Sophocles Biography
SOPHOCLES (495-406 B.C.), Greek tragic poet, was born at Colonus in the neighborhood of Athens. His father’s name was Sophillus; and the family burial-place, is said to have been about a mile and a...
Biography / E5-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum
by EILeditor · Published February 7, 2024 · Last modified February 10, 2024
SOPHOCLES (495-406 B.C.), Greek tragic poet, was born at Colonus in the neighborhood of Athens. His father’s name was Sophillus; and the family burial-place, is said to have been about a mile and a...
Biography / E4-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum
by EILeditor · Published January 9, 2024 · Last modified November 20, 2023
JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT (1784–1859), English essayist and miscellaneous writer, was born at Southgate, Middlesex, on the 19th of October 1784. His father, the son of a West Indian clergyman, had settled as a...
Biography / E4-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum
by EILeditor · Published October 23, 2023 · Last modified November 20, 2023
GEOFFREY CHAUCER (? 1340–1400), English poet, is most famous for his great work “The Canterbury Tales.” His own age delighted in stories, and he gave it the stories it demanded invested with a humanity,...
Biography / E4-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum
by EILeditor · Published September 12, 2023 · Last modified November 20, 2023
FRANCIS THOMPSON (1859–1907), poet and prose-writer, was born on 18 Dec. 1859 at 7 Winckley Street, in Preston, England. His father, Charles Thompson (1824–1896), a native of Oakham, Rutland, practiced homoeopathy at Preston and...
Biography / E4-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum
by EILeditor · Published September 4, 2023 · Last modified November 20, 2023
John Ruskin (1819 – 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic, and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as architecture, literature, education, myth, ornithology, botany, geology, and political...
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT (1794-1878), American poet and journalist, was born at Cummington, a farming village in the Hampshire hills of western Massachusetts, on the 3rd of November 1794. He was the second son of...
Biography / E4-Resources / E5-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum
by EILeditor · Published August 18, 2023 · Last modified November 20, 2023
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE (1564–1593), English dramatist, the father of English tragedy, and [the establisher] of dramatic blank verse, the eldest son of a shoemaker at Canterbury, was born in that city on the 6th of...
Biography / E5-Resources / Resources for Teaching
by Janice Campbell · Published March 22, 2022 · Last modified March 24, 2022
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA (1547-1616), Spanish novelist (Don Quixote and others), playwright, and poet was born at Alcalá de Henares in 1547. The attempts of biographers to provide him with an illustrious genealogy are...
Alexander (or Aleksándr) Sergeyvich Pushkin (1799—1837) was a Russian poet born in Moscow, on the 7th of June 1799. He belonged to an ancient family of boyars; his maternal great-grandfather, a favourite negro ennobled by Peter...
Russian novelist Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (or Turgeniev) (1818 – 1883) was the descendant of an old Russian family, was born at Orel, in the government of the same name, in 1818. His father, the...
Dante (or Durante) Alighieri (1265-1321), the greatest of Italian poets, was born at Florence about the middle of May 1265. He was descended from an ancient family, but from one which at any rate...
John Milton (1608–1674), author of Paradise Lost and other works, was an English poet. He was born in Bread Street, Cheapside, London, on the 9th of December 1608. Milton’s Parents and Early Life His father,...
SIR WALTER SCOTT, Bart. (1771-1832), Scottish poet and novelist, was born at Edinburgh on the 15th of August 1771. His pedigree, in which he took a pride that strongly influenced the course of his...
Alexandre Dumas, also known as Alexandre Dumas père, was a French author and playwright, best known for his historical adventure fiction. As one of France’s most widely read authors, his works have been translated into dozens...
Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum
by Janice Campbell · Published July 11, 2020 · Last modified July 10, 2020
William Cowper (1731–1800), an English poet, was born in the rectory (now rebuilt) of Great Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire, on the 26th of November (O.S. 15th) 1731, his father the Rev. John Cowper being rector of...
In this brief Herman Melville Biography, you will learn about his first job at the age of 12 and how his sea adventures were transformed into literature.
American author Henry James, a transitional figure between literary realism and modernism, is often numbered among the great English-language novelists.
by Janice Campbell · Published November 7, 2018 · Last modified September 4, 2020
American writer Washington Irving, best known for “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” was an essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat.
Biography / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum
by Janice Campbell · Published August 30, 2017 · Last modified November 14, 2023
William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (1770-1850), an English poet, was born at Cockermouth, on the Derwent, in Cumberland, on the 7th of April 1770. Wordsworth’s family and childhood He was the son of John Wordsworth...
The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Birth and parents Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), an English poet and philosopher, was born on the 21st of October 1772, at his father’s vicarage of Ottery St Mary’s, Devonshire....
Charles Lamb, a British author and critic, is especially remembered for his Essays of Elia and Tales from Shakespeare, co-authored with his sister Mary.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. Dante Gabriel Rossetti Biography DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI (1828~1882), English poet...
In this 1922 O. Henry bio, you’ll learn about a surprising twist in the life of author William Sydney Porter, known for short stories with surprise endings.
The William Blake biography from the 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica offers an opinionated glimpse of the life and style of author and artist, William Blake.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an immensely gifted English writer who produced a large variety of work ranging from humorous to tragic. He had the capacity to be ridiculous (The Importance of Being Earnest) as well as deadly serious (De Profundis).
George Herbert (1593–1633) wrote some of the most beautiful devotional poetry in the English language. Learn more about this poet’s life and work.
The Life of Edmund Spenser Author of The Faerie Queene Spenser biography Dr. George Armstrong Wauchope, Professor of English, South Carolina College Birth and early years Edmund Spenser was born in London near the...
by EILeditor · Published September 28, 2014 · Last modified August 29, 2020
Henry David Thoreau Biography by Dr. Ann Woodlief Henry David Thoreau was a complex man of many talents who worked hard to shape his craft and his life, seeing little difference between them. Born...
This essay on the life and work of Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), English poet and priest, was first published in The Poets’ Chantry by Katherine Brégy (1912). It does not attempt to cover every aspect of Hopkins’...
American author and illustrator Howard Pyle studied art in Philadelphia with F. A. Van der Weilen, then began writing and illustrating his own stories.
Here’s the Everyday Educator — our annual newsletter handout. It has book lists and helpful articles about homeschooling topics. We’d rather be sharing it in person, but for now, you can download the Everyday Educator here. I hope you enjoy it!
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