Science Fiction

Science Fiction is the fictional portrayal of scientific subjects in books, comics, movies, television, and other media. Science Fiction can cover a broad range of subjects such as time travel, space travel, alien species, fictional inventions, and scientific discoveries. Other genres such as horror, mystery, action, romance and even comedy can contain elements of science fiction. Historically Science Fiction dates back to the ancient Greeks as seen in books such as Vera Historia by Greek author Lucian. Science Fiction in the modern sense began in the 18Th century with classic stories such as Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift displaying the basic imagination that forms a foundation for modern Science Fiction. During the 19Th century, science fiction developed into what could truly be a separate genre. Perhaps the one author who could best be credited with pioneering modern Science Fiction is Jules Verne. It was in the classic books by Jules Verne that readers first saw science fiction used to predict scientific and technological inventions of the future. Jules Verne was able to predict space travel, submarines, and aerial bombing in books such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and From the Earth to the Moon (1865). He also fictionalized geology in Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864). Following Jules Verne, were popular authors who again expanded the subjects in science fiction such as H. G. Wells. With his exceptional novels such as The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, and War of the Worlds, H. G. Wells helped usher Science Fiction into the 20Th century.

As real life science and technology has progressed, so has science fiction with it. Through out the 20Th century, growing interest and fascination with technology and science has increased the popularity of science fiction media. Examples of this can be seen in the popularity of authors such as Arthur C. Clark, Michael Crichton, Ray Bradbury, and others. With the introduction of television and motion pictures, Science Fiction found an excellent platform to expand. Some great examples of Science Fiction's success in film and television are Star Trek, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, The Terminator series, and The Matrix.

While Science Fiction has seen dramatic growth over the previous two centuries, it is likely that this is only the beginning of it's rise in popularity. With the increased use of technological devices in the everyday lives of average people we see an expansion of subjects suited to Science Fiction. While Science Fiction was seen as a genre for a minority of geeks in the early 20Th century, today geeks are becoming the majority in society.

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Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) was an American poet, author, and historian who was born in Galesburg Illinois. He served in the Spanish-American War before attending Lombard College without graduating. After leaving Lombard College, he moved to Milwaukee Wisconsin where he served as secretary to the Mayor. It was in Wisconsin that Carl Sandburg met and married his wife Lilian with whom he had three children. Following this time in Wisconsin, Carl Sandburg moved first to Michigan and then to Chicago Illinois where he worked at the Chicago Daily News. It was in Chicago that wrote his famous collection titled Chicago Poems in 1915. It was these poems that first earned him credit as a poet. While living in Chicago he continued to write numerous poems and numerous other works. Following this period he returned to Michigan, and finally moved to North Carolina where he remained for the rest of his life.

Carl Sandburg is famous for both his poetry and his remarkable biography of President Abraham Lincoln. This six volume biography was written in two stages with the first being Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years (in 2 volumes), and the second being Abraham Lincoln: The War Years (in 4 volumes). The biography is widely considered the most thorough collection of information and material on Abraham Lincoln available. Carl Sandburg was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for the biography in 1940, along with a following Pulitzer Prize he received for his poetry. Among the many biographies, children's books, novels, essays, folk music collections, and poetry collections by Carl Sandburg are:

In Reckless Ecstasy - 1904
Chicago Poems - 1915
Cornhuskers - 1918
Clarence Darrow of Chicago - 1919
Smoke and Steel - 1920
Slabs of the Sun Burnt West - 1922
Rootabaga Pigeons - 1923
The American Songbag - 1927
Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years - 1928
Good Morning American - 1928
Abe Lincoln Grows Up - 1928
Potato Face - 1930
Early Moon - 1930
Mary Lincoln: Wife and Widow - 1932
The People, Yes - 1936
Abraham Lincoln: The War Years - 1939
Home Front Memo - 1943
Remembrance Rock - 1948
Lincoln Collector : the story of the Oliver R. Barrett Lincoln collection - 1949
The New American Songbag - 1950
Complete Poems - 1950
Always the Young Strangers - 1953
Prairie-town boy - 1955
Sandburg Range - 1957
Wind Song - 1960
Harvest Poems - 1960
Honey and Salt - 1963

