Four Famous American Writers: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Taylor A Book for Young Americans

"Four Famous American Writers" by Sherwin Cody is a historical account written in the late 19th century. The book provides an engaging overview of the lives and contributions of four significant figures in American literature: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Russell Lowell, and Bayard Taylor. Each author’s journey is explored, detailing their childhood influences, early works, and lasting impacts on American literary culture. The opening of the book focuses primarily on Washington Irving, recounting his birth during a pivotal moment in American history and his family's contributions to the Revolutionary War. It highlights his childhood in New York City and the formative experiences that shaped his literary career, including his early travels and literary experiments. With vivid descriptions of Irving’s youthful adventures, the narrative sets the stage for understanding how his surroundings and experiences would inform his later works, establishing a foundation that underpins Irving's reputation as America's first major author. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Alpheus Sherwin Cody was an American writer and entrepreneur who developed a long-running home-study course in speaking and writing and a signature series of advertisements asking “Do You Make These Mistakes in English?” A critic of traditional English education, Cody advocated colloquial style and grammar. His course, presented in a patented workbook format which he described as self-correcting, was purchased by over 150,000 students from its inception in 1918. He published essays, books and articles virtually nonstop from 1893 through 1950. In a book published in 1895, he gave the advice, "Write what you know—so go out and know something."