Website
Bibliomania

Bibliomania: Simonds History of American Literature

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This site presents the full text of the "Simonds History of American Literature." This detailed reference book explores the literature in early colonial times, the eighteenth century, the beginning of the nineteenth century, the New...
Article
Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopedia Britannica: American Literature by Morris Dickstein

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This article by Morris Dickstein traces the history of American poetry, drama, fiction, and social and literary criticism from the early 17th century to the late 20th century. It includes a section for each century providing historical...
Activity
Washington State University

Washington State University: American Literature

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
A comprehensive site devoted to American literature compiled by a professor of English at Washington State University. Includes an alphabetical index of American authors, with links to biographical information, works online, critical...
Article
Lumen Learning

Lumen: A Short History of the Early American Novel

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This article is a brief history of the Early American novel with citations.
Website
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: Outline of American Literature 1991

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This website provides an outline of American literature beginning in 1776.
Unit Plan
Georgia Department of Education

Ga Virtual Learning: American Literature and Composition: Transcendentalism

For Students 9th - 10th
This is an introduction to the Transcendentalism period (1836-1860) in American Literature. It focuses on the beliefs and characteristics of transcendentalism and its leading authors: Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson and...
Website
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: Early American and Colonial Period to 1776

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Background information about the literary traditions of the pre-Colonial and Colonial period. Includes information about Native American oral traditions and Native American cultures. Follow the links to the Early American era and to...
Handout
Bartleby

Bartleby.com: Cambridge History of Eng and Am Lit: Early Quaker Literature

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
A survey of the Quaker writers from the Colonial period extracted from The Cambridge History of English and American Literature.
Primary
Lumen Learning

Lumen: Early American Literature: "Verses Upon the Burning of Our House"

For Students 9th - 10th
"Verses upon the Burning of our House" (July 10, 1666) is a poem by Anne Bradstreet. She wrote it to express the traumatic loss of her home and most of her material. However, she expands the understanding that God had taken them away in...
Handout
Bibliomania

Bibliomania: English in Virginia

For Students 9th - 10th
This Bibliomania site surveys the literary history of the English in colonial Virginia. Includes analysis of the work of Captain John Smith, William Strachey, and George Sandys. Links to other notes about early American literature.
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Rhythms in Poetry: Ezra Pound

For Students 9th - 10th
Poet and mentor Ezra Pound is the focus of this brief biography highlighting his works and energy for new artistic movements of the early twentieth century. Click on "Ezra Pound Activities" for related materials.
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Regional Realism: Mark Twain

For Students 9th - 10th
This biography features Mark Twain as a regional realist author, world renown for his ability to portray real Americans in the late nineteenth century. Click "Mark Twain Activities" for artifacts and activities.
Unit Plan
Georgia Department of Education

Ga Virtual Learning:american Literature and Composition: Modernism:carl Sandburg

For Students 9th - 10th
This lesson focuses on Carl Sanburg and his poem "Chicago." It includes biographical information, as well as links to the poem, a video of pictures of Chicago in the early 20th century, and a "Discovery Education" video on Carl Sandburg....
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Spirit of Nationalism: Phillis Wheatley

For Students 9th - 10th
Phillis Wheatley, an African-American slave, is featured for her neoclassical poetry of pre-nineteenth century America. Click on "Phillis Wheatley Activities" for more resources.
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Puritan and Quaker Utopian Promise

For Students 9th - 10th
This unit explores the documented perceptions of Native Americans, religious faiths, physical challenges of new lands and how the combination of immigrants and Native Americans shaped the New World. Click on "Activities" for related...
Article
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: Jazz and the African American Literary Tradition

For Students 9th - 10th
Article explores the influence of jazz on African American literature from the early history of jazz, noted jazz artists, the black-white tensions within jazz, to its literary influence after World War II.
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Native Voices

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This unit features the rich oral tradition of Native Americans storytelling in various genres predating the introduction and influence of English writings, bringing three contemporary authors to light. RI.11-12.8 seminal U.S. texts,...
Unit Plan
TES Global

Blendspace: American Literature Early Poets

For Students 9th - 10th
A learning module with twenty-one links to texts, websites, videos, and quizzes on early American poets including Anne Bradstreet, William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Edgar Allen Poe.
Primary
Lumen Learning

Lumen: Early American and Puritan Literature: The Pilgrim's Progress

For Students 9th - 10th
The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come; Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan (1628-1688) and published in February 1678. It is regarded as one of the most...
Primary
Lumen Learning

Lumen: Early American and Puritan Literature: "A Model of Christian Charity"

For Students 9th - 10th
"A Model of Christian Charity" is a 1630 sermon by Puritan layman and leader John Winthrop, who delivered on board the ship Arbella while en route to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It is also known as City upon a Hill and denotes the...
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Social Realism: Henry James

For Students 9th - 10th
Henry James is the focus of this biography for his ability to write about how people deal with problems with attention drawn to Europeans versus Americans in the early twentieth century. See "Henry James Activities" for more resources.
Unit Plan
Washington State University

Washington State University: Timeline of American Literature 1840 1849

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Compare the events of the country to the literature being produced at the time of the early 19th century.
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Masculine Heroes: James Fenimore Cooper

For Students 9th - 10th
This brief biography of James Fenimore Cooper highlights his life as an author who was able to incorporate politics, wilderness and Native Americans into fictitious novels. Click on "James Fenimore Cooper Activities" for related materials.
Unit Plan
Other

Uua: Louisa May Alcott

For Students 9th - 10th
Detailed biography of Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888 CE) from the Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography. Contains a couple of pictures as well.