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William Saroyan

William Saroyan (1908-1981) was an American author, and playwright who was born in Fresno California. Following his father's death when he was only three years old he and his siblings were placed in an orphanage for five years. Although they were later reunited with their mother, this experience had a lasting effect on William Saroyan and his writing. Early in his writing career, he wrote short stories that were published in magazines. Most Notable is Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, which appeared in Story Magazine. Following service in World War Two, he lived in Paris, and struggled with alcohol, gambling, and financial trouble for many years. Over his life time William Saroyan wrote many novels, and screen plays. He was offered, but refused to accept a Pulitzer Prize for his play The Time of Your Life in 1940. Many critics have described his books as having a childlike curious quality. Some of the plays, short stories, and novels by William Saroyan include:
Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze - 1934
Inhale and Exhale - 1936
Little Children - 1937
The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse - 1938
The Trouble with Tigers - 1938
Love Here is My Hat - 1938
My Heart's in the Highlands - 1939
The Time of Your Life - 1939
My Name is Aram - 1940
Hello Out There - 1941
The Human Comedy - 1942
Dear Baby - 1944
Don't Go Away Mad - 1949
Rock Wagram - 1951
Tracy's Tiger - 1952
Laughing Matter - 1953
Love - 1955
Moma, I Love You - 1956
The Whole Voyald - 1956
Papa You're Crazy - 1957
The Cave Dwellers - 1957
Gaston - 1962
Here Comes There Goes You Know Who - 1962
One Day in the Afternoon of the World - 1964
The Man with the Heart in the Highlands - 1968
Sons Come and Go, Mothers Hang in Forever - 1976
Chance Meetings - 1978
Obituaries - 1979
Births - (published 1983)
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W Somerset Maugham

W. (for William) Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was an English author, and playwright who was born in Paris as the son of an English lawyer working for the British embassy. His mother died while he was young which had a lasting impact on his life and personality. At the age of 16 W. Somerset Maugham attended Heidelberg University where he studied literature and philosophy. In Heidelberg he met a much older English man with whom he had a homosexual relationship. Upon returning to England he studied medicine at King's College and received a medical degree from the St. Thomas' Hospital in London England. Deciding not to pursue a career in medicine, he focused on writing. The many short stories and books by W. Somerset Maugham contain a unique writing style. His writing style is simple yet it contains a complex and insightful opinion, and narrative. While his masterpiece is Of Human Bondage, a partially autobiographical book, there are numerous other books by W. Somerset Maugham that achieved considerable success. Some of W. Somerset Maugham's novels and other works include:
Lisa of Lambeth - 1897
Mrs Craddock - 1902
Of Human Bondage - 1915
The Moon and Sixpence - 1919
The Circle - 1921
The Trembling Leaf - 1921
East of Suez - 1922
Our Betters - 1923
The Painted Veil - 1925
The Magician - 1926
The Constant Wife - 1927
Ashenden, or the British Agent - 1928
The Breadwinner - 1930
Cakes and Ale - 1930
First Person Singular - 1931
Sheppey - 1933
Ah King - 1933
The Summing Up - 1938
Christmas Holiday - 1939
Strictly Personal - 1941
The Hour Before the Dawn - 1942
Introduction to modern English Literature and American Literature - 1943
The Razor's Edge - 1944
Catalina - 1948
Quartet - 1949
Vagrant Mood - 1953
Points of View - 1959
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Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was a Renaissance painter, sculptor, scientist, engineer, and architect who was born in a Tuscan mountain town named Vinci. His father was a successful Florentine notary, and his mother was a peasant. His last name "da Vinci" simply means of the town of Vinci. He was raised by his mother until the age of 5 when he moved to his father' home in Vinci. At some point in his teenage years, the family moved to Florence where Leonardo da Vinci was educated by the painter Andrea del Verrocchio. He joined the painters guild of Florentine in 1472 while still serving as Andrea del Verrocchio's assistant. The two collaborated on a number of works including Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ where Leonardo da Vinci painted an angel in the painting.

