Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who became Mark Twain, was born on 30 November 1835 in the tiny village of Florida, Missouri, and died on 21 April 1910 in Redding, Connecticut. Few American writers have occupied so many roles in the national imagination: printer, river pilot, prospector, newspaper correspondent, lecturer, novelist, travel writer, social critic, entrepreneur, public celebrity, and, in a less frequently emph…
“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.”
Neighbourhood:
American Poets, Children's Verse, Light Verse Poets, Social Justice Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Tenderness, Peace, Longing
In the flickering twilight of America's greatest national trial, on March 25, 1862, Daniel Webster Davis entered the world in bondage. Born in either Caroline or Hanover County, Virginia, to enslaved parents—Randall or John Davis and Charlotte Ann Christian Davis—he drew his first breath amid the chaos of the Civil War, a conflict that would soon shatter the chains binding his family. His father died early, leaving h…
Neighbourhood:
African American Poets, American Poets, Harlem Renaissance, Social Justice Poets
Emotional landscape: Peace, Spirituality, Tenderness
