Contains biographical sketches of authors who wrote or began writing their major works during the period 1820 to 1860. Represented are writers of short stories, juvenile literature, sermons, and popular literature, as well as novelists, poets, essayists, editors, humorists, translators, compilers, journalists, reformers, historians, abolitionists, and scientists.

Henkin explores the influential but little-noticed role reading played in New York City's public life between 1825 and 1865. The "ubiquitous urban texts"--from newspapers to paper money, from street signs to handbills--became both indispensable urban guides and apt symbols for a new kind of public life that emerged first in New York.

Contains biographical sketches of authors who wrote or began writing their major works during the period 1820 to 1860. Represented are writers of short stories, juvenile literature, sermons, and popular literature, as well as novelists, poets, essayists, editors, humorists, translators, compilers, journalists, reformers, historians, abolitionists, and scientists.

Offers a collection of poems with themes ranging from race, memory, and Southern culture to African American celebrities including Richard Pryor, Muhammad Ali, and Nat King Cole.