By 1478 Leonardo da Vinci began working as an independent artist, and was commissioned to paint the altarpiece at Palazzo Vecchio, but never actually began the project. Two years later he began, but never completed three projects including the Adoration of the Kings, St. Jerome in the Wilderness, and Benois Madonna. Following these projects Leonardo da Vinci moved to Milan where he was commissioned to paint the Virgin of The Rocks for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception.
It was at this time that he began his engineering projects including the Martesena Canal. This was followed by numerous architectural endeavors including the Cathedral of Milan. It was also during the 1480's that he became master of the Milanese Academy, and worked with mathematician Luca Pacioli.

Around 1494, Leonardo da Vinci began work on The Last Supper which is considered one of his greatest masterpieces. Unfortunately his use of oil paints on plaster resulted in a painting that deteriorated quickly. As a result the many reproductions of The Last Supper probably do not capture the true beauty of The last Supper in the original state. In this extraordinary painting, Leonardo da Vinci portrays the last supper Jesus shared with the disciples. During the later part of this decade he began a large bronze equestrian monument to Francesco Storza which was left unfinished after the French entered Milan in 1499.

Following the French invasion of Milan he returned to Florence where he worked as an engineer on numerous projects. It was during this time that Leonardo da Vinci served on the commission that decided a location for Michelangelo's David, and began a competition with Michelangelo over the painting of the Palazzo Vecchio. It was following this that he began painting a number of works including his famous Mona Lisa which is the only surviving painting of Leonardo da Vinci from this period. It took him 4 years to paint the Mona Lisa and it was never fully completed. The subject is said to be Lisa the third wife of Francesco del Giocondo, however many have questioned this and even claimed it to be a self portrait. Today Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is the most recognized painting around the world.

Following this period in Florence, Leonardo da Vinci returned to Milan where he was named court painter to King Louis XII. Over the years that followed he traveled extensively between Milan and Florence and to Rome in 1513. In 1516 he traveled to France where he remained until his death in 1519.

Along with his many paintings, Leonardo da Vinci drew many scientific, engineering, and architectural drawings. Among the more famous are The Vitruvian Man, The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist, The Rhombicuboctahedron, A design for a flying machine, A design for a helicopter, and his self portrait in red chalk. The journals of Leonardo da Vinci (also referred to as Leonardo's notebooks) also contained many other drawings and sketches. Of these journals the most famous is The Codex Leicester which is today owned by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. His famous study and drawings of anatomy are the result of his lessons from Verrocchio.

As a genius, Leonardo da Vinci was perhaps more diversified than anyone in history. He showed extraordinary talent in art, science, engineering, medicine, architecture, sculpture, mathematics, and numerous other subjects.



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Herman Melville

Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American author who was born in New York City were he attended public schools. Following his education he was sent on a voyage to England as cabin boy on a ship. He returned to the United States for a short time and then joined a whaling ship for a voyage in the South Seas. His journey on the whaling ship took him to the Marquesas Islands where he was captured and held by natives. After a month of captivity he escaped on a trading ship which took him to Tahiti. He worked in Tahiti and eventually funded his voyage to Honolulu. With little means of support in Honolulu, he joined the United States Navy in 1843. A year later he was discharged from the United States Navy and returned to New York. After a brief stay in New York he relocated to Pittsfield Massachusetts where he befriended now famous American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. His attempt at supporting himself as an author met with little success, and in 1866, Herman Melville began working as his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne in a customs house.

