Walt Whitman was an American journalist, essayist and a famous poet Mr. Whitman is, of course, one of the most influential poets in the American catalog.

John Burroughs was an American naturalist and essayis – “a literary naturalist with a duty to record his own unique perceptions of the natural world.”

Ralph Ellison (1 March, 1914 – 16 April, 1994) was an award winning novelist, critic and scholar known for his novel Invisible Man.

Oliver Wendell Holmes (29 August, 1809 – 7 October, 1894) was a Cambridge, MA native known for his poetry and essays.

Henry David Thoreau (12 July, 1817 – 6 May, 1862) was an American writer and Transcendentalist born in Concord, MA. Thoreau was also known for civil disobedience as well as an avid abolitionist.

Today at the age of 78, in the year 1882, poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) breathed his last breath. While some remember Emerson as a poet, he was also a popular essayist and philosopher.