First American author Captain John SmithThe first widely read American author Benjamin Franklin
Father of American Literature Washington Irving
first American to gain an international literary reputation Washington Irving
first writer to develop a unique American style Irving
Inventor of the American short Edgar Allan Poe-
the bridge poets Walt Whitman -Emily Dickinson
Father of the American novel. James Fenimore Cooper
One of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People W.E.B. Du Bois