The early books by Herman Melville were romance novels based in the South Seas, and included Typee, Omoo, and Mardi. In his next books Herman Melville fictionalized his own experiences at Sea which include the novels Redburn, His First Voyage, and White Jacket. Next he wrote his masterpiece Moby Dick which is a brilliant story of struggle between Captain Ahab, Captain of the whaling ship Pequod, and a white whale named Moby Dick. Historically scholars have considered Moby Dick the whale as the primary symbol of the novel, however no one has ever explained with certainty what the whale represents. It is likely that Herman Melville intended for the whale to be the primary symbol due to the title of the novel. While the book was not a huge success at the time of publication, today Moby Dick is considered one of the greatest books in American Literature, and a World classic.

Next Herman Melville wrote a series of unsuccessful novels including Pierre, Isle of the Cross, and Israel Potter. The next book The Piazza Tales is considered another of Herman Melville's classics. The Piazza Tales contains a masterful collection of short stories including The Piazza, Bartleby the Scrivener, Benito Cereno, The Lightning Rod Man, The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles, and The Bell Tower.

In The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade Herman Melville criticizes Ralph Waldo Emerson, other New England writers. Following this book he published a number of poems until writing his final novel Billy Budd, Foretopman. Billy Budd, although shorter, is considered to be nearly as powerful as Moby Dick in many respects, and helped complete the extraordinary career of one of America's greatest authors. Following the death of Herman Melville, his books gained little attention until the 1920's when they saw a surge in popularity that lasts to this day. Outside of his novels Herman Melville wrote numerous poems, essays, and magazine articles which are generally unread by the masses today. His novel and short stories include:

Typee : A Peep at Polynesian Life - 1846
Omoo : A Narrative of the South Seas - 1847
Mardi : And a Voyage Thither - 1849
Redburn : His First Voyage - 1849
White Jacket, or The World in a Man-of-War - 1850
Moby Dick, or The Whale - 1851
Pierre: or, The Ambiguities - 1852
Isle of the Cross - 1853
Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile - 1856
The Piazza Tales - 1856
The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade - 1857
Billy Budd, Sailor - 1891 (Published Posthumously in 1924)



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Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English author who was born in Bombay India. He attended the United Services College in North Devon. Early in his career Rudyard Kipling served on the editorial staff at the Military Gazette in Lahore India. It was during this time that he began writing short stories and publishing them in the Military Gazette. Many of these short stories are also included in his second book Plain Tales From the Hills which was published in 1887. His first book was published a year earlier a satire titled Department Ditties. The first true success Rudyard Kipling experienced as an author was from a series of stories published in 1888 and 1889. These stories are mainly about life in India and include Phantom Rickshaw, Wee Willie Winkie, Soldiers Three, In Black and White, The Story of the Gadsbys, and Under the Deodars. Following his success with these stories, he traveled to many destinations before finally taking residence in England. During these travels he met and married an American woman. Throughout his travels, and after settling in England, Rudyard Kipling wrote many short stories. One notable book written during this period, and perhaps his most famous book is The Jungle Book published in 1894. In 1907 he became the first English author to receive the Nobel Prize for literature.

Today Rudyard Kipling is considered among the greatest authors in English Literature, and is highly respected as a master of short story writing. Throughout his life Rudyard Kipling published many short stories and poems including the following:
Departmental Ditties - 1886
Plain Tales From the Hills - 1887
Sea to Sea (sketches) - 1889
Life's Handicap - 1890
The Light That Failed - 1891
Barrack Room Ballads - 1892
Many Inventions - 1893
The Jungle Book - 1894
The Second Jungle Book - 1895
The Seven Seas - 1896
Captains Courageous - 1897
The Day's Work - 1898
Salky and Co. - 1899
Kim - 1901
Just So Stories for Little Children - 1902
The Five Nations - 1903
Puck of Pook's Hill - 1906
Actions and Reactions - 1909
Rewards and Fairies - 1910
A Book of Words - 1928
Something of Myself an Autobiography - written 1936 and published 1937
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Richard Henry Dana

