Captain John Smith to be the first American author
Michael Wiggleworth was known for his best selling poem The Day of Doom.
. The first widely read American author was Benjamin Franklin
Washington Irving (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) was the first American to gain an international literary reputation
Irving, often considered the first writer to develop a unique American style
Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson broke from poetic tradition and brought a sense of individuality to the nation’s literature