DVD 1: 1. 1650-1845; 2. 1846-1855

1. Great American Authors 1650 1845
As the American colonies moved toward becoming an independent nation, a unique and distinctive voice poured forth. America s first literary giants, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Edgar Allan Poe  told stories and wrote poems that could only have come from the heart and soul of this fledgling country.

Chapters Include:
1650 - Anne Bradstreet, America s First Poet
1702 - Cotton Mather:The Ecclesiastical History of New England
1773 - Phillis Wheatley Becomes America's First Black Woman Poet
1819 - Washington Irving: Rip Van Winkle
1826 - James Fenimore Cooper: Last of the Mohicans
1836 - Ralph Waldo Emerson Initiates American Transcendentalism with Nature
1845 - Edgar Allen Poe: The Raven

2. Great American Authors 1846 - 1855
Between the War of 1812 and the end of the Mexican American War in 1848, America experienced an exuberant period of economic growth. American literary giants Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow made their mark on the American psyche and produced America s first great wave of classic literature.
Chapters:
1849 - Henry David Thoreau:  Civil Disobedience
1850 - Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter
1851 - Herman Melville: Moby Dick
1852 - Emily Dickinson Publishes First Poem
1852 - Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin
1855 - Frederick Douglas:  My Bondage and My Freedom
1855 - Walt Whitman:  Leaves of Grass
1855 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:  The Song of Hiawatha