Richard Henry Dana (1815-1882) was an American author, and lawyer who was born in Cambridge Massachusetts. His father was the poet Richard Henry Dana. As a boy he attended a school run by American author Ralph Waldo Emerson. Richard Henry Dana later attended Harvard, until problems with his eyesight caused him to abandon his education. Upon leaving school he found a job working on a sailing ship which took him on a voyage around the infamous Cape Horn from Massachusetts to California. Upon his return to Massachusetts, he returned to school and later entered into law practice in Massachusetts. His experience on the Cape Horn adventure is told in his famous book Two Years Before Mast which was published in 1840. The success of Two Years Before Mast resulted in new legislation to improve the working and living conditions of men at sea. His next book The Seaman's Friend was published in 1841 as a guide for men at sea. Among the other books by Richard Henry Dana are:
To Cuba and Back - 1859
Journal of a voyage around the World - 1860
The Journal - 1868
Twenty Four Years After (a memoir of Two Years Before Mast) - 1869

His unique experiences and Law degree resulted in him becoming a figure of authority on maritime law. His support for the newly created Republican Party and candidate Abraham Lincoln for President earned him an appointment as U.S. attorney in Massachusetts in 1861. Following accusations of plagiarism in a law article he was not confirmed in his appointment in 1876 as United States Minister to England. In the later part of his life Richard Henry Dana was an active member of the Massachusetts legislature, and continued to practice law. Richard Henry Dana fell ill with influenza 1882, and subsequently passed away from the illness.



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Francis Parkman

Francis Parkman (1823-1893) was an American author and historian who was born in Boston Massachusetts. He was a student of law, and graduated from Harvard University in 1844. Following his education, Francis Parkman traveled in Europe briefly and, upon returning to America, he traveled west to explore the American Rocky Mountains. He spent time with the Dakota Indians, and fell ill during the time with them. His most famous book The Oregon Trail was written after a hard journey from Missouri to Oregon. While The Oregon Trail is not written as an account of this journey, it does contain many of his experiences. Following his success with The Oregon Trail in 1849, Francis Parkman wrote and published another of his famous books The Conspiracy of Pontiac in 1851. His writing following this period earned him recognition as an authority in the topic of France's struggling position in America. The Francis Parkman books on the French struggle in America are written as a series, and include the following titles:
The Pioneers of France in the New World - 1865
The Jesuits in North America - 1867
La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West - 1869
The Old Regime in Canada - 1874
Count Frontenac and the new France under Louis XIV - 1877
Montcalm and Wolfe - 1884
A Half Century of Conflict - 1893

Francis Parkman also wrote his Historic Handbook of the Northern Tour in 1885. Following the many years of writing, his eyesight had deteriorated to the point of no longer being able to read, and he continued to be in poor health.

Today Francis Parkman is viewed as an important figure in American literature who made valuable contributions as an American historian. He is also respected for his adventure seeking way of finding material for his historical writings. Through out his life, he not only traveled extensively in North America but also traveled several times to Europe. Francis Parkman also traveled to all locations of importance discussed in The Oregon Trail and his other books. His life story as an author is often viewed as one of heroic adventure.



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Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was an American author and philosopher who was born in Thetford, Norfolk, England, and immigrated to America 1774. Benjamin Franklin was instrumental in the immigration of Thomas Paine and subsequently he settled in Philadelphia. Following the publication of his landmark pamphlet on independence Common Sense in 1776, he was appointed to secretary of the committee on foreign affairs by Congress. After holding the position for one year, he was appointed clerk of the Pennsylvania legislature. He was awarded a confiscated farm in New Rochelle New York in 1785. Two years later Thomas Paine returned to England and, in 1792, published his famous book The Rights of Man as an argument against Edmund Burke's book on the French Revolution. Following publication, The Rights of Man sold over 1 and a half million copies in England. Around the time The Rights of Man was published, Thomas Paine was elected as the deputy to the National Convention by the department of Pas de Calais. This resulted in his travel to Paris where he voted in favor of the Girondists. Having angered the Robespierre faction he was subsequently imprisoned in 1794. Shortly before imprisonment, Thomas Paine began writing his famous book supporting deism The Age of Reason. This controversial book which argues against Christianity and atheism, alienated Thomas Paine from many former associates, and was not completed until 1807. Following his release from prison he was again appointed the deputy of the National Convention until 1802 when he returned to America. Following his death, a radical named William Cobbett stole the remains of Thomas Paine and took them to England. The remains were in William Cobbett's possession until his death. Today the exact whereabouts of Thomas Paine's remains is a mystery.



