Page 72 - Cousins - Celebrities, Saints & Sinners

Other Prominent Authors & Poet Cousins

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Oliver Wendell Holmes (August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894) was an
American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. A member of
the Fireside Poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best
writers of the day. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-
Table" series, which began with The Autocrat of the Breakfast-
Table (1858). He was also an important medical reformer. In addition to
his work as an author and poet, Holmes also served as a physician,
professor, lecturer, and inventor.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

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Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an
American essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he
is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in
natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience" (originally
published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for
disobedience to an unjust state. His books, articles, essays, journals, and
poetry amount to more than 20 volumes.
Henry David Thoreau

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Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an
American poet. While Dickinson was a prolific poet, only 10 of her nearly

1,800 poems were published during her lifetime. The poems published
then were usually edited significantly to fit conventional poetic rules. Her
poems were unique to her era. They contain short lines, typically lack
titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization
and punctuation. Many of her poems deal with themes of death and

Emily Dickinson immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.

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Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an
American novelist, short story writer and poet of the American
Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-
Dick (1851), Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences
in Polynesia, and Billy Budd, a posthumously published novella. The
centennial of his birth in 1919 was the starting point of a Melville
revival in which critics re-evaluated his work and his novels became
Herman Melville recognized as world classics.

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