He is the
professor emeritus
of
American literature
and
creative writing
at the
University of New Hampshire
. Pulitzer Prize?winning novelist and short story writer
Steven Millhauser
, whose short story "Eisenheim the Illusionist" was adapted into the 2006 film
The Illusionist
, was born in New York City and raised in Connecticut.
More recently,
Stephen King
, born in
Portland, Maine
, has used the small towns of his home state as the setting for much of his horror fiction, with several of his stories taking place in or near the fictional town of Castle Rock. Just to the south,
Exeter, New Hampshire
, was the birthplace of best-selling novelist
John Irving
and
Dan Brown
, author of
The Da Vinci Code
.
Rick Moody
has set many of his works in southern New England, focusing on wealthy families of suburban Connecticut's
Gold Coast
and their battles with addiction and
anomie
.
Derek Walcott
, a playwright and poet who won the 1992
Nobel Prize for Literature
, taught poetry at
Boston University
. Pulitzer Prize winner
Cormac McCarthy
, whose novel
No Country for Old Men
was made into the
Academy Award for Best Picture
winning film in
2007
, was born in
Providence
, although he moved to Tennessee when he was a boy.
New York Times Bestselling author
Dennis Lehane
, another native of the Boston area, who was born in
Dorchester
, wrote the novels that were adapted into the films
Mystic River
,
Gone Baby Gone
and
Shutter Island
.
Largely on the strength of its local writers, Boston was for some years the center of the U.S. publishing industry, before being overtaken by New York in the middle of the nineteenth century. Boston remains the home of legacy publishers
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
and
Pearson Education
as well as a cadre of younger independent publishers including
Candlewick Press
and Charlesbridge Publishing, and was the longtime home of literary magazine
The Atlantic Monthly
.
Merriam-Webster
is based in
Springfield, Massachusetts
.
Yankee
, a magazine dedicated to New England life, culture, and arts, is based in
Dublin, New Hampshire
.
See also
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References
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