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Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller (1916-2005)was an American author who was born in New York City, and attended the University of Michigan. He served as a reporter and editor at the student news paper The Daily Michigan. It was around this time that his first play No Villain won the Avery Hopwood Award for play writing. In 1940 Arthur Miller married Mary Slattery with whom he later had two children. It was also in 1940 that he wrote the play The Man Who Had All The Luck which was produced later that year. In 1945 he wrote his first novel Focus. In 1947 he won the Drama Critics' Circle award for best play for All My Sons. Arthur Miller began writing his famous play Death of o Salesman in 1948, and it debuted on Broadway in February of 1949. He subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, and a Tony award for Death of a Salesman in 1949. Another of his famous plays The Crucible won an Antoinette perry Award in 1953. In 1956 he separated from Mary Slattery and Married famous actress Marilyn Monroe.

For a period of time Arthur Miller used the penn name Jonathan Lovelett, and used this name as his personal identity. This resulted from a controversy surrounding his membership in the Communist Party. In 1961 he divorced Marilyn Monroe and was married again in 1962 to Inge Morath with whom he had two more children. Over the course of his life, Arthur miller wrote many books and plays including:
They Too Arise - 1937
Honors at Dawn - 1938
The Grass Still Grows - 1938
The Great Disobedience - 1938
Listen My Children - 1939
The Golden Years - 1940
The Half-Bridge - 1943
The Hook - 1947
An Enemy of the People - 1950
A View from the Bridge - 1955
A Memory of Two Mondays - 1955
The Misfits - 1961
After the Fall - 1964
Incident at Vichy - 1964
I Don't Need You Anymore - 1967
The Price - 1968
Fame - 1970
The Creation of the World and Other Business - 1972
The Archbishop's Ceiling - 1977
The American Clock - 1980
Playing For Time - 1980
Elegy for a Lady - 1982
Some Kind of Love Story - 1982
Everybody Wins - 1984
I Think About You a Great Deal - 1986
Playing for Time - 1985
I Can’t Remember Anything - 1987
Clara - 1987
The Last Yankee - 1991
The Ride Down Mt. Morgan - 1991
Homely Girl - 1992
Broken Glass - 1994
Mr Peter’s Connections - 1998
Resurrection Blues - 2002
Finishing the Picture - 2004





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Poetry

Poetry is imaginative literature, especially in forms that use medium of verse. The term poetry as applied to all imaginative literature originates from the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who applied the definition of "imitations of actions" to the term poems. Aristotle's definition separated poems from historical, philosophical, and scientific literature. In this definition poetry can include short stories and novels, but only excludes historical, philosophical, and scientific work when written in verse. The modern definition of poetry does not exclude these works of literature, and applies to all written verse.

The primary forms of poetry are as follows:
Narrative poetry which includes literature that tells a story through narration and description.
In narrative poetry the most dominant form is epic which includes extended poems telling a story of complete action. The other important form of narrative poem is the ballad which includes short narrative poems that are set to music and sung. Less dominant forms include prose forms as the novel, short story, and romance which are all derived from the ballad and epic forms.

Dramatic poetry which tells a story through the speech of the characters themselves.
The common forms of dramatic poems include comedy, tragedy, and tragic comedy.

Lyric poetry which applies mainly to brief poems, especially poems that contain a series of thoughts, sensations, or emotions without telling a story.
Lyric poems are often in the form of ode, hymn, elegy, canzone, or sonnet.

