author
William Cullen Bryant
1794–1878
Best remembered for the haunting poem "Thanatopsis," this early American writer also spent decades shaping public opinion as a powerful newspaper editor. His work joins a deep love of nature with a clear, steady moral voice.
5 Audiobooks
Letters of a Traveller; Or, Notes of Things Seen in Europe and America
by William Cullen Bryant
Poetical Works of William Cullen Bryant Household Edition
by William Cullen Bryant
A Discourse on the Life, Character and Writings of Gulian Crommelin Verplanck Delivered before the New-York Historical Society, May 17th, 1870
by William Cullen Bryant
The Little People of the Snow
by William Cullen Bryant
Poems by William Cullen Bryant
by William Cullen Bryant
About the author
Born in Cummington, Massachusetts, in 1794, William Cullen Bryant became one of the best-known American poets of the 19th century. He showed literary talent very young and gained lasting fame with "Thanatopsis," a poem that helped establish his reputation and remains his most famous work.
Bryant first trained as a lawyer, but his career soon turned toward writing and journalism. After moving to New York, he became a leading editor of the New York Evening Post, where he worked for decades and became an influential public voice as well as a literary figure.
His poetry is especially associated with nature, reflection, and mortality, and he is often seen as an important early figure in American Romantic writing. He died in New York City in 1878, leaving behind a legacy as both a major poet and a prominent journalist.