William Wordsworth
Born: April 07, 1770 in Cockermouth, England
Died: April 23, 1850 in Grasmere, United Kingdom
Nationality: British
Occupation: Poet
William Wordsworth (1770-1850), an early leader of romanticism in English poetry, ranks as one of the greatest lyric poets in the history of English literature.
William Wordsworth was born in Cookermouth, Cumberland, on April 7, 1770, the second child of an attorney. He was fascinated by "the divine John Milton," impressed by George Crabbe's descriptions of poverty, and repelled by the "falsehood" and "spurious imagery" in Ossian's nature poetry. From 1787 to 1790 Wordsworth attended St. John's College, Cambridge, always returning with breathless delight to the north and to nature during his summer vacations. Before graduating from Cambridge, he took a walking tour through France, Switzerland, and Italy in 1790. The Alps gave him an ecstatic impression that he was not to recognize until 14 years later as a mystical "sense of usurpation, when the light of sense/ Goes out, but with a flash that has revealed/ The invisible world"--the world of "infinitude" that is "our beings's heart and home."

William Dean Howells
Born: March 01, 1837 in Martin's Ferry, Ohio, United States
Died: May 10, 1920 in New York, New York, United States
Nationality: American
Occupation: Novelist
William Dean Howells (1837-1920), American writer and editor, was an influential critic and an important novelist of the late 19th century.
William Dean Howells's career spanned a period of radical change in American literature; as novelist, critic, and editor, he contributed greatly to those changes. An advocate of honesty and social responsibility in literature, he led the struggle against escapist fantasy and for realistic and morally and politically committed fiction. In 1871 Howells published his first novel, Their Wedding Journey. Howells was honest with everyone, most of all with himself.

Romanticism and Realism Authors