Didactic poetry which includes poems that serve only to teach, or contain some lesson.
Didactic poems are generally satirical, or contain extended description. In the modern term it includes historical, philosophical, and scientific poems written in verse.

Poetry must follow the form appropriate to the feelings expressed, and subject matter. Words are generally applied for their sound as well as their meaning. Many poems take careful consideration of the relationship of the sounds of the words to one another. The common considerations of the poet include rhyme, assonance, and alliteration. Many poems also apply words in a manner that creates a rise or fall to their rhythm, and are referred to as metrical verse or unmetrical verse, or free verse.

Common in poetry is the use of figurative language. The primary forms of figurative language found in poems include metaphors, simile, and allegory.

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American author, poet, and essayist who was born in Boston Massachusetts. He was educated in England at the Manor House School and later at the United States Military Academy West Point and the University of Virginia. Both of his parents were actors, and his mother died when he was only three years old. Following his mother's death, Edgar Allan Poe was adopted by the wife of successful Richmond Virginia businessman John Allan. During the one year he was attending the University of Virginia, he developed a gambling and drinking problem that resulted in John Allan refusing to pay his debts. The debt forced Edgar Allan Poe to work as a clerk in John Allan's business. He later quit the clerk position resulting in a break in the relationship with his foster father. Following this period, Edgar Allan Poe relocated to Boston, and in 1927 published his first book Tamerlane and Other Poems anonymously signed "A Bostonian". Following this publication, he spent two years in the United States Army. In 1929 he mended his relationship with his foster father and published the book of verse AL Aaraaf. Following the mend in their relationship, John Allan helped gain Edgar Allan Poe an appointment to West Point. His stay at West Point lasted less than one year, and this resulted in a permanent severance in his relationship with John Allan.

The dismissal from West Point, and severance of relationship with John Allan, represented a turning point in Edgar Allan Poe's life. From this point on he dedicated his time to writing. In 1831 he published his third book titled Poems which contained a collection of his earlier published poems and six new ones. In 1832 Edgar Allan Poe relocated to Baltimore Maryland, and lived with his aunt and cousin Virginia Clemm. In Baltimore he began to write short stories and won a prize of 100 dollars for his story A Ms. Found in a Bottle. In 1836 he married his cousin Virginia Clemm, and quit drinking which had damaged his health by this point. From 1835 to 1837 he worked as editor of The Southern Literary Messenger, and during these years wrote many of his stories of mystery and horror. Included in these stories are The Masque of the Red Death, Eleonora, and The Fall of the House of Usher. It was also during this period that Edgar Allan Poe began to publish his famous essays including The Rationale of Verse, which analyzes meter in lyric poetry. In 1839 he published a collection of short stories entitled Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. This collection includes stories such as The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell Tale Heart, The Permanent Burial, Berenice, A Cask of Amontillado, Ligeria, and The Case of M. Valdemar. In 1841 his wife Virginia fell ill, and later died in 1947.

Edgar Allan Poe is most famous for his mystery novels which are often considered the foundation for most of modern mystery. Among these famous mystery tales are The Gold Bug, The Mystery of Marie Roget, The Purloined Letter, and The Murders in the Rue Morgue. During his lifetime, Edgar Allan Poe gained the most success from his poem The Raven in 1845, and two later poems Annabel Lee (about his late wife Virginia Clemm) and The Bells.

Edgar Allan Poe is considered an original in American literature who successfully wrote with a style that was independent of English literature. His poems, stories and novels helped lay the foundations of style in American Literature. Many later American mystery writers including Stephen Crane, Ambrose Bierce and even Pierre Baudelaire were influenced by Edgar Allan Poe stories and poems. The illness and death of his wife Virginia Clemm following 1841 resulted Edgar Allan Poe returning to alcohol and subsequent mental illness. In 1849 Edgar Allan Poe died after years of excessive alcohol abuse.






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William James

William James (1842-1910) was an American psychologist and philosopher who was born in New York City. His father was the theologian Henry James and his brother was the famous American author Henry James. William James was educated at Harvard Medical School and University. After interrupting his studies in 1869, he traveled to South America and explored the Amazon River. Following time spent studying philosophy and psychology in Germany, he returned to the United States and received an M.D. degree at Harvard Medical School. Within four years of receiving his M.D. he was appointed to the faculty of Harvard Medical School. William James taught physiology and anatomy in his early years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, and later taught psychology and philosophy.
The monumental book The Principles of Psychology by William James was published in 1890 and established him as one of the most influential psychologists of the time. The Principles of Psychology advanced the principle of functionalism in psychology, and helped to establish psychology as a separate discipline from philosophy. This advancement resulted in psychology being placed among the medical sciences which use experimental methods. Over the following decade William James applied empirical methods of inquiry the questions of religion and philosophy. Many of the questions he studied include the existence of God, free will, and immortality of the soul. His opinions of these issues are expressed in the following collections of lectures and essays by William James:
The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy - 1897
Human Immortality - 1998
Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals - 1899
The Varieties of Religious Experience - 1902
Religious leaders especially welcomed The Varieties of Religious Experience because it justified their beliefs through science.
The famous later lectures published in 1907 as Pragmatism : A New Name for Old Ways of Thinking by William James focused on his epoch making theory of the method of pragmatism. It was the physicist Charles S. Pierce who first used the term pragmatism, however it was William James who first developed it from a critique of the logical basis of science into a critique of all experience. He maintained that ideas are only valuable based upon their usefulness and consequence.
In the final published works of William James, Essays in Radical Empiricism - 1912, he spoke against ideals of the world being explained by mystic forces that explain the relation of events and things. He expressed that the relationships between events and things are as real as the events and things themselves.
In the later years of William James' life, he had was established as a psychologist and philosopher of great influence around the world. He was recognized as an originator of new theories in both psychology and philosophy. John Dewey continued to develop William James' theories on pragmatism, and Albert Einstein made his theories on relationships between events and things seem prophetic.


Further information on William James

Henry James

Henry James (1843 - 1916) was an American author who was born in New York City. He was a son of theologian Henry James and brother of the famous psychologist and philosopher William James. He attained his education in New York, London England, Paris and Geneva. In 1875 he took residence in England and subsequently only returned to the United States for vacations. He became a British citizen in 1915. While in his early twenties Henry James contributed short stories and articles to American Periodicals. This resulted in the American author William Dean Howells encouraging him and introducing his works to the magazine The Atlantic Monthly. His work is characterized by leisurely pacing and subtle delineation of character rather than by dramatic incidents or complicated plots. His major works, highly sensitive examples of the objective psychological novel, describe the world of leisure and sophistication he grew to know intimately in England and Europe.
In Henry James' early novels he dealt with the impact of European culture on American traveling and living abroad. Examples of this phase, written between 1875 and 1881, are Roderick Hudson, Washington Square, Portrait of a Lady, and The American Daisy Miller. Next he explored the types and manners of English scenes, in The Tragic Muse, The Spoils of Poynton, and The Awkward Age, all written from 1889 to 1900. The last great novels by Henry James, written between 1901 and 1904, The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl, take up once again the issue of different views between Europeans and Americans. The later works of Henry James are generally work complex than his earlier works, and the later characters and scenes seem to only exist in the minds of other characters.
Henry James was a prolific author, and one or more of his books were published every year up to his death in 1916. The many other books and stories of Henry James include:
French Poets and Novelists - 1878
An International Episode - 1879
The Author of Beltraffio - 1885
The Bostonians - 1886
The Princess Casamassima - 1886
What Massie Knew - 1897
In The Cage - 1898
The Soft Side - 1900
The Sacred Fount - 1901
The Better Sort - 1903
The Finer Grain - 1910
The Outcry - 1911
A Small Boy and Others - 1913
Notes of a Son and Brother - 1914
Notes on Novelists - 1914



Further information on Henry James